IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (25th - 31st JANUARY 1921)
This week's stories include the assaults on tram conductors in Haydock, the Parr entertainment tax prosecution, a most cowardly act takes place at Pilkingtons and an ex-soldier's fury over women taking men's jobs.
We begin on the 25th with the inquest into another death caused by the motor car – which was increasingly being seen on the town's busy roads. For thirty years John Shenton had been an important figure at Baxter's Copper Works of Boardsmans Lane in Parr, where he and his wife Ellen had a cottage. He had been a respected foreman but now was 82 and suffering from very poor eyesight – if not blind.
A car belonging to Joseph Middlehurst of Birchley Hall had knocked John down and fatally injured him. But no blame was attached to the driver due to the man's bad eyesight and it was stated at the inquest that if he had been a younger man, Mr Shenton would probably have survived.
It was revealed in St Helens Police Court on the 27th that the Corporation-owned tram company was experiencing difficulty in recruiting conductors to work in and around Haydock because of attacks on staff. That was said as a result of the appearance in court of Bert Forshaw from Clipsley Lane, who was charged with assault. When George Rowlands of Johnson Street in Parr had told Forshaw that his tram was full and he could not ride on the platform, the man's response was to knock the conductor's head through a plate glass window. For that Forshaw was fined £5.
I expect like me you find it irritating when ordering items online when VAT is unexpectedly added to the price at the check out. Perhaps the nearest equivalent a century ago was entertainment tax. This duty was added to the advertised admission price and varied according to the cost – as opposed to being a flat percentage like VAT. A simple way for the venue or promoter to pay the tax to the Government was to buy postage stamps that were then stuck on each ticket.
In 1916 the Sutton Picturedrome cinema (which later became the Empire or "Bug") was prosecuted for non-payment of entertainment tax. After an undercover visit by an Excise officer, a scam had been uncovered in which purchased tickets were not being torn by cinema attendants as required by law. Instead the Sutton picture house was recycling tickets to other customers. The ruse meant they were able to save money by buying a lesser number of stamps from the Post Office.
Another failure to pay sufficient entertainment tax led to John Ireland of Epsom Street in Parr appearing in court on the 28th. Last August the Parr Temperance Band had held a brass band contest that had attracted far more visitors than had been expected. John Ireland was the promoter of the competition and he bought £5 worth of stamps to attach to tickets. However these proved insufficient and a total of 678 people were admitted to the venue without stamped tickets.
It appears from the newspaper account of the hearing that the police had some involvement with the event and it was the bobbies that notified the Excise of the man's infringement. One would have thought that in the circumstances a warning might have been sufficient, as long as John Ireland paid the £7 shortfall. But they were then very keen on deterrent prosecutions as a warning to others and so the man had to appear before the Bench. Ireland was ordered to pay a total of £12, comprising the unpaid entertainment duty and £5 court costs.
A chap called J. Harrison from Peter Street was also in court for what the magistrates deemed a "most cowardly act". The young man was employed at Pilkingtons but had not been doing his work properly and so the foreman reported him to a manager. That enraged Harrison and so he lay in wait for the foreman for as long as three and a half hours and then struck him over the head with an iron bar. For that act he was fined £5.
It was panto time this week in St Helens – oh no it wasn't, I hear you cry. Well it was, so there! The Theatre Royal usually began their short run of pantomimes a few weeks before the Hippodrome dropped its bill of music hall turns and swung into panto mode. That had again been the case this year and recently 'Robinson Crusoe' had been performed at the Theatre Royal and they now switched to 'Jack and Jill'.
Nursery rhymes were then common themes for pantomimes but clearly much more limited in scope than a novel or a play. The audience interest for 'Jack and Jill' required a tad more drama than a couple of characters repeatedly going up and down a hill to fetch of pale of water! So characters from other pantomimes and dramas would be "borrowed" to extend the piece, with Robin Hood being a popular choice.
I don't know if the Sherward Forest bowman figured in 'Jack and Jill' at the Theatre Royal but in the Hippodrome's version of 'Red Riding Hood' – which also began this week – Robin Hood was a central character played, of course, by a woman. A couple of years earlier when Red Riding Hood was performed at the Royal Court in Liverpool, they had what was described as a "giant electric chicken" that lit up and laid "electric eggs". My mind still boggles at that!
The Runcorn Weekly News was published on the 28th and was full of praise for their local choral group. A contest had recently taken place at St Helens Town Hall and been won by the Highfield Male Voice Choir. Their sixty members from Runcorn had beaten the St Helens Glee Club by 95 points to 87. A surgeon called Dr Stanley Siddall from Prescot Road was in charge of the St Helens choir.
And to conclude, I reproduce a letter that was published in the Liverpool Echo this week that summed up one of the big issues of the day. Last week I wrote how the post-war economic boom had been short-lived and that unemployment in St Helens and SW Lancashire was on the rise. "Hard Times In All Trades" had been the Guardian's headline to their report.
Many women who performed the soldiers' jobs while they were fighting abroad wanted to continue working, as they'd enjoyed their independence and the wages they'd received. And some of them were the breadwinners for their families after losing their husbands in the war. From the employer perspective faced with reduced demand for their goods, they wanted to cut costs and hire women who they could pay less than men.
However the country had a debt of honour to the soldiers and sailors who had fought in France and Belgium and on the high seas. As many could not find a job, there was an increasing feeling of abandonment. This letter using the pseudonym "Seventh King's" was one of many published in the Echo over the last few weeks, which as might be expected from an ex-soldier put the blame for the situation on women:
"The newspaper publicity of a few weeks ago urging employers to replace their independent female employees by demobilised soldiers, aroused a very languid interest in commercial circles, and nothing has happened. The increase in unemployment now forces into prominence the urgent necessity for serious consideration of what has become a vital economic question. The men who endured – who won through – who saved British commerce – now walk the streets in a vain search for a means of livelihood.
"Their reward for sacrifice is the not-always-mute appeal of hungry and homeless dependents. Many employers, who promised so much in in 1914, have no use for ex-soldiers in 1921, while female labour is cheaper; they have filled their offices and shops with girls – the girls who sang, “We will thank you, cheer you, kiss you” – the girls who sent white feathers to laggard men – the girls who kissed the soldier on Armistice Day, but who to-day steal his wages.
"The newspapers have stood by us; they have never let us down. The Government is a convenient scapegoat – but it is not a Government question, except in so far as it is an employer of female labour. It is a personal question for individual employers, for individual women who have stolen our jobs.
"Only last week I heard of a local firm who before the war had no female hands, who now employ over 500 girls. Surely some of these at least, are occupying jobs, which should be filled by “demobbed” men! Can nothing be done to shame these supplanters into restoring to the ex-soldier his job?"
Next week's stories will include the councillor who wanted St Helens children to be taught peace in school, the man charged with stealing children's breakfasts, the Rainford headmaster who began teaching for threepence a week and the fishy sausage case.
We begin on the 25th with the inquest into another death caused by the motor car – which was increasingly being seen on the town's busy roads. For thirty years John Shenton had been an important figure at Baxter's Copper Works of Boardsmans Lane in Parr, where he and his wife Ellen had a cottage. He had been a respected foreman but now was 82 and suffering from very poor eyesight – if not blind.
A car belonging to Joseph Middlehurst of Birchley Hall had knocked John down and fatally injured him. But no blame was attached to the driver due to the man's bad eyesight and it was stated at the inquest that if he had been a younger man, Mr Shenton would probably have survived.
I expect like me you find it irritating when ordering items online when VAT is unexpectedly added to the price at the check out. Perhaps the nearest equivalent a century ago was entertainment tax. This duty was added to the advertised admission price and varied according to the cost – as opposed to being a flat percentage like VAT. A simple way for the venue or promoter to pay the tax to the Government was to buy postage stamps that were then stuck on each ticket.
In 1916 the Sutton Picturedrome cinema (which later became the Empire or "Bug") was prosecuted for non-payment of entertainment tax. After an undercover visit by an Excise officer, a scam had been uncovered in which purchased tickets were not being torn by cinema attendants as required by law. Instead the Sutton picture house was recycling tickets to other customers. The ruse meant they were able to save money by buying a lesser number of stamps from the Post Office.
Another failure to pay sufficient entertainment tax led to John Ireland of Epsom Street in Parr appearing in court on the 28th. Last August the Parr Temperance Band had held a brass band contest that had attracted far more visitors than had been expected. John Ireland was the promoter of the competition and he bought £5 worth of stamps to attach to tickets. However these proved insufficient and a total of 678 people were admitted to the venue without stamped tickets.
It appears from the newspaper account of the hearing that the police had some involvement with the event and it was the bobbies that notified the Excise of the man's infringement. One would have thought that in the circumstances a warning might have been sufficient, as long as John Ireland paid the £7 shortfall. But they were then very keen on deterrent prosecutions as a warning to others and so the man had to appear before the Bench. Ireland was ordered to pay a total of £12, comprising the unpaid entertainment duty and £5 court costs.
A chap called J. Harrison from Peter Street was also in court for what the magistrates deemed a "most cowardly act". The young man was employed at Pilkingtons but had not been doing his work properly and so the foreman reported him to a manager. That enraged Harrison and so he lay in wait for the foreman for as long as three and a half hours and then struck him over the head with an iron bar. For that act he was fined £5.
It was panto time this week in St Helens – oh no it wasn't, I hear you cry. Well it was, so there! The Theatre Royal usually began their short run of pantomimes a few weeks before the Hippodrome dropped its bill of music hall turns and swung into panto mode. That had again been the case this year and recently 'Robinson Crusoe' had been performed at the Theatre Royal and they now switched to 'Jack and Jill'.
Nursery rhymes were then common themes for pantomimes but clearly much more limited in scope than a novel or a play. The audience interest for 'Jack and Jill' required a tad more drama than a couple of characters repeatedly going up and down a hill to fetch of pale of water! So characters from other pantomimes and dramas would be "borrowed" to extend the piece, with Robin Hood being a popular choice.
I don't know if the Sherward Forest bowman figured in 'Jack and Jill' at the Theatre Royal but in the Hippodrome's version of 'Red Riding Hood' – which also began this week – Robin Hood was a central character played, of course, by a woman. A couple of years earlier when Red Riding Hood was performed at the Royal Court in Liverpool, they had what was described as a "giant electric chicken" that lit up and laid "electric eggs". My mind still boggles at that!
The Runcorn Weekly News was published on the 28th and was full of praise for their local choral group. A contest had recently taken place at St Helens Town Hall and been won by the Highfield Male Voice Choir. Their sixty members from Runcorn had beaten the St Helens Glee Club by 95 points to 87. A surgeon called Dr Stanley Siddall from Prescot Road was in charge of the St Helens choir.
And to conclude, I reproduce a letter that was published in the Liverpool Echo this week that summed up one of the big issues of the day. Last week I wrote how the post-war economic boom had been short-lived and that unemployment in St Helens and SW Lancashire was on the rise. "Hard Times In All Trades" had been the Guardian's headline to their report.
Many women who performed the soldiers' jobs while they were fighting abroad wanted to continue working, as they'd enjoyed their independence and the wages they'd received. And some of them were the breadwinners for their families after losing their husbands in the war. From the employer perspective faced with reduced demand for their goods, they wanted to cut costs and hire women who they could pay less than men.
However the country had a debt of honour to the soldiers and sailors who had fought in France and Belgium and on the high seas. As many could not find a job, there was an increasing feeling of abandonment. This letter using the pseudonym "Seventh King's" was one of many published in the Echo over the last few weeks, which as might be expected from an ex-soldier put the blame for the situation on women:
"The newspaper publicity of a few weeks ago urging employers to replace their independent female employees by demobilised soldiers, aroused a very languid interest in commercial circles, and nothing has happened. The increase in unemployment now forces into prominence the urgent necessity for serious consideration of what has become a vital economic question. The men who endured – who won through – who saved British commerce – now walk the streets in a vain search for a means of livelihood.
"Their reward for sacrifice is the not-always-mute appeal of hungry and homeless dependents. Many employers, who promised so much in in 1914, have no use for ex-soldiers in 1921, while female labour is cheaper; they have filled their offices and shops with girls – the girls who sang, “We will thank you, cheer you, kiss you” – the girls who sent white feathers to laggard men – the girls who kissed the soldier on Armistice Day, but who to-day steal his wages.
"The newspapers have stood by us; they have never let us down. The Government is a convenient scapegoat – but it is not a Government question, except in so far as it is an employer of female labour. It is a personal question for individual employers, for individual women who have stolen our jobs.
"Only last week I heard of a local firm who before the war had no female hands, who now employ over 500 girls. Surely some of these at least, are occupying jobs, which should be filled by “demobbed” men! Can nothing be done to shame these supplanters into restoring to the ex-soldier his job?"
Next week's stories will include the councillor who wanted St Helens children to be taught peace in school, the man charged with stealing children's breakfasts, the Rainford headmaster who began teaching for threepence a week and the fishy sausage case.
This week's stories include the assaults on tram conductors in Haydock, the Parr entertainment tax prosecution, a most cowardly act takes place at Pilkingtons and an ex-soldier's fury over women taking men's jobs.
We begin on the 25th with the inquest into another death caused by the motor car – which was increasingly being seen on the town's busy roads.
For thirty years John Shenton had been an important figure at Baxter's Copper Works of Boardsmans Lane in Parr, where he and his wife Ellen had a cottage.
He had been a respected foreman but now was 82 and suffering from very poor eyesight – if not blind.
A car belonging to Joseph Middlehurst of Birchley Hall had knocked John down and fatally injured him.
But no blame was attached to the driver due to the man's bad eyesight and it was stated at the inquest that if he had been a younger man, Mr Shenton would probably have survived.
It was revealed in St Helens Police Court on the 27th that the Corporation-owned tram company was experiencing difficulty in recruiting conductors to work in and around Haydock because of attacks on staff.
That was said as a result of the appearance in court of Bert Forshaw from Clipsley Lane, who was charged with assault.
When George Rowlands of Johnson Street in Parr had told Forshaw that his tram was full and he could not ride on the platform, the man's response was to knock the conductor's head through a plate glass window. For that Forshaw was fined £5.
I expect like me you find it irritating when ordering items online when VAT is unexpectedly added to the price at the check out. Perhaps the nearest equivalent a century ago was entertainment tax.
This duty was added to the advertised admission price and varied according to the cost – as opposed to being a flat percentage like VAT.
A simple way for the venue or promoter to pay the tax to the Government was to buy postage stamps that were then stuck on each ticket.
In 1916 the Sutton Picturedrome cinema (which later became the Empire or "Bug") was prosecuted for non-payment of entertainment tax.
After an undercover visit by an Excise officer, a scam had been uncovered in which purchased tickets were not being torn by cinema attendants as required by law. Instead the Sutton picture house was recycling tickets to other customers.
The ruse meant they were able to save money by buying a lesser number of stamps from the Post Office.
Another failure to pay sufficient entertainment tax led to John Ireland of Epsom Street in Parr appearing in court on the 28th.
Last August the Parr Temperance Band had held a brass band contest that had attracted far more visitors than had been expected.
John Ireland was the promoter of the competition and he bought £5 worth of stamps to attach to tickets.
However these proved insufficient and a total of 678 people were admitted to the venue without stamped tickets.
It appears from the newspaper account of the hearing that the police had some involvement with the event and it was the bobbies that notified the Excise of the man's infringement.
One would have thought that in the circumstances a warning might have been sufficient, as long as John Ireland paid the £7 shortfall.
But they were then very keen on deterrent prosecutions as a warning to others and so the man had to appear before the Bench.
Ireland was ordered to pay a total of £12, comprising the unpaid entertainment duty and £5 court costs.
A chap called J. Harrison from Peter Street was also in court for what the magistrates deemed a "most cowardly act".
The young man was employed at Pilkingtons but had not been doing his work properly and so the foreman reported him to a manager.
That enraged Harrison and so he lay in wait for the foreman for as long as three and a half hours and then struck him over the head with an iron bar. For that act he was fined £5.
It was panto time this week in St Helens – oh no it wasn't, I hear you cry. Well it was, so there!
The Theatre Royal usually began their short run of pantomimes a few weeks before the Hippodrome dropped its bill of music hall turns and swung into panto mode.
That had again been the case this year and recently 'Robinson Crusoe' had been performed at the Theatre Royal and they now switched to 'Jack and Jill'.
Nursery rhymes were then common themes for pantomimes but clearly much more limited in scope than a novel or a play.
The audience interest for 'Jack and Jill' required a tad more drama than a couple of characters repeatedly going up and down a hill to fetch of pale of water!
So characters from other pantomimes and dramas would be "borrowed" to extend the piece, with Robin Hood being a popular choice.
I don't know if the Sherward Forest bowman figured in 'Jack and Jill' at the Theatre Royal but in the Hippodrome's version of 'Red Riding Hood' – which also began this week – Robin Hood was a central character played, of course, by a woman.
A couple of years earlier when Red Riding Hood was performed at the Royal Court in Liverpool, they had what was described as a "giant electric chicken" that lit up and laid "electric eggs". My mind still boggles at that!
The Runcorn Weekly News was published on the 28th and was full of praise for their local choral group.
A contest had recently taken place at St Helens Town Hall and been won by the Highfield Male Voice Choir.
Their sixty members from Runcorn had beaten the St Helens Glee Club by 95 points to 87.
A surgeon called Dr Stanley Siddall from Prescot Road was in charge of the St Helens choir.
And to conclude, I reproduce a letter that was published in the Liverpool Echo this week that summed up one of the big issues of the day.
Last week I wrote how the post-war economic boom had been short-lived and that unemployment in St Helens and SW Lancashire was on the rise. "Hard Times In All Trades" had been the Guardian's headline to their report.
Many women who performed the soldiers' jobs while they were fighting abroad wanted to continue working, as they'd enjoyed their independence and the wages they'd received.
And some of them were the breadwinners for their families after losing their husbands in the war.
From the employer perspective faced with reduced demand for their goods, they wanted to cut costs and hire women who they could pay less than men.
However the country had a debt of honour to the soldiers and sailors who had fought in France and Belgium and on the high seas.
As many could not find a job, there was an increasing feeling of abandonment.
This letter using the pseudonym "Seventh King's" was one of many published in the Echo over the last few weeks, which as might be expected from an ex-soldier put the blame for the situation on women:
"The newspaper publicity of a few weeks ago urging employers to replace their independent female employees by demobilised soldiers, aroused a very languid interest in commercial circles, and nothing has happened.
"The increase in unemployment now forces into prominence the urgent necessity for serious consideration of what has become a vital economic question.
"The men who endured – who won through – who saved British commerce – now walk the streets in a vain search for a means of livelihood.
"Their reward for sacrifice is the not-always-mute appeal of hungry and homeless dependents.
"Many employers, who promised so much in in 1914, have no use for ex-soldiers in 1921, while female labour is cheaper; they have filled their offices and shops with girls – the girls who sang, “We will thank you, cheer you, kiss you” – the girls who sent white feathers to laggard men – the girls who kissed the soldier on Armistice Day, but who to-day steal his wages.
"The newspapers have stood by us; they have never let us down.
"The Government is a convenient scapegoat – but it is not a Government question, except in so far as it is an employer of female labour.
"It is a personal question for individual employers, for individual women who have stolen our jobs.
"Only last week I heard of a local firm who before the war had no female hands, who now employ over 500 girls.
"Surely some of these at least, are occupying jobs, which should be filled by “demobbed” men!
"Can nothing be done to shame these supplanters into restoring to the ex-soldier his job?"
Next week's stories will include the councillor who wanted St Helens children to be taught peace in school, the man charged with stealing children's breakfasts, the Rainford headmaster who began teaching for threepence a week and the fishy sausage case.
We begin on the 25th with the inquest into another death caused by the motor car – which was increasingly being seen on the town's busy roads.
For thirty years John Shenton had been an important figure at Baxter's Copper Works of Boardsmans Lane in Parr, where he and his wife Ellen had a cottage.
He had been a respected foreman but now was 82 and suffering from very poor eyesight – if not blind.
A car belonging to Joseph Middlehurst of Birchley Hall had knocked John down and fatally injured him.
But no blame was attached to the driver due to the man's bad eyesight and it was stated at the inquest that if he had been a younger man, Mr Shenton would probably have survived.
That was said as a result of the appearance in court of Bert Forshaw from Clipsley Lane, who was charged with assault.
When George Rowlands of Johnson Street in Parr had told Forshaw that his tram was full and he could not ride on the platform, the man's response was to knock the conductor's head through a plate glass window. For that Forshaw was fined £5.
I expect like me you find it irritating when ordering items online when VAT is unexpectedly added to the price at the check out. Perhaps the nearest equivalent a century ago was entertainment tax.
This duty was added to the advertised admission price and varied according to the cost – as opposed to being a flat percentage like VAT.
A simple way for the venue or promoter to pay the tax to the Government was to buy postage stamps that were then stuck on each ticket.
In 1916 the Sutton Picturedrome cinema (which later became the Empire or "Bug") was prosecuted for non-payment of entertainment tax.
After an undercover visit by an Excise officer, a scam had been uncovered in which purchased tickets were not being torn by cinema attendants as required by law. Instead the Sutton picture house was recycling tickets to other customers.
The ruse meant they were able to save money by buying a lesser number of stamps from the Post Office.
Another failure to pay sufficient entertainment tax led to John Ireland of Epsom Street in Parr appearing in court on the 28th.
Last August the Parr Temperance Band had held a brass band contest that had attracted far more visitors than had been expected.
John Ireland was the promoter of the competition and he bought £5 worth of stamps to attach to tickets.
However these proved insufficient and a total of 678 people were admitted to the venue without stamped tickets.
It appears from the newspaper account of the hearing that the police had some involvement with the event and it was the bobbies that notified the Excise of the man's infringement.
One would have thought that in the circumstances a warning might have been sufficient, as long as John Ireland paid the £7 shortfall.
But they were then very keen on deterrent prosecutions as a warning to others and so the man had to appear before the Bench.
Ireland was ordered to pay a total of £12, comprising the unpaid entertainment duty and £5 court costs.
A chap called J. Harrison from Peter Street was also in court for what the magistrates deemed a "most cowardly act".
The young man was employed at Pilkingtons but had not been doing his work properly and so the foreman reported him to a manager.
That enraged Harrison and so he lay in wait for the foreman for as long as three and a half hours and then struck him over the head with an iron bar. For that act he was fined £5.
It was panto time this week in St Helens – oh no it wasn't, I hear you cry. Well it was, so there!
The Theatre Royal usually began their short run of pantomimes a few weeks before the Hippodrome dropped its bill of music hall turns and swung into panto mode.
That had again been the case this year and recently 'Robinson Crusoe' had been performed at the Theatre Royal and they now switched to 'Jack and Jill'.
Nursery rhymes were then common themes for pantomimes but clearly much more limited in scope than a novel or a play.
The audience interest for 'Jack and Jill' required a tad more drama than a couple of characters repeatedly going up and down a hill to fetch of pale of water!
So characters from other pantomimes and dramas would be "borrowed" to extend the piece, with Robin Hood being a popular choice.
I don't know if the Sherward Forest bowman figured in 'Jack and Jill' at the Theatre Royal but in the Hippodrome's version of 'Red Riding Hood' – which also began this week – Robin Hood was a central character played, of course, by a woman.
A couple of years earlier when Red Riding Hood was performed at the Royal Court in Liverpool, they had what was described as a "giant electric chicken" that lit up and laid "electric eggs". My mind still boggles at that!
The Runcorn Weekly News was published on the 28th and was full of praise for their local choral group.
A contest had recently taken place at St Helens Town Hall and been won by the Highfield Male Voice Choir.
Their sixty members from Runcorn had beaten the St Helens Glee Club by 95 points to 87.
A surgeon called Dr Stanley Siddall from Prescot Road was in charge of the St Helens choir.
And to conclude, I reproduce a letter that was published in the Liverpool Echo this week that summed up one of the big issues of the day.
Last week I wrote how the post-war economic boom had been short-lived and that unemployment in St Helens and SW Lancashire was on the rise. "Hard Times In All Trades" had been the Guardian's headline to their report.
Many women who performed the soldiers' jobs while they were fighting abroad wanted to continue working, as they'd enjoyed their independence and the wages they'd received.
And some of them were the breadwinners for their families after losing their husbands in the war.
From the employer perspective faced with reduced demand for their goods, they wanted to cut costs and hire women who they could pay less than men.
However the country had a debt of honour to the soldiers and sailors who had fought in France and Belgium and on the high seas.
As many could not find a job, there was an increasing feeling of abandonment.
This letter using the pseudonym "Seventh King's" was one of many published in the Echo over the last few weeks, which as might be expected from an ex-soldier put the blame for the situation on women:
"The newspaper publicity of a few weeks ago urging employers to replace their independent female employees by demobilised soldiers, aroused a very languid interest in commercial circles, and nothing has happened.
"The increase in unemployment now forces into prominence the urgent necessity for serious consideration of what has become a vital economic question.
"The men who endured – who won through – who saved British commerce – now walk the streets in a vain search for a means of livelihood.
"Their reward for sacrifice is the not-always-mute appeal of hungry and homeless dependents.
"Many employers, who promised so much in in 1914, have no use for ex-soldiers in 1921, while female labour is cheaper; they have filled their offices and shops with girls – the girls who sang, “We will thank you, cheer you, kiss you” – the girls who sent white feathers to laggard men – the girls who kissed the soldier on Armistice Day, but who to-day steal his wages.
"The newspapers have stood by us; they have never let us down.
"The Government is a convenient scapegoat – but it is not a Government question, except in so far as it is an employer of female labour.
"It is a personal question for individual employers, for individual women who have stolen our jobs.
"Only last week I heard of a local firm who before the war had no female hands, who now employ over 500 girls.
"Surely some of these at least, are occupying jobs, which should be filled by “demobbed” men!
"Can nothing be done to shame these supplanters into restoring to the ex-soldier his job?"
Next week's stories will include the councillor who wanted St Helens children to be taught peace in school, the man charged with stealing children's breakfasts, the Rainford headmaster who began teaching for threepence a week and the fishy sausage case.