The practical effect of the Act in Durham was seen on January 24th, 1885, when the Federation Board called a special Council to consider the following programme:—
programme, 1885
(1) Shall there be Labour Representatives?
(2) If so, how many?
(3) If it be decided to have Labour Representatives, who shall he or they be?
(4) The ways and means of supporting such person or persons from the Associations.
(5) What should the salary of such man or men be?
(6) Should we nominate men other than Labour Representatives? That is, men who hold similar views to ourselves, but who will pay their own costs, both in contesting and otherwise.
(7) If this be done, who should they be?
(8) The selection of divisions.
The resolutions come to were—(1) there should be Labour representatives; (2) there should be bona fide Labour candidates selected from the workmen, but run in connection with the Liberals; (3) the candidates should be J. Wilson, W. Crawford, and L. Trotter; (4) the ways and means should be left in the hands of the Federation Board, and that the salaries should be £500 per year. On the same day the Board met, and decided to select the Bishop Auckland, Mid-Durham, and Houghton-le-Spring divisions—Mr Trotter for Bishop Auckland; Mid-Durham, W. Crawford; Houghton-le-Spring, J. Wilson. They further decided to inform the North and South Durham Liberal Associations what had been done, and asked them if they would co-operate with the Board.
A meeting between the representatives of the Liberal Associations, the Federation Board, and the Franchise Association was held in the County Hotel, Durham, when the following resolutions were agreed to:—
resolutions, 1885
That it is highly desirable for all sections of the new electorate to arrange for the object of securing the return of Liberal Members at the next election, and that this meeting is prepared to give support to the persons nominated by the Miners' Federation Board, providing their candidature is endorsed by the Liberals in each division.
That this meeting requests the constituencies to form Liberal organisations, and that small committees from the South and North Durham Liberal Associations, the Federation Board, and the Miners' Franchise Association be appointed to aid such organisations.
January 24th, 1885.
So far as the Mid-Durham and the Houghton divisions were concerned, all went on smoothly. The candidates were accepted with complete unanimity, but in the Auckland division the feeling in some quarters was in strong opposition. The Board were asked to withdraw Mr Trotter, which they refused to do. There were other two gentlemen in nomination, and he was asked to put himself in competition with them, and if rejected retire. He refused, and they, the Board, approved of his refusal, and arranged a meeting of the lodges in the division for the purpose of explaining the situation. At this point there arose a complication of a different order. At their meeting on October 22nd, 1885, the Board decided "that each candidate must be responsible for the returning officer's fees in their respective divisions." Shortly after this was made known Mr Trotter withdrew, the reason assigned being the refusal of the Board to pay the returning officer's fees, although all the candidates were treated alike. As a consequence the division was vacant, and open to any candidate. This only need be added, that at the General Election in November Mr Crawford and Mr Wilson were both returned by great majorities—the latter being defeated in 1886, but succeeding Mr Crawford in 1890 as the Member for Mid-Durham.
This may be a fitting place to try to remove a false impression, which has lingered in some minds unto this day, as to what they are pleased to call "the shameful treatment" of Mr Lloyd Jones, while in the Chester-le-Street division, by the Federation Board. There never was a grosser misstatement. The Board did nothing but what was fair and honourable throughout the whole proceedings, although they were made the object of a somewhat bitter attack by The Newcastle Chronicle, which attack was entirely founded upon a too slight knowledge of the facts. As mentioned above, an arrangement was made whereby the workmen were to have their divisions undisputed, and with the rest there was no claim for interferences set up. Mr J. (now Lord) Joicey was selected by the Liberals for the Chester-le-Street division, the Federation Board having no part or lot in the transaction. Mr Jones, who was an intimate friend of Mr J. Cowen, was brought out, it is well known, as Mr Cowen's nominee, and as such, contested the division. The Board, as such, did nothing in it in any way. If they had, their action would have been dishonourable in the light of the agreement. This, however, they did do: as soon as Mr Trotter withdrew from Bishop Auckland, they sent a deputation to interview Mr Jones and to make him an offer of that division. The writer was one of the deputation, and with the others did all possible to persuade him, but he refused. It was felt he was not free, or he would have accepted. This can be said without fear of contradiction: the Board as a whole regretted the refusal, for Mr Jones was a great orator, respected very much by the miners in Durham, as witness their continual choice of him for their arbitration cases, and he could have had a safe seat.
1887-89
In Dark Days—The Eight Hours—The Sliding Scale—Advance of Ten per Cent.—Second Advance of Ten per Cent.—Death of the Scale—The County Council