THE MORALE OF SHEFFIELD.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTAT011.1
am the "anonymous pamphleteer" to whose statements Mr. W. Smith, Secretary of the Sheffield Chamber of Commerce, referred in his " Plea for Sheffield" in the Spectator of November 16; and for two reasons I beg space in your columns to reply. 1. Mr. Smith deals with an article of the Saturday Review, based on my pamphlet,—Public Opinion and Public Spirit in Sheffield,— and seeks to show that the Review has been misled by me, and thus that its conclusions are false and its teaching valueless. 2. The pamphlet is not in the hands of the English public, to whom the "plea" is addressed, and therefore they cannot examine its statements for themselves..
A resolution passed by the Sheffield Chamber of Commerce is brought forward to correct this " mistake " of the Review—" We cannot recall to our recollection any indignation meeting, or any spirited policy adopted, or even any straightforward resolution passed by Sheffield authority." That resolution is worth notice as an answer to the Review, only on the condition of our agreeing to consider a meeting of some three or four score masters as "Sheffield authority," and what it may do as an expression of public opinion and an example of public spirit—a somewhat hard condition to exact. The resolution, however, is " straight- forward " enough, but the policy with which it was associated was not "spirited." Mr. Smith might have claimed for Sheffield authority, a spirited policy, and a straightforward resolution, had the spirit of his resolution been embodied in a resolution passed at a meeting of the town, the merchants and leading men taking a prominent part ; and then the country would have been satisfied.
The assertion of the Saturday Review, that the "Sheffield In- firmary is disgracefully neglected," is met with a flat denial ; "I answer, This is not true." The misleading pamphlet says, on this point, "If the Chairman of that meeting (i.e., the general meeting of the Infirmary) rightly told the history of the Infirmary, it would seem that some years ago we 'disgraced' (that is the chair- man's word) ourselves, by leaving a fever-stricken population ma- cared for, and now a favourable opportunity for extending the building cannot be seized with confidence, because the income of the institution is declining." I submit that the chairman of the general meeting knew what he was about when he said thai the town had disgraced itself once, and that now the Infirmary's in- come is declining, and that the Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce is not of equal authority with him on these points.
The charge that the "Cambridge Local Examinations suffered because no Sheffield man could be found to take the chair" is thus met by Mr. Smith :—" Why, the very day before this article appeared, the distribution, &c., was presided over by Mr. W. Overend, Q.C., a Sheffield man born and bred, and the figures showed that Sheffield had sent in a greater number of boys, who passedl in honours, than any other town in Yorkshire." True. And the distribution was made ten months after the candidates had passed examination, and Mr. Overend called the prizes which he had to distribute "trumpery," and the meeting expressed its approval of that plain word. Mr. Smith will not And Mr. Overend's raciest bits in our Daily Telegraph, but my ears duly reported them to myself as they were spoken. An extract from a letter of the Rev. G. Sandford, Honorary Secre- tary of the Examination Committee, in the Sheffield Daily Tele- graph, of November 9, will show whether or not the examinations have suffered :—" I beg to inform you that the candidates for the, honours of the middle-class examinations are considerably fewer this year than they were last." The pamphlet gives as much honour as Mr. Smith to the boys, who have worked well and suc- cessfully: "the youths in this centre of the Universities' operations stood well at the last distribution ;" and I would now suggest that the credit of past good standing is due to the ability and diligence of the masters and scholars, and not to the indifference of the gentlemen of Sheffield.
Our public halls are next enumerated to correct the statement of the Review—" Sheffield has no public hall," the pamphlet adds, "of any eize or worth." On this matter I can only reassert my asser- tion, which I do very firmly. As "the noble rooms of the School of Art" are "vaunted," I feel it is not out of place to ask if the rumour now afloat in the town is correct, that the school is likely to be closed for lack of funds ?
As to the responses of Sheffield to the calls of humanity, I am only too glad to give the town all honour for them ; but I must also say that London had a _fund for the Oaks Colliery disaster before Sheffield had a meeting.
This is not a pleasant kind of letter to write about one's own town, and I wish I could exchange aides, and write truthfully that we are what my assailant thinks us to be. I do, indeed, agree with him when he says that all our working-men are not of the type of Broadhead ; and I would also add that it is shameful to fling these excellent working-men as a mantle over the filthiness of guilty Unions, as has been done again and again.
What our leading men are is made sufficiently clear by this letter ; and I shall neither reject nor adopt the words of the Saturday Review—" Sheffield imbecility, and incapacity, and sullen indifference to duty." They are the conclusions drawn by a capable and impartial reader from facts honestly and correctly told him.
One word on the history of our self-vindications, so far as it has gone. Immediately after the Fearnehough affair the Saturday Review declared that this town was under a reign of terror, and that assertion was sneered at and repudiated by a local journal. The Royal Commission has shown which was right, the Review or our journal. After the Commission revelations we were told that only a small knot of men were bad, and the Sawgrinders, as if in mocking reply, forthwith issued their infamous resolutions in vin- dication of Broadhead. At the same time we had a denial of there having been any indecent levity in Court during the examination of -witnesses, and in reply the newspaper reports of the denier were read against him. Now we are treated to another vindica- tion, and it, too, will not bear examination. Fresh vindications create fresh charges and fresh convictions. Better say, "we have sinned," and begin a sound reformation, root and branch, masters
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