SHORTHAND SYSTEMS - [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR, — I
was naturally very much interested in the letter from Mr. Hall Caine which you published in your issue of Decem- ber 17th under the heading " Isaac Pitman." There must be many others besides myself who have read with appreciation your gracious compliment on the centenary of his invention.
Mr. Hall Caine asked in that letter whether leave would freely be given to Education Authorities to print " a prac- tically complete conspectus " of the system (to use the words of my grandfather quoted by Mr. Hall Caine) which Isaac Pitman was willing to broadcast to schools. No doubt he and your readers will be interested to hear that the policy of this firm remains the same, and that such a practically com- plete conspectus exists, and is available free, the cost of printing, even, being borne.
Mr. Hall Caine also raised an important issue by his use of the phrase " always granting that the Pitman system is superior to any modern competitor." Your readers will, I believe, be interested in several points which arise from the resulting letter from Mr. Crockett which was published in your issue of January 14th. Mr. Crockett, being the secretary of a publishing firm offering a competing system, writes, not unnaturally, ex pane. He has not done justice to the hold which Pitmanic Shorthand has in the three biggest cities of the United States, New York, Chicago and Philadelphia ; nor has he done justice to the service which it renders in the professional reporting field of the United States—all the official reporters of both the Senate and the House of Repre- sentatives write Pitmanic Shorthand, and the recruitment of young professional shorthand writers in America shows that those who may be expected to know best don't altogether share Mr. Crockett's views.
Similarly in this country, with negligible exceptions, reporters would advise any young man entering the profession to learn Pitman's Shorthand. I don't want to take up your space with figures and examples, since I think your readers know the true position, but I would like to say with regard to Mr. Crockett's statement, that approximately one-third of beginners are now taking up another system, that from such evidence as I have it would be true to say that there are many towns in which that other system is not taught either by Local Education Authorities or by independent private schools, and that there is not even one town in which Pitman's Shorthand is not taught to the majority of all the shorthand students, and I am quite satisfied that the figures which Mr. Crockett has given to your readers are wrong and misleading.
I am glad, however, to finish on one note of agreement with Mr. Crockett. I hope, with him, that in no English-speaking country will it come about that any shorthand system is standardised officially. If a system is good enough to bring this about de facto, there is no need for de jure legislation.— Yours faithfully, I. J. PITMAN. 39 Parker Street, London, W.C. 2.
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