The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-10-30 00:00:00

aux yodon Cornspoubtni.

fYire deem it right to state that we do not at all times
Identify ourselves with our Correspondent's opinions.]

It is during the autumn and winter that social
questions are chiefly discussed, for when Parlia-
ment is sitting men's minds are given to politics
and social matters are not so keenly considered.
Just now there is the usual crop of such ques-
tions, and among them one which is of the
greatest interest to a commercial and industrial
nation like our own, is that of technical educa-
tion. Upon the general question of the necessity
for some improved system of such teaching there
is an almost complete agreement, but when
details are sought to be arranged divergence of
opinion begins. Many of its advocates expect
so much to result that they are not satisfied
without proposing schemes of such wide range
that less sanguine persons feel bound to recoil
from them; and there are many also who, while
admitting that technical education is a good
thing, are careful to warn us against entertain-
ing too high an expectation of what may be
gained from it. This much is certain—that its
value varies with the positions of the workmen
to whom it is given. Foremen and overseers
can make much more use of their knowledge
than the artisan who is restricted to one par-
ticular branch of one particular calling.
But as foremen and overseers are not
born, but made, and as they must be artisans
before being raised to more responsible positions,
the obvious lesson is that technical education
should be widespread, so that men in every
department of industry shall have the knowledge
by which they may rise. And so, without expect-
ing too much from its spread, the hope may be
indulged that the investigations into the subject,
which have lately been proceeding, will have good
effect in elaborating the present generalisations
into something like a system.
Discussion is already going on as to whether
the coming winter is likely to be a hard one, and
there are some prophets of ill who foretell for us
in London an even more distressful winter than
the last. The data upon which such a dismal
conclusion is founded are not so clear as to jus-
tify us in accepting it without very careful
examination. It seems to be forgotten
that the amount of distress that will
mark the winter will to a large degree depend
upon the weather, and what the weather will be no
one can foretell. Should we be visited by severe
frost and heavy snow the sufferings of the poor
will be intensified to an extent which could
scarcely be realised in a winter which has mild-
ness for its chief characteristic. There are some
who speak of distress as if it were some new
thing undreamt of by our forefathers, and un-
known to any generation but our own; and this
singularly short-sighted view is responsible for
many of the current exaggerations on the
subject. The very poor we always have in our
midst, and so has every generation had within
the historic memory of man. It is our duty to
palliate this distress as much as we are able, and
never was that duty more clearly recognised
or more fully attempted to be met than to-day.
For this reason it is deeply to be regretted that
any should talk as if the world were growing
more heartless, and the sufferings of the poor
more keen. We have by no means yet reached
the ideal in this matter, but we are getting
nearer to it, and exaggeration will serve simply
to retard our progress.
Probably one of the worst features, morally
speaking, which characterise widespread distress
is the amount of imposture that follows from
reaping the fruits of the charity which is so
freely extended. It was notorious at the time
to those who carefully watched the matter that
much of the Mansion House Fund raised last
winter was "scooped," to use their own expres-
sion, by organised bands of loafers, who, with the
readiness begotten of long practice, imposed
upon the distributors of the money. Revelations
which have since been made have brought home
this fact to many who would not at first believe
it; and it is exceedingly doubtful whether, what-
ever the winter is like, we shall again hear of a
Mansion House Fund. There are other agencies
through which genuine distress can be relieved,
and these should be supported by all who want
to help the really destitute. It is a hard matter
in such a vast city as London to separate the im-
postors from the deserving, and the work can be
satisfactorily done only by those who are in con-
stant contact with the poor. There is not a
district in the metropolis which does not con-
tain some form of voluntary relief agency, that
is continually doing good work among the desti-
tute; and very little search will enable all who
want to help to find the agency they require.
And if assistance be given in this way, much real
suffering may be mitigated while would-be im-
postors will know that it is of no use for them to
apply.
Considerable interest will attach not only in
this country but in France to the visit which the
Viceroy of India will pay to Pondicherry at the
end of November. France holds but little now
on that vast peninsula where once she appeared
to have an even greater chance of being mistress
than England herself; and Pondicherry is nearly
all that remain of what promised at one period in
the last century to be a vast empire added to the
possesions of the French. Even Pondicherry was
lost to France for along period, it being seized by
the English in 1793, and only restored in 1815,
after the peace had been signed which followed
Waterlo. Since the latter date, no English Vice-
roy has paid it a visit, and there is, therefore, little
reason for wonder that the French Ministry has
instructed M. Manes, the new Governor, to
reciprocate the compliment by paying his illus-
trious guest the full honours due to his station.
The event is one in which international courtesies
will be seen at their best, and the ceremonies
attendant thereupon will be watched with the
greatest interest. From one point of view, it
will be the English who will derive the greatest
satisfaction from the visit, seeing that it sym-
bolises the contrast between the vast Indian
territory held by our nation and the very small
portion now retained by France. But such
feelings may fairly be put on one side at a
moment when courtesy is being extended by one
nation and hospitality by another. The great
thing to be noted after all is that the two former
enemies have now become such friends that a
visit like that of the Viceroy to Pondicherry can
be paid without wounding the keenest patriotic
susceptibilities on one side of the English Channel
or the other.

If anyone had prophesied a few months ago
that, before the coming ninth of November, the
abolition of the Lord Mayor's Show would have
been asked for, not merely by a few irresponsible
correspondents of the newspapers, but by some
of our most prominent newspapers themselves,
he would have been laughed at. But what
would thus have seemed improbable to the verge
of impossibility has actually come to pass, and
the suppression of the annual pageant is now
being demanded in what a short time since
would have appeared the most unlikely quarters.
The reason for this is the threat of the Socialists
to organise a procession of their own which shall
follow in the wake of the Lord Mayor's Show,
and demonstrate to the world the contrast
between the wealth of those connected with the
municipality and the poverty of many of those
who dwell in the East-end. But is such a de-
monstration needed of a fact which must be
patent to all who use their eyes ? The majority
of sensible folk will reply in the negative, and
they will look with some anxiety for the coming
ninth lest some disturbance may occur to mar
what to many thousands always proves a very
pleasant outing. There may be some good
reasons for doing away with the show, but most
people will agree that to suppress it simply
because a few discontented people threaten to
turn it into an opportunity for annoyance,
would be bid policy from every point of view.
Controversy still proceeds at Sheffield as to
whether inferior foreign cutlery is not often sold
in England marked with the local name, which
has so long made famous its sharp blades. The
value attached to the brand indicates how much
there is in a name when that name has been
worthily earned; and a very little reflection will
show the number of towns and districts which
have won a reputation for the manufacture of a
certain article, and which are, therefore interested
in indirect fashion in the discussion which has
arisen. We need give no further instances than
Honiton lace and Paisley shawls, Devonshire
cream and Burton ale to show how strongly the
name of some places attaches to given articles;
and when the name of a town or
district has thus become linked with a
specified thing, it is very difficult
to sever them. It is as if the public believed
that in no other part of the country could such
a manufacture take place than in the one which
has held the reputation so long: and this belief
is applied not merely to things concerning which
local conditions count for a very great deal, but
to those which, other things being equal, could
be as :easily and as well manufactured at the
Land's End as at John o' Groats. This furnishes
only another illustration that the proverb, "If
you give a dog a bad name you may as well hang
him," is as true in the exact converse of its
meaning as in the original meaning itself. There
is little wonder, therefore, that when a locality
has once obtained a high reputation for the pro-

duction of a given article it is very jealous of
the name it has made. Carelessness may come
with success as regards the manufacture itself,
but never as regards the reputation; and it is
curious to note the efforts which are sometimes
made to retain the reputation even after all
reason for it is nearly gone.
We are promised an innovation at the Wim-
bledon Meeting next year, an agitation being in
progress to allow retired volunteers of not less
thbn fifteen years efficient service to continue to
compete for the Queen's and other prizes. A
large number of influential members of the force
have taken up the question, and when the
Council of the National Rifle Association meets
in the first week in November to decide the
point, it will find in favour of the movement a
great many of those best known to the general
public in the whole body of volunteers. There
is by no means such an overwhelming body of
argument in support of the change as this fact
would seem to indicate, for young volunteers
have to be considered as well as old; and, while
it is desirable to do everything to retain the
interest and affection of the older members, it
has to be remembered that the chance of any
individual volunteer winning the Queen's Prize
is already sufficiently minute, without granting
the privilege of competition, for it is a
still larger body, especially as the addi-
tions would be of thcse who had had
sufficiently long experience to become good
shots. On the other hand, one must not forget
that, although the regulations compulsorily
retire all volunteers (except commissioned
officers) at fifty, the interest of many of the
members in the force is not exhausted with that
age; and it must seem hard to them to be
severed from everything in connection with the
body to which they have belonged for so many
years. The question, therefore, is not free from
difficulty, and its decision will be awaited with
much interest. A. F. R.