Editor's Letter-Box. [Our greatly correspondents are reminded that proxility is a great bar to publication, and that brevity of style and conciseness of statement ___ facilitate early insertion.] eommenoeu ou alto- THE ? ?rs substituted. Building' operations were HOSPITAL SATURDAY this and He an+L different lines. Mr. Gamgee recognised protested. gether the movement. On July FUND. spoke and wrote against tlie policy adopted by in which he strongly criticised Mb. "W. T. 27th, 1882, he delivered a public address, Mr. Smedley, the hon. has sent us a the collection was conducted. secretary, the altered conditions under which in Bir- statement much too the founder of tho movement long to publish in its and Sampson Gamgee was undoubtedly has not been built entirety, success it has attained to-day mingham, but whatever in direct as his condensation did not us on foundations laid opposition reach in time, we on the foundations he laid, but material to his advice. the portions of it in Mr. S own give medley's on these and You meet me with a direct negative points, words:? there is no alternative as have to G'tesar, to trouble say that 1 appealed un- I regret having you with any further remarks I absolutely and but left but to examine Geesar's judgment. this subject; the article which in that I have It upon appears your issue re-assert every word quoted. of 26th is so thoroughly unfair, that I am to hesitatingly Mr. address May compelled to me incredible that, having Gamgee's ask to me space to thereto. appears for the fair treatment you give reply a of regard in your hand, with vestige a statement as to the services the truth of my assertion. After general rendered of an opponent you could deny in addition to than the testimony of the address by a number of persons those mentioned Nothing can be stronger by Mr. Burdett, Mr. Smedley proceeds :? to the truth of my position. have and as I now refer to your criticisms on my assertion :? The quotation which you given represented views on the system contains the Then, (in 1878) were the original foundations of the movement removed Mr. Gamgee's weekly only 214 THE HOSPITAL. June 9, 1894. admission he was compelled to make in its favour after its have been prepared during the past week here. It is that of success ivas assured, that is in, 1882, whilst by inference con- the road men (menders and scavengers) employed by the Cor- demning the Committee for recommending it, and whilst poration. They collected ?94 15s 8d., to which was added avowing that the weekly system formed no part of his 6s. 8d. for bank interest, and ?19 16s. 3|d. brought from last original Hospital Saturday scheme. year; total, ?104 18s. 7^d. They bought 202 Dispensary ?28 7s. ; 39 General ?6 Mr. Gamgee says? tickets, Hospital notes, 16s. 6d.; In ?1 lis. 6d.; 6 Ear and Throat ?1 Is ; The success of Hospital Saturday depends in no small Eye Hospital, Hospital, complete and ?3 12s. 6d. for measure upon the method of collecting1 the money, and this is a matter paid registration fees at the Queen's, attended with no little difficulty. Acting on the experience gained with Children's, and Women's Hospitals, absorbing ?81 8s. 6d. for for the extension of the our the Working Men's Fund Queen's Hospital, the use of the men, their wives, and for the custom Committee abstained most scrupulously from recommending any set families; here is for a subscriber not to a method of collection. The recent inoident which resulted in a workman only be entitled to note for Yecovering in a Court of Justice money said to have been stopped at a himself, as you state, but for his wife or any child is penny a week for Hospital Saturday only recalled to point to a possible living under his roof. They had ?63 10s. l?d. left. the The projectors of did danger attending system. Hospital Saturday Could if they fit, it to tickets not aspire to make it a the mere mechanical principle of they, thought apply purchase " succession to the full value or not ? The was many a mickle makes a muckle." The penny-a-week systemjin factories money absolutely theirs to pand workshops is vastly older than Hospital Saturday, in instituting divide amongst themselves if by resolution they saw fit. They was to a labour whioh it hoped sanctify day, by the sacrifices and loving had entered into contracts by the of tickets with the of yet blessed with the to work on behalf of purchase thoughts ;those strength and and their wants had fellow-toilers laid low by injury or disease, &c. Dispensary Hospitals, been satisfied. They voted ?50 to_ Hospital Saturday without any conditions That is Mr. Gam gee's definition of to "make,the day itself and carried forward " attached, the balance. Was that or was a of labour sacrifice." You this is of course to con- day say it not a free gift ? tribute towards the cost of the free work of the hospitals." The workshop doctor, as I stated is a common insti- Mr. his before, Why Gamgee's object?avowed object?in delivering tution in Birmingham, and it is to his was to tell us that in so it we were tear- generally supplement address, interpreting work that and are " dispensary hospital tickets the foundations he had laid ! The purchased. ing up penny-a-week You say : in factories and is older than system workshops vastly We are forced to the conclusion, from the figures before ns and from in which it was to as a Hospital Saturday, instituting hoped those supplied by Mr. Smedley, that matter of fact it is probable sanctify a labour day." A magnificent conception ! With that the working classes in Birmingham receive more benefits from the than the sum raised on Mr. Gamgee preaching it, a potent force, in 1873, a year of lio-pitals Hospital Saturday, plus the direct con- tributions to the hospitals of the working classes, would defray the cost unexampled good trade, when men were in full work, and of. were masters glad for them to work overtime upon any pre- If the working classes provide the entire cost of the tence ! Without Mr. a _ Gamgee's inspiring power, hopeless hospitals they will cease to be charities in any sense of the failure in with on 1878, bad trade, and workshops working word, and will become gigantic provident institutions. The short time or a only three four days week ! Mr. Gamgee wealthy and middle classes will be relieved from the need of told me and told the of again again?he few members the supporting them, and one of the principal channels 1873 who had not deserted through Committee, us, again and again? which they can perform their obligations to the community that by recommending the weekly system of contributing, will be closed. we were he had undoing everything sought to accomplish. If the working classes are to bear the entire cost of the which in The collection, 1873 produced ?4,705 lis. 3d., and maintenance of the hospitals, the wealthy and middle classes had fallen in 1878 to ?3,134 5s., had, by the aid of weekly will be receiving benefits of vital importance to them, and risen in 1882 to 18s. 9d. contributions, ?4,888 allowing the working men to pay the cost for them. Within two or three after the division of the days money, In the footnote to my letter in The Hospital of May 19th, in Mr. met me June, 1892, Gamgee me, congratulated upon you say I am the and went on to that the success, say Hospital Saturday In error, however, in stating that Hospital Saturday in so he it Wolverhamp- Fund had become changed that felt his duty to put ton is managed by the officials, as it is worked by a committee on which on record what was the foundation of the movement as he there are upwards of fifty working men representatives. laid or that it had ever existed be and he it, might forgotten, I contend that my state/went is absolutely correct. The should take an early opportunity of doing this. On the 27th and Staffordshire General Hospital has what of the month he carried out his intention. following My it terms a Hospital Saturday Committee as a subsidiary com- have been made from a copy of that record bear- mittee. It consists of a board of the and quotations " weekly hospital name in his marked with the author's men This I ing my handwriting, 57 working representatives. stated. These are compliments." not the officials of the committee. The House Governor and ***** Secretary of the hosnital acts as its Secretary. The business the The ideal of his Hospital Saturday was far and away is conducted at the hospital by hospital staff, as a por- before ours, but ours is the practical, though less poetic, tion of their work. The accounts appear in the annual method of effecting the same ends. report of the hospital as a portion of the hospital accounts the ***** duly audited by hospital auditors. The amounts contributed to the and In from the address certain for work Wolverhampton quoting objects good Staffordshira on what is termed to stimulate exertion in their Hospital Hospital Saturday, support, you say:? in 1892, were? The gift to some existing institution by the working classes of an Population. an a accident ward, operating theatre, convalescent hall, or invalid Wolverhampton ?1,879 13 6 ... 8'',620 and baths, an extension of the sanatorium at Blackwell, and for the Hospital ,Bradley, Moxley 552 13 6 ... 27,580 ??? on Cosford ??? ??? ??? ??? Saturday Fund to make arrangements the co-operative principle, to 2 2 0 ... the convalescent send some of Birmingham's sick toilers to homes at 229 16 8 ... 13,563 Deepfields, and Bath, &c. Coseley, Sedgley 91 4 1 ... 36,800 Dudley 2 2 0 ... 45,740 are not Mr. and I are The italics Gamgee's, presume they Ettingshall 81 8 4 ... and 5>?6j intended to suggest that the words may be taken to refer to Heathdovm Wednesfield 63 7 5 12,0-4 Hednesford ... as establishment of our convalescent 37 16 0 ... 9,020 some such a step the Swindon 24 10 7 ... 466 homes at Llandudno. But there is this essential difference, " 23 2 0 ... 71,/91 the words to some exist- Willenhall the key to which lies in you use, 176 18 11 ... 16,8o2 institution." Mr. Gamgee never contemplated the Wednesbnry 13 12 7 ... 25,342 ing Sundries ?34 19 11 men and such institutions working establishing administering Street 20 14 1 the funds themselves, but only as providing for others to 55 14 0 administer. Nothing thao he has written points to his 1 7 considering such a course possible. That idea is not his. ?3,234 347,621 16 there has been a The remarkable fact that for years You have calculated the total of ?3,234 on the population the amount collected and dis- of steady annual increase in Wolverhampton alone, namely, 82,620, giving ?39 per tributed as a free gift by the working men of Birmingham? thousand. The actual contribution of YVolverhampton to from ?3,134 in 1878 to ?11,916 19s. 6d.?points something working-men is ?1,879 13s. 6d., or ?22 12s. per thousand, for success. It is that else besides foundations as the cause of which they receive tick-its to the same extent as ordinary we have traversed the only sure road to success by constant subscribers. The correct figure for the whole collection is vigilance and unremitting labour in organisation. ?9 6s. per thousand. There is, in fact, no Wolverhampton Yesterday was handed to me a Hospital Saturday work- Hospital Saturday Fund of the character of the Birmingham men's balance-sheet, typical of upwards of a thousand which Hospital Saturday Fund. William T. Sjiedley.