Page 261 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

The Mitchell Memorial Hall.

arise. The Woolwich Society, indeed, secured considerable support
for a £10,000 grant ; while Mr. Redfearn, of HeckmondAvike, thought
it would be no more than just if the federation provided the entire
fund. But in some quarters enthusiasm quickly cooled. A Lanca-
shire Society discovered that the fit and proper (and, incidentally,
cheaper) way of commemorating a great man was to erect a statue.
A Midland delegate said that the proposal to give £5,000 "nearly
took their breath away." A Northern representative asked if it was
the intention to commemorate other committee-men, to which
Thomas Bland, the new vice-chairman of the Society, warmly and
generously repKed that "there had been only one Mitchell amongst
them—there was not a Mitchell or even the shadow of a Mitchell
amongst them to-day." The Scottish Wholesale Society had
proposed to give £1,000 to the fund; but objections had been raised
at Glasgow, in consequence of which the chairman of the Northern
Society declined to take a vote. Unanimously approved in London,
and not greatly opposed at Newcastle, the grant at the ultimate
Manchester meeting of the English C.W.S. was only carried by 307
to 302. For the whole country the figures were 780 and 352. But
as the Society's rules then stood, under the law, a single sustained
objection to such a grant could destroy it; and, following this
December meeting, on the second day of 1896, a society which
shall be nameless gave notice of being prepared to take legal
objection to the vote. Under this threat the money was held back.
Simultaneously, and m reply, the Newcastle-on-Tyne Society
moved to alter the rule governing the division of profits, so as to
leave the power of the representatives' meetings unrestricted.
This was quicldy done; nevertheless, remembering the previous
divided vote, the Memorial Committee decided to abandon their
projects, and return to the subscribers the £371 which had been
added to the £5,000. The C.W.S. Committee then adopted the
suggestion of a " Mitchell Memorial Hall " made at a Quarterly
Meeting by Mr. C. Wright, at that time of the Manchester and
Salford Society. They recommended that the next building
extensions in Manchester should include such a meeting room,
possessing " a statue of the late Mr. Mitchell," while busts were to
be placed at once within the Newcastle and London premises. The
delegates agreeing to this proposal, the fine hall that now covers the
top floor of the administration block in Manchester was so named
upon its completion in 1907, twelve years later. And, considering
how it links and will continue to link the memory of the dead
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