Page:The Newspaper World.djvu/40

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Organization of Journalism. 29 most comprehensive of any of the Press institutions in the land, the following being entitled to participate in its benefits : proprietors, editors, managers, sub-editors, leader-writers, reviewers ; fine art, musical, and dramatic critics ; commercial writers, correspondents, at home and abroad (including the correspondents of foreign news- papers resident in the United Kingdom) ; and every class of reporters." For distressed members of the Fund, or their widows and orphans when unprovided for, generous and unostentatious assistance is rendered in the shape of grants of money, and many journalists who might other- wise have been badly worsted in the battle of life through sickness, want of employment, or other form of adversity, owe piuch to the helping hand of the Fund, while those left behind have been kept in respectability, and their children educated from the same benevolent source. Non- members have, of course, no claim on the Fund, but in cases of real distress even these have experienced in no inconsiderable numbers its benevolence. From the forma- tion of the Fund to December, 1889, there had been a* total of 996 grants to a total amount of ;£i8,i72. The sources of income of the Society are subscriptions, dona- tions, legacies, dividends on investments, and a large sum received at the annual dinner. The list of subscribers includes all ranks of life from the Queen, the Prince of Wales, and the Royal Family, downwards. At the close of 1889 there were 393 London members, 290 country members, and five foreign ; total 688. Of late the officers of the Society have made a successful effort to induce more country journalists to join, and have addressed meetings at various centres with this object. The office of the Fund is at 55 Strand, London, W.C, and the secre- tary is Mr W. Thornton Sharp, B.A. Several similar fiinds have been established in different parts of the country, the oldest and most important of