Many discussions with working men, in his homeward evening walks, convinced Mr. Sikes that there were social problems with which legislation would be almost powerless to grapple, and of these the thriftlessness of the masses of the people was one.  An employer of five hundred handloom weavers had told Mr. Sikes that in a previous period of prosperity, when work was abundant and wages were very high, he could not, had he begged on bended knee, have induced his men to save a single penny, or to lay by anything for a rainy day.  The fancy waistcoating trade had uniformly had its cycles of alternate briskness and depression; but experience, however stern its teachings, could not teach unwilling learners.  It was at this period that Mr. Sikes was reading the late Archbishop Sumner’s “Records of Creation,” and met with the following passage:  “The only true secret of assisting the poor, is to make them agents in bettering their own condition.”

Simple as are the words, they shed light into Mr. Sikes’s mind, and became the keynote and the test to which he brought the various views and theories which he had previously met with.  Doles and charities, though founded frequently on the most benevolent motives, were too often deteriorating to their recipients.  On the other hand, if self-reliance and self-help—­the columns of true majesty in man—­could only be made characteristics of the working classes generally, nothing could retard their onward and upward progress.  Mr. Sikes observed that until the working classes had more of the money power in their hands, they would still be periodically in poverty and distress.  He saw that if provident habits could only he generally pursued by them, the face of society would immediately be transformed; and he resolved, in so far as lay in his power, to give every aid to this good work.

In 1850, Savings Banks were only open a very few hours in each week.  In Huddersfield, where more than L400,000 a year was paid in wages, the savings bank, after having been established over thirty years, had only accumulated L74,332.  In 1850, Mr. Sikes addressed an anonymous letter to the editors of the Leeds Mercury, to which, by their request, he afterwards attached his name.  In that letter he recommended the formation of Penny Savings Banks in connection with Mechanics’ and similar institutes.  In simple words, but with many telling facts, he showed how the young men and the young women of the working classes were growing up deprived of almost every opportunity of forming habits of thrift, and of becoming depositors in savings hanks.

The letter was received with general approbation.  The committee of the Yorkshire Union of Mechanics’ Institutes gave their cordial sanction to it; and Penny Banks were established in connection with nearly every Mechanics’ Institute in Yorkshire.  Mr. Sikes personally conducted one at Huddersfield; and down to the present time, it has received and repaid about thirty thousand pounds.  In fact, the working people of Huddersfield, doubtless owing in a great measure to the practical example of Mr. Sikes,—­have become most provident and thrifty,—­the deposits in their savings bank having increased from seventy-four thousand pounds in 1850, to three hundred and thirty thousand pounds in 1874.