For, there are yet no trade-unions nor strikefunds to ensure that the insurgent labour shall not be starved into subjection by the rich capitalists. The ranks of the Indian factory labour are chiefly reinforced not by the natural growth of the local population, but by immigrants from rural areas. The ties of cohesion among the workmen are extremely feeble; and poverty, ignorance, diversity of castes, religions and even languages make them still weaker. Labour in India has not yet had time to evolve a class of its representatives, leaders and agitators who can claim to speak on its behalf, and control in times of industrial peace and war. The recent strikes which purely as demonstrations of an organised consciousness and a general will to conquer were singularly impressive and success. ful, were the hand-work of an incoherent and leaderless body of workmen. It is perhaps vain to expect that the lessons so emphatically conveyed will not be altogether lost on the wise and far-sighted among the captains of industry.

England has been accepted with a cheerful optimism as the model of the India to be. The smoking chimneys of Bombay and Ahmedabad, Cawnpore and Calcutta have enchained the public imagination which has come to look upon the mere multiplication of these funnels as the indubitable signs of prosperity and progress, almost as ends in themselves. India is industrially young, and she can with an effort avoid and overcome the horrors and ravages of Industrial infancy, if she reads aright the experience of England and other manufacturing countries.

All economic activity is but a means to an end, and that end is the betterment of the individual lives which constitute the nation. It is not enough merely to increase the national productivity nor to multiply the number of merchant princes and industrial magnates, nor yet to raise the earnings of labour. It is sometimes forgotten that industrialism in itself is neither better nor

more desirable than agriculture, and that even the industrial development can be purchased too dearly. Capitalists all the world over are apt to lapse into thinking and feeling labour as something abstract and impersonal and to look upon it only as one of the factors of production, while it is intensely vital and throbbing with life. It is this which the strikers have sought to demonstrate their right to have their welfare considered not merely as an object of secondary importance, but as one of the goals ef production itself. Efficiency, productivity and profits are all admissible so long as they are not incompatible with social welfare.

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Our public men cannot escape the charge of comparative neglect to realise the meaning of industrialism from the point of view of the workWorkmen's institutes, free education for their children, better housing, old age pensions, insurance against illness and accident-all have their proper place in the stupendous task of social amelioration, and yet not the least important from the individual's standpoint is the length of his working day. Consider the impli cation of a twelve-hours' working day. It is not relevant to the issue to say that our workman is slack, lazy, casual and inefficient, that his daily output is much less than that of an English workman. That is all true, but the Indian humanity must be taken as it is, and means and methods must be so devised as to make its efforts and activities most fruitful for its happiNational wealth and the measures to increase it have their sole justification and raison d'stre in serving and advancing National Welfare. Labour may be cheap, but life is not, and in dealing with the problems of labour the human aspect is always in danger of sliding in the background instead of occupying the very heart of the picture where it should be. But let us have no illusions about the freedom of the agriculturist or the monotony of factory-life. Freedom for the

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poor cultivator who ekes out a precarious living by constant hard toil has none of the romance that floats about the word on the platform and in the press. Months of enforced idleness which are inseparable from a seasonal calling like agriculture will be gladly spent in any profitable occupation, if it were only possible. He and his women-folk, simple though their needs and tastes are, have also dreams of many a possible luxury, which alas! but too often are never transmuted into realities, for agriculture with its glorious uncertainties and apparent freedom carries in its train, the hideous spectres of famines and the bondage of the money-lender; and it is not quite so easy to find other suitable occupations and supplementary sources of income during the slack season, as sapient theorists may think. It is the fierce competition-the struggle for existence in agriculture which drives the villager to the factory, and no doubt the factory workman longs to return to his village home as soon as he has saved enough. This is not wholly or even principally due to the importunate call of the home of sweet memories. nor to the 'soul-killing dullness' of factory-life. Ploughing is no less dull than machine-tending, Luckily, the human mind seems to get on so nicely with routine and monotony that they are hardly felt as evils by the bulk of humanity. In fact, they are positively helpful, for the small share of brains that is the heritage of the vast majority of us, will else be hopelessly inadequate to guide evenly the course of life along its devious channels. It is not monotony against which labour rises in revolt. It is the intolerable and incessant strain on his nerves amidst the din and noise of machinery in the stuffy atmosphere of the factory, the blotting out of the day, the shutting out of the daylight from the existence of the workman, which has made him a rebel. The problem of labour is not only and mainly one of wages, for more money will only buy

ampler food, sufficient clothing and some luxuries. but it can never be a substitute for the light and air which human nature instinctively demands, and which are now practically denied to the Indian artisan with his twelve hours' working day. From the standpoint of the worker, the time taken in going to and returning from the factory must be added to the length of his active day, which cannot then be less than 13 hours. But to measure the nervous strain, the entire length of the day which is felt by the workman as restrainst must be taken into consideration and regarded as the effective working day. The few moments that he now and then snatches and which may amount even to an hour or two during the day, no doubt helps to relax his nervous tension, but their real value is very much less than it would be if the interval of time which is now stolen, were the workman's own and a matter of his free choice. It is economic waste both from the point of view of the employees and the employed to increase the number of ineffective and superfluous hours. It unnecessarily tires out the workman and leads to deterioration in work, while the output remains the same with the increased wear and tear of machinery.

It is now no longer a matter of theoretical speculation that the diminution in the number of working hours does not within certain limits necessarily mean a corresponding reduction in output. The output may remain constant with a shorter working day, for it is well-known that the out-put per hour rapidly declines after a workman has been working for a certain number of bours. And even if there were a diminution of out-put for the time being as a result of the reduction of hours, there cannot be the slightest doubt that in the long run the productivity of labour rich in nervous energy than at present is bound to be greater and more than compensate for the small immediate loss. Industrialism is entirely a step to national advancement, and that

advancement can never be furthered by condemning the bulk of the artisans to life-long servitude of twelve hours of daily toil. The present maximum of the factory acts obviously does not own on the side of undue sensitiveness for the comforts of labour. It can only be tolerated so long as the unhappy artisans have not become conscious of their unity in misfortune. Industrial beginnings in all countries have been devastating in their efforts on the ignorant, unorganised labour. Factory labour is frequently the object of social charity, but its inherent right to live decently is never conceded until it acquires the art of organised agitation and exercises its irresistible strength of numbers. It will be a miracle if the Indian workman were to find himself saved by others before he is forced by his unbearable woes to save himself. And yet it is imperative in the interests of the nation and the labour alike that the root-cause of the labour-discontent must be removed, and that even the artisan allowed partially to see daylight outside and beyond the shutters of his factory. The English workman already works 8 hours daily and wants only six. We in India dare not suggest such red revolution and outrage the susceptibilities of our captains of industry. I am not even sure whether the proposal of a ten-hours' working day including the intervals for meals etc., will not be regarded as downright heresy. There will of course be the usual predictions of utter ruin to the manufacturing industries of the country, and of absolute hopelessness of India to withstand foreign competition especially of Japan with her cheap 12-hours' shift of labour. There may be even a suggestion of the intriguing hand of Manchester in the proposed measure to alleviate the lot of labour. But our patriotic industrialists must be courteously suppressed and told that even their industries and their profits are not ends in themselves, but are only admissible in so far as they promote the general well-being.

The reduction of the legal maximum from 12 to 10 hours is a measure now urgently called for to protect our urban labour from degeneration and demoralisation as a consequence of sheer fatigue. The artisan must be freed at least for a part of the waking day to enjoy his elementary rights to feel as a human being, and not merely grind on as a mere instrument of production. The reduction of hours will neither spell ruin to our industries nor cripple them against foreign competition. Immediately there may be an appreciable decline in the total daily output, but as the experience of all the industrially advanced countries and also common sense would teach us that, it does not pay in the long run to drive the labour to progressive deterioration as a result of overwork and exhaustion. The contest in the international market has to be won not by the temporary and fortuitous advantage of ignorant and unorganised labour, but by superior capacity for organisation and progress. Our captains of industry have been used to regard the Indian workman as cheap, effete and degenerate. This serene contentment must be converted into constructive power to organise and discipline the inexhaustible forces of labour in accordance with its natural aptitudes, traditions and environments, if India is to occupy an honourable place in the list of progressive nations.

Besides the necessity and urgency of shortening the legal working day from 12 hours to 10, there is the further need to find out by experiment the most suitable hours of work from the point of view of the physiological health of the workman as well as of maximum productivity. India is a country of well defined seasons and climatic extremes, and it is a well established fact that the afternoon hours in summer are much more exhausting and impose a greater strain on the nervous energy than the corresponding intervals in winter. It is equally recognised that the late hours of night are more trying than the

corresponding hours of the day. But it is curious to notice the strength of custom and routine which have prescribed the prevailing uniformity in the hours of work and the traditional division of day and night shifts throughout the year. The curve of individual productivity in winter is not likely, on a priori grounds, to be very irregular, and the output should gradually decline after reaching its maximum at a particular time. In summer the curve should, present somewhat

violent fluctuations and individual efficiency would decline pretty rapidly during the hottest period of the day. I am of course aware that many industrial concerns have arrangements to maintain a uniform atmosphere and temperature at all hours of the day. But it is not merely the heat that acts most violently on the physiological system during the summer. The human system is acted upon by a multitude of reactions consequent on seasonal variations, and with all the modern appliances of comfort and luxury it has not been possible to equalise even approximately the natural differences of seasons.

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In view of these considerations, it should be feasible so to fix the hours of work and arrange the division of the day and night shifts or where a factory is being worked continuously, 3 shifts of eight hours each so as to minimise the strain and fatigue imposed upon the nervous system by seasonal variations; and such a evidently mean an increase in the efficiency and output of the individual workman working with the same machinery and for the same length of time. A series of fairly simple experiments would suffice to determine the most efficient mixture of day and night hours and the proper time of working in weather. It is only one of the problems suggested by the scientific management of industry, successfully attempted in the United States of America and utterly unknown in India. It is perfectly well-known that the night-shift is far

the hot and

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more exhausting than the day-shift, and that workmen usually claim higher wages for nightwork. But so far as I am aware, nobody in India has taken the trouble of accurately estimating the difference in the cost of production and in out-put of the same workman working day or night shifts only or alternately-every week of every fortnight. Nor has it occurred to anybody to find out how far it is feasible and advantageous to split up in summer the single shift of 12 hours into two-say 6 A.M. to 12 A.M. and 3 P.M. to 9 P.M. If it were possible, it may very likely mean more or at least the same profit to the employer and much less fatigue for the workI am told that the division of a single shift is not practicable in the spinning section of a cotton mill, and even if it were, the labour would resent it. This is very much like putting the cart before the horse. The problem is one which needs to be investigated and all the various elements in the working of a particular factory or industry to be carefully surveyed, before it will be possible to recommend any alternative scheme of working hours.

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benevolent masters may like; they have neither fixed hours nor stationary holidays. The Hindu merchants and usually the Muslims too recognise a few of the religious festivals and also the Amavasya once a month and though it is intended to suspend active business on these days, it seldom happens that the clerks and assistants are not called to wipe out old arrears or do some upon old jobs. The Indian bazaar does not recognise the restraint of a weekly day of rest; it is open at all hours of the day and all throughout the year. It rests after everybody else has rested, and is the first to stir to activity.

If the day of the shop-assistant is long, his range of fortune is equally short. The average Gumasta begins with Rs. 15 a month and unless he proves to be exceptionally able and indispensable to his master, has no hopes of rising above Rs. 50. or So at the end of А long career. Even the managers

of some of the largest and old-fashioned houses, who deal in lacs, do not get more than Rs. 150 a month. It is true there is the system of a generous gratuity to the staff at the end of a prosperous year or on the occasion of a marriage or other auspicious event in the family of the Mahajan. This with the undying hope of a partnership or of setting up an independent business some day keeps the Gumasta apparently contented with the scheme of life.

The Indian business-man has not yet learnt as his industrialist confrere has done to some extent, the economy of adequate wages. There is no such thing as pension or right to leave on full or half pay even in houses of long standing and the greatest reputation. The result is that the advantage of low wages is not infrequently very heavily set off by the loss of large sums quent on dishonesty or misappropriation, and that occasionally a clever and ambitious clerk rising to be an independent man of business sets himself up as the fiercest rival of his old firm. In

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sufficient wages and indifferent conditions do not promote that feeling of loyalty and attachment on the part of the subordinates which is so essential to the smooth and steady working of a business-firm, and that sense of confidence on the part of the management which enables the latter to transfer some share of responsibility to some members of the staff. This applies to the large Indian mercantile houses, where the merchants are as much overworked as the gumastas. There is hardly any distribution of work worth the name. At some hours and on some days the shop owners and shop assistants may be seen idly gossipping, and on others feverishly busy, but always on the shops for the same long hours. The petty shop-keeper has the same undefined hours of business as the prosperous shroff,

I cannot imagine any cogent objection against the proposal of a Shops Closing Act, for there does not arise any question of reduced out-put or income. As it is, foreign houses and Indian firms conducted on semi-European methods have already fixed hours of business and observe the weekly day of rest. This salutary practice is the result of English influence and may be extended throughout the Presidency towns, and some of the other important business-centres like Delhi, Cawnpore, Agra, Ahmedabad.

The sanitary conditions of the Indian Bazaar are too well-known to need elaboration. The average shop-keeper is neither parsimonious nor unaware of the amenities of life. He is not in need of sanitary education, but of municipal compulsion. He is psychologically apathetic and does not feel the want of spaciousness and comfort. Municipalities should not be expected to do much in the sphere of cleaning the Augean stables of our market-places, for we all-educated or uneducated-take them for granted, almost daily integral of parts life and heritage from the past. An Inspector of shops, especially in Bombay and Calcutta, will, I imagine, be able to bring to light not a few urgent problems for the social reformer. There is a great deal in the working of small establishments and home industries which needs rectification from the point of view of the workman.Hotels, pan-bidi establishments, sweet-meat shops, are immediately suggested as instances in point,

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