562 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



the crude simplicity of each family as a unit of productive 

 effort strong combinations must be evolved either by co-opera- 

 tive working or by the concentration of manufacture in small 

 factories. That this can be done there is not the least reason 

 for doubt. Every well-directed effort that has been made on 

 these lines has met with success and if so far the sum total of 

 the results is insignificant compared with what has to be done, 

 it is because the experimental stage has only just been passed 

 through. Individuals scattered over India have attacked the 

 problem according to their lights and, whilst many have failed, 

 some have succeeded. A critical review of the circumstances 

 of each case leads to the general conclusion that success has 

 invariably been due to the application of scientific methods and 

 practical experience ; that the failures might in most cases have 

 been predicted from the outset, as essential elements to success 

 were neglected and more zeal than discretion displayed in 

 dealing with the difficulties that had to be overcome. 



It would serve no useful purpose to cite instances of mis- 

 directed enterprise the failure of which has engendered in 

 Indian minds a deep-seated distrust of the tools and appliances 

 which in modern times have so enormously reduced the amount 

 of human labour to be expended in converting raw materials 

 into a form suited to the needs of man. The poverty of India 

 measured by European standards is undeniable but the require- 

 ments of the people are extraordinarily small and, except in 

 times of famine, there is but little of the destitution and misery 

 which are to be found in the great centres of civilisation. There 

 are signs, however, that a struggle for existence is beginning 

 to be felt, due to the increasing pressure of the population on 

 the soil, to the expanding needs of the educated classes and 

 to the growing inequality in the distribution of wealth. Within 

 the last few years there has been a marked rise in the price of 

 food grains, which presses severely on the landless labourers 

 in the villages and upon the artisans and workers in the towns. 

 The old order of things is changing, and India is being steadily 

 drawn into the stream along which the nations of Europe and 

 America are being hurried to a by no means clearly discerned 

 destination. 



There is in the country much unrest which is far from 

 being of political origin. The problem for the statesmen 

 who will have to control the administration of India is to 



