THE INDIAN INDUSTRIAL PROBLEM 567 



especially in regard to agriculture and its dependent trades 

 and those industries which have been influenced by the work- 

 shops and factories to be found in the centres of modern 

 industrial activity. We may rest assured that there will be no 

 opposition to the introduction of improved tools or improved 

 methods of working if it can be clearly shown that they are 

 real improvements. The reputation that Indians are averse 

 from all change and are obstinately wedded to the antiquated 

 ways of their forefathers is not justly deserved. They are 

 conservative but they know their own business fairly well 

 and many of the so-called improvements which they have 

 rejected were really unsuitable innovations. 



The Development of Small-Scale Industrial Enterprises 



India offers a great problem to the civilised world. It has 

 abundance of cheap labour which, if properly trained, would be 

 skilled ; it needs to be shown how to apply this labour to the 

 best advantage. The whole trend of modern progress has been 

 to replace the man by the machine, to replace the individual 

 by the factory and the isolated factory by the organised trust. 

 Where labour is dear this system has developed most largely 

 and human ingenuity is ever exercised in extending the scale 

 of operations. We have introduced the system into India but 

 it has not yet taken root. We may either regard it as inevitable 

 that it should ultimately be established or we may adopt an 

 alternative and apply the resources of science, engineering and 

 commercial experience to a great attempt to raise the worker 

 and pit his skill, ingenuity and adaptability against the 

 monstrous growths produced by the abnormal development of 

 the mechanical arts. The problem ever before the modern in- 

 dustrial world is to devise means of dispensing with labour, to 

 cheapen production by making it more automatic. The success 

 has been remarkable but it has been purchased somewhat 

 expensively ; it is possible that we might now with advantage 

 turn our attention to developing the function of the man rather 

 than the power of the machine, to evolving a system the object 

 of which should be to employ human labour to the greatest 

 extent possible and in the way most advantageous to the 

 individual man. 



The conditions in India are suitable for such an experiment. 



