VILLAGE INDUSTRIES 295 



of themselves, as the capacity for swimming is of a duck, and 

 the people born to the work have acquired such a proficiency in it 

 that in rapidity and accuracy they can compete with any machine. 

 This is particularly observable in such industries as the making of 

 wooden toys, in which, under a judicious division of labour, the 

 making of special pieces — say, limbs of dolls — is committed to 

 special persons. And the facility and accuracy with which they 

 turn out those pieces, which would be of no use if they did not at 

 once accurately fit on to the others, is truly astonishing. Abroad, 

 accordingly, as a rule, folk are born to their several trades. We 

 on our side have a bare board to operate upon, and our task is to 

 find out what every one is capable of and has a mind to do. And 

 that, as observed, is not always an easy point to determine. Those 

 who have the promotion of small industries at heart think for their 

 intended beneficiaries, and, without trustworthy guidance, with 

 only their own bent to assist them, do not always arrive at quite 

 the right solution. 



However, whatever those difficulties may be, the governing 

 point in the problem is the point of sale ; and in respect of that we 

 have thus far often enough failed. In the exhibitions of hand- 

 made " rural industry " goods that have been held we have seen 

 a variety of work which has extorted something approaching to 

 admiration — considering the source from which the articles came. 

 There was originality, ingenuity, taste about them, and for knick- 

 nacks and similar use they seemed most happily contrived. Those 

 well-intentioned ladies and gentlemen under whose auspices these 

 things had been prepared — the united Irishwomen deserve especial 

 notice for their energetic and devoted labours — doubtless were 

 filled with satisfaction in the contemplation of them. However, 

 the articles would not sell. Knicknacks at all times have only 

 a very limited sale. They do sell, of course, in a way ; and they 

 are very useful articles for rural industrialists to practise upon — 

 plastic crafts being what Herder has rightly called also " educa- 

 tive " crafts. They teach deftness, taste, originality, creative- 

 ness. One would not by any means wish to discourage the making 

 of such fancy goods — rather the reverse. But, after all, the proof 

 of the article is in the selling. I have encountered the same difficulty 

 in respect of hand-made articles of India — in which country small 

 industry has still a large task to fulfil and is economically, for the 

 support of the immense rural population, an absolute necessity. 

 It struck me that the present time — when the patriotic fit is hot 

 upon us, and we all think what Joseph Chamberlain termed 



