296 RURAL RECONSTRUCTION 



;t imperially " — would be a favourable one for pushing this par- 

 ticular branch of British production on British markets. Full of 

 goodwill, however, as they showed themselves to be, managers of 

 our great stores, to whom I appealed, to establish " Indian Depart- 

 ments," as they had " Japanese," regretfully explained to me 

 that Indian goods will not sell well enough to justify such 

 venture, differing from Japanese in this, that whereas Japanese 

 goods are generally useful, and therefore readily saleable, Indian, 

 with all their peculiarity and their taste and artistic excellence, 

 are only partially so. Those who take an interest in Indian pros- 

 perity are endeavouring to remedy this now, and before long it 

 may be hoped that we shall all the same see " Indian Departments " 

 forming part of our great bazaars. My point here is that the same 

 lesson which the managers of the stores referred to taught me in 

 respect of Indian small industry goods applies with equal force to 

 the products of rural industry at home. 



In respect of " useful " articles, indeed, our choice must neces- 

 sarily be a limited one. Rural industry — no matter whether the 

 moving force be the human hand or electric power, now gradually 

 invading the province — can expect to hold its own against factory 

 work only in cases in which the material used is such as the power 

 machine cannot readily handle — such as horsehair, osier rods, 

 bristles and the like — or in which the human hand vields a 

 substantially more valuable product — such as hand-made lace, 

 embroidery, glass ware, certain articles of wood and the like — or 

 else products which suit the peculiar local or general taste, such as 

 the many old-fashioned domestic implements still in use in rural 

 France, or the Slovak old-world wireware, or else the " peasants' 

 cloth " of Hungary. We have not, as it happens, in this country 

 anything like the number of peculiar tastes of this kind to reckon 

 with that rural industries have to befriend them abroad. 



Another point to be borne in mind, more specifically in respect 

 of " useful " products — is this, that in the production of them labour 

 must constitute the predominant contribution asked for from 

 workers. It is idle to look to them for the supply of material of 

 any value. Where rural industries are still at all largely carried 

 on we find them distributed according to the plentifulness and 

 consequent cheapness of the material to be employed. Thus wood 

 industries of all descriptions, including the making of wooden toys 

 and artistic carving, have their home in forest districts, basket 

 making is in vogue where there are osier beds, besom making where 

 there is heather or birch, glass making where there are wood ashes 



