THE INDIAN LABOURER'S INDEPENDENCE 7 



reward for his toil. Theory and evidence alike con- 

 firm the paradox that where the labourer works on 

 his own account, as in India, the reward of his toil is 

 much smaller than where, as in England, he works for 

 an employer.* 



In some respects, however, the Indian industrial 

 organization is more favourable to the labourer than 

 the European. In Europe the labourer cannot begin 

 to work without the permission of the employer ; 

 the land, the implements of production, and the raw 

 material are all under lock and key, and the labourer 

 can only get access to them if he complies with the 

 terms which an employer offers him. The European 

 workman who is thrown out of work not only sees 

 his children ill fed and ill clothed through no fault of 

 his own, but has to bear the added bitterness of the 

 injustice of his misfortunes. Among the lower orders 

 of labour there is the further danger that the workman 

 will be degraded by the irregularity of employment. 

 The man who has to get his living out of a little plot 

 of land is at least free to work when and for as long 

 as he likes, and has the strongest inducements to 

 industry. To the Indian cultivator, ground down 



* Those who amuse themselves by the manipulation of conjectural 

 statistics may be interested in the result obtained by comparing 

 Mr. F, J. Atkinson's estimate of the annual income of British India 

 with Mr. Chiozza Money's estimate of the annual income of the 

 United Kingdom. Such a comparison yields this result : Wages of 

 35s. a week in England represent the same proportion of the national 

 dividend as Rs. 7 a month in India. I am inclined to think from 

 personal observation that this is not very far from the truth : the man 

 who earns Rs. 7 a month in India probably does occupy about the 

 same position in the social scale as the artisan who earns 35s. a week 

 in England. The figures for wages in ' Prices and Wages ' are so 

 untrustworthy that no statistical comparison can be made. The 

 figures upon which the above calculation is based are : 



Population Income 



in Millions. in Millions. 



United Kingdom ... ... 42 ... 1,710 



British India ... ... 231 ... 584 



