2 70 THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 



could not have prospered in India as it has done under State 

 spoon-feeding. It is not nearly yet all that it should become. 

 You cannot teach uncultured men to handle so delicate an 

 instrument as personal credit, in which every case has its 

 own peculiar distinctive features and wants to be dealt 

 with accordingly, as you can to drive a furrow or the groom 

 a horse. To a certain extent the same thing may be said of 

 Ireland. But at any rate in either case the main object 

 has unswervingly been kept in sight, not of merely raising 

 money, but of producing men who could raise it for them- 

 selves, to provide the instrument which will turn out the 

 valuable goods, rather than begging for the ready goods 

 turned out elsewhere. 



That, evidently, is the more precious object. At the 

 same time it must be said that the State, which rightly 

 buttons up its pocket on the one side, has very needlessly 

 and prejudicially buttoned it up on the other as well. 

 The State ought not to help in business, not to subsidise 

 economic undertakings. But it is right in teaching a 

 business which, where properly practised, has been shown 

 to confer great benefits upon the Nation. Teaching does 

 not mean mere lecturing. The infant movement wants 

 to be kept on the right lines. In India we are successfully 

 employing State-appointed and State-paid Registrars to 

 set the machine going and supervise it when started — not 

 as a permanent arrangement, but as " guides, philosophers 

 and friends " to the infant movement. It is quite under- 

 stood that that arrangement is to give place to self-manage- 

 ment when the time comes. And Registrars have rightly 

 understood their task. However, how many public officers 

 are there in India employed upon the job, exercising proper 

 surveillance and control ? I have figures before me, which, 

 it is true, are distinctly stated to be incomplete, but which 

 rise to only 156 for the whole vast empire — figures including 

 auditors. That is nothing for such a huge business. What 

 Co-operative Credit above all things requires, and cannot 

 do without, is proper inspection and control — control 

 beyond mere actuarial audit. Everything depends upon 

 that. In this country it was the point of points upon 



