APPENDIX. 429 



the Bombay Factory Commission which was laid 

 before Parliament in August, 1888, contained facts 

 of such horrible cruelty and cupidity as would hardly 

 be imagined by those who have forgotten the dis- 

 closures of the inquiry made in this country in 1840- 

 1842. The factory engines are at work, as a rule, from 

 5 A.M. till 7, 8, or 9 P.M., and the workers remain at 

 work for twelve, thirteen, fourteen hours, only re- 

 leasing one another for meals. In busy times it 

 happens that the same set of workers remain at the 

 gins and presses night and day with half an hour's 

 rest in the evening. In some factories the workers 

 have their meals at the gins, and are so worn out 

 after eight and ten days' uninterrupted work 

 that they supply the gins mechanically " three parts 

 asleep." 



" It is a sad tale of great want on one side, and 

 cruel cupidity on the other," the official report con- 

 cludes. However, it would be absolutely erroneous 

 to conclude that Indian manufactures can compete 

 with the British ones as long as they continue the 

 terrible exploitation of human labour which we see 

 now. Forty years ago the British manufactures 

 offered absolutely the same terrible picture of cruel 

 cupidity. But times will come when Indian workers 

 will restrain the cupidity of the capitalists, and the 

 manufacturers of Bombay will be none the worse for 

 that in their competition with the British manu- 

 factures. 



The figures relative to the latest growth of the 

 textile industries in India, given in the text, fully 

 confirm the previsions expressed twenty-five years 

 ago. As to the conditions of the workpeople in 

 the Indian cotton-mills, they continue to remain 

 abominable. 



