THE INDUSTRIAL VILLAGE.
For the Industrial Village we have already before our very eyes an
admirable object lesson in the existing organisation and subdivision of
an ordinary Indian village. Indeed it is singular how precisely India
has anticipated just what General Booth now proposes to introduce in
civilized Europe.
The village community so familiar to all who have resided in India
consists of an independent or rather interdependent, co-operative
association which constitutes a miniature world of its own, producing
its own food and manufacturing its own clothes, shoes, earthenware,
pots, &c, with its own petty government to decide all matters affecting
the general welfare of the little commonwealth. Very wisely the British
rulers of India have left this interesting relic of ancient times
untouched, so that the institution can be seen in complete working order
at the present day all over India. The onward march of civilisation has
somewhat shaken the fabric and has threatened the existence of several
of the village industries. But at present there has not been any radical
alteration. The village may still be seen divided up into its various
quarters.
Take for instance a village in Gujarat. Those substantial houses in the
centre belong to the well-to-do landowners. The cultivators or tenants
have their quarters close alongside. The group of huts belonging to the
weavers is easily distinguishable by the rude looms and apparatus for
the manufacture of the common country cloth. The tanners' quarter is
equally well marked, and yonder the groups at work with mud and wheel
and surrounded with earthenware vessels of various shapes and sizes,
remind you that you are among the Potters.
On inquiring into the interior economy of the village a system of
payment in kind and exchange of goods for labour and grain is found to
prevail exactly similar to that suggested by General Booth. Only here we
have the immense advantage that instead of having to explain and
institute a radical reform in the existing system, we have to deal with
millions of people who are thoroughly imbued with these principles from
their infancy.
For instance one of the staple articles of food in the village consists
of buttermilk, which is distributed by the high caste among the low
caste from year's end to year's end in return for petty services. One of
the usual ways in which the high caste will punish the low, for any
course of conduct to which they object is by the terrible threat of
stopping their supply of "chas," which means usually nothing short of
starvation.
Here then is our model in good working order and in exact accordance
with the ideal sketched out by General Booth. We cannot do better than
adhere to it as closely as possible.
Probably the first industrial settlement which we shall establish, in
addition to the labor yards and suburban farms already referred to, will
consist of a colony of Weavers in Gujarat.
For this we shall have special facilities, as we have now 150 Officers
at work in that part of the country, as well as more than 2,000 enrolled
adults, a large proportion of whom have been in our ranks for several
years. From amongst these we shall be able to select thoroughly reliable
superintendents (both European and Native), and shall be able to take
full advantage of their local experience.
But how far we shall consider it wise to confine our first settlement
to one particular caste or to include within it from the outset some
other useful village industries such as have been above referred to, I
am not as yet prepared to say. Much will necessarily depend on the
course that events may hereafter take. For the present I can only say
that we will adhere as closely as possible to our Indian model.
The one weak point about the Indian system, as it at present exists, is,
that there is no means of regulating the proportion of labour in each
section of the community. The rules of caste prevent any transfer from
one trade to another, while there is no system of intercommunication
between the villages to enable them to readily transfer their surplus
population to the places where they would be most needed. In a case
where some village industry is threatened with annihilation, as for
instance the weavers, there is absolutely no provision for the transfer
of the unfortunate victims of civilisation either to some more favored
locality or to some other sphere of labour.
Now this is just where our combined plan of campaign with its union of
City, Country, and Over-sea Colonies would step in and supply the
missing link. We should be able to direct the glut of labor into just
those channels where it would be the most useful.
And why should this be thought impracticable? Everybody is acquainted
with the power of wind, water and steam, where properly directed, to
move the most gigantic machinery and yet for centuries those powers were
suffered to go to waste. It is only of late that we have learnt for
instance to put chains upon the genii of the tea-kettle, to put them as
it were into harness, to bridle them and to compel them to drag our huge
leviathans across thousands of miles of ocean. May not the enormous
mass of waste labor that has accumulated in our cities and rural
districts be fitly compared to the former waste of steam. The best that
we have been able to do for it so far has been to provide for it the
safety valves of beggary, destitution, famine, pestilence, crime,
imprisonment and the gallows.
Is it too much to suppose that this enormous waste of human steam, the
most valuable sort of steam that the world contains, can be properly
controlled and guided so that it will make for itself railways and
steamers that shall carry its human cargoes by millions across lands
that are at present mere wastes, and to populate countries which are as
yet wildernesses? In doing so, we shall but fulfil the words of prophecy
uttered 26,000 years ago. "The wilderness and the solitary place shall
be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.
It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing.* *
For in the wilderness shall waters break out and streams in the desert.
And the parched ground shall become a pool and the thirsty land springs
of water.* * * And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be
called the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it, but it
shall be for those. The way-faring men, though fools shall not err
therein. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up
thereon; it shall not be found there. But the redeemed shall walk there,
and the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Sion with songs
and everlasting joy upon their heads. They shall obtain joy and
gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away."