I should like to add a few more facts about the spinning department,
before I come to weaving.
In _Ashadha_ the students were more energetic than before. The number of
regular students was 21, and these in 23 working days (there being six
holidays in the month) spun 30 pounds and 24 _tolas_ of yarn of about 12
counts on the average, fit for warp. At ten annas a pound, this means a
wage of Rs. 19-2-0. The total number of hours of spinning was 1337. At 4
hours a day it should have been 1932 (23 number of days × 21 number of
students × 4). This deficiency is not due to idleness, nor to headache.
Complaints of idleness have now quite ceased. And students now
understand that headache may prevent one from reading or working sums
but not from spinning. They have also realised that if the arms are
fatigued by fetching water or swimming, there is nothing like spinning
for removing the fatigue. The thing is that those students who have
mastered spinning were engaged in carding and other process. If full
time had been given to spinning, we would have turned out a
proportionately bigger quantity of yarn.
The spinning power of the students is increasing every day. The student
who spun 7 _tolas_ an hour during the Satyagraha week is now no longer a
prodigy and others are fast overtaking him. One day a girl spun 9
_tolas_ of uniform and well-twisted 12-count yarn in 6 hours. At the
above rate this means a wage of 2 annas 3 pies. For 8 hours therefore
the wage would be 3 annas, for 12 hours 4 annas 6 pies, for 14 hours 5
annas 3 pies. But it is hardly necessary to emphasise the pecuniary
value of the work, so far as schools are concerned. The point is that by
constituting spinning as a permanent part of our school curricula we
provide manual training of the highest kind and at the same time prepare
for the re-advent of a day when spinning will be as much a part of our
domestic economy as say cooking.
_Y. I.--11th Aug. '21_.