THE EMPLOYMENT OF THE:FACTORY WORKER, 23 
journeyed to distant villages and brought back recruits to the mills, 
paying their fares and expenses to the city. Such methods are still 
employed for many industries, particularly ‘planting, mining, publie 
works and some seasonal factory industries ; but now the great major- 
ity of managers of perennial factories need go no further than their 
own gate to obtain the workers they require. Only in minor centres 
and in the starting of new mills is recourse to the older methods some- 
bimes necessary. Contractors are still largely employed in some factory 
industries, particularly engineering and metal works, but these men 
are not contractors so much as subordinate employers, and most of 
them can also secure labour at the factory gate. Unfortunately the 
removal of the market for labour from the village to the factory gate 
has not generally meant the assumption by the employer of direct 
responsibility for the engagement of his own workers. This duty is 
still left largely to intermediaries, and especially to jobbers. This 
brings us to one of the most remarkable features of Indian factory 
organisation. 
Position of the Jobber. 
The jobber, known in different parts of India by different names, 
such as sardar, mukaddam or maistry, is almost ubiquitous in the 
Indian factory system and usually combines in one person a formidable 
series of functions. He is primarily a chargeman. Promoted from 
the ranks after full experience of the factory, he is responsible for the 
supervision of labour while at work. In a large factory, there may be 
a hierarchy of jobbers for this purpose, including women overseers in 
departments staffed by women. He has also, on many occasions, 
to act as assistant mechanic, and to help in keeping the machines in 
running order. So far as the worker is given technical training, the 
jobber is expected to provide it. He is not, however, merely responsible 
for the worker once he hag obtained work ; the worker has generally 
bo approach him to secure a job, and is nearly always dependent on him 
for the security of that job as well as for a transfer to a better one, 
Many jobbers foliow the worker even further than the factory gate ; 
they may finance him when he is in debt and he may even be dependent 
on them for his housine. 
The Jobber as Intermediary. 
As important as any of these functions 1s the duty which the 
jobbers perform in their capacity as intermediaries between employer 
and employee. It is to the jobbers that the employer generally gocs 
when he wishes to notify a change to the workers; it is from the 
jobbers that he derives most of his information regarding their needs 
and desires. When a manager states that he informed the workers 
of a change in conditions, or that he was told by them that they desired 
a change, he too often means that he conveyed the news (possibly 
through a subordinate) to the jobbers, or that the jobbers alleged that 
the workers had a grievance. The same applies to orders affecting 
mdividual workers, and to their complaints. The iobber thus adds +o