MIGRATION AND THE FACTORY WORKER, 19 
could be built up in many industrial areas. The effect of this on the 
individual is sometimes obscured temporarily by the fact that the new 
recruit may have just passed through a period of Privation, but the bene- 
fit of the early years remains and is an asset of incalculable value. The 
holidays which many are able to take are also a great source of strength 
of mind and body, and the combination - of urban and rural life 
brings a width of outlook which is apt to be lacking in a purely urban 
population. Further, where contact is retained with the village, there is 
usually some kind of home to fall back upon should the need arise. 
The villages have hitherto provided a measure of insurance against 
the effects of the various changes which may reduce, Interrupt or 
destroy the. earning capacity of the worker. In sickness and in 
maternity, in strikes and lock-outs, in unemployment and in old age the 
village home is a refuge for many, and the fact that it exists affords a sense 
of security, even when it ig not required. We should not be understood 
as endorsing the view occasionally expressed that the factory worker 
usually has an alternative occupation to which he can readily turn. This 
is not accurate : but, for the worker who has village connections and is 
unable to work, the hardships caused by such ability are mitigated. 
The village is an infinitely better place than the city for the young and the 
aged, the sick, the maimed and the exhausted, the unemployed and ‘the 
anemployable. If the villages provide insurance for the towns, the 
effect is to some extent reciprocal. One of the strong arguments for the 
development of industries in Tndia ig the insurance which it provides 
against the uncertainties of agriculture. If they are developed by a 
Population connected with the rural areas, the benefits of this insurance 
are directly felt in the villages. When some of the members of a village 
tommunity have a source of income independent of the produce of the 
village, there is 5 distinct gain to the community as a whole, 
Educative Effects. 
Nor are the benefits derived from migration entirely economic 
In character, The Royal Commission on Agriculture hag observed that 
* the life of the city should quicken the minds and enlarge the outlook 
of a far greater number of labourers than jt corrupts’, Quy experience 
tends to show that migration has this effect, Further, this quicken- 
ing of mind ang enlargement of outlook are not limited, under the 
Present system, to those who g0 to the cities. The Industrial worker 
who, in his absence, has assisted the village by diminishing the pressure 
on 1ts productive capacity and hy adding to itg income, brings to it on 
his return a new education, He helps to diffuse throughout the country- 
side not merely hig knowledge of 5 wider world, but a conception of 
liberty and of independence that is new to village society. If the contact 
POW maintained were diminished or cut off, the result would be the 
mpoverishment, of pa] India of a more than material kind. 
The Future 
All this leads up to a practical question of vital Importance, name- 
ly, should efforts be directed towards building up an industrial popu- 
no