INDEBTEDNESS,

997

in particular, the strikes of 1928 and 1929 appear to have enhanced
substantially the extent of indebtedness. But the single large loan
which plays an important part in binding permanent fetters on the
worker is usually required in connection with a marriage. It is not
uncommon for a worker to spend on a marriage the equivalent of a
year’s wages and to borrow the whole of that sum at a high rate of
interest. As our proposals, if they are effective, will prevent expenditure
 on this scale for most workers, we wish to make it clear that we are
far from desiring to make marriage difficult, or to prevent the worker
from celebrating such events in a fitting manner. But he is too often
coerced into what may be his own enslavement for years by social
pressure, and we believe that if expenditure on a scale entirely beyond
his means could be made impossible there would be a great addition to
happiness and prosperity, without anv check to marriage.
Special Position of Industrial Worker.

Indebtedness is by no means confined to the industrial worker ;
it isin fact fairly general throughout India and we recognise that some
of the recommendations made later may be applicable to classes other
than industrial workers. But we must emphasise the fact that, in
respect of borrowing, the position of the industrial worker is in important
 respects different from that of the agriculturalist. The main
difference is caused by his mobility. The man who moves from mill
to mill, from centre to centre, from town to village is an unsound
proposition from the money-lender’s point of view. In addition, part
of the agriculturalist’s borrowings takes the form of short-term loans
connected with his avocation, and can usually be repaid from the
increased income which results. Practically none of the borrowing of
industrial workers is of this character. Finally, while the agriculturalist
In a number of cases can offer security, this is seldom possible for the
industrial worker. His family may have a few ornaments, but after
these have been pledged or sold there is nothing left but future earning
capacity. A debtor who isnot a permanent resident of the area where
the money-lender carries on business, who cannot offer security, and
who is not likely to obtain any increase in income as the result of his
borrowing is in every way an unsound proposition. It is not surprising,
 therefore, that the industrial worker should have to pay particularly
high rates of interest. We doubt if the majority of money-lenders
amass the large profits attributed to them by popular belief. Apart
from the immense amounts of interest which remain unpaid, there is a
high proportion of bad debts. Although the sums collected must be enor-Mous
 in the aggregate, the army of money-lenders is great and the ex-Penses
 of collection are often substantial.
Co-operative Credit.

i One effect of the difference between the agricultural and indusbrial
 worker in respect of debt is to render ineffective for the latter in many
*ases the means on which most stress has been laid for relieving the
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