322 CHAPTER XVIL
from illiteracy. We do not confuse literacy with education; the strength
of trade unionism in the transport industries is partly due to the educa-
tion which travel gives. Where the lack of education makes itself
most strongly felt is in the reluctance to take a long view. Even if
he were better off than he is, the Indian workman would not be easily
persuaded to spend money which promised no obvious and immediate
reburn. Few trade unions can afford to conduct benevolent work, and
the majority find it hard to convince the worker that a subscription is
worth while, except when a dispute is imminent or in progress.
Need for Development.

It may be urged that a movement which suffers from so many
handicaps, which demands qualities at present so rare among Indian
workmen and which is admittedly exotic in origin, is ill-suited to
Indian needs and that the whole development of trade unions is a move in
the wrong direction. As regards the foreign character of the move-
ment, we would observe that modern industrialism is itself a Western
importation. The difficulties which it creates for labour in India are
similar to the difficulties which it has created elsewhere, and there is no
evidence of any alternative remedy that is likely to prove effective.
Everything that we have seen in India has forced upon us the conviction
that the need of organisation among Indian workmen is great, and
that, unless industry and the State develop along entirely different
lines from those at present followed, nothing but a strong trade
union movement will give the Indian workman adequate protection.
Legislation can act as a palliative and prevent the graver abuses, but
there are strict limitations to the power of Government and the public
to protect workmen who are unable to protect themselves. Labour
laws, indeed, find one of their most effective sanctions in the support
of organised unions. Other forms of organisation, such as works councils
and works committees, serve a useful purpose when employers are
well disposed, but they cannot be a substitute for trade unionism.
Machinery such as industrial tribunals and conciliation boards can assist
labour, but its operation is seriously hampered without organisation.
It is in the power to combine that labour has the only effective safeguard
against exploitation and the only lasting security against inhumane
conditions. Nor is labour the only party that will benefit from a sound
development of the trade union movement. Employers and the public
generally should welcome its’ growth. It would be foolish to pretend
that in present conditions particular employers in particular centres can-
not gain an advantage by thwarting and repressing attempts to organise,
and all employers are bound to find. on occasion, that the organisation
of their men limits their power. But whilst the advantages to be gained
from repression are temporary and precarious, those that accrue from
healthy organisation are lasting. Further, some form of organisation is
inevitable, since the need is acute and is bound to evoke a response. If
that response does not take the form of a properly organised trade union
movement, it may assume a more dangerous form. Some employers
have already suffered severely from the lack of responsible trade unions