MINUTE BY SIR VICTOR SASSOON. 479
with a reduction of hours, it would be possible and, if there were co-oper-
ation between employers and employed, easy not merely to maintain
out to increase the average production per operative employed.”

These two sentences contain the kernel of the argument put
forward in the Report and it is with the three main points of this argu-
ment that I now propose to deal, namely, the effect of the reduction of
nours, the possibility of an increase in the efficiency of the worker which
will, at any rate, largely counterbalance the restriction of hours. and the
reduction of loitering.

The reduction of hours by statute, unaccompanied by any
increase in efficiency on the part of the operatives, has one of two direct
results—a decrease in wages or an increase in cost of production. The
former difficulty is realised by my colleagues who say ““ It is also necessary
bo bear in mind the relationship between hours of work and wages, for
the standard of living of the factory worker is such as to make any reduc-
tion in his earnings a serious matter 2. While I agree that his standard
of living should at least be maintained, there is evidence to show that the
cotton mill worker earns at least sufficient money to enable him to remit
sums regularly to his native village. Evidence given before the Banking
Enquiry Committee in Bombay elicited the fact that indebtedness is less
prevalent in the Konkan District than in any other district in India.
This poverty-stricken district provides the cotton mill industry with a
large body of workers and the explanation of the freedom from debt of
its inhabitants can only lie, in my opinion, in the remittance sent bv the
workers in the cotton mills of Bombay.

The only practical way in which I can envisage any reduction
of hours in the textile industry without dislocation is an attempt to
shorten them when the prosperity of the industry is such that a rise in
wages is due. Such a rise in wages might, either entirely or partially,
be replaced by shortening the hours of work. I cannot conceive that it
will be practicable to shorten hours in the textile industry without
increasing the rate of wages to a corresponding degree.

. Legislation involving a reduction of wages without the possibili-
by of a quid pro quo in the shape of increased efficiency cannot be treated
as a measure of practical politics at the present time. Strikes in Bombay
have been caused in 53 cases out of a 100 during the last nine years by
questions of pay, and I have no doubtin my mind that any proposal
involving a wage-cut at the present time would probably result in a strike
and considerable Joss both to millowners and operatives. Where the
ten-hour day has been shortened in textile mills the rate of pay for those
working on the nine-hour day has been raised, both in the case of the time
and piece-workers, to enable them to achieve the same earnings in spite of
lower production ; and, though theoretically an increase in efficiency
may be anticipated to make up for the loss of production due to reduction
of hours. in practice this will not be achieved.

1 Pages 43—14, .
2 Pages 40—41.