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CHAPTER III-THE EMPLOYMENT OF THE FACTORY 
WORKER. 
This chapter deals with a number of questions related to the 
employment of the worker in perennial factories. Beginning with the 
relationship of the supply of labour to the demand, we discuss the 
recruitment of the worker and the control and supervision of his 
employment in the factory. Next comes his education, with special 
reference to his advancement and promotion, and in conclusion we 
refer to unemployment. 
Supply of Labour. 
Throughout the greater part of its history, organised industry 
in India has experienced a shortage of labour. A generation ago, this 
shortage was apt at times to become critical. Towards the end of the 
nineteenth century, after the plague epidemics, the difficulties of em- 
ployers were acute, especially in Bombay ; and in 1905 the complaints of 
employers in Bengal and the United Provinces led to an official enquiry 
into the causes of the shortage.. Thereafter the position became easier 
in the factory industries, but even in these, before the war, few employers 
were assured of adequate labour at all seasons of the year. Some in- 
dustries, such as tea-planting, particularly in Assam, are still in 
constant need of more workers. Others, such as coal-mining, experience 
a distinct shortage at certain seasons. Perennial factories, on the 
other hand, have now reached a position in which most of them have 
sufficient labour at all seasons and there is a surplus of factory labour 
at several centres. The change has been gradual, and it has proceed- 
ed at a different pace in different centres. In some areas, the opening 
years of the war witnessed a change, but the influenza epidemic of 
1918-19 exercised everywhere a retarding influence. Speaking generally, 
it would be true to say that the turning point came during the last 
five years. Up to that stage, labour tended to have the upper hand 
in that there was competition for its services ; since then the tendency 
has been for the workers to compete for jobs. The question of the 
supply of suitable labour is one of vital importance for the future of 
industry and of labour, and it is worth while considering whether or 
not the change is likely to be permanent. 
Causes of Scarcity. 
The scarcity of labour in the past can be traced to a number of 
factors. Of these the most obvious was the growth of Indian industry. 
To a large extent factories, mines and even railways are the crea- 
bion of the last generation. They employed conjointly about half a 
million persons in 1892 and about two and a half million persons 
in 1929. Every year employers increased their demands, so that recruit- 
ing had to provide not merely for replacement, but also for an appre- 
ciable addition. The population, it is true, was increasing, but not at 
the same rate, and two great epidemics, those of plague in 1896-97 and 
of influenza in 1918-19, had marked effects on the industrial popula- 
tion. The factories. moreover. were able to draw only on limted areas.