versity
scholarships were enabled to obtain the best training the country could
give, and so attain the highest positions in Church and State. These
must necessarily be the few. It is a cruelty by means of scholarships to
tempt those who have neither the financial means nor exceptional talent
to try for a career in which there will really be no opening for them.
Even with the limited number of scholarships which local authorities
have been able to offer, there have been many cases in which bitter
complaints have been raised that young people had been induced to
prepare themselves for some walk in life in which there was no demand
for their services. Of course, the more knowledge is required in various
industries the more scope there will be for those who have had a long
training, but there is nothing more injurious to the State than to turn
out a number of persons who have had a prolonged academic training, but
who are not able to do something for which there is a demand, and for
which the world is willing to pay. The results of such a course of
action may be seen on a large scale in India. In one of the colleges of
an Indian University in a large manufacturing town, fourteen young
men--very agreeable and frank, outspoken fellows--met at random in one
of the hostels, were asked what, on completing their college course,
they intended to do; twelve answered to become "pleaders," and two hoped
for something in the Government service. None proposed to follow
manufacturing industry, agriculture, or commerce. The legal profession
which they proposed to enter was so crowded that pleaders are said to
have been competing with each other to obtain cases by a kind of Dutch
auction regarding fees, and also to promote litigation wilfully in order
to obtain a living. It is from a kind of "intellectual proletariat" in
all countries, that dangerous political agitators are drawn who take up
political life not to improve the conditions of their fellows, but to
find some sort of a career for themselves, having no useful occupation
to turn to.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 5: Since the above lines were written I hear that a Committee
of Inquiry has been appointed by the Government to report on the
subject.]

CHAPTER XII

WAGES[6]

_How shall we better distribute the product of industry,
and allay the unrest of which we hear so much? There's
only one way--by improving our methods of production. To
effect this th