e of all indigenous industries. I beg
publicly to express my gratitude to Government for helping me in my
humble effort to improve the lot of the weaver. The experiment I am
conducting shows that there is a vast field for work in this direction.
No well-wisher of India, no patriot dare look upon the impending
destruction of the hand-loom weaver with equanimity. As Dr. Mann has
stated, this industry used to supply the peasant with an additional
source of livelihood and an insurance against famine. Every registrar
who will nurse back to life this important and graceful industry will
earn the gratitude of India. My humble effort consists firstly in making
researches as to the possibilities of simple reforms in the orthodox
hand-looms, secondly, in weaning the educated youth from the craving for
Government or other services and the feeling that education renders him
unfit for independent occupation and inducing him to take to weaving as
a calling as honourable as that of a barrister or a doctor, and thirdly
by helping those weavers who have abandoned their occupation to revert
to it. I will not weary the audience with any statement on the first two
parts of the experiment. The third may be allowed a few sentences as it
has a direct bearing upon the subject before us. I was able to enter
upon it only six months ago. Five families that had left off the calling
have reverted to it and they are doing a prosperous business. The Ashram
supplies them at their door with the yarn they need; its volunteers
take delivery of the cloth woven, paying them cash at the market rate.
The Ashram merely loses interest on the loan advanced for the yarn. It
has as yet suffered no loss and is able to restrict its loss to a
minimum by limiting the loan to a particular figure. All future
transactions are strictly cash. We are able to command a ready sale for
the cloth received. The loss of interest, therefore, on the transaction
is negligible. I would like the audience to note its purely moral
character from start to finish. The Ashram depends for its existence on
such help as _friends_ render it. We, therefore, can have no warrant for
charging interest. The weavers could not be saddled with it. Whole
families that were breaking to pieces are put together again. The use of
the loan is pre-determined. And we, the middlemen, being volunteers,
obtain the privilege of entering into the lives of these families, I
hope, for their and our betterment. We can