The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-10-23
BLUE TIMES In INDIGO TRADE
CULTlTAIORS OF THE REAL THING
RUINED
by German Cheap Labor and Chemical
Com inatiOns.

sent the Oldest British industry IN rural
Bengal, and form a political force
which has stood the government in good
stead during perilous times. AS labor
employers. with capital exceeding five
millions sterling, who provide food and
wages for hundreds of thousands of
families in the most overcrowded dis
tricts of India, any serious misfortune
TO them means public calamity. In
ordinary years it is the patch of indigo
that pays many a peasants rent; in
seasons of famine each indigo factory
becomes a center not only of charitable
distributions, but of skilfully organized
relief Their geographical position has
given them a solidarity and the oppor-
tunity of rendering service to the state
such as no other body of Englishmen in
India possess. The Behar Light Horse
Is their magnificent free will offering to
the strength of the empire. Embodied
in 1862, but bearing on its records the
names of the men who patrolled the
province during the mutiny, it volun-
teered for the Soudan expedition in
1885, and was ready at moments no
tice when disturbances threatened Cal
cutta or Bombay. Under it's late colo
mel, Sir William Brereton Hudson, a
leading Behar planter, its numbers rose
to four hundred, and its pony transport
was declared by the commander-in
tn he he hoe tn, hn
Hard times have diminished it's num-
bers, but in organization and discipline
1t still ranks among the finest volunteer
regiments in India; its officers, if I'M
der thirty years of age, enjoy the privi-
1ege of joining native cavalry reg-
ments in war; and almost all of them
have qualified for this duty. II would
only add" ran the official report of its
late colonel to the Bengal government,
''that If our services should be required,
4 believe that a few days would suffice
to turn out three hundred useful men
and horses"
The collapse which now threatens the
Indigo industry in Behar has it's origin
in causes beyond the control of the suf-
ferers themselves. In Lower Bengal
indigo-planting was worked on a sys-
tenn of advances to the cultivators
which reduced them to a state of hered-
itary Indebtedness to the factories, and
enabled a planter, if INSCRIPTIONS to
dictate his own terms. The land law of
1859, by defining and securing the legal
status of the peasant-hoders, freed
them from this pressure, and gave a
death blow to the system in districts in
which it had been abused. The Behar
planters had adopted from an early
date a different method. BY a large
outlay of capital they obtained lands of
their own, by purchase or on long lease,
and cultivated to a considerable extent
at their own risk or by hired labor.
But this method, although free from
many of the evils incident to the sys-
tenn in Lower Bengal, led to complica
tions of it's own in tracts so overcrowd-
ed as to place labor in undue depend
ence upon the local capitalist. In con-
cert with the government, therefore, the
Behar planters twenty-five years ago
far'med a responsible association to adj
just and supervise fairly the relations
between the factories, the native land
holders, and the cultivators-an associ-
alton which has received the public
thanks of the lieutenant-governo of
Bengal for its "most cordial and loyal
cooperation in correcting abuses" In
digo planting in Behar was thus placed
on a basis, perhaps not the most eco
nomical to the employer, but which
aimed at securing the welfare of the
population employed.
Such a system of production, it will |
be observed, is not a strictly competi-
AtxrA l. Ill i
1T has now come into conflict with a
European system of production on the |
most keeDly competitive basis. The an
ilne dyes extracted by chemistry from |
coal tar seemed at first to supply veg
htable substitutes for the more costly |
vegetable coloring matters. In many
cases they have succeeded in doing so, |
but indigo held its own in purity of col |
Or and in its resistance to air and to |
wet Alike for the finest clothing and |
for hard or rough wear it kept its place, |
while many other natural dyes went |
down in the struggle with artificial pro-
ducts. Madder was replaced by aliza- |
rine, cochineal by the modern scarlet;
cudbear and orchils have to a large eX
tent been superseded. But an artificial |
indigo was too great a prize to be neg
1ected by the chemists, and of late
wears inferior substitutes have won
their way into use by cheapness ire
spective of their wearing qualities. The
actutl differences in cost between a suit |
of clothes dyed with natural indigo and
a suit dyed with one of these products
is said to be only couple of shillings.
Both look as well to begin with, but
the indigo blue retains its freshness for
years, while the cheaper substitute loses
its color after a few showers of rain.
the desire for cheapness
secures an enormous market for the less
lasting dyes.
1t is now asserted that, apart from
such inferior substitutes a true and
pure indigo has been chemically pro-
duced. AS far back as 1881 Professor
v Bayer showed the way to build up
indigo synthetically from its component
parts. But after years of costly eX-
pertinent, it was not found possible to
produce indigo commercially by his
method. In 1890, however, Professor
eumann, of Zurich, carried the research
a step forward and finally, in 1897, ar
tifcial indigo was brought upon the