Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-02
LABOR CONDITIONS
+. IN INDIA .DEPLORED
British Commission Blames
Stark Poverty for Nations.
IneffiCiency.
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
LONDON, July Am indictment OF
labor conditions in India and indirect
approval of Western. and particularly
American, economic philosophy regard
ing wages were contained in report of
The Royal Commission, which last night
handed the House of Commons the con-
illusions of its two-year study.
The voluminous document Of $40
pages deals with labor conditions in
general and their influence on the life
of Indian workmen.
Compiled at a cost of approximately
f79.o00 tabout $685. .000). the r. port en-
bodies the ideas of several hundred wit
nesses heard by the commission, which
was headed by John Henry Whitley,
former speaker of the House of Com
mons The study was authorized July
4, 1929
Various groups of Indian industrial
life were represented on the commits
sion, whose report was unanimous.
Poverty Causes Ineficiency.
The commission declared the major
reason for the inefficiency of Indian
workers was the stark poverty which
stalks living conditions in that country.
Limitation of hours, elimination of
child labor and the general improve
ment of living conditions form the high
spots of recommendations.
"Hardships and the conditions of
workers result mainly from the inability
to afford something better" the report
said. Thus poverty leads to bad con-
ditionS, bad conditions and ineficiency
to poverty.
There must be an endeavor to en-
nance the efficiency, to heighten earn
tngs and to improve conditions OF life
Running the gamut of Indian indus
trial life, the report touched on rail-
WAYS factories, mines, textiles mills and
agriculture.
Given No Rest Days.
It was shown in the wage table. which
the commission said it gathered with
difficulty. that wages in some indus
tries were as low as 81 cents day for
adults. In the cigaret-making business
small children from s to 10 years old
worked for cents a day, some times Tor
as much as IL to IA hours daily. with
little or no rest periods in a Seven-day
week
The same situation was found to be
true in the mines and the wool industry
where youngsters were employed Tor
long hours.
Inc wages OF Shllleu Cld1tSlllCIl QUILL
as carpenters ranged from Sl2 TO SIS
monthly. according to the district I'm
skilled workers were paid from 81 to $6
monthly.
The committee struck at what 1t
termed the vicious system" by which
the employment and dismissal OF
workers were vested in native. usually
apart from the executive forces.
The employers of labor unions
should combine to stamp it out" the re-
overseers collected part of the natives
pay in return for giving workers a job.
Pitfalls Are Cited.
An entire chapter of the report was
devoted to pitfalls awaiting the
ignorant peasant worker who comes to
industrial areas in search of work.
Among these was listed money sharks,
whom the committee found collecting
interest rates as high as 20 per cent
monthly on loans
The report took the view that prohi
bition or restriction in the sale OF in
toxicating liquors would be good for
India, raising efficiency and assisting
workmen to get out of debt.
The unequal distribution of males
and females in industrial sections
alarmed the commission, which heard
figures purporting to show that there
are two females for each male in five
large towns as an average of inequality
for the period from 1921 to 1881.
Housing conditions we're called de
plorable and wretched" and were
blamed for the high infant death rate
which approximates ESQ per 1000.