LABOUR IN MADRAS 135 it is necessary for me to tell you why they have become frequent and why we may expect them to continue. There are Two IMPORTANT FACTORS which we ought to bear in mind in the study of the labour problem in this particular city. The first is the very strained economic situation. I assure you from personal knowledge and experience that the economic conditions which arise out of the earnings of our labourers and the money that they have to spend on the necessities of life are such that it is not humanly possible for them to bear any more patiently the starvation and the difficulties that stare them in the face. That economic difficulty is not one of very recent growth but can be traced as existing in our midst, for many years past. It has been growing, gradually, till now a point bas been reached where it is not possible any more for the labourers to face the situtation. You all know how the prices of food-stuffs, of clothing material, in fact of every necessity of life have gone up and how month by month, and week by week, the labourer has to face greater and greater difficulties in purchasing all the food-stuffs which are scarce and which in the second place have become exceedingly dear. You might ask—if this economic situtaion has been for some time so difficult why was it not pointed out before? For the very simple reason that we who belong to the educated classes did not realize the problems that confronted the labourers of Madras in the years gone by. When the difficulties arose and when the critical point was reached and when the labourers came to me and I went in their midst, then only could I find out by careful study what the real difficulty
