Page:Labour in Madras.djvu/218

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192
LABOUR IN MADRAS


“ free to work" as long as they please, or, rather, as long as their benevolent masters like ; they have no Sunday as a weekly holiday. Besides the occasional festivals—a few days in the year-only once a month on each new moon day, the bazaars are closed. The Indian bazaar does not recognise the value or necessity of a weekly day of rest. The bazaar opens early in the morning and does not close till very late at night. The European shops and Indian shops managed on European lines have fixed hours of work and Sunday as holiday, but Indian markets, with their thousands upon thousands of employees, have excessive hours without the weekly rest on Sundays. The wages of these shop employees are scandalously low and their prospects poor. The average man begins at £1 per month, and unless he proves to be exceptionally able he has no hopes of rising above £4 per month, or so, at the end of his career. He only lives on in the hope of a partnership or of setting up an independent business some day. Lest it be understood that the capitalistic public is the only culprit in this matter, let it be made clear that Government sets them a good example. The Government is as much an exploiter of non-factory labour as any merchant-prince or capitalistic concern. Take Post Office wages and see the rise the Government has worked in that department in the course of nearly half a century: 1875—Wages ran between 5s.6d, to 9s. 6d. per month. 1915-Wages ran between 8s. 6d. to 10s. 3d, per month. I have purposely taken the Postal Department because مل