ASIA'S MASSES

Evening Star, Issue 21510, 7 September 1933, Page 15

ASIA'S MASSES

SUM IN ARITHMETIC “At intervals, not very frequent, someone states how much the trade of Lancashire would benefit if the average income of the Indian masses could be increased by an anna a day or a rupee a month, or some other sum per year, la there anything in it ? ” asks the ‘ Karachi Daily Gazette.’ “ How would we go about raising the standard of living? The first thing to do, of course, would be to ensure that everybody had sufficient to eat. Say, another meal a day consisting of the simplest foods, chappatis, dahi, and onions; or its equivalent in value, which would be, say, an anna a day. “ Then a little more clothing, another outfit of shirt and trousers, tunic and pantaloons, dhoti or sari, let us say, roughly of the value of five rupees per year. This would be raising the standard of living—the addition of one square meal a day and another change of clothing a year. Were this applied to the populations of India and China, what difference would it make to trade? ■ ... “ Just a simple sum in arithmetic is necessary here. One anna a day on food, 365 annas a year, equals Rs. 22-13, plus Rs. 5 for clothing, makes the total per individual Rs. 27-13. There are in India 350,000,000 people and in China 450,000.000 people in round figures—that is, 800,000,000 people in these two countries alone — four-ninths of the total population of the world. However, to continue with our arithmetic—Rs. 27-13 multiplied by 800,000,000 comes to Rs. 22,250,000,0(50, or at a rough calculation of one shilling and sixpence to the rupee, to £1,668,750,000 per year added to the world’s trade! “ One would think that even the cupidity of the manufacturing countries, if nothing else, would show to them how expedient it would be to do everything in their power to help raise the standard of living of the masses of Asia. The scope for expansion of trade is enormous. “ Just think. If every man in India and China could be provided each year with a new pocket knife or safety razor and every woman with a pair of scissors, the steel factories of the world, the foundries and the mines would be given enough work to keep them going at full pressure without making another single item. The provision of another pound of wheat per day and another ten yards of cotton cloth per year for every man, woman, and child 'in India and China would bring prosperity to every cultivator in the world. “ The making of one pair of shoes or sandals more' per person would bring wealth to many hundreds of thousands of India’s humblest workers and would probably work a tremendous change in social habits as an outcome, for there would be such an increased demand at favourable prices for the hides and skins which India supplies that many of the cattle now maintained uneconomically would have to bo slaughtered to cope with it. “ One could keep on drawing conclusions, every one of which would be justified. The raising of the standard of living of the people of Asia would completely change the face of world economics; we would again be back to a position in which demand exceeded supply; and man’s inventive genius would again bo requisitioned to provide the means to make the supply fit ■the demand. If the World Economic Conference could show some way whereby Asia’s masses could quickly be assured of a higher standard of living it would need to proceed no further in its discussions—the world’s economic problem would have been solved.”