World Survey Volume N . 2 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1920 edition. Excerpt: ...rural credit system. When he has organized a group of people, headed, if possible, by a native official, the government is petitioned to install a local credit bank. The "Y" secretary impresses upon the group that the success or failure of the system depends on the individual members of the group. His work is by no means done when organization is complete. He conducts evening classes in general educational subjects, in hygiene and sanitation, and the Bible. He becomes the friend and adviser of the groups he has put on the road to independence. It is significant that most of the secretaries in rural work are natives. In India, as elsewhere, the Y. M. C. A. has adopted the policy of placing natives in control wherever possible. The National Committee is predominantly Indian, and the General Secretary, Mr. K. T. Paul, is a native. This policy of developing Christian leadership among the natives gives the work of the Y. M. C. A. popularity among classes in whom the feeling of nationality is highly developed, and leads to native support. LAND OF VERY POOR INDIA is still the land of the desperately poor. The average daily wage in the United States for unskilled labor before the war was $2.50, as against an average varying from three cents, among the rural population, to about eleven cents, for the urban population, in India. Before the war the average weekly wage for skilled labor in the United States was $30, compared with India's wage of $2 for skilled labor. The cost of living is not proportionately low. Rather, it has risen from 200 to 300 per cent. in the last twenty-five years. It is estimated that nine-tenths of the population of India is undernourished. Whether the new industrial era that is being ushered in will be more...