(At a gathering of the workers in Motiaburz)
Gandhiji wanted to say a few words to the workmen in the working men's
locality. He hoped that there was no distinction between the Hindus
and the Muslims in labour. They were all labourers. If the communal
canker entered the labour ranks, both would weaken labour and
therefore, themselves and the country. Labour was a great leveller
of all distinctions. If they realized that truth, he would like them
to go a step further. Labour, because it chose to remain
unintelligent, either became subservient or insolently believed in
damaging capitalists' goods and machinery or even in killing
capitalists. He was a labourer by conviction and a Bhangi. As such
his interests were bound with those of labour. As such he wished to
tell them that violence would never save them. They would be killing
the goose that laid the golden egg. What he had been saying for
years was that labour was far superior to capital. Without labour
gold, silver and copper were a useless burden. It was labour which
extracted precious ore from the bowels of the earth. He could quite
conceive labour existing without metal. Labour was priceless, not
gold. He wanted marriage between capital and labour. They could work
wonders in co-operation. But that could happen only when labour was
intelligent enough to cooperate with itself and then offer
co-operation with capital on terms of honourable equality. Capital
controlled labour because it knew the art of combination. Drops in
separation could only fade away; drops in co-operation made the
ocean which carried on its broad bosom ocean greyhounds. Similarly,
if all the labourers in any part of the world combined together,
they could not be tempted by higher wages or helplessly allow
themselves to be attracted for, say, a pittance. A true and
non-violent combination of labour would act like a magnet attracting
to it all the needed capital. Capitalists would then exist only as
trustees. When that happy day dawned, there would be no difference
between capital and labour. The labour will have ample food, good
and sanitary dwellings, and the necessary education for their
children, ample leisure for self-education and proper medical
assistance.
Calcutta, 28-8-'47
Harijan,
7-9-1947