"Truths About India"-and More Truths

IN our leading article today we have noticed the salient fact in the very informing paper which was read the other day by Mr. A.P. Patro on "Studies in Village Economics" under the auspices of the Madras Economic Society. Mr. Patro has shown that in the typical villages selected by him for inquiry the earnings of the people were mostly smaller than their expenditure and that as a consequence they were not only involved heavily in debt but were also denied full meals during parts of the year. With becoming modesty Mr. Patro resists the temptation to claim accuracy for the results of his enquiry, and does not ask anyone to accept his conclusions. He only asks that further enquiries may be conducted by others, preferably by the supporters of the official view of economic property, to disprove his conclusions. It will be noticed that Mr. Patro's enquiries are more extended than those of Mr. A. Galletti I.C.S. (Madras). The latter has tried to show that the land cess inIndia is very small in comparison with land cess in Italy.