Economic condition of the masses

THE evidence given before the Taxation Enquiry Committee by several official members who have for years worked in rural areas and have studied the condition of the masses shows that it is very necessary to hold a detailed enquiry into the economic condition of the masses before reforms can be effected in the present system of taxation. Dr HH Mann, Director of Agriculture, Bombay, who has made a close study of the condition of agriculturists in selected villages, was emphatic in his opinion that the liquor habit was doing considerable harm to the people and its traffic should be totally prohibited within a few years. Some of the members of the Taxation Committee did not seem to appreciate his view and vigorously cross-examined him, and Dr Mann protested against his evidence regarding total prohibition being treated as a joke. Dr Mann has for years been moving closely among the masses and he is one of the few officials who can speak with authority on the real condition of the masses. He pointed how in certain villages agricultural land was rapidly passing into the hands of traders and others because the agriculturists were ruined by drinking. In his opinion, the total prohibition of liquor was a very practical proposition in the Bombay Presidency. He had no difficulty in showing that during the past few years, the gradual reduction of liquor consumption had not produced any increase in illicit distillation, and said he had no reason to fear that total prohibition would lead to illicit drinking. Moreover, he was convinced that 80 per cent of the population of the Bombay presidency wanted to save themselves from the ruin caused by drinking.