Page:Fischer - A Week with Gandhi.pdf/92



“A peasant buries his money in the ground,” I suggested.

“They will not bury their dollars in the ground,” Gandhi said, “because they will have to live. They will go back to the bank, their own bank, and utilize it under their direction for purposes they think best. They may then build wind mills or produce electricity or whatever they like. A central government will evolve, but it will act according to the wishes of the people and will be broadbased on their will.”

“The state, I imagine,” I said, “will then build more industries and develop the country industrially.”

“You must visualize a central government without the British Army,” Gandhi said. “If it holds together without that army, this will be the new order. That is a goal worth working for. It is not an unearthly goal. It is practicable.”

“I agree,” I said. “Ten years ago I might not have agreed, but after my experiences in Russia and elsewhere I feel that the greatest danger the world faces is the emergence of the all-powerful state which makes individual freedom impossible. Apparently, capitalist economics have made it necessary for the state to intervene more and more in economic affairs. That gives the state more power. The next generation’s real problem will be to devise checks and balances on such a state. One ques-