Page:Gandhi - Young India, Viking Press, 1924-1926.pdf/742

716 soever will claim us by the prowess of his sword. It is good too that due emphasis is laid on Lancashire goods. The sword will be sheathed as soon as Manchester calico ceases to be saleable in India. It is much more economical, expeditious and possible to give up the use of Manchester and therefore foreign calico than to blunt the edge of Sir William's sword. The process will multiply the number of swords and therefore also miseries in the world. Like opium production the world manufacture of swords needs to be restricted. The sword is probably responsible for more misery in the world than opium. Hence do I say that if India takes to the spinning wheel she will contribute to the restriction of armament and peace of the world as no other country and nothing else can.

M.K.G.

A Government servant writes to say that he has been a habitual Khaddar wearer for the last four years, and his Khaddar is made out of yarn of his own spinning. He is a regular spinner, but being a Government servant has not hitherto belonged to any association. He now enquiries whether the A.I.S.A. being, as its preamble shows, non-political in character, he may become its member. I am certainly of opinion that even the Viceroy can become a member of the Association with perfect impunity if he approves of its objects. Unless therefore there is anything in the rules of Government Service debarring Government servants from becoming members of any association whatsoever although non-political, no Government servant who is in sympathy with A.I.S.A. should hesitate to become its member. The same correspondent asks whether it is obligatory to spin half an hour daily or whether a member may finish the whole quota as soon as he can. According to the constitution of the Association it is open to any one to send the whole of his annual subscription of twelve thousand yards at once. It is not obligatory to spin daily. But it is