Page:Indian Journal of Economics Volume 2.djvu/562

 . W. LYONB the artizans with moro healthy and educative mode of recreation than toddy drinking. Lot us first consider some opportunities for coonomic stud ,nt'8 practical work in the villages. The ordinary villager in India is generally ready to listen to a student; he is eager to look at pictures. I remember one night at Maheshwar, on the N erbudda River, sitting in a tent crowded with villager8 and townspeople. We werg at a moving prcture 8how. least twice every minute, until The first film broke at the operator became weary pinning it together; and all the films were of the penny dreadful variety or Western love stories. What amazed me was the patience, the good humor, and the breathless interest of the spectators. We left at midnight; hey remained two hours longer; and they had been doing 8o every night ior two weeks. The student with the lantern--and with m. odels of !mplements, commercial specimens, and medical exhibits, all the result of personal investigation and preparation--would .be able to demonstrate the constnc- tion and use o/ improved implements approved by the agricultural departments; the importance and the methods o! the prevention of malaria, enteric, plague, cholera. They would be able to discuss co-operation, and improved housing; and spread amongst the cultivators a wi/ler knowledge of markets. Not least important would be the literature, prepared .by them- er su ervision which they could distribute. selves und p The time has come when more active steps must be taken to help the villagers; The method of the primary schools is necessarily how, and much of it unsuited to the ever present problem o! getting food enough to keep body and soul together, first importance to the cultivator. The pictures is more rapid, more persuasive, a!d addressed not only to the child but even more to the adult. which is of method o!