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122 MORAL PROGRESS We have had some difficult and anxious times during the past year, and if they have come to a successful close, it is entirely due to the great tact and perseverance which you have displayed. (Cheers.) I know some words of extravagant praise have been spoken about me but let me here put on record that nothing of that work would have been possible but for the hearty co-operation and continuous work of the members of the Labour Union. I must also put on record the great help and co-operation which the proprietors of the Choolai Mills have rendered me on two occasions and have thereby avoided a strike or a lock-out. That is one point of view from which we may judge our activities. But to me that particular point is of less importance. The point which I value most is the result that has come to us in the shape of moral progress which we have been able to show during the year that is just closing. We do not remain content altogether with a mere increase of wages or a shortening of hours of work, but our life is to be guided by something that is more abiding, something that is more lasting which comes to us with the widening of our mental horizon and with the deepening of our spiritual perceptions. During the year in the midst of very difficult circumstances you have shown moral pluck, moral grit that is of immense value not to your individual selves but to the country as a whole. Do you remember the anxious time that we have had in this very place when the Carnatic and Buckingham Mills declared a lock-out and day after day we met here to concert measures and to find out ways and means whereby we might in a spiritual manner carry on the struggle that came to us then ?