Page:Labour in Madras.djvu/41

Rh 15 difficult for those who are not labourers to understand the difficulties of the labourers. Therefore I am hoping presently to form a little Committee in which half a dozen or even a greater number of your own men, chosen by yourselves, should come to work with us and show the difficulties and suggest what kind of remedies you will apply to your problems. For that reason I once more appeal to you to get rid of the idea that you are a kind of low people with whom we will not associate. I repeat once again we all want to work as friends in a brotherly spirit so that each one of us understands the difficulties of the other and tries to help the other in his work. We are anxious to help you, but you must show us the way in which you want our help. Therefore I would ask you to cultivate in yourselves the habit of self-respect and self-reliance. I do not want you to accept what certain people have put as their valuation of you : that you are low, illiterate, ignorant, uneducated and therefore inferior to others who are educated, literate and learned. Now we do not want to make this difference at all. We want you to realize the fundamental spiritual brotherhood of mankind. We want you to recognize that you have something in yourselves which we do not possess, and similarly we have something perhaps which you do not possess. And therefore in mutual trust and friendship we want to work. Therefore cultivate every day of your life that habit of self-respect, and get for yourselves a place to stand on and a voice which will be heard. Remember that you are human beings, that you have mind, heart and body ; that you have a duty towards yourselves. I want you to realize those duties and work up to them. Do not always