Outline.
- Barbers may fallow the example of other labourers.
- Demand for safety-razors, etc., would increase.
- We would have to grow hair. It would have a levelling effect.
- No one would perform the manifold duties of barbers.
- We would have to change our head-dress.
- New system of combing and new standards of beauty would be evolved.
- Barbers themselves would look pretty.
- At last the strike would end.
Modern age is an age of laborers and barbers belong to that class. In these day when other labourers use the weapon of strikes so frequently, we would not be surprised if one fine morning we find barbers gong on strike. Mostly barbers are their own masters, except in big cities. So these can be no question of raising wages or reducting hours of work. But they may think of raising the rates of shaving and hair-cutting, and if we refuse to pay higher rates, they might go no strike.
If barbers went on strike, there would be peculiar consequences. In that event people would shave their own beards and moustaches. This would increase the demand for safety-razors, blades, shaving sticks and shaving brushes considerably and would open a new field for black-marketeers. At the same time demand for razors and scissors would fall, and their manufactures would suffer much.[the_ad id=”17141″]
The problem of shaving would be solved to some extent by self help. But what about hair-cutting? We would not cut our own hair; and even if we did so, we would soon become objects of ridicule. Obviously then all of us would grow hair as women do. Many of us would be tried of shaving and would grow beards and moustaches. For a few days, we would even dislike this unwanted growth. But this change would have a great levelling effect on society. Now there would be no difference between a Sikh and a Bokra gentleman or a Hindu. Again it would be difficult to distinguish a saint from a ruffian. Hence perhaps the saints and ascetics would have to find out some other distinguishing feather.
Short Paragraph on Temperance (390 Words)
If barbers went on strike, who would serve as quack doctors and who would spread rumors? Who would then tell interesting stories to us? We look so nice and decent and tidy because of the barbers. Without them, we would move with beards, looking like goats.
As we would be forced to grow hair, the cap would become quite inconvenient as our head-dress. Hence cap-manufacturers and cap-merchants would be ruined. Either we would have to put on turbans as the Sikhis do, or we might prefer to move bare-headed like the people of East Pakistan. Then the question of combing the hair would arise? Would we imitate women-folk or would we evolve some new method? It is just possible that the growth of hair would necessitate some changes in our dress.
If barbers went on strike, the standards of beauty would be changed. The present fashions of shaving and hair-cutting would be replaced by new fashions of growing beards and hair. Even if barbers went on strike, they would help the members of their class in shaving and hair-cutting. Naturally, therefore, they would appear tip-top and fashionable persons, and would excite our jealousy. Even a high aristocratic person would look shabby in the presence of such a well-trimmed barber.
But by our obstinacy, we would not like to put the clock back to the days of our ancient rishis or saints when there were no barbers and no tailors. Ultimately, therefore, we would have to yield to the demands of barbers, and the strike would end.