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ON INDGS‘TRZAL P.4RT~YERSHfP.S. ‘35
“It would be of great importance if, in every large establishment,
the mode of payment could be so arranged, that, every person employed
should derive advaatage from the sacccss of tho whole ; and that tho
profits of each individual should advance, as the factory itself produced
profit, without the necessity of making any chnngo in tho wages.”
Mr. Babbage then points out that the mode of paying for
work in the Cornish mines, by which the miners receive a
certain part of the value of the ore raised, fulfils to somo
extent the conditions of a better system. Admirable results
have followed wherever this mode of payment was adopted.
“I shall now,” ho continues, ‘(present the outline of a system which
appears to me to Le pregnant n-itll the most important rcsults, both to
ttlc class of workmen and to the country ut large; nnd which, if acted
U~OIJ, would, in my opinion, permanently rctisc thc working-clessoe and
greatly cxtcnd the manufacturing sptcol.
‘(The gclleral principles on which the proposed system is fouudod,
are :
“ (1.) Thnt a considerable part of tk,, zl?cryes vcccic~.tE by cnch pc~ao)c
erqJo!yed si~otchi ~ c ? J c OIL ) ~ fhc ]m,fifs lnccd~! by thc cntclbli8hnlc)lt; irttd,
(.’.) That crery 1JC”SIIo’L conwectetl tcitA it ahodd derive more adrn,ltage
from app1tJing nny inlproucrllc?lt hc rninld di8COTer to tito fUCf0,’~
iib lC7liCh he is ontployctl, than /LC cotdd by L L I I ~ otl~er courwO”
Thinking that it mould b~ difficult to prevail upon capitalists
to try the new system, involving an apparent change in
the division of profits, Mr. Babbage suggests that it should be
tried by small companies of working-men. He describes a
plan not greatly differing from that on which not a few COoperative
companies have since beeu started, the general principle
being that every one should be paid proportionately to
the services he has rendered towards the success of the
company.
He enumerates the following as among the principal results
of such an arrangement :
“(1.) That every person engaged in it mould have a dircct interest
in its prosperity; since the effect of any success, or falling off, weald
almost immediately produce a correeponding change in hie own weekly
receipts.
‘‘ (2.) Every pereon concerned in the factory would have an immediate
interest in preveuting any waste or mismanagcment in all the
departments.