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ON INDUSTRIAL PART?VERSHIP.S. 141
slate quarries ; in all cases where work is paid for by commission
or by piece-work, the principle is really adopted at
the present day. It is quite a commou custom I believe, and
is growing more common, for banks or firms of merchants to
give bonuses to their clerks after a prosperous year; and
managers, schoolmasters, and others holding responsib1u
positions, usually have a considerable part of their remuneration
dependent on the profits of the business they manage.
The principle is nothing but that of puytnewt by reltlltN,
and, more or less directly, it is that which must govern all
trade in a sound state of things. It is, no doubt, the total
absence of any direct or apparent participation in results 011
the part of ordinary artizans which gives rise to much of tho
trouble we encounter at present.
The partnership scheme is, I believe, by far tho truest form
of co-operation. We have heard a great deal of co-operation
lately, until we may well be tired of the name ; but I agree
with Mr. Briggs* in thinking that many of tho institutions
said to bo co-operative really lack tho fundamental principlo,
that those who work shall share. If a co-operative retail
store employ shopmen, buyers, and managers, receiving fixed
and usually low salaries, superintended by unpaid directors, I
can only say that it embodies all the principles of dissolution;
it has all the evils of a joint-stock company without many
advantages. Such would also be the case with any manufacturing
co-operative company which pays fixed wages and
salaries. Such a company might probably be described as a
loose aggregation of a number of persom of small means,
none of whom have an adequate motive for care or energy.
I do hope very much from co-operation in many forms, but
the name of the thing will not be sufficient; the real interests
of all employed must be enlisted, if co-operative societies are
to prosper and grow. But industrial partnerships, such as
those of the Messrs. Briggs, and Fox, Head & Go., have all
the advantages and none of the evils of joint-stock co-operation.
They are managed by two or three working partuers,
Ir Lecture upon Strikes and Lockouts,” Shfiielrz Daily Tekqraph,
10th March, 1870.