Page:Principles of Political Economy Vol 2.djvu/383

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probable future of the labouring classes.
363

to their original plan) to receive wages from them as hired labourers, but to enter at once into the full benefits of the association, without being required to bring anything in, except their labour : the only condition imposed is that of receiving during a few years a smaller share in the annual division of profits, as some equivalent for the sacrifices of the founders. When members quit the association, which they are always at liberty to do, they carry none of the capital with them : it remains an indivisible property, of which the members for the time being have the use, but not the arbitrary disposal : by the stipulations of most of the contracts, even if the association breaks up, the capital cannot be divided, but must be devoted entire to some work of beneficence or of public utility. A fixed, and generally a considerable, propor- tion of the annual profits is not shared among the members, but added to the capital of the association, or devoted to the repayment of advances previously made to it : another portion it set aside to provide for the sick and disabled, and another to form a fund for extending the practice of association, or aiding other associations in their need. The managers are paid, like other members, for the time which is occupied in management, usually at the rate of the highest paid labour :

extracting. " En outre des vices dont j'ai parlé, lea tailleurs lui reprochaient d'engendrer sans cesse des discussions, des querelles, à cause de l'intérêt que chacun avait à faire travailler ses voisins. La surveillance mutuelle de l'atelier dégénérait ainsi en un esclavage véritable, qui ne laissait à personne la liberté de son temps et de ses actions. Ces dissensions ont disparu par l'introducticn du travail aux pièces." Feugueray, p. 88. One of the most discreditable indi- cations of a low moral condition given of late by part of the English working classes, is the opposition to piece-work. When the payment per piece is not sufficiently high, that is a just ground of objection. But dislike to piece-work in itself, except under mistaken notions, must be dislike to justness and fairness ; a desire to cheat, by not giving work in proportion to pay. Piece-work is the perfection of contract ; and contract, in all work, and in the most minute detail— the principle of so much pay for so much service, carried out to the utmost extremity—is the system, of all others, in the present state of society and degree of civilization, most favourable to the worker ; though most unfavourable

to the non-worker who wishes to be paid for being idle.