LABOUR 271 



least in which metayage or mezzadria was the accepted rule, which 

 means, not that the landlords took anything like the ordinary profits 

 out of their land, nor that production did not fall off, but that there 

 was less pinching and half-starving among the tenantry. Against 

 this only casual advantage must be set the drawback that metayage 

 is by its very nature a decidedly non-progressive form of tenure. 

 You find in metayage districts thrifty and careful metayers, but you 

 distinctly do not find progressive or intensive farming. The very 

 fact that there are two wills to consult, the stronger of which is 

 swayed by considerations of security rather than of progress, 

 obviously forms a fatal bar to progress. 



Profit-sharing is also not rarely confounded with " produce- 

 sharing," which is an entirely different thing, a kind of piecework. 

 That introduces a faulty principle from the outset, for it militates 

 altogether against the idea that production should be common 

 among the various sections of workmen employed, one section 

 seconding and supporting the other, and places the employer in a 

 radically false position, in which he may be made to have to pay a 

 " share " when he, in truth, makes a loss, for gross produce is not 

 by any means net profit. 



Profit-sharing proper means a fair division of the profits actually 

 resulting, ready to be garnered at the close of the year, from the 

 whole concern, composed of all its various parts, after deduction of 

 all expenditure, for which due allowance has to be made — that is, 

 a fair rate of interest on capital employed, a fair charge for the 

 direction of the business, insurance, reserve, etc., all to be settled 

 beforehand by agreement, and also ordinary wages to be paid to 

 labour. It is not intended as a substitute for wages. The labourer 

 is entitled to such. Wages should be fair without it. The labourer 

 must have that to be able to live and maintain his family ; but the 

 work given in exchange is not to be more than fair. At the ordinary 

 fare we travel by railway at the ordinary pace. If we want to travel 

 faster, we are asked to pay more. Paying the conventional shilling 

 in pre-war days to a " growler," we were entitled to a five-miles-an- 

 hour rate of progress. If we were in a hurry to catch a train, we 

 paid something in addition. Also, the ordinary wage for workmen 

 is quite understood to be for manual work — practically only such. 

 The share in the profits — supposing that there are any — is added 

 to make of the mechanical a sympathetic and interested labourer, 

 with brains, intelligence, observation, vigilance all agog, saving the 

 employer much in respect of supervision. We know to what great 

 extent " the master's eye " improves production. However, the 



