LABOUR 279 



and is divided between Lord Rayleigh and Mr. Strutt on the one 

 hand, and the employed depositors in proportion to the amount of 

 the capital invested by such in equal rates. Up to the present the 

 experiment has been a great success. A large proportion of those 

 employed have invested their savings in the farms, the amounts 

 invested being in many cases very considerable ; and it has been 

 found possible to pay on the deposits a considerable dividend over 

 and above the guaranteed 4 per cent. 



Evidently, from a profit-sharing or co-partnership point of view — 

 its author himself admits that it is not profit-sharing — the scheme is 

 open to some reservations. The labourers depositing acquire no 

 permanent interest in the business ; their deposits are withdrawable 

 at pleasure, at a brief month's notice. Therefore, even as providing 

 working capital for the enterprise, their contributions are not to be 

 relied upon. " We find, however," this is what Mr. Strutt has 

 been good enough to write to me, " that those who regularly invest 

 their money with us leave it there fairly permanently ; and they are 

 very pleased with it and have had very good results in the last ten 

 years." That shows, incidentally, what has been observed on 

 almost all similar occasions, what " good lying money " deposits by 

 labouring folk will make. But it may be hoped that, as Mr. Strutt 

 adumbrates in his letter, " some day " a progress may be made to 

 genuine profit-sharing. 



It is not that now. No more is it genuine co-partnership, at any 

 rate except to a very limited extent, which limitation deprives 

 it of the main characteristics of profit-sharing, as generally under- 

 stood. However, it goes some way towards it in giving the 

 workers an interest in their work and allots to those among 

 them who care to join a share in the actual profits earned. 

 And, as Mr. Strutt testifies, it has achieved the desired object in 

 stimulating his labourers to better, more intelligent, and more 

 sympathetic work. And that is a distinct gain, which ought to 

 encourage other landowners and farmers to imitation. 



In any case the satisfactory result that the experiment has 

 achieved is a decided proof of, first, the amenableness of an arrange- 

 ment securing to them stimulating participation in the success of 

 the enterprise to which they contribute by their labour ; and, next, 

 as decidedly a strong argument in favour of the profit-sharing 

 principle. For it is, after all, the share in the profit assigned to 

 the men which has led them to greater exertion. 



I have argued the question from its directly practical point of 

 view, as a question merely of a particular form of a method of 



