COOPERATION. 571 



regained by him in the shape of additional profit. Thus 

 while each obtains exactly the remuneration due for his 

 work, minus only the cost of administration, the productive 

 power of the concern is greatly increased, with proportion 

 ate increase of returns to all : there is an equitable division 

 of a larger sum. 



Consider now the moral effects. Jealousies among the 

 workers disappear. A cannot think his remuneration too 

 low as compared with that of B, since each is now paid just 

 as much as his work brings. Resentment against a foreman, 

 who ranks some above others, no longer finds any place. 

 Overlooking to check idleness becomes superfluous: the 

 idling almost disappears, and another cause of dissension 

 ceases. Not only do the irritations which superintendence 

 excites decrease, but the cost of it decreases also; and the 

 official element in the concern bears a reduced ratio to the 

 other elements. The governing functions of the committee, 

 too, and the relations of the workers to it, become fewer; 

 thus removing other sources of internal discord: the chief 

 remaining source being the inspection of work by the mana 

 ger or committee, and refusal to pass that which is bad. 



A further development may be named. Where the things 

 produced are easily divisible and tolerably uniform in kind, 

 work by the piece may be taken by single individuals; but 

 where the things are so large, and perhaps complex (as in 

 machinery), that an unaided man becomes incapable, work 

 by the piece may be taken by groups of members. In such 

 cases, too, in which the proper rate is difficult to assign, the 

 price may be settled by an inverted Dutch auction, pursuing 

 a method allied to that of the Cornish miners. Among 

 them 



An undertaking &quot;is marked out, and examined by the workmen 

 during some days, thus affording them an opportunity of judging as to 

 its difficulty. Then it is put up to auction and bid for by different 

 gangs of men, who undertake the work as co-operative piece-work, 

 at so much per fathom : &quot; the lot being subsequently again bid for as a 

 whole. 



