THE TIME-LABOUR SYSTEM 133 



entirely save the self-respect of the men. The plan is quite 

 compatible with the action of trade-unions : they could by using 

 this method ascertain tentatively exactly the wages which kept 

 the average number of their members employed. Of course they 

 would resist every decrease in wages until they saw by the 

 gradual, but persistent decrease in the re-engagements, that 

 trade was really against them. Of course masters would never 

 offer an advance till they failed to get men enough at the old 

 rate, and if trade was obviously good, men, whose engagements 

 expired, would refuse to re-engage at the old rate. Masters 

 again would give way with perfect self-respect, if, after trying 

 to lower the rate of wages, they found they could not get all the 

 men they wanted. They could at any moment return to the 

 old rates, saying ' We used to employ a thousand men at the old 

 wages ; we cannot employ that number and so discharged those 

 unwilling to work at a lower price, but we can find profitable 

 work for eight hundred at the old rates, so we will return to 

 them : only you will see that we shall permanently employ fewer 

 hands than before.' The plan would allow the course of the 

 labour market to be watched with just the same precision, 

 though not with the same speed, as any other market, and 

 provides for continual fluctuation, so that the rates might even 

 differ week by week. Every order received would produce its 

 effect on the market, as it ought ; every depression in trade 

 would be instantly felt in the labour market, as it ought. All 

 violent and sudden changes would be avoided, and it is these 

 violent, unforeseen and often unjustifiable changes that do all 

 the mischief. The method suggested does not introduce compe- 

 tition between workmen waiting to be engaged, but when we 

 examine the action of the sellers of any kind of goods, we see 

 that competition is not wanted, because of the struggle it in- 

 volves between those who compete, but simply because it allows 

 different prices to be tried tentatively until the price is found at 

 which demand and supply are equal. The new method does 

 this without competition since, week by week, or day by day, a 

 new rate might be tried, gradually raising or lowering the rate 

 until the balance was reached. The action would be slower than 

 that of a common market with competition, but there is no need 

 of extreme rapidity. 



