DIVISION OF LABOUR 117 



consequence — the feeling of dull monotony, which 

 is a prolific seed-bed for discontent and readiness 

 to strike. 



It is this feeling of perpetual discontent that 

 prevents employers and workmen converting 

 their traditional opposition into harmonious 

 action. 



In support of these statements we shall bring 

 forward evidence, tending to show that where 

 there is division of labour, but not practised 

 to any degree of fineness, there is not the atmo- 

 sphere of discontent that seems inevitable where 

 work has become monotonous. 



The first witness to be called is from a village 

 of British India. The inhabitants of an Indian 

 village divide labour so carefully that the 

 boundary between one trade and another is 

 perfectly clear, and so strictly drawn that no 

 man would dream of ever crossing that boundary. 

 The son of a village carpenter is always himself 

 a carpenter, not by choice, but by national 

 custom. In the same way, the son of a village 

 blacksmith always himself becomes a blacksmith. 

 Thus certain families in the village are composed 

 of and contain all the carpenters ; certain other 

 families are composed of and contain all the 

 blacksmiths. It is the same throughout. The 

 coppersmiths are solely coppersmiths, the water- 

 men always watermen. The cultivators of the 

 soil work at that business only ; the men whose 

 trade it is to take to the road and drive animals 

 never do anything else. And so the division 

 is simple and clear : it is almost a religion. 



