PROFIT SHARING 131 



thing different, even in the same business, taking 

 separate years, and something very different from 

 the same percentage of the profits of some other 

 particular business. 



Let us suppose that this percentage were fixed 

 by law as to its minimum, then if there were a 

 loss or if there were no profits the men would 

 get simply their wages ; but if there were profits, 

 then the men would be legally entitled to that 

 minimum, and to no more. Yet the actual share 

 taken might on some occasions be more than 

 that minimum, because such greater profits, as 

 on those occasions came in, would be very largely 

 the consequence of the better work done by the 

 men; and to encourage such better work a greater 

 distribution than the legal minimum would often 

 be made. Companies at present give their share- 

 holders very often a bonus ; some do so year 

 after year. It would be to the interest of all 

 concerned in any business that the workmen 

 should, year after year, earn a bonus. The share 

 taken by workmen, in general co-operation, is 

 a bonus to a part of which they would have a 

 legal right. 



At bottom it comes to this, that excellence of 

 work would bring in a higher bonus than in- 

 different work. This is opposed to all communism, 

 and therefore would by a certain number of men, 

 especially of the talking sort, be stoutly resisted : 

 hence the difficulty. The solution of this part of 

 the problem appears to be that communism ought 

 to be opposed, and would be opposed by a nation 

 which still desired and hoped to approach the 



