DIFFICULTIES TO BE MET 135 



mentioned. Employers often do now give up a 

 part of their profits as an expression of satisfac- 

 tion. It would be a very different thing to be 

 compelled by law to part with that much, or 

 even more : it would seem to the emplo3'er like 

 robbery of that which is absolutely his own. So 

 it will continue to seem until he is convinced 

 that, in this case, what an apparent robber ex- 

 tracts with the right hand from one pocket is 

 more than restored by the left hand to the other 

 pocket. Many times have directing Boards re- 

 sisted demands of railway workmen for higher 

 wages, or, what comes to the same thing, shorter 

 hours of work, on the ground that if such demands 

 were complied with dividends must be much re- 

 duced : a robbery of Peter to pay Paul. Yet, when 

 public opinion has made it necessary to comply 

 with those demands, the Boards have given way, 

 and the dividends have not ultimately suffered ; 

 improved methods of work having brought about 

 sufficient savings of material to make good the in- 

 creased cost of labour. So exceedingly numerous 

 are now the Board-directed undertakings in the 

 British Isles, the prospect of inducing employers 

 to listen to some such argument as has just been 

 advanced, in mitigation of what once would have 

 appeared downright oppression, does not seem 

 hopeless. 



Some workmen would doubtless welcome a 

 scheme that changed the monotony of their work- 

 ing-day lives into a prospect of ownership. 

 Others would not see the promise, much less 

 any chance of its fulfilment ; among whom would 



