150 THE AGRICULTURAL CLUB. 



and a feeling of self-respect which will not allow them to do less 

 than their best. Various motives animate different individuals, 

 but it still remains true as a broad generalisation that, year in 

 and year out, a man will do better work if by so doing he earns 

 more money than he will if his remuneration has no relation to 

 the amount or character of his work. 



If this is true, it leads to the conclusion that the farm worker 

 will produce more if he has a share in the increased production 

 which results from his extra efforts. In other words, a definite 

 interest in the financial results of the farm will provide an incen- 

 tive to work and a stake in the success of the undertaking, 

 which will form a binding link of mutual interest bet ween employer 

 and worker. 



There is a story of a factory owner who stated that if his 

 workmen liked, they could save him 10,000 a year by less waste 

 and better work, and was somewhat pertinently asked why 

 he did not offer them 5,000 a year to do it. 



There are two methods of attaining this object, which have 

 been more or less tested by experience one known as profit- 

 sharing, and the other as co-partnership. 



Profit-sharing. Profit-sharing is an agreement by the employer 

 to pay to the worker a share, fixed in advance, of the profits 

 of the undertaking. 



Co-partnership. A definition of co-partnership, drawn up in 

 October, 1911, stated that " In its simplest form, taking the 

 case of a man employed by a great limited liability company, 

 it involves : 



1. That the worker should receive, in addition to the standard 



wages of the trade, some share in the final profit of the 

 business, or the economy of production. 



2. That the worker should accumulate his share of profit, 



or part thereof, in the capital of the business employing 

 him, thus gaining the ordinary rights and responsibilities 

 of a shareholder." 



Anyone who wants to know what has been done in the direc- 

 tion of adopting these two principles in industry generally 

 should refer to the Report on Profit-sharing and Labour Co- 

 partnership in the United Kingdom, issued by the Board of 

 Trade in igia. 1 According to this Report there were on August 

 I, 1912, six schemes of profit-sharing in Agriculture, affecting 

 737 workers. Among the employers responsible for these 

 schemes were Lord Rayleigh, Messrs. Strutt and Parker, and 

 Lady Wantage. This does not take account of agricultural 

 co-operative societies, of which there were at that date 335, 

 mostly in Ireland. Some particulars of a co-partnership farm 



1 Cd. 6496, 1912. 



