100 
Tlie Lahovr Bill in Fariniiiy. 
one else can know the A alue of each other's work. It is, in fact^ 
co-operative farm-labour. The same principle has been tried 
with equal success in building the Workmen's Homes upon the 
Shaftesbury Estate near Clapham Common, where co-operative 
labour is said to have saved 20 per cent. ; the result being not 
onlv cheaper labour, but labour of much better quality than that 
employed under contractors. 
The republican plan in vogue at Knettishall worked ad- 
mirablv. As I have said, it was not based upon any arbitrary 
or fictitious notion of perfect equality among the harvest-men, 
and a claim by each adult to an equal share of the money 
earned. A curious commentary upon the doctrine to this effect, 
taught by a good manv labour associations, or tacitlv enforce<l 
by them, is furnished by the fact that, in this and other instances, 
where the men are themselves brought face to face with this 
principle of " natural equality," they repudiate it altogether. 
They go then upon the much more obvious and reasonable 
principle that, as the labourer works, so shall he earn. They 
do not, indeed, in the harvest-field resort to any standard of 
measurement. Given an able-bodied man who can keep his 
•' stroke " among his fellows in the harvest-field, and does not 
fall out of the ranks through weakness or idleness, and he 
receives a lull share according to the highest standard. But 
equity requires that any man who comes short of this standard 
shall abate his claim proportionately. Thus an able-bodied 
man, whose nominal weekly wages during the vear were 14i'., 
received 8/. 195. for his harvest-earnings; and the shares of the 
three-quarter men, half-men, and boys, were based upon this 
sum. Even the boys form part of this commonwealth of labour, 
and it becomes the obvious interest of the men not only to look 
sharply after them, but after each other. One of the virtues of 
such a system, however, is the spirit of emulation it produces 
among all the harvest-workers. The gang-master, or his deputy, 
or the " boss," as he would be called across the Atlantic, is not 
wanted to keep the men going. As a rule, they keep each other 
going, and the feeling soon becomes general among them that 
loitering and slack work are against the common good — an 
offence not against the master, which might be venial in the 
eyes of the workers, but an offence against each other, which 
stands on quite a different footing. It should be added that, 
under this contract, the men receive all their earnings in cash, 
and nothing in kind. Not long ago, upon the border-land of 
Norfolk and Suffolk, the harvest-wages were 5/. lO.v. for an adult 
labourer, with two bushels of malt, and a proportionate quantity 
of hops. The men in this instance find their own malt and 
hops, if they want any. 
