774 
Frqfit-Shanng in Agriculture. 
It implies tliat the wage-earner shall share with his capit- 
alist employer an}?- profits which may remain, after labour and 
capital have received their fair reward, after all the necessary 
outgoings, such as rent, rates, and taxes have been met, and after 
a sufficient sum has been credited to the reserve and deprecia- 
tion fund. It means a partnership in the net profits, but not a 
partnership in the management. 
The object of the capitalist who applies the profit-sharing 
principle to the management of his business is to interest the 
labourer in his work to such an extent as will cause him, of his 
own accord, to do his utmost to prevent waste, to avert loss, 
and to increase the efficiency of his own and of his fellow- 
workers' labour. 
If the effect of the application of the profit-sharing principle 
to an industry is to cause the worker to take an interest in the 
economy and efficiency of his work, then, not only will the em- 
ployer be likely to gain more than he will lose by the bonus he 
may be called upon to divide among his labourers, but the very 
fact that the labourers are all " sharers in the profits, as they 
are sharers in the toil," will help to establish a pleasant relation- 
ship between employer and employed which is in itself an 
advantage of inestimable value. 
The objection is frequently urged against the profit-sharing 
principle that common fairness requires that any worker who 
shares the profits of his capitalist employer should also share his 
losses. The answer to this objection is conclusive. 
The labourer in a profit-shai-ing business, where he has full 
confidence in the honesty and ability of his employer, is natur- 
ally stunulated to show energy, punctuality, diligence, and 
economy in his work by the prospect of a bonus on his wage. 
In good years it is only fair that he should receive increased 
remuneration for the better labour that he gives. In bad years, 
when the balance-sheet shows a loss, the labourer — without any 
deduction being made from his wage — is also a sharer of that loss, 
for, although he has given better labour, not only does he not 
receive that extra reward to which his better labour entitles him, 
sharers in the toil, I think we should have got to the end of our difficulties. 
I am not going to suggest that as a plan of which I myself see the immediate 
realisation. I know the insuperable difficulties which have occurred in apply- 
ing the principle to manufactures ; and, though I do not despair of seeing it 
applied both to manufactures and to agriculture, I have frankly to admit that 
I do not think its realisation is one that we shall see in the immediate future. 
I put it before you as an ideal to be aimed at ; I put it before you as some- 
thing which we should stud}- ; if so, it may be that we may reach it, and il 
we each of us set ourselves lo work in our own districts to solve this "problem 
I should not readily believe that the problem would be found to be insoluble.' 
—Mr. Balfour's speech at Huddersjield, November 30, 1891. 
