on for workmen to study #how not
to do the work too quickly#, instead of striving to make the most goods
in the least time with the least trouble. Workmen do not see that what
they produce forms in the long run their wages, so that if all workmen
could be incited to activity and carefulness, wages would rise in all
trades.

#61. Industrial Partnerships.# The best way of reconciling labour and
capital would be to give every workman a share in the profits of his
factory when trade is so prosperous as to allow of it. Charles Babbage
proposed, in the year 1832, that a part of the wages of every person
employed should depend on the profits of the employers. In recent years
this has been tried in several large works, especially in Messrs.
Briggs' collieries, and in Messrs. Fox, Head & Co.'s iron-works. The
arrangement generally made with the men was that the capitalists should
first take enough of the profits to pay 10 per cent. interest on the
capital, together with fair salaries for the managers as wages of
superintendence, a sum to meet bad debts, the repairs and depreciation
of the machinery, and all other ordinary causes of loss. Such profit as
remained was then divided into two equal parts, one of which went to the
employers, while the other was divided among the workpeople in
proportion to the amounts of wages which they had received during the
year. Many workmen under such a scheme found themselves at Christmas in
possession of five or ten pounds, in addition to the ordinary wages of
the trade received weekly during the year.

This kind of co-operation has been called #industrial partnership#, and,
if it could be widely carried into effect, there would arise many
advantages. The workmen, feeling that their Christmas bonuses depended
upon the success of the works, would not favour idleness, and would have
some inducement for preventing needless waste whether of time or
materials. By degrees they would learn that #the best trades-union is a
union with their employers#. Strikes and lockouts would be for the most
part a thing of the past, because, if wages were too low, the
balance-sheet would prove the fact at the end of the year, and half the
surplus would go to the workmen. To be free from the danger of strikes
would be a very great advantage to the employers, and any portion of
profits which they might seem to give up would be more than repaid by
the increased care and activity of the workmen. The employers would
co