letter, to the form of co-operation which is now upon
its trial in practice, I would beg of you to observe that the points
at issue, in the comparison of this system with that of mastership,
are by no means hitherto frankly stated; still less can they as yet be
fairly brought to test. For all mastership is not alike in principle;
there are just and unjust masterships; and while, on the one hand,
there can be no question but that co-operation is better than unjust
and tyrannous mastership, there is very great room for doubt whether
it be better than a just and benignant mastership.

5. At present you--every one of you--speak, and act, as if there were
only one alternative; namely, between a system in which profits shall
be divided in due proportion among all; and the present one, in which
the workman is paid the least wages he will take, under the pressure
of competition in the labor-market. But an intermediate method is
conceivable; a method which appears to me more prudent, and in its
ultimate results more just, than the co-operative one. An arrangement
may be supposed, and I have good hope also may one day be effected, by
which every subordinate shall be paid sufficient and regular wages,
according to his rank; by which due provision shall be made out of the
profits of the business for sick and superannuated workers; and by
which the master, _being held responsible, as a minor king or
governor, for the conduct as well as the comfort of all those under
his rule_, shall, on that condition, be permitted to retain to his own
use the surplus profits of the business which the fact of his being
its master may be assumed to prove that he has organized by superior
intellect and energy. And I think this principle of regular
wage-paying, whether it be in the abstract more just, or not, is at
all events the more prudent; for this reason mainly, that in spite of
all the cant which is continually talked by cruel, foolish, or
designing persons about "the duty of remaining content in the position
in which Providence has placed you," there is a root of the very
deepest and holiest truth in the saying, which gives to it such power
as it still retains, even uttered by unkind and unwise lips, and
received into doubtful and embittered hearts.

6. If, indeed, no effort be made to discover, in the course of their
early training, for what services the youths of a nation are
individually qualified; nor any care taken to place those who have