Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/814

 794 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

to be the net results of two distinct operations : the act of buy- ing and the act of selling (I include in the act of buying all payments, such as rent of land, of capital, of ability, as well as the price of raw material, and the wages of labor). But if I produce for my own consumption, I buy the raw material, but I do not sell the product ; therefore, I make no profit. And if, further, I engage an artist to paint my portrait, an architect to build my house, or a landscape gardener to lay out my grounds (supplying them with all materials), a bailiff to grow my corn, a foreman miller to grind it, a cook to bake it, while I and my household enjoy or consume the whole product, I realize no 'profits.' A steward may supervise all these operations, or I may be my own housekeeper ; the wages I offer may be the mean, or they may be extravagant ; I may pay by the day, or I may pay by the piece ; but whatever remuneration I choose, or am forced to give, I cannot ask my employes to share in a fund that does not exist — profits." '

So far as the worker himself is concerned, this offers no solu- tion whatever. It is the more equitable division of the results of production that the laborers are interested in, no matter whether called profits, dividends on purchases, consumers' sav- ing, or what not. That there is a clear distinction between the members of the society as employers of labor and as consumers who profit through dealing with the society is evident. No less evident is it that, as now organized and managed, there is no distinction, so far as the laborer is concerned, between his pres- ent employment and that in the normal competitive enterprise. The settling of the difificulty by an elimination of the word " profits " is a mere evasion. The margin represented by the divi- dends on purchases is certainly the same element in the transac- tion that is termed profits under the ordinary arrangement, perhaps slightly increased through certain peculiar influences, and slightly decreased through others. It is the element to which the laborer contributes by his care and exertion, just as the management of the association does by its foresight ; and, according to the profit-sharing theory, a portion of which is

I Pqxter, The Co-operative Movement in Great Britain, p. 96.