Page:The New Arcadia (Tucker).djvu/78

68 purpose. But they have lived in comfort meanwhile, and are better off than when they started. I have no fear, however, of failure, if they only rise to the occasion, and work like free men."

"That's the rub," said Dowling; "can you ever teach them to do that?"

"If making them interested principals—partners, in fact—will not do it, nothing will."

"How can you compel those to work who do not like it?. You will have some such."

"No doubt; all, however, have entered into a contract. If any will not work, neither shall they eat; they can go."

"Which a mighty lot will do."

"Not after the first few months. They will have given 'hostages to fortune.' Every month's labour will forge a chain of vested interest about them. Men will think twice before they abandon, in a tiff, their embryo farms and homes."

"But these people have always been of a roving disposition."

"Because you have never tried to interest them in their undertakings. Each week you give them a wage that virtually pays them off, buys out that healthful interest that should, by every means, be fostered. If these men worked for my uncle, or a contractor, they could depart any Saturday and leave him in the lurch, taking all their belongings with them. In this case they would have to abandon two-thirds of the result of their labour."

"Then you have the idea of dragooning and coercing them?"

"Certainly not, save for their own good. I desire to make labour more effective, more directly interested, and so more content. It is to the men's own interest that