Year: 1870

BY E. P. GRANT.


NUMBER VIII


Organization of Labor.


! Sec. 2, Formation Of Industrial C6npG-
MES or Groups


1t will be recollected that, before at
tempting a new organization Of labor, we


suppose the projectors or capitalists Zone
or more) by whom our enterprise is initia-
ted to have secured an ample domain, and
made all the necessary preparations for
| the prosecution of agricultural pursuits on
an extensive scale, and to have erected
upon it suitable buildings for the accom-
mediation of a sufficient number of asso-
ciates for the first stage of the experiment,
and also to have made provision for a few


branches of manufactures We assume
also that all these preparatory arrange
ments have been made by purchase and
by hired labor precisely as similar opera
tions are now usually conducted, and that
the enterprise can be carried on in the
same way as long as n ay be desired that
Is, that the system ofwages Will be replaced
by the system of cooperation gradually,
and only so far and so fast as the latter
system can be successfully organized.


As soon as the preparatory arrange
ments are completed, and body of asso-
clates of the different classes collected
sufficiently numerous for the experiment,
these associates (who may be largely
drawn from those who have been hereto
fore hired labole ers) will be invited to or
ganize themselves into companies or
groups for the prosecution of some branch
of industry, such as the cultivation Of
some grain, or fruit, or vegetable, or the
the rearing or care of some domestic ami
nal, or, in special cases, the making of
some manufactured article Groups prop
erly consist Of course of several co-opera-
tors, but in the beginning the largest lati-
tude will be allowed in respect to num-
bers; two associates, or exceptionally one
only, will be permitted to choose and pros
ecute some branch of industry, and thus
form nucleus around which a larger group
may afterwards be aggregated.


The formation of these groups should
always be voluntary; it may be encoura-
ged and stimulated IN various ways, but
no associate should ever be constrained or
ordered to join one of them. Each coop
orator should be advised to consult his
own taste or inclination in respect to his
industrial pursuits, and should also be
permitted to choose his companions in in
dustry. In acting thus freely, he will be
likely to select those pursuits for which
he Is best adapted, because he viii proba-
bly, have a taste for such, and also to asso-
ciate himself with those co-operators
whose apitudes are most like his own, and
whose cooperation will therefore proba-
bly, be the most efficient.


A group having thus organized itself
for the prosecution of some special branch
of industry will thereupon apply to the
managers, Capitalists or their deputies,
one or more,) for their approval, and for
the advance of whatever may be needful,
tools, machines, stock or materials of any
kind, for carrying on its contemplated OPP
erations / think it will be better at first,
and peshaps always, that hand tools, such
as hoes, spades, axes and similar imple-
ments, be owned by the co-operators who
use them but the general rule Will be
that the capitalists Will furnish all neces-
sary instruments for prosecuting labor, as
well as the land, stock and materials upon
which the labor is expended In deciding
upon the proposed branch of industry, the
managers should consider, lst, whether
the necessary advance can be spared from
the capital at command, and if so, wheth-
er 1t can be spared without prejudice to
other branches of industry more impor-
tant or meritoriops; I'd, whether the pro
posed enterprise be hazardous to such a
degree as to subject the capital advanced
to ounwarrantablej jeopardy; and Sd, whether
the interests of the members of the group
as laborers are not too much imperiled;
for they are liable perhaps to be over san
gulne, or to be too much carried away by
enthusiasm. But in respect to these two
last considerations the managers should
not be too punetiious, for the group in
ours the larger risk, and, as its members
engage during the year in a great variety
of pursuits, they are in little danger of
being impoverished by the failure of some
few of them, and it may be that they will
have better success than appearances in
dlcate. II, after due consideration, the
managers sanction the proposed enterprise,
1t Is thenceforth incumbent upon them to
furnish all reasonable facilities for CARRYING
1t on to completion, an obligation which
they may restrict, however, by express
or timely notice, as circumstan-
ces may require.


As sson as the organization of the Com
nllsrle (the name I give to our association
as defined in the last number,) is suffi-
GENTLY advanced, an Industrial Board
will be constituted, which should consist
of the most successful and distinguished
Chiefs of the various Industrial corpora
tions. The members of this Board will
be elected by the vote of the Captains or
Chiefs of all the various Industrial groups
of the Commune, not by numerical ma
jority as determined by the mere counting
of the ballots, but by giving each vote a
force according to the industrial rank of
the group by whose Chief the vote is cast.
The industrial rank of the various groups
depends upon the value of their respec-
tive industrial products, those groups
which produce the largest value being
placed IN the highest rank AT the same
time Tor possibly sooner,) a Financial
Board will be constituted, which should
consist of the most competent BUSINESS
men IN the Commune, the members of
which Will be elected by the stockholders,
as such, each vote having a force las is
now customary IN Joint stock companies)
in proportion to the voters stock. When
these two Boards shall be duly constituted
they Will have the general charge of all
the operations and OF all the property of
the Commune, each acting IN its proper
sphere, and the concurrence of both7SyilI
be required for the undertaking of indus
trial enterprises which require capital
Groups contemplating any branch of in
ONoIA VIII LAACAA COusN1l dLlAl Win
the Industrial and Financial Boards instead
of the managers, who will abdicate their
functions as soon as the communal organ
ization shall have made such progress
that these Boards can be properly elected
and organized,


The branch of industry selected by the
group having been duly approved, i, may
Immediately enter upon It's work. We
will suppose this work to be the cultiva-
ton of twenty acres of Indian corn. This
| amount of land IS designated and set


apart to the group to its acceptance, in re-


spect to both quality and location. The


first operation required we may presume


to be the preparation of the ground by


plowing, narrowing, &C., a part of the


work which the group may not be fitted


or may not desire to do. If one O.. sew.


eral groups are already organized for this


kind Of work, the ground may be prepar.


ed for planting by one of them, either fol


a stipulated price, or for an agreed share


of the crop, the latter mode of compensa,


tion being moro in conformity with tht


principle of cooperation. (fhat is. i


those who prepare the ground are paid by


a definite share of the crop, they become


interested in having the crop large one


and will thus be induced to prepare tn,


ground in the best possible manner.) l