“I rather think here a man's duty is fixed too--too--well, too mathematically. The exact reward of efficiency is fixed for him in advance. It keeps the company and the men apart. The college is equally the undergraduates and the faculty and the alumni and--It's hard to make myself understood. I hadn't thought about this particular--” “Never mind all that, Tommy. What else can you think of now?” “I think the men don't belong entirely to the shop because the shop doesn't belong entirely to them.” “Do you want them to be the owners?” “No, not the owners of the property, but to feel--” “Hold on. How can they be owners and not owners?” “Well, if you could find some way by which the owner also could be a laborer and the laborer also an owner, I think you'd come close to solving the problem.” “Yes, I would. But how?” Mr. Thompson smiled. “I don't know. I haven't the brains. But if I were boss I'd study it out. It is pretty hard where so many men are employed. All I know now is that the men, notwithstanding all the schemes to make them anxious to be first-class workmen, are working for money.” “They can't all be artists or creative geniuses, with their double rewards,” interrupted Thompson. “No; but here you pay them for the fixed thing. You don't pay them for the unfixed thing, as the college does. That's why we love it.” “What is this unfixed thing and how can we pay for it?” “Well, a man gives labor for money; he doesn't give service for anything but love.” “Don't any of our men love their work?” “Yes, lots of them. But they don't love the shop as we love the college.” Thompson nodded thoughtfully. Then he asked, abruptly, “If you owned this plant and were successful financially, what would you do?” Tommy looked straight into his chief's eyes and answered, decisively, “I'd hire Thompson to run it for me, and I'd never interfere with him.” Thompson's face did not change. “What,” he asked, “would you expect Thompson to do?” “To find out some way by which each man would do as much as he could without thinking of exactly how much he must do to earn so many dollars.” Thompson laughed. “Some job that, Tommy!” “That's why I'd hire you.” “And the dividends for the stockholders?” “They'd increase.” “Are you sure of that?” Tommy stiffened. “I know I've talked like a silly ass, Mr. Thompson. But--” “That's why I hired you. From to-day on your salary will be thirty dollars a week.” Tommy felt the blood rush to his cheeks. Also he then and there composed a telegram to send to his father. Then it seemed to him it couldn't be true. Then that though it was true, it couldn't last. “Mr. Thompson, I--I don't know how to thank you,” he stammered. “Then don't try. And although you are not entitled to it by our rules and regulations, you will get two weeks' vacation, beginning Saturday, on full pay at the new rate. I'm going away today myself. As for your future--” He paused and frowned slightly. Tommy knew it! It couldn't last! “Yes, sir?”