“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.”