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Overseers.

Turning now to the organization, there are two great choices to be made, with or without Overseers, and by Day pay or Piecework. Each system may be best under particular conditions, and the suitability of each we will note first, before entering on detail.

Overseers are almost always employed. They remove much of the friction; they profess to drive the men on, and be responsible for their regular working; and they seem indispensable parts of the business. The less a master knows of the men and of their language the more essential an overseer seems to be.

Fig. 15. Girls and boys in the work.

Fig. 16. Girls and boys in the work.

Yet all this usefulness is the best reason for avoiding them. The more friction they save, the less the master knows of his men, and the less influence he has. The more they profess to drive the men, the more hollow the fraud is, until the overseer merely serves to give notice when the master is coming. The more indispensable they seem, the less desirable is it to have so to trust a native. And the less a master knows of the men and the language, the more dangerous it is to have some one always acting in everything that goes on. Moreover, there is nothing so demoralising to a native as wandering about, without hard work, stick in hand, to bully men who are quite as good as himself. Even good men soon lose their character in such conditions, and it is needful to have some definite allotted manual work for even a leading man.