New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-10-16
INDUSTRIAL PARTNERSHIPS.


ital, brothers and co-workers, if not Siamese
twins, are too frequently bitterly opposed to
each other. On the one hand, Capital grasps
at everything within its reach, seeks to trample
its colleague under foot, and denies it due
proportion OF the reward it has fairly earned.
On the other, Labor, by waste. by carelessness,
by logged perverseness, often by reckless will
fulness, risks, exasperates, destroys Capital
both seem to forget that neither alone is COM
Ilete, but that the one is complementary to
the other. The two, in fact, bear much the
same relation in industrial economy that steam
and iron do in mechanics. Capital is the mo-
tive power, Labor the means by which its
energies fructify. Discovered, Labor is par
alyzed, dead; Capital intangible, helpless; in
the union of the two lies the secret OF their
mutual success. The correct adjustment of
these fOrces-allied, not antagonistic-has ever
been a complex and difficult problem, the solu-
ton of which to-day would set at rest many
of the veIed and vital questions now agitating
the world of Labor. Is Capital to enjoy all the
fruits of this mutual actioni Can no plan be
devised by which Labor, too, may participate
in them Cooperation, In it's more limited ap-
plication, is cropping, feeble yet earnest, after
the light. Productive cooperation. the extern
sion of the principle to manufacturing pursuits,
is probably the long looked for panacea, but is
beset with many difficulties, some professed
friends Of the working classes even going 80
far as to assert it an impossibility.
The plan of industrial partnerships, now on
trial in England and which has found warm
advocate In Mr.. G. J. Holyodke, editor of The
Social Economist, a periodical devoted to CO.
operative and other social reforms, though less
thorough perhaps in probing to the root of the
evil seems In the initial stage of the movement
most plausible and promising. Mr.. Holyoake's
suggestion Is simple and practical A manu-
featuring firm, wishing to adopt it, forms a
company, admits its workmen as shareholders
If they have the means, appropriates seven, ten,
or twenty per cent. of its income, as the case
may be, to cover the risks of trade and pay
a fair interest upon the subscribed capital, and
then divides the surplus equally in pre-
determined ratio between Capital and Labor
shares and wages. Under such an arrangement
Labor would cooperate in the travail and CO.
participate in the profits of the firm. Capital
would supply the sinews of war and continue
the controlling directing factor of success
Labor would be watchful, economical, indus
trious. The gain of the one would be the profit
of the other.
This is no mere fanciful theory The plan
has been tried and tried successfully; and the
case of the wildwood Galleries, which Mr.
HolyOake cites, will. we trust, stimulate not
only American miners, but American citizens
and American capitalists, to copy so laudable
an example. Already. in fact, it is beginning to
bear fruit among US. Messrs. Brewster e. Co.,
the well-known carriage manufacturers of this
city, recently adopted the principle if not the
details of the measure. They have made an
arrangement with their employees whereby the
latter will henceforth share in the profits of
the firm, while still receiving the highest wages
paid In the trade. The proportion of the
profits thus to be distributed among them is
estimated at nearly $4,000 per annum ; and in
addition the firm will contribute largely to o
fund for sick and disabled workmen. Such an
acknowledgment Of the claims of Labor by the
Messrs. Brewster is an exceedingly gratifying
sign Of the times, and we shall watch tho ex-