The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-08-03
INDUSTRIAL PARTNERSHIP.
From tho N. Y. TTfbune.


INDUSTRIAL PARTNERSHIP.
From the NJ Y. Tribune.
Cooperative worlingmen in England have
lately turned their attention to the manufac-
ture of cotton, flour, iron ratings, and wire
work, files, Autographs, ETC., with success and
have even bent their energies upon coal
mining with excellent results. The system of
cooperation in its numerous characters de-
mands an immense amount of printing, to
supply which industrial partnership printing
concerns have been introduced. They are
found to yield handsomely furnish steady
employment to shareholders, and additional
encouragement in pro rata dividends. The
best partnerships of industry-those which
seem to produce the most satisfactory results
to the members in common-are often small
They differ widely from the ordinary SYSTEM
being social and not in the least niggardly,
place the co-operator on a footing of indie
pendence, and elevate him to a point of
dignity above the capriees and brutality
of foremen and directors. No arbitrary
Will can enter cooperative manu-
factory. The existence of tradesmen is
too often made miserable in outside
manufacturers through the unreasonable and
brutal assaults upon them by insolent fore
men who ingratiate themselves with their
masters by urging, driving, and brutalizing
their men. There Is, perhaps, no more pre-
vailing misfortune to which poor workingmen
are subjected than this. Denied the right of
hearing should they attempt to complain,
| not Independent enough to leave and search
work elsewhere, and too much the lovers of
peace and morality to avenge themselves by
open retaliation, millions of mechanics are
| II hus ground down. What are the tendencies
of such deformed state Of things? They are.
first: to stereotype impressions of revolt and
loathing against labor itself. They operate
most forcbly upon the most valuable class
| that which possesses keen susceptibility and
| genius. Another class is aroused to re-
monstrNnce, made etfectual by means of
| Trades Unions, one fundamental aim
of which is, in England to compel
masters to accord a fair hearing to all
| similar grievances, and, by secret and
shrewd system of manipulations, to effect the
discharge and humiliation of obnoxious
| tyrants. Great strikes, with all their wasteful
| concomitants of stagnation in trade, and
! famine among families, often originate in the
| brutality of foreman. But most important
of all are their tendencies to create industrial
partnerships. In Sheffield the file masters
once sought to humiliate a file cutters
union by employing a set of these OBJ
noxious foremen. The union being too weak
to cope with so formidable an organization,
and disgusted with the unpleasant treatment
it was forced to suffer, called a meeting,
turned it's funds into an industrial partner
ship scheme, appropriated 200, and in
due time created and registered the Society
of the Sheffield File Cutters, which has, since
its foundation in 1864, attained an annual
sale of $47, 900. Cooperation and trades
unionism are thus made to blend their inte-
rests for the common object of pro rata divi-
dends, certainty IN position, and protection
from the tyranny of superiors
Industrial partnerships have already under
gone the severest tests, and have proved
themselves in most instances sound and
practicable. In the manufacture of flour
Rochdale has taken the initiative, and its
noble mills are grinding $50, 600 pounds of
flour weekly. These mills, driven by steam,
work 16 run of stone, and cost co-operators
nearly 800, 600 before they reached paying
basis. At Sowerby Bridge is another ex-
tensive cooperative Touring mill, which is
considered model of system. In Halifax
229S persons own mill, the cost of which
S72, 500, and the total receipts of which for
last year were $119, 900. 1t has Is run of stone,
is driven by two fine beam engines of so horse
power each, and is considered one of the
finest and most successful specimens of in
dustrial partnership in the world. Mr.. John
Holmes, who conducted large cooperative
mill in Leeds, has published a pamphlet set
ting forth the advantages of cooperation in
figures. He was, by means of sure sales, the
disuse of cartng, the wholesale purchase
of wheat, and the displacement of manual
! labor by machinery, enabled to reduce the
: working expenses three per cent. below those
of the great Glasgow mills in Scotland, which
were considered the most economically con-
Quoted of any Touring establishment in Great
| Britain.
. There are numerous cooperative cotton
- | factories-such as the Golden Memorial
. Mills the Halifax Weaving Mills, etc.-all of
. which have reduced the system of produc-
u ton down to the incest science. The manner
l. l. of creating an industrial partnership is simple,
= = and may be initiated by any body of artisans
in this country number of workingpeople,
consisting of say 800 weavers, spinners, ma
- chinists, carpenters, laborers, ETC., join to-
gether and adopt certain rules which they
n themselves have drawn up and approved.
! Each individual subscribes for one or more
) $500 shares, according as he is able to spare
out of his earnings These shares are paya-
able in instalments of fifty cents a share
8 weekly. When the society has thus received
! a fund of about $4,000, sufficient to warrant a
# beginning, the erection of a cotton factory is
4 begun, and the business of building and fur
q nishing it often affords excellent work for
1 the co-operatives themselves. Thus
v encouraged, they keep on pay
h | ing their weekly subscriptions
e until the mill is completed. Often q
e sum equivalent to the funds thus subscribed
! is borrowed, the creditor having security on
s ths property The object of this is to hasten
10 the completion of the work. AS soon as the
is mill is finished and set in operation, the
J. receipts begin to reimburse the members foi
|. the money thus subscribed, beside glylng
), nearly all employment for life. Here begins
n an era of Independence and thrift for which