St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-12-27

mony, with the large individual capitalist
PrOfit-sharing seems to be a much more
hopeful method of securing relief for the
discontinued classes. This principle adj
mits the operative to participation in the
profits of the establishment which may re-
main over and above wages paid to the
workmen and fixed rate on the invest
ment of the employer. LEcLAIRE, Pa
risian house-decorator, has the honor of
| having introduced and illustrated the prac-
teal workings of this system. In 1869 an
| arrangement was entered into between him
self and workmen ''that hereafter the net
profits of the business should be divided in
certain fixed proportions between the man
aging partners, the Mutual Aid society and
the worlzmen forming the regular staff
of the house." 1t will be seen
that LEcLAIRE's foundation consists
of two institutions, closely connected,
| indeed but separately administered: the
house, or business undertaking proper. and
the Mutual Aid society. The profits are
| divided as follows: The two managing
partners receive 81, 300 each as salaries for
superintendent. Interest at per cent. is
paid to them and to the society on their re-
spective capitals. Of the remaining net
| profit, one quarter goes to the two manag-
| ing partners jointly and the other to the
capital of the society; the remaining half is
| divided among all the workmen and others
employed by the house in sums proportion
ate to the wages earned by each during the
year. From 1912 down to 1882 inclusive
there had been paid out to operatives, over
and above wages received at the ordinary
market price, the sum of $685., 1926. The
| economic advantages of this system to a
workman have been thus summarized:
FIrst-A large yearly bonus on his aggre-
gate wages.
Second-All the advantages of an ordi-
nary benefit club.
Third-A life pension of $240 from his
5Oth year of age and twentieth year of
work, half of which is continued to his
widow for her lifetime.
Fourth-His family receives 5000 at his
death.
Fifth-The certainty that if disabled
from work by accident encountered when
on duty he will be placed beyond the reach
of want, and that if he be killed his family
will not be left without some permanent
means of support.
This system, with such notifications as
suited it to each particular case, has been
applied in very many establishments
in France and Switzerland and is
now in operation in at least one
house in our city and one in
Minneapolis. In every case where it has
been adopted and entered into heartily by
both parties the results have been highly
satisfactory. 1t has been tried in manufac-
turing establishments, mines, and agricul-
ture. and with but few exceptions has met
the expectations of those interested. Apart
from the manifest justice Of the principle
many capitalists who have tested it in prac-
tice claim that it brings to them more than
they would have received on their invest
ment on the old basis, because of the in
centives to Jealous labor brought to bear
upon the operatives, These are three ways
by which the workman can enhance the
profits in any establishment-by increased
production due to the cessation of
all deliberate waste of time during
the hours of labor, by more
rigid economy in the use of ma
terials and the more careful handling of
tools and machinery; and improvement in
the quality of production, thereby finding a
ready market at good prices. Hence, as has
been well said, ''proft-sharing, far from
being scheme for enrching workmen out
of the pockets of their employers. has at its
command potential energies capable of
opening an entirely new source of profits,
and so of creating the fund which it pro-
poses to distribute" One marked advan-
tage which this principle of proit-sharing
has over cooperation as a means of reliev-
ing the present antagonism between labor
and capital is-it brings the wageworker
and the employer into harmony on grounds
of mutual benefit rather than into COM
petition. Its fleXibility also is no unimport-
ant feature in its favor. 1t can be intro
duced into almost any form of business that
is affected by the present labor agitation.
Since it seems to have in it both 1.-The prom
Use and potency" Of liberty, masses of the
laboring population out of the ''hand-to-
mouth" class and thereby drying up a main
source of pauperism as well as Of allaying
much of the present discomfort, it is i'm
portant that employers of labor, whether
productive or distributive, should give the
subject most careful consideration with a
view to practical action. Unless objections
other than those which have come under
the notice of the writer can be brought
against its widespread adoption, the prin-
ciple would seem to point the way to a
peaceful social revolution which would be
frought with benefits to the wageworker
without working injustice to the possesSors
of capital.
In the light of this article it scarcely
seems necessary that anything be
said in response to the ''reply"
to my former communication. The author
of the ''reply" has far too much discrimi-
nation to confound the historical statement
of positions with their advocacy. An at
tempt was made in my former article to
describe Socialism proper, its claims, the
dangers growing out of its attitude toward
the present social order. the need of doing
something to allay the agitation which is
every day threatening to become revolution.
And in the present article two movements
are described that seem to have in them
some promise of relief. In all this there is
nothing which commits the writer to de-
tense of the theories of HENRY GEORGE OF
any of the drastic measures propC I'd fol
| the abolition of poverty. r. G.
OUR FAMOUS SONGS.
1t is singular fact that tn ere is not one
person in a hundred who can tell the names
of the authors of the songs and hymns
whose words are as familiar to US as the
| Lords PRAYER OF course everybody knows