Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-05-17
GROWTH OF PRoFIT-sHAR1NG.

on the incorporation of the largest dry
goods establishment in the United States,
and the taking of the stock by the en-
ployes. So far as that house is concerned
the labor question is settled among its bri-
gade Of wage-earners, and the money ques-
ton among the proprietors. For the labor
in the vast establishment was capitalized,
and the capital has been distributed ac-
cording TO the output of labor along the
whole line of the workers. We now learn
of an instance in the West, which, while
not so broad in its operation, is in line
with the processes that are quietly and
amicably adjusting the relations of en-
ployer and employee. A great steel COM
pany in Illinois has arranged with its
many hundred employees to pay them
premium upon the wages they earn as a
sort of proit-share, and to be an addition
to the wage. The idea is to interest the
workers in the concern and thereby con-
serve economy and enhance efficiency.
The workmen have welcomed the offer
with enthusiasm.
Proft-sharing is steadily making its way
in this country, and in no instance of
which We have knowledge has it been
abandoned where once introduced 1t
originated in Paris some sixty years ago
with firm of house-painters, and has in
that city firm footing in public conf
dence and the satisfaction of employers In
this country some have tried it who have
not found it so successful as they antici-
pated, but In all such cases the partial fail
ure has been due to the management
rather than to defect in the system Ii
has been introduced for now many years at
Fall River with eminent success; in sew
eral large manufactures in New York, in
the Dodge Felt Works in the Adirondacks,
where large community enjoys the bene-
fits of the system, and has for twentv-one
years. The last annual report of Mr..
Dodge shows that there the system has
been equally profitable TO the wage-earner
and wage-payer. He calls it the "iust
distribution of earnings" At Netting
ham, England, last January proft-shar-
ing was introduced in the Arkwright
Tool Works, the masters taking out per
cent. of the net profits as interest on the
invested capital; 10 per cent. is put aside
as reserve fund against bad years and to
meet sudden exegencies; half the re-
mainder goes to the owners of the works
and the other half is distributed among
the wage-earners in proportion to the
wages their skill commands.
Thus proft-sharing, as means of ad-
justing on an amicable basis the relations
of employer and employee, is making head
way, for it is adopted in a very large num-
Der of establishments throughout the
country that for obvious reasons cannot be
catalogued here-nor, indeed, until the
census is completed will it be possible to
get the full statistics. Mr.. Powderly APP
pears to have studied the system thor
oughly, and, while he pronounces his
sympathy for the eight-hour movement, he
is convinced that the proit-sharing scheme
will swallow it up and take its place.
Under that system the workers, having a
definite interest in the earnings of the
business, will be disposed to work as long
as they choose, and that will be the longer
rather than the shorter time, until their
new condition of semi-proprietorship rem
ders them independent and enables them
to become owners and the masters of their
own time.
There has perhaps been DO more intelli-
gent and concise expression upon this sub
ject than that we find in the New York
Tribune of the 9th instant.
The vast body OF industrial and economic in
formation accumulated in recent years has
brought 10 the world no more valuable fruitace
than the certainty that wages and profits tend
already toward an equal division of the results
of labor. II is already great partnership of
which one or both parties may be unconscious
though both are forced into II by the immutable
laws of the Creator. Capital stands on one
side, with managing ability and an opportunity
to establish an industry. Labor stands on The
other side. and without ii capital can make
nothing, as labor can also make nothing with.
out the Sdpltai management. Inc natural
division in such a case is the sharing of profits;
to labor half, TO capital and management half
for each IS equally necessary 10 the other. The
statistics accommodating year after year in a mul.
titude OF industries prove that the tendency Is
constantly towards this equal division. In par
ticular branches of industry, where the proper
ton OF capital required is largest, or where ex-
ceptional ability in management is necessary 10
success or exceptional risks are involved the
proportion taken by labor falls below half In
others, where the labor required is especially
skilled or the capital relatively small, labor
takes more than half. But all industries con-