Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1893-07-13
PROFIT SHARlNa.
The President of the Nelson Manufact turing
Company Still Very Enthusiastic.


Company Still Very Enthusiastic.
Readers who have kept close watch
upon industrial matters during the past
five years know something about the
Nelson Manufacturing company of st.
Louis and Edwardsville, Ills. Newspaper
writers have fallen into the error of
speaking of the plan adopted by the Mel
son as cooperation. 1t is not co-opera-
ton in the sense that the term is used by
economists, for the workers do not stand
upon an equality in the direction of af-
fairs, and the capital employed is not
owned jointly by all the workers. The
Nelson Manufacturing company is the
property of few stockholders, and the
laborers are simply employees working
for stipulated wages.
However, from all reports the company
is exceedingly fair in the treatment ofits
employees, and the profit sharing system
under which it operates is of great bene-
fit to the workmen as well as to the
stockholders. In a recent interview N.
o. Nelson, who is president of the COM
pany, said that during visit to England
about seven years ago he became imbued
with the idea that the settlement of the
differences between employer and EN-
ployee lay in the direction of profit shar
ing. On his return to st. Louis he ar
ranged to have his theories carried into
practice
"At our works near Edwardsville,
Ills.," he said, "there are about 450 men
employed, and at the end of every quarter
each one of them, from the manager down
to the smallest apprentice, gets his share
Of the profits. This averages per cent
on the wages per annum ever since we
put the system into force.
"Lilliane is in every respect model
village. We bought 1875 acres of ground,
erected substantial buildings for our fac
tories and laid off the town, not with
square blocks, but on the park idea,
with winding roads and grassy lawns.
In our village we have cooperative
store where the men and their families
trade. They pay the current retail
price for everything purchased, but at
the end of every three months the books
are balanced, and the profits thus shown
are divided among the purchasers in
proportion to the amounts they have
paid in. These dividends amount to from
12 to 10 per cent year and are SO many
dollars saved to the men who work
Besides this we have hall where school
and church are held and free kinder
garten is maintained during several
months of the year. We have free baths,
electric lights, modern waterworks and
a circulating library. During the win
ter there is a course of lectures delivered
for the men, and some of the best lee
turers of the country are engaged. Last
winter we had Edward Everett Hale
and men of his class
"To employees who desire homes we
sell them one-third of an acre of ground
at So a front foot and erect IL cottage for
them at cost. This is all paid for in in
stallments, the sum not amounting to
more each month than the rent of cot
tage in a city.
"Ours is essentially corporation col
ony and the only one of its kind this
side of the Atlantic. 1t makes I think,
a superior class of workingmen, and that
it encourages men to apply themselves
was shown when we reduced the work
ing hours from 10 to hours without
reduction of wages and without any de-
crease in the amount of material turned
out"