The record-union., 1893-02-06
PROFIT SHARING.
Plain Words to Workingmen by One
of Them.

Plain Words to Workingmen by One
of Them.
We have come to point in labor pro-
| gresS where we see not only the fence
rails that shut us in 10 small pudding and
poor pay, but have the means and the
public consent 10 take them down. We
can get out of the woods into the road,
and out OF darkness into daylight, If we
choose to do so. We wanted good laws,
and we have come at last under the dome
of Washington and up the stairways of
| Congress. By civilization and progress,
we are no longer the serfs OF society, but
the sovereigns. What we think and say
and do is not now mere matter of club
rooms, third floors and back Easements,
but national concern.
We have also in sight the direct way of
being better Off in our stock of eatables,
clothes and dollar bills by such a process
as that of cooperation. Just remember
that Tile OF tWenty-eight poor weavers
tramplng over the cobbleStoneS of Toad
Lane in Rochdale. taking down the shut
ters OF an old factory-room and stocking
1t with groceries, with the Shoeblacks
| throwing mud at them and the policemen
uncertain whether they were tramps or
lunatics. They went on, however, in the
way OF weaving by day and running their
store at night, buying out of their invest
ment what they wanted of tea, sugar,
matches and bacon. In 1914 they started
with just twenty-eigbt members and
capital of EOS. In 1867 they had 6,S23
members, 912S, l35 in funds, had done
business to the amount of f2S4,9l0 and
had accumulated the round sum of G4l,-
6l9 as clear profit. There is no reason
why we should not add to our little store
by such enterprise and good sense. 1t is
grand idea; there is no such like ii in
any scheme for our industrial we'll being.
We are grumbling, and very rightly
too, about the way the money runs; most
of it, like the rain OH a roof, into few
big tubs, and sparing only some choice
pallfulS Tor the rest OF US. By co-opera-
ton we can change this system Of big
water-pipes and do some good plumbing
on our own account. There are some
men in the world who would persuade
us that the inequalities of wealth can be
removed by anarchy and revolutionary
upsetting the farmers wagon and having
general good time in eating his water
melons. They teach US the doctrine ola
forcible division of all things, so that no
mans share of gold and silver, beef, NUT
ton, cake and pie shall be more than any
others. 1t never was, never can and
never will be done. a given amount of
work or investment has its legitimate re-
suits. We may not get it in every case,
but when we do no man has the right to
the eggs, so long as we own the hen, or to
the crop, so long as we paid for the seed
and did our own plowing. What we want
is not a division, but a system of cooper
alton and profit-sharing that is distribu-
tive without being unjust. To bring
about such a system is one of our aims,
and like all other things worth having
twill be on the line Of hard work. COM
mon sense and fair play. The principle
of cooperation goes to show that the
wrongs of industrial life at which we kick
are most of them removable by judicious
methods, and not by any other means that
we know of.
The idea of profit-sharing is in the same
direction, though not so tar advanced, as
cooperation. 1t is not move from the
labor side, but from that of capital to-
ward labor, by giving it share in the
profits OF its Investment. 1t is a step up
stairs, and its application and benefits
depend on ourselves. 1t is a matter OF
much promise to US workers, as recog-
niZing faithful service, energy and we'll
doing. 1t meets us in our want of capital
by giving us share of investments to-
ward which we could not spare a dollar
and 1t is adaptable to our present condi-
tion of ignorance (most of US with no
knowledge or tact whatever) in the ma
nipulation of money and the manage
ment of business. We look upon profit
sharing as step on the line of progress,
and as indicating on the part of employ
ers a wise and manly intent to make our
lot better than it is. Our chance lies in
being equal to our duties, and not abus-
ing our privileges. In these things there
is no room for demagogues or deadheads;
the lazy and the shiftless, the drunken
and the dishonest must rub their elbow
joints somewhere else. We want no such
sand in our sugar; and to my fellow
toiiers l would say: Let us be as desery-
ing of our rights as we have been noisy
over our wrongs.
We have no faith in any nonsense that
thinks it can make the world so flat that
there will be no hills to climb and no
holes to tumble into, and life in general
so easy that we can go to heaven on
padded chairs. There will always be
some of us who will spend all they get,
as if it was hot coal in their jeans or a
pot of butter in their hats. Men will lie,
and cheat, and be tyrants, so long as this
old planet throws round shadow on the
silent moon; but for such as are not of
that kind the outlook is clear and the
future full of hope. The chances are in
our favor if we are but wise enough so to
| see them, and not so loose fingered as to
| let them slip. We workingmen have, as
a class, our faults and follies; we have
had our backsets, and we have some ex-
cuses for our ignorance; but be the past
all it has been of wrongs, tyrannies, rags.
tears and bare bones, we can be even the
| better for that stern discipline-if we do
not come short of our duty.-Fred. Wood
row, in Century Magazine.