The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-04-16
The DOLCE Failure.

The Dodge Failure.
The failure of the manufacturing firm of
Alfred Dodge & Son of Dolgeville. N. Y.
has attracted more than ordinary atten-
ton. for. az least two reasons apart from
the fact that The failure was for a sum
upwards of 100000 one of these rea-
sons is that the embarrassment of the
firm was Oecasioned by the action of the
banks in curtailing their loans. because,
it is understood, the banks desire to place
| themselves in perfectly safe position IN.
anticipation of war between this couu
try aud SPAR. The other reason, and the
one which viii attract the greater part
of the atreation given to The failure, In
all probability, is the fact that the Dolce
firm has fora number of years been oper
yating its manufacturing establishment up
on profit sharing plan. 1t has been fire.
quently pointed to by writers on the prob
lem of labor and wages, and the relations
between capital and labor, as having put
into practice the theories advanced by
those economists called industrial social
lists" and as having apparently made
success of its plan.
The Dodge plan not only provided that
the employees of the company should share
in the profits of the concern directly, In
Nhe way of wages, but embraced also pen
sions, sick and life insurance, and other
methods in line with the central idea of
making the employees part owners with the
firm. For a number of years the plan ran
along smoothly. to the satisfaction of
those directly interested in it, as well as
of the theorists who bold that co-opera-
ton and profit sharing are the only meth
DDS by which the labor problem can be
satisfactorily solved
Whether the scheme to make an equita-
pile division of the profits with employees
is responsible for the firms embarra S.
ment is not yet quite clear. Some of our
contemporaries seem 10 think il is respon-
sible, and that the failure of the firm
marks the failure of the scheme as we'll
lfrhe Washington Post, for instance says
'the firms mistake in the proft-sharing
scheme has been in an error of Judgment
not in deliberate wrong AT the same
time the Post lays down the sound bust
ness principle that there can be no sue
cessful profit sharing between those who
take all and those who take none of the
risks" that there should be no sharing of
profits in good years without some effec-
tive manner of dividing the losses In bad
years; unless the profits earned in good
syears are so placed that they may be
drawn upon for losses in bad years, dsas-
all va
Presumably the Messrs. Dodge, being
long-headed business men, had provided
against such contingencies as unproltab BILE
years. Without being conversant with the
details of their plan, 1T would probably
not be risking anything to say they had
! given special attention. to that matter
| Meantime there are reasons for saying
that the profit sharing plan of the Dolges
should not be condemned too quickly. 1t
may be that the plan had no connection
with the failure. The New York CORE
.spondent of the philadelphia Press fur
nishes one of these reasons, and a good
one. He says: 1T is realized that If Mr..
Dodge had not a large amount of paper
in the banks and had not widely extended
Interests beyond the manufactured product
which has made his name well known all
over the world, he would not have been
| embarrassed by the action of the banks"
Other enterprises besides that which was
under the profit sharing plan may have
caused the trouble to the Dodge firm, Just
as the late Mr. Singerly of Philadelphia
swamped his banks with outside enter
prises