Los Angeles herald., 1905-03-05
ST TCUIS OFFICE AND
STORE WHOSE. PROFITT
Are TO BE S'ItkJSED,

stock you received for your dividends
you have been paid from s to II per
cent a year.
During this period the company has
cared for its sick and disabled and has
contributed toward public relief and
betterment In various directions.
1--WE have now decided to take our
customers also into partnership. out
of the profits capital will get bank rate
of interest, and the remaining profits
will be apportioned in the ratio of
per cent on capital, III per cent on
wages and salaries and 2 per cent on
the gross profit on customers trade.
Relief expenditures are charged as
business expenses.
"In addition, all the interest AMI
profit accruing on my stock, which is
about four -fifths of the whole, will be
apportioned-four-te to the trade,
three -tenths to the employees and three
tenths to such public and benevolent
purposes as l initiate and supervise,
"The management of the company.
will remain unchanged; the united in
terests will increase it's prosperity and
enlarge it's benefits. The dividends
will be paid in my stock 1t should
not take many years for the complete
ownership and control to pass into tile
hands of the employees and customers,
who are together the makers OF the
profit
Aim of the Benefactions
In a statement to The Herald Mr..
Nelson summarized his exact object
ives thus:
my aim is to make it a cooperative
concern, in which the employees, from
the manager down to the laborer, ana
the customers are mutually interested
and receive all the profits except such
dividends as are paid on the stock
held by former and present employees
and future customers.
IT take none of the profits nor any
interest. They will gradually retire my
capital, they getting my stock and be-
coming the owners. / am not retiring
from the management | expect te
continue with it as long as l am want
| ed, using a good part of my twelve
hour day for public and benevolent
purposes, as heretofore. shall not
withdraw my capital from the business
| except as l use 1t for those purposes
Included in this remarkable gift
for gift it is, even though the reclp-
tents pay for it's the town of LIE
Claire, which under more or less SINH
lar conditions has already become the
property of its residents-all employees
| in the large Nelson factories there
1t has been called communal, but that
scarcely describes it fittingly, since 1t
lacks several of the characteristics
which usually distinguish communis-
| tic settlements. 1t is not a "moder'
town in the narrower sense of the
word The land was bought by Mr..
Nelson and laid out with winding
streets and several parks. Houses were
| built and then sold to the employees
practically at cost. They are entirely
at liberty to live elsewhere should they
SO prefer. The revenue accruing from
the sale of lands and houses after the
| original cost has been subtracted and
the rent is given over to fund used
to beautify the village, partial appli-
cation of the principles of Henry
George in whose theories Mr.. Nelson
is a believer. 1t Is called village by
courtesy, for although there are more
than 500 inhabitants, it is not incorpo-
rated, nor is there vestige of law, as
represented by town officers. The only
law prevailing is the civil and penal
code of the state of Illinois, and since
its foundation in 1890 there has not
been an arrest made within it's limits
TIE aim of the founder and his asso-
| ciates has been to make 1t an ideal
place for home life There are, In ad-
dition to the many parks, club, read
| ing room and a cooperative general
store. A big hedge fence draws the
line OF demarcation between the facto-
ries and the homes, and this marks
| the limit of the authority of the work.
rooms and the beginning of the inde-
pendence OF the landholder. All of Mr.
Nelson's employees are union men; he
is a firm believer in the benefit to be
derived from organized labor and
breaches that gospel.
Caring for His Employees
The house of the owner, too, is stu-
ated in this garden spot. 1t is unpre-
tentious; larger, perhaps, than most OF
those which surround it, but otherwise
without Identifying features. No doubt
Mr.. Nelson dreams Of the millennium
but he does not expect II at once, noI
does he hope TO accomplish social
revolution. But those reforms which
he has found capable OF translatine
from thought into deed he has seized
upon, and remarkable has been the
success which has followed upon his
endeavors. He is an enthusiastically
men who do things are-but he has
never permitted his enthusiasm to run
riot and by fanaticism make impossi-
BILE the attainment OF MS objects
Ta Claire college a striking featurf