The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-05-16
PLEADS FOR ENGLISH TRADE Sir Christopher Furness
 Speaks. WARNS AGAINST GERMANY Suggests Conference to Consider
 Profit Sharing. London ThestricaI Managers Arc op- posed to the Daylight ssvins Bui--week's Gossip of
 England.
" VI. HAMrLroN RHODES.

{ London. May I5.--At the Town Hall west Hartlepooi. the other evening athe freedom of the Borough of Hartie- .ooi was conferred upon Sir Christo- nher Furness, M. P., in recognition s,f his Many and eminent services Tn inc shipbuiiding and engineering en- terprises of the borough. and or ms high position in the commercial ana industrial world"
 In his reply Sir Christopher Furness said the present depression In trade. if the history of economies afforded any guidance, was but a temporary phase. at any rate so far as concern d trade in bulk. He could mot pre- 8ict a quick return to the high state of prosperity which once prevailed In the shipbuilding industry. They would have recognized themselves that the facts as to the vastly improv- ed capacity of Germany to turn our warshfps revealed during the recent grave debates upon the British naval situation more than justified his as sertions over the past year or two as to the rapidity. economy and ei- fciency which now characterizeo tns work of the ever developing rivals at the other side of the North Sea.
 But he was entirely satisfied that fhe system of co-partnery. with the loyalty, the intelligence, the zeal. and the industry which 1t brought into nlav. enabled them to confront their rivals. wherever they might arise, with d prospect of success better than most of those with whom at home they might be brought into competi- ton, and that as trade revived, en. ferprlse broadened. and the two mil. lion tons of ut-of-date shipping gfad- uaily disappeared. Hartlepool would secure it's full share of the orders go> ing at the price dictated by the in- evitabia law of supply and demand. Englishmen might not have to fight fhe German nation--God forbidi in the terrible arena or war; but who could deny that every day made clearer the fact that in industry. in trade, in commerce. the Germans were compet- itnrs no longer to be despised. but rather only to be beaten by the offer of a cheaper price or a better article. by the exhibition of superior skill. or the exertion of reader alertness. The best available instrument for meeting ana overcoming this crisis of Brifish national life was the principle of co-partnershap.
 Urges Patrfotism.
 He was sometimes tempted to think that no Englishman could at this mo. mdnIICSL nroftablv to the country than by se- curing under distinguished patronage and presidency, the summoning or a rational conference of the leading em- ployers of the kingdom In the nope ans belief that a careful and synpa- fhatic examination of the principle and practice of co-partnery would re- szalt in the adoption of resolution 70 give effect thereto in the fashion, or k~A An T1- stances of each particular industry or trade.
 Sir Christopher Furness's sugges- lion that national conference of em- pfoyers should be called to discuss the nuestion of co-partnership has been received with enthusiasm. For many years past several large firms in Lon don and the provinces have been work ing under a system of profit-sharing, and, so far as can be ascertained, the results have in every case been emil nently satisfactory. It Is. indeed. difficult to see how it could we'll Do otherwise, for both master and man stand oufy to gain by it, while one cannot benefit without the other. Un- der a scheme of co-partnership strikes become practically impossible. and the workers, Knowing that their own profit is bound up even in greater extent than is generally the case with the prosperity of the company-i. e.. the capftaiists-for which they are work ing, become interested not only in their personal work. but also in the stability of that horrible thing, the scapital" of the concern. In other words. every working man partner in a scheme of proft-sharing becomes himself a capitalist, and. in the words of the street-corner Socialist. a para site Co-partnery is profit-sharing between employer and employed; profit sharing makes the working man