The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1919-10-31
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 81, 1919
THE PROFIT SHARING AuMBue

quarters as cure of industrial evils
but ii its advocates will take the
trouble to figure little they will find
that profit sharing would not help
particle.
A concern with a million dollars
capital and clearing for its owners
hundred thousand dollars year
would look on the face of the returns
to be making lot of money, but, with
pay-rolls as they average, an increase
in pay or a profit share at the rate of |
eight per cent would leave the owners
no profit at all, yet the employees |
would hardly be satisfied with an
eight per cent raise.
The worl dis passing through a un-
rest that is getting us nowhere ex.
cept into trouble and after 1t is all
over it is absolutely certain that the
final settlement must be on basis
of distribution of the worlds earnings
which will leave a margin of profit.
Business cannot be done on any other
foundation and it will not be.
People must get rid Of the false
ideas bred by the abnormal conditions
due to the war. The world must
emerge from the state of mind that
regards the swollen war wage as a
basis for pyramiding a wage system
of for Ynora aroh;t;n,,e ,,ropNrtiopc
and which treats the six-hour day and
the five-day week at fair demands in
the recent state of affairs. If history
teaches a lesson as regards recovery
from wars, it is that the losses and
drains thus incurred must be repaired
by extraordinary application and in
dustry on the part of generations next
succeeding This may be deemed par
ticularly true as regards the great
war through which the world has
just passed, which has left the con-
tinent of Europe so sorely depleted.
We are not yet through with the
sacrifice and self-denal enforced by
the war. To suppose that industrial
/ wage-earners can now settle down
and enjoy for an indefinite season
scale of rewards exceeding that
which prevailed in munition fac
. tories at the hight Of the war, is
delusion. The world must get back
to solid ground, the vicious circle
; by which prices are carried higher
and higher must be superseded by a
safe and sane order. In this restora-
ton OF economic health all elements
must cooperate. Protiteering on the
strength of war scarcity must end.
To attempt to perpetuate such exae-
: tons through the contriyance of
permanent scarcity of the neces-
saries of life is a banefu and disas-
, trous policy. Prosperity and happi-
: ness cannot be reared on any such
foundation. For a time accumulated
earnings may be dissipated in order
to pay wages or profits not fairly
earned, but only for brief period.
Such course can only lead to a
fearful reaction in the end,
In this connection Theodore Roose-
welt presents a wholesome example.
His industry was phenomenal There
were seemingly no bounds to his tire
less activity in many fields. His ca
reer ought to shame the sackers who
demand 30-hour week when the
shortage of production has led to a
veritable famine in food and fuel and
clothing in various quarters of the
earth.
Were Americans ever so selfish,
were they willing to forget the desti-
tuition and desoation of war-torn
Europe, they could not escape the
hard truth that Europe must be re-
habilitated before our own country
can be brought again to sound
commercial basis. We cannot find
profitable customers in the European !
nations, we cannot hope to collect
! the huge war dents now charged on
books against these nations, until
they have found way to recovery.
We can have no genuine progress at
home until an equilibrium is estab-
lished in place of the existing dis
parity between demand and supply. /.
This is indeed time to preserve |
our common sense and maintain our
self-control America has resisted
forces by which the ship of state
threatened to founder on the rocks
of sectionalism. 1t must with equal
determination resist the forces that
would procure its destruction on the
rocks of class interest We must re-
main a united people, true to the
ideals of justice, conservation and
thrift by which in generations past
the blessings of liberty have been
preserved. If we forsake liberty for
license, if we abandon the reign of
law for the rule of force, we shall
pay a terrible penalty for our folly,