Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1919-09-10
Profit Sharing
OR
Tie Workers Fair Share
BY GEORGE w. PERKINS.

the Workers Fair Share" George w.
Perkins said, in part:
''The Workers Fair Share" has been
a real problem ever since the world
began II has changed greatly as civ
fIizaiion has progressed. and has
crowded harder and harder for solution
as Intelligence and education have
spread and bruadcncd
The workers fair share was an un.
solved problem when the expression
that designated the relationship be
tween the man OF capital and the man
Of labor was owner and slave" II
still existed when the expression OF
relationship became master and man.
II sfill exists In these days, when the
expression OF relationship Is "emplOyei
and employee" These very changes IN
the expressions used to designate the
relationship between capital ana LABOR
show that steady progress has been
made toward solving the problem Of
the workers fair share.
take II that everyone believes that
we cannot 20 back to the old condi
tions hat we must move forward to
an even better relationship than that
expressed by the term "employer and
employee" You ask: what is this
newer relationship to be and what term
will express ii?' answer that / be.
Iievc it must be "partners,"t II | am
right, then tie next question is how
: can this relationship he worked out
so as to bring the best results to ali
concerned?
Twenty years ago I became con.
vinced that only through profit sharn.
TINT was real. honest and open could
we hope TO find anything like salts
factory and permanent method of ar.
irving at the workers fair share.
Profit Sharing Not Philanthropy.
| do not look upon profit sharing
as philanthropy or Il form OF benevo
lencc do not put 1t In the same class
with gifts notwithstanding or bonuses
ut the end Of the year. do not ap.
prove or believe In any plan that even
savors of giving a man something for
nothing.
The profit sharing | believe In is the
Notes thorough and efficient co-opera-
ton between employer and employee
the kind that makes partners of
employees; the sort Of profit sharing
that Is practiccd between partners in
business Anything short of this IS
bound to result I'M failure and will
widen rather than narrow the breach
4
Close observation, coupled with con
siderable experience. has convinced
me that practically all the many fail
ures In profit sharing, both in this
country and in Europe, have occurred
because at bottom the plans were not
honestly devised nor eQuitably worked
out.
In the past the man who was not ed
ncnted or trained To think independ
emily struck because he wanted 81
day IL he was only getting SIZE and
for qnlte period labor differences
were settled On this basis. / believe
that we are rapidly passing out of that
period, for our lahoring people are 50
we'll educated and 81 able to think in
are no longer striking for definite in
crease i'm wages. but for what they re
gard MS fairer proportion of the
profitS If the business in which they
are engaged.
IL | am right about this, then we are
rapidly leaving behind the period when
labor disputes could be settled by Il
Ia. fnr
Ing the period when profit sharing in
some form must be practiced.
Outline of a Correct Profit-Sharinu
Plan.
A good many years of actual expert
ence have made me very optimistic re-
garding proiit-sharing plans worked
ont along the following lines:
First--Every business has. first Of
all. to earn operating expenses, de-
probation aud fair returns on honest
capitalization.
Second-I believe that every husi
ness should consider that the compcn
satian paid employees is for the pur
pose of earning sum of money sufl
Gent to pay the aforementioned
items.
Third believe that any profits
over and above such sum should. on
some percentage basis, be divided be
tween the capital used in the business
and the'employees engaged in the bust
ness.
FOURTH believe that in neither
case should these profits be immedi-
ately withdrawn from the business;
that they should be left in the business
for reasonable length of time TO pro-
Atect and increase its financial strength
and safety that in the case of capital
fits share OF these profits should be
carried 10 surplus; that in the case
of employees their share OF these prof
its should lie distributed to them in
some form of security representing an
interest in the business, and that each
employee should be required to hold
such security for a reasonable length
of tme. say three to five years.
Fifth believe that the employees