PROFIT-SHARING.

Bush Advocate, Volume VII, Issue 475, 30 May 1891, Page 6

PROFIT-SHARING.

(daily news.) The Board of Trade han issued a most interesting report on "profit-sharing," by Mr. J. Lowry Whittle, of the patent office. Mr. Whittle has inquired into the Continental as well as the English systems, and with results that testify to the practical benefits of this mode of enterprise. He shows at tho outset that profit sharing takes many forms. In some cases ifc is a thank-offering or bonus to the workers for the success of the year. In others a definite part of the profits is paid over to a provident fund. In many instances the workmun's share is set aside to enable him to become a joint owner in tho business. In others, again, the workman receives oufc of the net profits a cash payment determined by tho proportion of his contribution in labour to the total amount of labour done. All these schemes are designed to increase profit by stimulating tho interest of the workman in his work. It is argued that they leduce the waste of material and the cost of superintendence, impi'ove the quality of the werk, give tho workmen a strong motive to remain with their employers, and stimulate their inventiveness as to improvements. The bonus system, though condemned as too rudimentary by many writers on the subject, has many solid results to show. The Piat iron fouudry in France gives a bonus at the discretion of tho owner, and in eight years the sums thus distributed have amounted to over £6,500. The system has especially led to a great im- | provemeut in the quality of the work. It has answered equally well Mr. Hartley, fche owner of a preserve factory at Liverpool. Mr. Hartley has always sought to maintain relations of paternal benevolence with his workpeople, and his factory is a model of salubrity and comfort. The provident fund form has been adopted, among others in this country, by the firm of Cassell and Co. After suitable additions to the reserve fund, and payment of 5 per cent, on capital, 5 per cent, of the remaining profits is paid ovor to the provident fund. Under this arrangement, the annual payments have averaged more than £900 a year. Evory port-on employed after five years' service acquires a claim in case of his death while in the service of the firm. The well-known firm of Godin, at Guiße, is tbe most conspicuous example of the stork system of profit sharing. Tho Godin system began in a bon us, passed into a cash pay ment, aud now forms an accumulation towards thepurohaso of shares in the limited oompany. Examples of this system in England are to be seeuinthe Woodhouse Mills, and in tho firm of Joshua Hoyle and Sous. In this* lasfc cas. tho scheme worked exceedingly well during tho more prouperous period of the cotton trade, but with reduced dividends its popularity waned. Afc the present moment, however, 707 small shares are held by those engaged in the business. The policy of the Godin firm is that the workmen shall gradually become owners of tho business. Tho oash payment system was adopted on a large and striking scale at Messrs. Briggs's Whitwood # collieries in 1804. It worked well for a time, but it did nofc take deep root, as this particular trade is of a fluctuating nature, and subjected to vicissitudes. The well-known firm of Leolaire in Paris combines many of theso systems iv one with the happiest results — the cash payment, tho provident fund, and the stock system. The prime conditions of success aro stability in tho trade and great oonfide.ee between masters and workpeople.

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