TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1908. INDUSTRIAL CO – PARTNERSHIP. The Advocate. [Established 1888.]

Bush Advocate, Volume XXI, Issue 130, 1 December 1908, Page 4

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1908. INDUST RIAL CO - PARTNERSHIP.

The Advocate. [Established 1888.]

[PUBLISHED DAILY.] OLDEST ESTABLISHED PAPEB AND aUAKANTKBD LARGEST CIRCULATION IN THK DISTRICT. CIRCULATES IN Dannevirke Mangatoro Tamaki Ngapaeruru Mangahe Weber TiTrekPpint .Waione Wimbledon Herbertville Akitid Horoeka Oringi Kiritaki Maharahara Woodville " Uniutaoroa Matamau Piripiri ■ .■ Makotuku Ormondville Norsewood Takapau Whetukura Awariki Otanga Kumeroa Rangitane Raumati Tamaki No. 3 S. Norsewood Tirato TipapakuKu Mangapuaka Mangatuna Makaretu

The cables recently informed us that Sir Christopher Furness, of the wellknown building firm of Furness, Withy and Co., of Hartlepool, had arranged a co-partnership with tho firm's employees. The experiment is one of great interest in .regard to relations between employer and employee, and the result will certainly be looked for with very great interest by all interested in labor problems. Some particulars in regard to the developments which led up to the firm's proposals are outlined in a recent copy of the London Telegraph. From this ire learn that the position reached when the offer was made to the workers was that Furness, Withy and Co., had fully resolved to close their shipbuilding yard at Hartlepool unless they could make a fresh start with their employees. It has been carried on at a loss, but it is' not an indispensable part of the company's business; and if it were abandoned altogether tho shareholders would probably benefit. But, for the sake of the Hartlepools, the company wished 'to avoid being driven, to this solution, and Sir Christopher Furness laid down two alternatives. One was that the unions should take over the yard as a going concern, and run it themselves. Tho other was a scheme of co-partnership. No one expected that the former alternative would be chosen, though Sir Christopher offered that the price should be fixed by assessors, and promised that the company would be generous as to the payment of the purchase-money, and would freely place all their experience lat the service of the unions. In some respects it is a pitj* that these unions, which are quite rich enough ! to take over the yard, did not do so (says a contemporary). It would have been a most interesting experiment, and it would give their leading men an ideal opportunity of showing their business ability. Socialists and all anti-capitalists are never weary of .declaring that the skill required for 1 management is both enormously over- v rated and grotesquely over-remun-erated. Here would be a splendid opening for them to demonstrate the ability of the natural man and to carry into execution the- nostrums for

which they vote so readily at trade union congresses. A union or group of unions which can-fed on a shipbuilding yard 1 Kroughout a period of great depression without losing its capital Mould command the respect of tho wholo business community, especially if it contrived to satisfy all the demands which its employees would rain in upon.it. -It would be refreshing, therefore-, to sec the Hartlepool yard run either on purely Socialist lines, with all the profits devoted to labour — iorit.is part of the doctrine that interest on capital is theft from labour— or else on similar lines: to tliose on which the cooperative spinning mills in Oldham are conducted. In either case, the unions undertaking the business would speedily find, as Sir Christopher Furness pointed out, that the active forces of the industrial world ;aro not merely capital and labour, Jnit capital, labour, • and enterprise. the- last-named, rwhieh in|;ludes skill,-hastinct, agid;.experience, ihe other "two 'very'bften succeed only in getting into the •Bankruptcy Court. .The alternative scheme of 00-paftner-|hip which, according fo recent cables, ihas been adopted is thai all the.com*pany's workmen should become shareholders in the concern, holding a new class of share, which' they will purchase h}- means of a compulsory 5 per cent, deduction from their wages, and on Which they will receive a fixed 4. per cent, interest. Then, if the .business proves profitable, these •shares will also receive additional, interest after the ordinary shareholders 'get 5 per cent.,' benefiting equally,, with them in the division of the pro^ fits. The workmen. r w|it be required to take up shares, ijirt they will be able to sell them if they leave the company's employ, and they will thus become partners in the. business, and interested in its-welfare. Their shares carry no voice in the management, and, according to the present scheme, they have jw> representation oji the directorate. But, on the other hand, it is proposed to form a consultative body, known as a work's council, composed of representatives of the employees and of the firm in equal numbers, Which should serve as "a court of reference and committee of counsel rolled into one." The main purpose of this body would be to promote friendly communication between masters and men, to strengthen the feeling of identity of interest, and to get rid of friction. For it is of the essence. of the scheme that there are. to belno' niore strikes and -lock-outs, and if disputes arise they^ aro to be referred to; and settled by, a court of arbitration.- : The scheme is an attract ive one, arid if it justifies expectations it may be the beginning of a new era an tho history of British industry.