PROFIT-SHARING.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 41, 10 June 1914, Page 4

PROFIT-SHARING.

Considerable interest was aroused in labor circles in England when it was recently announced that the Ford Motor Company had decided to admit the employees- at its works in Manchester to the profit-sharing scheme which Mr Henry Ford inaugurated at his American motor car works some time ago. The plan put in force in England is in every respect the same as that adopted in New York early in January, by which fully £2,000,000 will be added yearly to the wages of the employees. Mr Ford, in the course of an interview, stated that the scheme had worked very well in his American factories, and it was largely on this account that it had been decided to extend its benefits to he firm's employees in Britain and later also to those in France, where the Ford Company possesses motor car building works. At the beginning of April last nearly twenty-five thousand men were enjoying the pro-fit-sharing scheme in the United States, and at present considerably over a thousand will participate in England. Later on there will be very many more, as Mr Ford declares he believes it is far better to make several thousand men prosperous and contented father than follow the plan of making a few- in his establishments multi-millionaires. The sociological side of profit-sharing Mr Ford went on to say, was deemed of great importance, and it was one to which his firm had given a good deal of consideration. There was in New York a sociological department to look after employees' welfare, and this same system will be put in force in England, and extended to whereover the profit-sharing scheme is adopted. They desired to see that employees do not lose their efficiency because of prosperity, and the sociological department will work along that line. In conclusion Mr Ford remarked: "No employee will be dis missed unless he is absolutely proved to be inefficient. Employees who cannot remain sober and industrious will be dismissed, but no one will be let out without being given every possible chance to make good. , - It is only when we find that he is of no use to us in any way whatever that he will be dismissed. Womer are not considered in this scheme, because they ' are: not*- the• economic factors that men workers are. They have, however, in our Detroit shops been given substantial increases o:" pay, and we may adopt this system in England where were employ women. The profit-sharing is for the men, and I expect we shall have contented and prosperous shops." Tht working of the scheme as outlined by this remarkably successful American business man will be watched with interest by both employers and em ployed. In theory.it is by no means new, and some who have given long study to the question hold that an arrangement by which all concerned are interested in the building up of the businesses in which they are employed is a true solution of the Labor v. Capital problem.