INDUSTRIAL PARTNERSHIP.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 10974, 13 June 1903, Page 4

INDUSTRIAL PARTNERSHIP.

The true solution of the labour problem would seem to be not antagonism but mutual alliance" in ths , interests of both employers and' employes. Mr Andrew . Camegie*a iew weeks ago gave cxpiession to such an opinion when he said ,that "if every workman" was a shareholder it would end most connict.3 between .capital and labour?" The pity of it is thai. great American millionaire did not realise this years ago, when lie was sweating, his ,omjjloyes to further his own ends. Had, he ehowu a practical interest' in the. scheme he now advocates, his example, might have . been followed by other powerful magnates. Still, his Opinions are worth something, . even though they arc cxpicssed l,atc in the day, and with the experience of other industrial partnerships as a gKido, tho -lot" 1 of the worker aud the boi:d of sympathy, which ought to exist between employer and employe should in the future '' be greatly fhipioved. The benefit of cooperation was one of the tilings which most impressed the Mosely Commission • during choir inquiries in America, and in the report it was pointed out that "the strength of American industry lies in the fact thai it is conducted on the principles .

of co-operation between Capital and Labour. The employer is one with liis workmen, and is himself master of the details of their industry; the workmen, oh their part, possess a direct interest in the success of the undertaking. The -men are consulted, we are told, as to the acceptance of contracts, and initiative and inventiveness meets with its reward. The principle of co-operation or industrial partnership is not unknown in England, where there are some striking cxampies of the benefits accruing therefrom. Sir George Livcsey, speaking* at a recent meeting in London on "Industrial Partnership and the Prevention of Distress," ga^ spme interesting particulars of the results of cooperation. He said that when the Gas , Workers' Union was master in the retort houses of the South Metropolitan t Gas Company in 1899 he thought that possibly af some future time they might bo again free. Within three months thr.t was -realised, but it never occurred to him as possible that in a dozen years or so nearly every man would be a shareholder in the company, that some 4000 men would possess in the ordinary stock or on deposit with the company £170,000, or over .£4O per man on the average, that numbers of working men who said! that they could never previously .save a penny were possessors of .£IOO or more, a good few having become owners of their houses, .that three employes — two workmen and » one clerk ■ (elected by thei-v shareholding comrades)— would be sitting 1 on the Board and taking pait-ae directors with credit to themselves and with advantage to the company, that sihoc 1889 a dispute or a- difficulty or a difference of any kind between the work1 men 1 and' tho company had been unknown, and that such a spirit of co-operative good will should prevail on the part of the men generally as entirely to relieve all who had to do with them from every trace of anxiety. This was, however, no isolated Qaee. He went on to give other particulars', showing that co-partnership of capi.tal and -.labour was no mere dream ? ",but, i practical solution of a "very difficiilt prob cc m — namely, the reconciliation of thost t%yo apparently diverse, but really identical, interests. • Speaking generally, he said that the great weakness of Englan<l was that the great- working population had no share in its vast accumulated property, which was the cause' of the vhriftlessness of the English. The Frendi, he said, were ..thrifty because they were property-owners. He was of opinion that this difficulty would be removed, and that the' 20th century would do for the English working or wag£-carnincr class what the 19th century did for the middle class. The wonder was that the wage-earners, having n<> stake in the country, were s/p patriotic. The working men were not<so thriftless as was commonly supposed. Tlioir thriftlossness was due to the fact that theyregardsd as hopeless any attempt to accumulate, and therefore did not try. When the South Metropolitan Gas Company started their profitsharing system they gave the men the option of .leaving their annual bonus, in the company's hands at interest, and, to the surprise and. pleasure of all, no less' "than 45 per, cent dicl' 'eaves it."" This 'percentage had gradually increased until at the distribution last year it had risen to well over 80 per cent saved. This was the strength of the system. If the annual bonuses had been regularly withdrawn> no permanent good would have resulted to the workmen, and the profit-sharing system would have Wen "a failure and would certainly have been abandoned long 1 ago.