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 p. (Si 
 
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 AND EMPLOYEE. A Study in the Evolution 
 of the Wages System. Fifth Thousand. Crown 
 8vo, $1.75. 
 
 THE LAWS OF DAILY CONDUCT. Third 
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 HOUGHTON, MIFFLTN & COMPANY, 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK.
 
 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 A STUDY OF EMPLOYERS WELFARE 
 INSTITUTIONS 
 
 BY 
 
 NICHOLAS PAINE GILMAN 
 
 I know of no trust more sacred than that given into the hands of the 
 captains of industry, for they deal with human beings in close and vital 
 relations not through the medium of speech or of exhortation, but of 
 positive association, and by this they can make or mar. 
 
 CARROLL D. WRIGHT. 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
 
 be rtilicrsiDc press, 'Cambridge 
 1899
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY NICHOLAS PAINE OILMAN 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
 
 PREFACE 
 
 THIS volume has a scientific and a practical aim. 
 Frequently, since the publication of my work on profit 
 sharing in 1889, I have been forcibly made aware 
 of the difficulty of getting reliable information con- 
 cerning the " welfare-institutions " which numerous 
 employers of labor maintain for their employees. A 
 characteristic note of most of these arrangements is 
 that the liberal-minded employer making them stops 
 short of plans which would demand a change in the 
 existing wages system. Practically they result, how- 
 ever, in an " indirect dividend to labor," as I have 
 called it. They depend for their existence upon real- 
 ized profits, made in the usual way, and appropriated 
 in part by the employer for the benefit of his work- 
 people, purely at his own discretion and usually under 
 no agreement with the employees. Such welfare- 
 institutions form an intermediate stage between a 
 wages system under which the workman receives his 
 agreed wages and nothing more, directly or indirectly, 
 and a profit-sharing agreement according to which he 
 would receive, directly and regularly, a certain share 
 of the profits made by the establishment. 
 
 There have been and are, in this nineteenth cen- 
 tury, employers numerous enough to be worthy of
 
 iv PREFACE 
 
 consideration who have thus informally paid a virtual 
 dividend to their employees. The significance of this 
 method as a sign of a possible future is great. But 
 economic literature in the English language, so far as 
 I am aware, has no convenient record of such liber- 
 alities. The first aim of this volume is, therefore, to 
 supply this deficiency, and to present a necessarily in- 
 complete view of welfare-institutions in Europe and 
 America. For Germany I have relied largely on the 
 two volumes compiled by Dr. J. Post (the second was 
 published in 1893), supplemented by later reports 
 received from German firms : for France I have de- 
 pended upon Mons. H. Brice's work, upon French 
 profit-sharing literature (which pays much attention 
 to these institutions), and upon direct correspondence. 
 In both these countries there is such an abundance 
 of instances that I have presented only a number of 
 typical cases in detail and have briefly summarized 
 others : in some cases I have had to be content with 
 figures given in 1889. In England, on the other 
 hand, such institutions seem to be comparatively few. 
 For the United States I have described in varying de- 
 tail a considerable number of cases, most of which I 
 have personally investigated. In this country there 
 are certainly, and in England there are probably, 
 numerous instances of liberal employers of whom I 
 have no information. From the nature of the case 
 such a record as this must be incomplete ; the main 
 matter is that it shall include a good variety of plans
 
 PREFACE V 
 
 that have been tried in different lines of industry. It 
 has seemed well worth while, from the standpoint of 
 knowledge simply, to bring together the body of sifted 
 facts given in Part II. for the information of all 
 persons interested in the study of labor questions. I 
 shall welcome news of cases now unknown to me. 
 
 My practical aim has been to present these facts, 
 which appear to exhibit a finer conception of the em- 
 ployer's function than is commonly held, in such a 
 way as to incite other intelligent and successful em- 
 ployers of labor to go and do likewise. It has been 
 especially difficult for such an employer, with the best 
 intentions, to learn much of what others have done on 
 the lines of far-sighted policy and practical philan- 
 thropy which are my subject. 
 
 I have thought that the facts given in Part II. 
 would be shown more satisfactorily, if they were pre- 
 faced by the matter contained in Part I. on the 
 modern employer. I here hold that an essential 
 matter in the labor world is that both the buyer and 
 the seller of labor shall realize the moral aspects of 
 their relation in other words, that the labor con- 
 tract shall be moralized. This is as true of the work- 
 ingman as of the other party to the contract ; but, as 
 this volume is concerned with the latter, I allude to 
 the former incidentally only, and go on to present a 
 realizable ideal, such as a sober and candid imagi- 
 nation might construct. That no excessive demands 
 are made on actual employers by such an ideal will
 
 vi PREFA CE 
 
 appear from the account which follows of Robert 
 Owen, the man who made this ideal a matter of fact 
 three generations ago. 
 
 In Part III., under the heading " A Direct Divi- 
 dend to Labor," I have supplemented my treatise on 
 profit sharing (which it has not seemed feasible to 
 revise) with such later information as the lapse of ten 
 years renders desirable. With the appendixes Nos. 
 II. and III., this part may serve to set forth the later 
 history of the system. 
 
 To the many business firms and corporations at 
 home and abroad with whom I have corresponded, or 
 whose establishments I have visited, while preparing 
 this work, my sincere and hearty thanks are due for 
 their unwearied courtesy. As I write these closing 
 lines, I am also mindful of two great publicists, too 
 soon departed, to whom I owe much of light and 
 leading, and whose labors in the cause of industrial 
 peace this volume would fain help to continue in some 
 degree Francis A. Walker of Boston, and Charles 
 Robert of Paris. 
 
 Whether the dividend to labor which the economist 
 approves and the employer establishes be direct or 
 indirect, I trust that this book may serve to increase 
 that deeper consciousness of kind, that more truly 
 human sympathy between employers and employed, 
 of which such a dividend can be but an imperfect 
 expression. 
 
 N. P. G. 
 
 MEADVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA, September 16, 1899.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PART I. 
 
 THE MODERN EMPLOYER. 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 AN ESSENTIAL MATTER 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 A REALIZABLE IDEAL 18 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 ROBERT OWEN THE MANUFACTURER 30 
 
 PART II. 
 
 AN INDIRECT DIVIDEND TO LABOR. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 WELFARE-INSTITUTIONS IN GERMANY 63 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 PATRONAL INSTITUTIONS IN FRANCE 121 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 PATRONAGE IN HOLLAND AND BELGIUM .... 161 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 BRITISH EMPLOYERS' INSTITUTIONS 177 
 
 CHAPTER Vni. 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 206
 
 viii CONTENTS 
 
 PAKT III. 
 
 A DIRECT DIVIDEND TO LABOR. 
 
 CHAPTEK IX. 
 FIVE CASES OF PROFIT SHAKING .... . 296 
 
 1. The Maison Baille-Lemaire. 
 
 2. The Bourne Mills. 
 
 3. The Procter and Gamble Company. 
 
 4. The South Metropolitan Gas Company. 
 
 5. The N. 0. Nelson Company. 
 
 CHAPTEK X. 
 PROFIT SHARING TO-DAY 334 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 THE REASONABLE WAY . 352 
 
 APPENDIX I. Some Dangers of Paternalism .... 362 
 
 APPENDIX II. List of Profit-Sharing Firms .... 366 
 
 APPENDIX III. Cases of Abandonment of Profit Sharing . . 380 
 
 APPENDIX IV. Bibliography 389 
 
 INDEX 393
 
 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 PART I 
 
 THE MODERN EMPLOYER 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 AN ESSENTIAL MATTER 
 
 THE great Duke of Wellington is reported to have 
 lamented, on a certain occasion, that he was " much 
 exposed to authors." The employer of labor at the 
 present day might complain that he is much exposed 
 to philanthropists. The number of persons, quite in- 
 expert in practical affairs, who are ready to tell him 
 the only just way of managing his business, so far as 
 concerns his employees, is not small. They are often 
 forward to accuse him of being the chief reason for 
 the existing unrest and confusion in the world of 
 industry. They sometimes charge him with hardness 
 of heart because of his unwillingness to advance wages 
 beyond the market rate, or to lessen the hours of 
 labor in his factory, while his competitors are keeping 
 to the usual working day. They deplore his lack of 
 intellectual vision, in that he does not foresee, as they 
 do, the near abolition of his entire class in the down- 
 fall of the competitive regime and the advent of 
 cooperative man or the socialistic state.
 
 2 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 The disregard of some obvious facts which charac- 
 terizes much of this advice or objurgation is plain to 
 the ordinary employer of labor, upon whom there lies 
 the executive care of a considerable business. He is 
 but too well aware, in very many cases, that it requires 
 all his skill to keep his head above water, while pay- 
 ing the same rate of wages as his more successful 
 competitors, and obtaining the same number of hours 
 of work from his men. When he is reminded of the 
 millionaires in his own industry who have erected 
 hospitals, free libraries, or model villages, he can often 
 allege truly that he has himself been a very practical 
 philanthropist, in keeping his force as steadily em- 
 ployed as possible for years, despite the variations of 
 trade. He may claim that he has not yet received a 
 due compensation for his arduous labor of superintend- 
 ence. As for general cooperative production by the 
 workingmen, acting as their own employers, he thinks 
 that he cannot justly be considered a barrier in their 
 way : it is freely open to them, so far as he is con- 
 cerned. As for socialism, he does not consider it a 
 practical question for this generation. 
 
 No conviction, again, is more deeply rooted in the 
 mind of the ordinary man of affairs than that of the 
 inadvisability of confusing philanthropy and business. 
 " Mixing things that differ is the Great Bad," as 
 Mrs. Carlyle said. Let business be conducted, then, 
 on sound business principles, says the man of affairs : 
 let philanthropy do its saving office after the business 
 is firmly established and yields large returns : but let 
 such salvation not interfere with the common-sense 
 methods of the active world. 
 
 In this volume I do not pose as the advocate of the
 
 AN ESSENTIAL MATTER 3 
 
 workingman. For the great body of competent and 
 successful employers of labor I entertain a sincere 
 respect, according to their solid ability in the conduct 
 of affairs. I have a profound conviction that a true 
 and natural aristocracy_ the leadership of the com- 
 petent is to endurjL-in the-industrial world, as 
 elsewhere, for an mdefinij_tim. 1 Progress toward 
 cooperative production is slow, though not so slow 
 now as formerly, and a socialistic state is, to say the 
 least, still below the horizon of " practical politics." 
 I have no difficulty in believing in the fundamental 
 rationality of the men who employ their fellow-men in 
 large or small enterprises ; I do not doubt their pre- 
 dominant desire to be fair and just in their dealings. 
 Were this not so, the pessimist would certainly have 
 a much firmer and more extensive foundation for his 
 depressing creed than the reasons which he generally 
 gives. 
 
 But no condition of mankind is perfect altogether, 
 and no body of men has yet succeeded in monopolizing 
 wisdom. The function of the entrepreneur, or em- 
 ployer on a large scale, is still so modern that it has 
 not had time for its full humanization and rationali- 
 zation. Destined, I believe, to long continuance 
 among articulate-speaking men, as a relation both 
 natural and reasonable, the employer's office should 
 be examined from every side, to discover all its excel- 
 lences and to supply all its defects. If the entre- 
 preneur indeed represents the brain in the industrial 
 body, and therefore has rightly a controlling power, he 
 must properly recognize that one of the chief func- 
 
 1 Mr. W. H. Mallock has very ably treated this matter in his work 
 on Aristocracy and Evolution.
 
 4 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 tions of the mind is to form ideals ideals that are 
 desirable and realizable, ideals that presuppose con- 
 science and a touch of imagination, ideals that 
 demand great patience in our slow march toward the 
 Better; never, for human eyes, shall that Better 
 become an unyielding and impassable Best ! 
 
 An ideal in regard to erecting the finest mills, 
 the purchase of the fittest machinery, the making of 
 the largest and best product, and the control of the 
 widest market is often before the employer's mental 
 eye. Let him remember, then, that the most impor- 
 tant part of the whole apparatus of production is the 
 laboring men, the " living machinery," as Robert 
 Owen called it, of a factory. There is an ideal 
 relation possible of conception between the manager 
 or owner of a cotton-mill and those men who work in 
 it. This ideal, to speak broadly, is approached in a 
 prosperous factory just so far as reason and good- will 
 prevail there. 
 
 Before inquiring what reason and good-will demand, 
 let us briefly consider the general function of the 
 modern employer as a leader in the industrial world. 
 Long overlooked by the economists as a factor dis- 
 tinct from the possessor of capital, he has had ample 
 justice done him at last by the economists of the 
 latter half of this century. The late President F. A. 
 Walker especially was among the first writers in our 
 language to give a proper account of his peculiar 
 function a function quite distinct from that of the 
 man who has inherited a fortune, which he would like 
 to use in capitalistic production, but who is well aware 
 that he is himself destitute of the commercial and 
 executive ability needed to insure profit in business.
 
 AN ESSENTIAL MATTER 5 
 
 The man who has the mental ability and the force 
 of character requisite for the conduct of industry on 
 a large scale, under the trying conditions of modern 
 competition, but who has not the large capital needed, 
 is the man whom the capitalist proper seeks and 
 eagerly embraces when found. Here is the one 
 magician who can call up profits from the nether deep 
 by his potent art. The two functions, of providing 
 money and of furnishing an able brain and a master- 
 ful character, are always to be distinguished, whether 
 in different persons or in the same person. When 
 the man of innate executive power and great acquired 
 knowledge has also become a capitalist through his 
 deserved prosperity, he unites the two functions. As 
 a capitalist he lends money to himself as an em- 
 ployer; but the second function is far more rarely 
 exercised prosperously among men than the first. 
 
 It is the unique task of the employer to bring 
 together capital and labor by using both in a partner- 
 ship which only executive skill and business foresight 
 can make profitable. He it is with whom the work- 
 man has to contend or to unite. No mythological 
 " conflict between Capital and Labor " engages the 
 striker, but a very real contest between himself and 
 the employer. To the employer the workman resorts 
 in order to procure occupation and wages: against 
 the employer he strikes for higher wages ; or with the 
 employer he produces, in a friendly union of indus- 
 trial effort. The labor problem is, substantially, the 
 question of obtaining the best relations between labor 
 and management, between the hand-worker, more or 
 less skillful with his brain, and the man at the head of 
 the concern, whose labor is chiefly, if not wholly, 
 mental.
 
 6 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 However much I shall have to say in this volume 
 upon the moral disposition of the employer, I fully 
 recognize the fact that the first thing necessary to 
 the welfare of the workman is that his employer shall 
 be a man of intellectual ability and general force of 
 character not primarily moral force. It is far more 
 important for the workman that his employer shall be 
 financially successful than that he shall be kind or 
 generous in his dealings. A hard employer, who 
 keeps his men steadily at work for years, on the 
 average wage, is much more of a real benefactor to 
 the operative than a genial employer whose inex- 
 perience or lack of capacity closes the factory in a 
 few months : the latter will have the sympathy of 
 his employees, but he is not their best friend. The 
 responsibilities of a typical great entrepreneur of this 
 century are many and varied, and they call loudly 
 for the strong man in the manager's chair. The 
 employer often selects the place in which the factory 
 is to be carried on : he has to build it in accordance 
 with the latest teachings of experience ; he has to 
 stock it with approved machinery ; he has to find 
 capable overseers and a supply of competent work- 
 people ; he has to buy the raw material, to decide 
 upon styles and patterns, and then to sell, in the most 
 favorable market he can find, the finished product, 
 due to all this remarkable and prolonged concert of 
 various abilities in the whole force. He is the one 
 person to whom the chief praise for success is rightly 
 ascribed : just as much is he the one person at whose 
 door the blame of failure is to be laid whatever its 
 specific cause, he is properly held accountable for 
 allowing that specific cause to work. " Captains of
 
 AN ESSENTIAL MATTER 7 
 
 industry," who have chosen their lieutenants and 
 privates, they are the culprits or the weaklings to 
 whom failure is due, if failure there be: and, if 
 success arrives : 
 
 " Brightest is their glory's sheen, 
 For greatest hath their labor been." 
 
 Mr. Mallock has not overrated the importance to 
 modern civilization of the strong brain and the force- 
 ful character of the successful employer. 1 He deserves 
 to lead, since he is indispensable to the welfare of 
 those allied with him, the capitalist and the workman 
 alike. The incompetent employer, as President 
 Walker declared, is the worst enemy of the working- 
 man, for he soon leaves him unemployed. A success- 
 ful manager, on the other hand, who feels no particu- 
 lar sympathy with his operatives in their toilsome life, 
 but does keep them in work, year in and year out, 
 stands between them and starvation like a wall. 
 Power and success in the entrepreneur are the surest 
 ground for the employee's confidence in the future. A 
 fine morality, in the sense of sympathy or kindness 
 or generosity, on the employer's part, is a secondary 
 matter, however important, just as in deeds of war the 
 morality of a Napoleon or a Moltke is not primary. 
 But, assuming the existence in him of all the abilities 
 required for the prosperous working of a great indus- 
 
 1 " Capitalism, in its essence, is merely the realized process of the 
 more efficient members of the human race controlling and guiding the 
 less efficient ; capitalistic competition is the means by which, out of 
 these more efficient members, society itself selects those who serve it 
 best ; and no society which intends to remain civilized, and is not pre- 
 pared to return to the direct coercion of slavery, can escape from 
 competition and the wage system, under some form or other, any 
 more than it can stand in its own shadow."
 
 8 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 trial establishment, then good-will to men, sympathy 
 with one's kind and the human touch are happy and 
 fortunate and admirable additions to the vigor of 
 mind and the power of will which have taken a bond 
 of fate. It will be another proof of strength in the 
 strong employer if he seek and gain all the moral 
 advantage possible, and cement a kindly alliance with 
 his nearest fellow-men, building up the special and the 
 general welfare in firm union. Morality, no substi- 
 tute for intellectual ability and force of will in busi- 
 ness, is a very noble companion to them. 
 
 But, when we take a large historic and philosophic 
 view of the progressive civilization of mankind, we 
 cannot fail to be struck by the slowness with which 
 new forms of human relationship are moralized. An 
 original and inventive man makes a successful stroke 
 in trade or industry. Others eagerly imitate him. 
 It is a long tune before the ethical relations of the 
 new method are considered, or the point is even raised 
 whether it has any ethical relations. Nothing suc- 
 ceeding like success, in a world where imitation is 
 a primal power, the first thought of the natural man 
 is that the end justifies the means, unless these are 
 abhorrent to the common conscience. After the new 
 method has long been in operation to the profit of 
 many individuals, they easily reject the moral test. 
 They hold it impertinent in moral sticklers to thrust 
 their delicate scruples upon those who are simply 
 doing as others do in a particular business. But 
 neither the earlier nor the later position can be justi- 
 fied before the bar of reason. The first man to find 
 the new way pays no attention to the morality of it, 
 being absorbed in satisfaction with the happy result
 
 AN ESSENTIAL MATTER 9 
 
 to his own fortunes ; of course, this indifference can- 
 not be permanently maintained. Those who follow 
 him must recognize implicitly, at least, the propriety 
 of applying the moral test. If they are doing what 
 others are also doing, it can no longer be considered a 
 private matter. It certainly has become a matter for 
 moral judgment, if moral judgment has for its proper 
 subject the actions of social man. 
 
 Let us apply this ancient truth to a modern in- 
 stance. The first English manufacturer who bar- 
 gained with the poor-law guardians of a parish l for 
 a supply of children for his cotton-mill, might have 
 claimed that this was a personal affair between him- 
 self and the guardians. They contracted with him 
 legitimately, according to the rights of freemen. He 
 might well say that he would himself attend to the 
 children properly thereafter. He might have heard 
 with virtuous indignation any insinuation that he 
 would probably overwork and underfeed these or- 
 phans of tender years, for the increase of his profits. 
 Suppose that a moralist of the time had had a clear 
 foresight of the actual consequences of such " free 
 contract " to these orphans, who certainly were not 
 "free" themselves. Suppose that he called at once 
 for the intervention of the government. He would 
 certainly have found but scant recognition of his good 
 sense in the House of Commons. The new practice 
 had to spread and become common, and its natural 
 injurious results, in such hands, become obvious to all 
 who had eyes willing to see, before the law could ad- 
 visably interfere. It had to become an immoral insti- 
 tution before it could be moralized ; in other words, 
 1 In the latter part of the eighteenth century.
 
 10 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 it was obliged to have a natural history before it could 
 have a moral history. The greed of the intellectually 
 half-trained and morally low-toned manufacturers of 
 the early part of the factory period 1 produced atro- 
 cious results in heartless treatment of the mill chil- 
 dren ; the story is familiar to all acquainted with the 
 rise of modern industry. 2 Then, and not till then, the 
 need of moralizing this new but neglected institution 
 became manifest. It was then plain to see that the 
 State was the most effective agency to meet the cry- 
 ing need. Here, again, was the old, old story, a 
 new and evident power 4i sc l a i me( l responsibility, and 
 proceeded, by a fatal evolution, to the vices and evils 
 that always accompany such a disclaimer. 
 
 If the employer of to-day is sometimes impatient 
 at the large amount of " preaching " which he thinks 
 is needlessly directed upon himself, he may do well 
 to refresh his recollection of this time when the most 
 elementary moral commandments were flagrantly dis- 
 regarded by men of his class, the English manufac- 
 turers of 1780-1830. In these earlier years of the 
 factory system, the duties not alone of justice and 
 
 1 Gaskell, in his Manufacturing Population of England, as quoted 
 by Dr. G. von Schulze-Gaevernitz (Zum Socialen Frieden, vol i. p. 24), 
 tells us that the textile employers of the industrial-revolutionary 
 period were almost exclusively former workmen, in home or factory, 
 who had risen above their fellows by their ability and energy. Dr. 
 Schulze-Gaevernitz continues: "The first generation of employers 
 . . . belonged, then, to the uncultured class. They are pictured as 
 rude and brutal. . . . That moderation which is laid upon inherited 
 wealth by family tradition, social considerations and moral ideas was 
 foreign to them (p. 25). . . . Their relation to the workmen was, in 
 fact, a purely economic one, they considered them not as men, but 
 as means of accumulating capital " (p. 34). 
 
 2 See The Modern Factory System, by K. Whately Cooke Taylor, 
 ch. v.
 
 AN ESSENTIAL MATTER 11 
 
 kindness, but even of ordinary humanity, as we to-day 
 understand it, were frequently and grossly disobeyed, 
 especially in the treatment of women and children. 
 " In no place and in no time," says Dr. Schulze-Gae- 
 vernitz (" Zum Socialen Frieden," vol. i. p. 40), " have 
 Property and Culture so refused their duties toward 
 the lower classes, as did the Middle Classes of the Eng- 
 lish people in the first decades of this century." Not 
 only the many appeals of Lord Ashley (afterward 
 Lord Shaftesbuiy) from the House, and the noble 
 denunciation of abuses by the man of letters in the 
 person of Thomas Carlyle, but also the much earlier 
 good example of Robert Owen, the ablest cotton- 
 spinner of his generation, were long fruitless. 
 
 It was an unfortunate alliance for both parties that 
 was practically made between the manufacturers and 
 the political economists of this period. The nar- 
 rowness of the economists in declaring against state 
 " interference " with the divine right of the manufac- 
 turer to disregard the commonest rules of humanity, 
 if he chose, in dealing with children in the mills, has 
 been condemned by all subsequent writers who take 
 a true view of the demands of "national welfare." 
 But the large English employers of the years 1780 
 1830 were but too glad of such " scientific " support 
 for their unbridled greed. A second half -century has 
 clearly seen that the manufacturer - philanthropist, 
 Owen, the humane Earl Shaftesbury, and Carlyle, the 
 genius of letters, were in the right, while the insular 
 economist and the unideal employer, declining to apply 
 the test of sound feeling to the lot of the workingman, 
 were altogether wrong. Carlyle, indeed, has been am- 
 ply vindicated as a prophet of humanity ; howsoever
 
 12 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 little he could do in the way of practical guidance, 
 his prophetic warning against the inhuman spirit which 
 held the " cash nexus " the only one to be respected by 
 the employer has been thoroughly justified. 
 
 The moral education of the world is slow, but it is 
 sure. The industrial development of the last hun- 
 dred years has happily witnessed an increasing empha- 
 sis laid by public opinion, ever more watchful over a 
 wider field, on the moral relations of the employer of 
 labor to his workpeople. He is not now allowed to 
 build factories destitute of sanitary appliances, to stock 
 them with machinery dangerous to the operative with- 
 out liability in case of accident, or to work women 
 and children as long as he pleases. For the " rights " 
 which the narrow-minded employer is pleased to claim, 
 but which result practically in serious injury to work- 
 ingmen and the lessening of the public health and 
 wealth, the modern State has no regard. If enlight- 
 ened selfishness or the motions of his own conscience 
 will not lead the employer to do for his employees 
 what public opinion has come to recognize as ordinary 
 justice, he will be externally moralized by the force 
 of law ; his practice, if not his sentiments, must be 
 made to conform to the recognized general average 
 of morality. 
 
 Very obviously, however, no institution has reached 
 maturity so long as external moralization is the only 
 ethical experience which those at the head of it have 
 undergone. If the employer fences his machinery 
 and works his force only the legal hours, but de- 
 clares that beyond compliance with the letter of 
 the factory laws, and the punctual payment of their 
 wages, he owes nothing to the hundreds of men,
 
 AN ESSENTIAL MATTER 13 
 
 women and children in his employ, then, however 
 moral he may be in his home or as a citizen, he has 
 not attained a true inward Tightness in his industrial 
 relations. He has not realized the full demands of a 
 sound morality, which has no conflict with economic 
 truth or economic law, but the force of which cannot 
 be excluded from any relation which is human. 
 
 On the other side, if a workman simply works hard 
 enough and carefully enough to retain his position in 
 a factory : if he feels no desire that his employer shall 
 prosper because he himself does his best, with all his 
 fellows : if he simply refrains from physical violence 
 during a strike while acting most unsocially hi all 
 other respects he, too, is imperfectly moralized, so 
 far as his relations to the employer are concerned. 
 He, too, needs an ethical development, if he thinks 
 that the whole duty of industrial man is thus dis- 
 charged by him. 
 
 The simple truth is that, viewed on a large scale, 
 the function of the modern employer has not yet been 
 sufficiently moralized. Much of the strain and conflict 
 now seen in the industrial world will disappear, in all 
 probability, as the duty of the employer appears to 
 him Commensurate with his real power. Surely it is 
 a great, if not commanding, influence which the large 
 mill-owner, for instance, exercises over his work- 
 people. They have come by hundreds from all quar- 
 ters to do the work and take the wages that he had 
 offered. A community is gathered and a new town, 
 perhaps, is formed. Year after year, to these hun- 
 dreds, or even thousands of workers, their work is 
 the most important life-matter, as it is the foundation 
 of all other matters. That the man who controls the
 
 14 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 supply of this work, who has owned, or still owns, 
 the ground his employees tread upon, and the houses 
 in which they dwell that this man has no moral 
 relations toward them beyond paying wages and col- 
 lecting rents, that he is not called upon to exercise the 
 potent and far-reaching influence upon their present 
 and their future which he might by taking a warm 
 interest in them as human beings capable of education 
 and progress this is a position betraying a curi- 
 ously incomprehensive idea of human duty. To an 
 instructed and impartial mind it will seem the most 
 glaring instance, perhaps, afforded by the modern 
 world of the survival of tribal morals (employers 
 being regarded as one tribe and workmen as another) 
 and of the superficiality of the Christian veneer over 
 a too substantial selfishness ! 
 
 The moralist, the philanthropist, the enlightened 
 economist and the well-balanced reformer of our gen- 
 eration have, indeed, no more inviting and fruitful task 
 before them than the sagacious application of ideal 
 justice and righteousness to the employer's function. 
 In every direction the ideal, which we can form, if we 
 will, of a human relationship best determines the 
 actual duties and defines the solemn responsibilities 
 of the connection. If a man refuse to entertain the 
 thought of an ideal of the relationship which he sus- 
 tains as a father or as a citizen, he is so far unmoral, 
 and he is likely to be a poor father or an ineffective 
 citizen. And if men gain stimulus and inspiration in 
 their families, or in their civic duties, by considering 
 an ideal of what they might do and be, surely this 
 holds as true in the industrial sphere, where the con- 
 tact of men with interests apparently so diverse is so 
 close, incessant and fateful.
 
 AN ESSENTIAL MATTER 15 
 
 The ideal presented by the earnest man of thought 
 to the practical man of business should, of course, 
 accord with the plain necessities which beset that 
 occupation. The ideal should be distinctly realiz- 
 able by men who are neither heroes nor saints nor 
 philanthropists : they might well fail in business if 
 they attempted to be any one of these ! The ideal 
 must not be a pattern set in the mount to which those 
 who must cultivate the common levels of life can have 
 no inward attraction. It must be in close touch with 
 reality, make no cruel demand on the average man, 
 and harmonize with the laws of economic success. It 
 must tally with the practice of the best men in differ- 
 ent walks of business those who stand highest in 
 point of ability and character before the world at 
 large. It must not be an ideal which requires that 
 the individual employer shall act as if the making of 
 his living were a minor matter with him, or shall con- 
 duct his business according to an economic or social 
 system profoundly different from the one prevailing 
 all about him. It must be an ideal, however, which 
 necessitates the " human touch " in all social relation- 
 ships, and rejects every tendency on the part of an 
 employer to treat the men whom he employs as if 
 they were machines, or animals of another and lower 
 species than himself. 
 
 Beneath all other causes of trouble and conflict in 
 the labor world, making them seem superficial only, is 
 the personal alienation of the employer from his 
 fellow-men whom he engages to work for him in large 
 numbers. This alienation is partly due to the great 
 size of many industrial enterprises and the consequent 
 lack of personal acquaintance between the two parties.
 
 16 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 In older times, when the master worked side by side 
 with his men, in the field or the small shop, or was at 
 least familiarly known to them, the acquaintanceship 
 had its natural result, in most cases, in a general 
 sympathy and friendliness which greatly facilitated 
 production. The progress of invention, the immense 
 development of industrial organization and the wide 
 prevalence of corporate methods have rendered diffi- 
 cult, if not impossible, the old friendliness based on 
 personal knowledge. But a substitute is not impos- 
 sible, which shall manifest the interest of the em- 
 ployer in those who work for him. This working is, 
 by its very nature, a species of cooperation. Obvi- 
 ously, the closer the cooperation can well be made, 
 the better, from all points of view. There is need of 
 the closest union, for however much the economic ill 
 effects of large-scale production have been veiled, 
 they none the less exist, as well as the moral loss. 
 
 If the modern employer is sincerely interested in 
 the general welfare of the many persons who work 
 for him, simply because they are human beings like 
 himself, and because he reah'zes that he stands in a 
 relation to them which can be made very effective for 
 good to both parties, he has taken a long stride toward 
 industrial peace in his house, and he has the root of 
 the ideal in him. The particular forms in which his 
 good-will shall best take effect are a matter of detail. 
 The spirit which is the main matter is easily recog- 
 nized by the sensible employee. The conscientious em- 
 ployer, recognizing the largeness of his opportunity 
 to do good, in proportion to his prosperity, will see 
 that the heathen for whom he should contribute are 
 often those at his own door, in the shape of men and
 
 AN ESSENTIAL MATTER 17 
 
 women in his employ who are poor, ignorant and 
 possibly vicious but still his fellow-men. He is 
 probably in a position to do more for them than any 
 other person can. 1 
 
 An employer is moralized who fully perceives the 
 uniqueness of his opportunity and girds himself to 
 the great responsibilities of his position. As I have 
 said, it will be a matter for careful inquiry and sober 
 discrimination to select the practical measures which 
 he shall take to manifest his kindly thought. He will 
 need to consult all available experience to learn what 
 others have done that will reward his imitation : he 
 may need to go very slowly in adopting methods and 
 building up institutions which shall tend to embody 
 his ideal of justice and kindly feeling. But great is 
 his gain from the very beginning of such beneficence, 
 in his larger and stronger hold upon things as they 
 are in the world of man, when he confesses his pecul- 
 iar responsibility and manfully sets himself to dis- 
 charge it. 
 
 1 " I assure you that the weal or the woe of the operative popu- 
 lation everywhere depends largely upon the temper in which the 
 employers carry the responsibility intrusted to them. I know of no 
 trust more sacred than that given into the hands of the captains of 
 industry : for they deal with human beings in close relations, not 
 through the media of speech or exhortation, but of positive associa- 
 tion, and by this they can make or mar. The rich and powerful 
 manufacturer, with the adjuncts of education and good business 
 training, holds in his hand something more than the means of sub- 
 sistence for those he employs. He holds their moral well-being in 
 his keeping, in so far as it is in his power to mould their morals. 
 He is something more than a producer : he is an instrument of God 
 for the upbuilding of the race." (Carroll D. Wright, U. S. Commis- 
 sioner of Labor.)
 
 CHAPTER H 
 
 A REALIZABLE IDEAL 
 
 IN dealing with any question it is true, and espe- 
 cially is it true in dealing with the "labor question," 
 that a one-sided solution is no solution at all, as Pro- 
 fessor Gonner has said. Solutions in abundance have 
 been advanced by those who take the side of the 
 workingman in a partisan spirit. On the other hand, 
 the modern employer has the usual facility of human- 
 kind in recognizing other men's duties. He clearly 
 sees, for instance, that the trade-unions have responsi- 
 bilities to the employer and to the public which they 
 cannot properly evade, as well as enormous powers to 
 do harm, of which they are fully conscious. But tu 
 quoque! The brain that must contrive what many 
 hands are to accomplish in modern industry needs 
 also to be moralized in its dealings with those indis- 
 pensable " hands," as well as to be congratulated on 
 its great powers and its splendid achievements. 1 
 
 The modern employer should do his part in the 
 settlement of labor problems : he should contribute 
 
 1 As the Bishop of London declared at the Cooperative Congress in 
 1898 : " The adaptation of old conditions to the needs of the great 
 modern industrial system was hastily wrought, under stress of pres- 
 sure which did not allow of a complete survey of all necessary facts. 
 The man was hastily converted into the ' hand,' and the conditions 
 of his humanity, which had never been absent from consideration 
 before, were suddenly left out of calculation. . . . The ' hand ' must 
 again be converted into the man, on the broader basis which the de- 
 velopment of common life demands."
 
 A REALIZABLE IDEAL 19 
 
 much more than silence or purely negative criticism 
 to the discussion, if he would retain the respect of 
 the public: he should offer positive suggestions and 
 himself show realized reforms in various lines of pro- 
 duction, if he wishes his criticism of others' reform 
 projects to be heeded. Most of all, his attitude 
 should be plainly moral, rational and conciliatory, 
 and his spirit be one of sympathy with the honorable 
 aspirations of the workingman. The majority, prob- 
 ably, of American employers have themselves been 
 workmen, and they need only recall their own thoughts 
 and feelings, when in that condition, to do justice to 
 their less fortunate or less capable brethren. What 
 would such an employer do, what could he do, to 
 solve labor questions in his own business ? In answer, 
 I will now briefly outline a rational and realizable 
 ideal, an ideal based entirely upon foundations in ex- 
 perience and built up of material from the same 
 source. Every feature of it, as the reader will see 
 from the following chapters, is taken from successful 
 reality. For there is to-day a considerable body of 
 employers of labor who have fully recognized their 
 moral function. It is their ideas and their work that 
 this volume represents. It is with their answer to 
 the claims of reason and good-will upon the employer 
 that we are concerned. 
 
 In the first place, it may not be too late in the day 
 to say that the model employer frankly accepts the 
 principle of factory legislation as reasonable, and the 
 labor laws themselves as desirable and necessary. 
 Such legislation is desirable, since the health and 
 strength of the working population their physical 
 capital should at least be maintained undiminished
 
 20 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 from generation to generation, if the nation is to hold 
 its place in the world-conflict, and if it is to have true 
 internal welfare. It is reasonable to use this means 
 to the desired end, since the end is the common weal, 
 reached most naturally by state-craft. Labor laws 
 are necessary, experience shows, in order to protect 
 the comparatively unprotected workpeople against 
 those who have a great advantage of position ; these 
 laws will assist the more humane employers, also, 
 against unfair competition from the unscrupulous, 
 who would exploit women and children, for instance, 
 by demanding of them exorbitant hours of work. 
 The enlightened employer will, therefore, welcome the 
 expression of the impartial national will ; the social 
 conscience has both the right and the duty to guard 
 the national welfare from generation to generation, 
 seeing that the commonwealth take no harm, and for- 
 bidding any class of citizens to overwork and devi- 
 talize any other class for its profit. If thoroughly 
 enlightened and far-sighted, the employer will regard 
 the stipulations of well-considered law concerning the 
 construction, heating, lighting and ventilating of 
 shops and factories as the minimum of his duty: the 
 maximum will be compliance, as he is able, with the 
 fullest demands of reason and humanity, by making 
 every sanitary and protective arrangement for his 
 workpeople that prudence and science suggest. There 
 may well be details of factory laws, or whole laws 
 even, which are positively unjust to the employer, 
 being due to the zeal of demagogues, chiefly intent on 
 capturing " the labor vote." But the most effective 
 criticism of such partiality will surely come from 
 those employers who have fully recognized the sound-
 
 A REALIZABLE IDEAL 21 
 
 ness of the principle of factory legislation and have 
 shown a large willingness to comply with its just 
 demands. 
 
 The attitude of the employer toward trade-unions 
 should be one of frank appreciation of the great good 
 that they have done, and are doing. Some of the 
 most progressive manufacturers of our day have de- 
 clared their preference for dealing with the authorities 
 of trade-unions, rather than with the men separately. 
 Not a few, like Mr. George Thomson of Hudders- 
 field, and Mr. N. O. Nelson of St. Louis, positively 
 encourage their employees to join a union. The 
 Union, like the Trust, is plainly an enduring element 
 of the modern industrial situation. It should become 
 an incorporated body, with power to sue and be sued, 
 and thus level up its responsibilities to its powers. 
 In the mean time, wise men will adjust themselves to 
 it, and make the best of it, instead of fighting the 
 inevitable. They will not be the first to resist every 
 demand of the laboring man simply because it conies 
 from a union, or the last to concede a courteous and 
 patient discussion of labor difficulties before disinter- 
 ested parties. 
 
 " Compulsory Arbitration," indeed, is a misnomer 
 and a contradiction in terms, if the employer or the 
 workman is to be compelled by law to accept the offer 
 of arbitration from State authorities, and to abide by 
 the results. But the better compulsion of reason will 
 lead the employer to establish in his works a commit- 
 tee of conciliation, which may amicably settle small 
 troubles before they become great feuds : he will also 
 be willing to let impartial arbitrators decide the 
 greater matters, if he is not asked to make concessions
 
 22 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 simply fatal to his just authority. The methods of 
 practicable arbitration are simple and easily mastered : 
 and in a number of American commonwealths the 
 State Boards of Arbitration deserve high praise for 
 the judicial manner in which they have discharged 
 their peaceful office. 1 
 
 The ideal employer, following the example of many 
 actual employers, will feel and show a kindly interest 
 in the welfare of the men who are joint workers with 
 the counting-room and the firm in the total industry. 
 He will take an active part in encouraging thrift, for 
 example, after the manner of such corporations as the 
 Chicago Electric Car Company (on the South Side), 
 which receives deposits and does the necessary book- 
 keeping for its employees' benefit association without 
 charge. Other firms, such as the Carnegie Steel 
 Company of Pittsburg, pay a high rate of interest on 
 savings from the men ; this rate is now half as large 
 again as that paid by the savings-banks. 
 
 The progressive employer will make it easy for his 
 workmen to acquire shares in the stock of his corpo- 
 ration (if his business is so organized). The share- 
 holder-workman is a most desirable link between 
 capital and labor, partaking of the interests of both. 
 Some States (like Massachusetts) have smoothed the 
 way for corporations to issue "workman's stock," 
 under favorable conditions. But the example of the 
 Columbus (Ohio) Gas Works and the Illinois Cen- 
 tral Railway shows how easy and how advisable it is 
 
 1 Mrs. Josephine Shaw Lowell has compiled the most important 
 literature on this subject in her small volume, Industrial Arbitration 
 and Conciliation. The annual reports of the Massachusetts Board 
 have especial value.
 
 A REALIZABLE IDEAL 23 
 
 for employers to offer such facilities apart from legis- 
 lation. 
 
 The employer is usually a man fond of the home 
 which he owns. He should be quick to recognize 
 that the workingman is made of the same stuff of 
 thought and feeling as himself, on the broad lines of 
 human desire. In no other way can he more wisely 
 help his employees than by assisting them in this 
 particular direction. Some firms build and rent at- 
 tractive houses at low rates : such are S. D. Warren 
 and Company, the paper manufacturers of Cumber- 
 land Mills, Me., the Thread Company at Willimantic, 
 Conn., and the Howland Mills at New Bedford, Mass., 
 to name but three American instances. The so-called 
 " labor advocate " sometimes makes an egregious blun- 
 der in objecting to the workman's becoming the owner 
 of his home. The thought is that he should be a 
 soldier in a perpetual war against "capital," and 
 should incumber himself as little as may be in his 
 possible marches, because of strikes or lock-outs, from 
 one factory-town to another. How biased and par- 
 tial a view this is biased by an irrational notion of 
 conflict as the normal condition of the workingman, 
 and partial in its conception of him as simply an 
 operative and not at all as a citizen must become 
 evident on brief consideration. Such sophistry of 
 class-jealousy readily yields, however, to the deep 
 home-loving instinct of the natural man, especially 
 the Anglo-Saxon man. Employers like the Cheneys 
 at South Manchester, Conn., N. O. Nelson at Leclaire, 
 111., and many others in Europe and America, gratify 
 this desire to the full by selling lots and houses on 
 favorable terms to their employees, in their admirable
 
 24 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 villages. Benefit funds, again, and life-insurance and 
 pension plans for the assistance of workpeople in the 
 trying periods of life find aid and encouragement from 
 prosperous and sagacious employers. Several great 
 railroads of this country (the Baltimore and Ohio, 
 the Pennsylvania, and the Chicago, Burlington and 
 Quincy, for instance), as well as many in Europe, 
 exhibit on a large scale this method of corporate in- 
 terest in the future of their men. Mr. Alfred Dolge 
 was, for a number of years, the foremost single em- 
 ployer in the United States to develop a pension and 
 insurance system in his felt works at Dolgeville, N. Y. 
 His failure in business in 1898 showed the desirability 
 of making such schemes independent of the financial 
 fortunes of the house, if possible : this is effected in 
 many instances in France and Germany. 
 
 The employer who has made a fortune out of a reg- 
 ular business is coming to be held by the social ethics 
 of America responsible for the spending of some part 
 of it for the benefit of the workers who cooperated 
 with him, or, more generally, of the community in 
 which the fortune was made. Such gifts should be 
 made in the lifetime of the giver, and here in the 
 United States it is plainly desirable that they should 
 be made to the municipality, rather than to the work- 
 men of a factory, if the welfare of the latter can be as 
 well secured in this way. A free library in a manu- 
 facturing town is better given to the town by the mill- 
 owner, than to the quarter in which the mill is located 
 for the exclusive use of the operatives. In this way 
 the manufacturer avoids drawing lines of division 
 between his employees and the general public. The 
 employee is, first of all, a man : next, a citizen : and,
 
 A REALIZABLE IDEAL 25 
 
 lastly, a workingman. The employer's generosity 
 should help to identify the operative with the common 
 life of the town, rather than separate, him from it, in 
 any avoidable degree. When a particular manufac- 
 ture, like that of scales at St. Johnsbury, Vt., or 
 of shovels at North Easton, Mass., is the main busi- 
 ness of a place of moderate size, great manufacturing 
 families like the Fairbankses or the Ameses wisely 
 present schools, libraries and halls for social and 
 other public purposes, directly to the town. It is easy 
 to make such regulations for their use that those for 
 whom the benefactions are primarily designed shall 
 derive as much benefit as if they had the sole use. In 
 other instances, a factory community may be at a con- 
 siderable distance from the centre of the town, form- 
 ing either a village by itself or a well-defined suburb. 
 In such cases club-houses, with their special libraries, 
 lecture courses and entertainments are best placed in 
 the midst of the population that they are to serve. A 
 notable instance is the fine club-house which the Illi- 
 nois Steel Company at Joliet provides for its men. A 
 liberal spirit will naturally throw open such advan-. 
 tages to the other residents of the village or suburb, 
 thus preserving the community principle as far as 
 possible. 
 
 The number of employers in this country who fur- 
 nish free reading-rooms and libraries in their works is 
 considerable (perhaps it is proportionately largest in 
 the State of Connecticut), and it is steadily increas- 
 ing. It is greatly exceeded, however, by the number 
 of men and women of wealth who have built, usually 
 in their native towns, those monuments which James 
 Russell Lowell thought most lasting and secure, in
 
 26 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 the shape of public libraries. The record of such 
 benefactions is one of the brightest pages in American 
 civilization ; already long, it is destined to be greatly 
 lengthened so large is the field for such genuine 
 philanthropy. 1 
 
 Club-houses, to which allusion has been made, are 
 now chiefly found in connection with industries em- 
 ploying large numbers of men, like iron and steel 
 works, and steam and electric railway lines. Of one 
 of these institutions, an employer, well qualified to 
 speak, declares that it has paid for its cost a hundred 
 times over in the improved state of feeling among 
 the men toward the corporation. Such gifts show a 
 humane desire on the part of the manufacturer to 
 brighten the workman's life, and they call forth re- 
 spect and esteem, the surest preventives of labor- 
 troubles. These club-houses may be so conducted as 
 to interest the whole family of the workman, through 
 their gymnasiums and swimming-pools, their libraries, 
 their technical and art classes, open to girls and 
 women as well as to boys and men, and their insur- 
 ance, thrift and entertainment features, which affect 
 the daily welfare of young and old. 
 
 Such " welfare-institutions " as I have mentioned 
 (without exhausting the list) are most naturally to be 
 expected from employers who have become prosperous 
 and can show their friendly sentiments in large bene- 
 factions. But the good effect of these evidences of 
 kindly interest is not in proportion to their size. The 
 
 1 The Ninth Report of the Free Public Library Commission of 
 Massachusetts (1899), a large volume of 465 pages, shows that less 
 than one half of one per cent, of the population are destitute of this 
 great opportunity. The library legislation of New York and New 
 Hampshire is especially admirable.
 
 A REALIZABLE IDEAL 27 
 
 manufacturer who is surely prospering, but lias not 
 yet accumulated a large fortune, will do wisely to 
 begin modestly on these lines ; 1 the institutions will 
 be a help in his quicker progress to prosperity. The 
 possible danger of too much " paternalism " on his 
 part will be lessened if he thus begins early to show 
 his philanthropic mind ; and the other possible danger, 
 of "pauperizing" the workers, will in the same way 
 be reduced to a minimum. If the manufacturer has 
 kept up the good habit of living near his mills, the 
 development of these culture institutions will give a 
 lively interest to his later years, and tend to prolong 
 his residence there. His family, too, will be gainers 
 from this kindly contact with the faithful men and 
 women who have cooperated in establishing their pro- 
 sperity. 
 
 The methods and the institutions which have oc- 
 cupied our attention might be grouped together as 
 instances (they are far from covering the whole field) 
 of an "indirect dividend to labor." The employer 
 here recognizes a moral obligation, incumbent upon 
 the successful producer, to give a share of his fortune 
 to his fellow-workers. This he does, not because it 
 can be legally demanded, or is commonly esteemed a 
 
 1 " It is too often thought that the employer can begin the social 
 organization of his business only after he has reached the summit of 
 fortune. What a mistake ! Patronal institutions should begin with 
 the enterprise itself, and develop with it. With each new success, 
 with each enlargement of his industry, the employer increases his 
 equipment ; he should also increase the security and the confidence of 
 his force, for as the workers become more numerous, superintendence 
 is more difficult. The two equipments, the mechanical and the so- 
 cial, should never be separated." (M. J. B. Bailie, the head of the 
 Baille-Lemaire Opera-Glass Works, Paris.)
 
 28 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 portion of ordinary justice, but because his large 
 moneyed ability seems to him to impose the responsi- 
 bility of that finer justice which men call generosity. 
 Since all such gifts necessarily come out of the profits 
 actually realized, the method followed is that of an 
 informal " collective profit sharing," as it might be 
 called. In this manner of dividing profits the em- 
 ployer makes no promises binding at law and draws 
 up no scheme, but simply acts at his pleasure, from 
 his desire that his men shall practically share, in an 
 undetermined degree, in his prosperity. Considera- 
 ble sums (as they are seen to be, when the gifts of 
 several years are brought together) are thus with- 
 drawn, which might have gone into the pockets of the 
 mill-owner or the shareholder. It is not to be taken 
 for granted, however, that, in the absence of such 
 gifts and of the resulting good feeling, the profits 
 would have been as large. The financial as well as 
 the moral result may be one of clear gain. 
 
 A direct dividend to labor in the shape of a system 
 of profit sharing, formally established with rules and 
 regulations, is a further step in the union of the 
 employer and the employee. My principal object in 
 the present volume being to treat of the informal divi- 
 sion of profits in such ways as have been mentioned, 
 I postpone to Part III. some consideration of recent 
 phases of this conscious modification of the usual 
 wages-system. A small number of employers have 
 had the courage to try this path. Such shining in- 
 stances of success in this country as the cases of the 
 N. O. Nelson Company of St. Louis, the Procter and 
 Gamble Company of Cincinnati, and the Bourne Mills 
 of Fall River, prove to demonstration the intrinsic
 
 A REALIZABLE IDEAL 29 
 
 merits of the profit-sharing plan, when wisely con- 
 ceived in its details, and patiently adhered to through 
 the earlier difficulties of its application. 
 
 Profit sharing proper seems, however, to be a counsel 
 of perfection too severe for the caution and the patience 
 of the ordinary employer. Numerous ways and meth- 
 ods of indirect profit sharing which have been widely 
 successful will be more acceptable to his prudence or 
 his inertia. I shall describe many instances of such an 
 indirect dividend to labor in Part II. They will show 
 that the demand of the ideal I have outlined has been 
 met by numerous employers of labor whose ability is 
 as little to be doubted as their success. What they 
 have done in the manifestation of a friendly interest 
 in their workpeople many other employers could do. 
 The fashion of such humanity might largely spread, 
 and no existing industrial system undergo essential 
 alteration. The distant future of industry may belong 
 to cooperative production or even to the socialistic 
 state : but the present and the near future belong, 
 very plainly, to capitalistic production on a large scale. 
 The employer-manager is an essential part of this 
 system. It is an undeniable fact that he can do a 
 great deal toward settling labor problems by conform- 
 ing the relations of employer and employed to a high 
 ideal of humaneness, kindness and fraternity. 
 
 The faith I here defend, that the individual em- 
 ployer of labor has it in his power to give a very 
 practical solution of the labor question which immedi- 
 ately confronts him, finds signal confirmation in the 
 life of one of the first modern employers on a great 
 scale, Robert Owen. His early career is full of in- 
 struction for all who now have the same responsibility.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 ROBERT OWEN THE MANUFACTURER 
 
 ROBERT OWEN was born in 1771 and died in 1857. 
 In his long lifetime he saw the rise and the full 
 accomplishment of the " industrial revolution " which 
 superseded domestic industry and manual labor proper, 
 and introduced costly machinery and the factory sys- 
 tem of production. 
 
 Employers of the present day can hardly realize 
 some of the cruel aspects of this revolution in its 
 earlier stages. But when we incline to lightly adopt 
 " the casual creed " that every class of people is best 
 left to work out its own salvation, and that any and 
 every other class will, on the whole, do it substan- 
 tial justice, we do well to recall the history of 
 the English factory system, especially as it operated 
 between 1780 and 1830. The bare facts constitute 
 one of the most convincing proofs ever given among 
 men that the greed of gain may be a consuming 
 power, needing all the force of philanthropy and 
 legislation to keep it within the bounds of humanity. 
 The astonishing and apparently limitless fortunes 
 opening before the eyes of English manufacturers in 
 this period had an intoxicating effect. Their moral 
 sense seemed to be drugged. Men in a presumably 
 Christian nation were long guilty of conduct towards 
 the children of the poor, working in their factories, 
 that almost defies belief to-day for its atrocity.
 
 ROBERT OWEN THE MANUFACTURER 31 
 
 It is not at all necessary to dilate rhetorically upon 
 the depravity or the weakness of human nature as 
 exhibited by the mill-owners and overseers of this 
 time : unquestioned facts sufficiently tell the story. 
 Workhouse children, six years old and upward, were 
 let out hi gangs by parish authorities to manufac- 
 turers who kept them in the mill ten, twelve or four- 
 teen hours a day. " The parish apprentices were 
 sent, without remorse or inquiry, to be ' used up ' as 
 the cheapest raw material in ' the market.' The 
 mill-owners communicated with the overseer of the 
 poor and a day was fixed for the examination of the 
 little children. . . . On their arrival in Manchester 
 or other towns, if not previously assigned, they were 
 deposited in dark cellars, where the merchant dealing 
 in them brought his customers, and the mill-owners, by 
 the light of lanterns, being enabled to examine the 
 children, their limbs and stature having undergone 
 the necessary scrutiny, the bargain was struck. ... In 
 very many instances their labor was limited only by 
 exhaustion after many modes of torture had been 
 unavailingly applied to enforce continued action. . . . 
 In brisk times their beds, such as they were, were never 
 cool, for the mills were working night and day, and 
 as soon as one set of children rose for labor, the other 
 set retired for rest." 
 
 The unavoidable results of such monstrous over- 
 work were, of course, " sleepiness, weariness, inatten- 
 tion, repeated carelessness, punishment, sulkiness, a 
 degradation of the whole moral being, a perpetual 
 hostility between overlooker and children, followed by 
 frequent and cruel chastisements." The interest of 
 the overseers was " to work the children to the utmost,
 
 32 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 because their pay was in proportion to the quantity of 
 work that they could exact. Cruelty was, of course, 
 the consequence." Hutton, afterward the historian 
 of Derby, for instance, was set to work in a silk-mill 
 when he was so short that he was placed on stilts to 
 reach his work. His master's cane was so freely 
 employed to keep up his attention during the long 
 hours that his life was in danger from the gangrened 
 wounds. " Children were harassed to the brink of 
 death by excess of labor : in many cases they were 
 starved to the bone, while flogged to their work ; and 
 in some instances they were driven to commit 
 suicide." 1 The story of the sufferings of Robert 
 Blincoe, in a cotton-mill at Nottingham, is appalling 
 to the last degree : it is given in painful detail in Mr. 
 Cooke Taylor's excellent work to which I will refer 
 my readers (pp. 189-198.) 
 
 The condition of the adult operatives in the textile 
 factories was such as to threaten a permanent lower- 
 ing of the public health and the national vitality. 
 Dr. James P. Kay (afterwards Sir James Kay- 
 Shuttle worth), in a pamphlet published in 1832, 
 forcibly described the daily life of the Manchester 
 operative. He rose at five o'clock in the morning, 
 worked in the mill from six till eight, and then 
 returned home for half an hour or forty minutes to 
 breakfast. This consisted of tea or coffee with a little 
 bread. He then went to work until twelve o'clock. 
 At the dinner hour the meal, for the inferior work- 
 men, consisted of boiled potatoes, with melted lard or 
 
 1 The Curse of the Factory System, by John Fielden, M. P. (1836), 
 as quoted in R. W. Cooke Taylor's Modern Factory System (pp. 187- 
 189, Kegan Paul & Co., London, 1891).
 
 ROBERT OWEN THE MANUFACTURER 33 
 
 butter poured over them, and sometimes a few pieces 
 of fried fat bacon. In the case of those with greater 
 incomes, there was a larger proportion of animal food, 
 but the quantity was small. Work went on again 
 from one o'clock to seven or later, and the last meal 
 of the day was tea, often mingled with spirits, accom- 
 panied by a little bread. " The population nourished 
 on this aliment is crowded into one dense mass, in 
 cottages separated by narrow, unpaved, and almost 
 pestilential streets, in an atmosphere loaded with the 
 smoke and exhalations of a large manufacturing city. 
 The operatives are congregated in rooms and work- 
 shops during twelve hours in the day, in an enervating 
 heated atmosphere, which is frequently loaded with 
 dust of filaments of cotton, or impure from constant 
 respirations or from other causes." The workers in 
 the mills, as depicted by Mr. Gaskell were " low in 
 stature, with slender limbs, playing badly and un- 
 gracefully. There was a very general bowing of the 
 legs. Great numbers of girls and women walk 
 lamely or awkwardly, with raised chests and spinal 
 flexures. Nearly all have flat feet, accompanied with 
 a down tread. . . . Hair thin and straight many of 
 the men having but little beard and that in patches 
 of few hairs. ... A spiritless and dejected air." 
 
 Against such distresses and inhumanities the philan- 
 thropists and the doctors of medicine gradually rallied 
 public opinion, and the factory legislation of Great 
 Britain began to take effective shape. The future of 
 the country could not be trusted in the hands of the 
 short-sighted and narrowly selfish manufacturers. 
 The ruinous results which their cupidity would have 
 surely brought upon the nation were averted by a
 
 34 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 gradual succession of Acts of Parliament that re- 
 strained the greed of heartless employers and en- 
 couraged the more generously inclined to follow their 
 natural impulses of humanity without fear of being 
 distanced by unscrupulous rivals. A shining example 
 of what the employers might do had been given them 
 in the work of Robert Owen. He is often called 
 "the father of English Communism," or socialism, 
 but his best title to remembrance is as the manager of 
 the New Lanark Mills and the real founder of infant 
 schools in Great Britain. His story has the interest 
 that always attaches to the life of a man of great 
 natural ability making his way from a humble begin- 
 ning to noble achievements, and mindful, from first 
 to last, of the obligations of his nobility to his less 
 gifted, less fortunate fellow-men. 
 
 Robert Owen began atmospheric existence (in Dr. 
 Holmes' phrase) May 14, 1771, at Newtown, then an 
 attractive place with a population of one thousand, in 
 Montgomeryshire, Wales. 1 His father was a saddler 
 and iron-monger ; his mother, a beautiful woman, was 
 a farmer's daughter, and "for her class," says her 
 son, " superior in mind and manner." Robert Owen, 
 the father, was postmaster of Newtown, holding a 
 life tenure, and he also had the general management 
 of the parish affairs. The young Robert was sent 
 to school when he was between four and five. His 
 anxiety to be first at school and first home came near 
 costing him his life when he was about five years old. 
 Running home one morning, he found his usual basin 
 of " flummery " (a Welsh equivalent of oatmeal 
 
 1 The principal authority for the facts of Owen's life is his auto- 
 biography, published in 1857 : I have quoted it freely.
 
 ROBERT OWEN THE MANUFACTURER 35 
 
 porridge) awaiting him. Supposing it to be cool, he 
 took a hasty spoonful. As it was, in fact, scalding 
 hot, he fainted instantly : his stomach was scalded, 
 and he remained in the faint so long that he was 
 thought to be dead. It was a considerable time 
 before he revived, and ever after he could digest only 
 the simplest food taken in small quantities. Owen 
 was thus naturally led to observe the effects of 
 various foods on his debilitated stomach, and he 
 attributes his " habit of close observation and of con- 
 tinual reflection " to this misfortune. However this 
 may have been, it is probably true, as he always 
 thought, that the accident " had a great influence " in 
 forming his character. 
 
 By the age of seven, the boy had learned all that 
 Mr. Thickness, his teacher, could impart, reading 
 fluently, writing legibly, and having an acquaintance 
 with the first four rules of arithmetic. He remained 
 in the school two years longer as " usher," learning thus 
 early to teach what he knew. He had a passion for 
 books, and read nearly everything which the libraries 
 of the clergyman, the physician and the lawyer " the 
 learned men of the town " contained. Beside " Rob- 
 inson Crusoe," the " Pilgrim's Progress," " Paradise 
 Lost," and Young's " Night Thoughts," for instance, 
 the eager boy read Richardson's novels and the other 
 standard fiction of the time, believing every word to be 
 true, and generally finishing a volume a day. Travel, 
 history, biography, nothing came amiss, but Robert's 
 chief inclination between eight and nine was for reli- 
 gious literature. As he read " religious works of all 
 parties," he was surprised " first at the opposition be- 
 tween the different sects of Christians, afterwards at
 
 36 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 the deadly hatred between the Jews, Christians, Ma- 
 homedans, Hindoos, Chinese, etc., etc., and between 
 these and what they called Pagans and Infidels." 
 The benevolent little philosopher began to have his 
 doubts "respecting the truth of any one of these 
 divisions." He wrote three sermons, which he kept 
 until he found three in Sterne's works very much like 
 them " in idea and turn of mind." " The little par- 
 son," as he was called, had a very honest dread of 
 lying under suspicion of plagiarism, and he at once 
 threw these first and last sermons into the fire ; but 
 the preaching habit was one that he always retained. 
 The result of all his reading made him feel strongly 
 at ten years of age that " there must be something 
 fundamentally wrong in all religions as they had been 
 taught up to that period." 
 
 The boy was obliged to be an ascetic in diet, but 
 he excelled in games and manly exercises, was fond of 
 dancing and music, and took a pleasure " in observing 
 nature in its every variety," which grew with his 
 strength. 
 
 Robert Owen's business life began at nine ; he 
 assisted Mr. Moore, a grocer, draper and haberdasher, 
 for a year, but lived at home. His horizon had 
 been so widened, however, by his reading that he 
 wished to go up to London ; and at ten he got per- 
 mission from his father to try his fortune in the great 
 city. Knowing every person in Newtown, the little 
 man called on them all to take leave ; the presents 
 which he received amounted to forty shillings. His 
 coach fare from Shrewsbury was paid for him. His 
 brother William, a saddler on High Holborn, who 
 had married his former employer's widow, received
 
 ROBERT OWEN THE MANUFACTURER 37 
 
 Robert affectionately. Six weeks later a London 
 friend of his father procured for him a situation with 
 Mr. James McGuffog, a successful draper in Stamford, 
 Lincolnshire. He was to have board, lodging and 
 washing the first year, and, in addition, a salary of 
 eight pounds the second year, and ten pounds the 
 third. Robert was thus independent from his tenth 
 year. His new master was an excellent man of busi- 
 ness, honest, systematic and kind; he had a large 
 circle of wealthy and titled customers. Mr. and Mrs. 
 McGuffog were, in fact, "quite the aristocracy of 
 retail tradespeople, without the usual weak vanities 
 of the class." Robert was thus made in some degree 
 acquainted with " what is called the great world," and 
 became "familiar with the finest fabrics of a great 
 variety of manufactures" which such persons de- 
 manded. 
 
 During his four years at Stamford, young Owen 
 read, upon the average, five hours a day, using Mr. 
 McGuffog' s well - selected library. Burleigh Park, 
 near by, was his summer study in the early morning 
 and the evening ; pondering there over Seneca's moral 
 precepts, which he had copied into a pocket-book, was 
 one of his pleasurable occupations. He had before 
 him a striking example of theological diversity in reli- 
 gious unity, as Mr. McGuffog belonged to the Church 
 of Scotland, and Mrs. McGuffog to that of England. 
 Both attended in the morning the service of the one, 
 and in the afternoon the service of the other. Robert, 
 who went with both, listened carefuUy to the polemic 
 sermons, but he never witnessed any " religious differ- 
 ence " between the worthy husband and wife. When 
 he was twelve or thirteen years old, he was troubled by
 
 38 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 the great disregard of the Sabbath in Stamford, and 
 wrote a letter on the subject to Mr. Pitt, the Prime 
 Minister. The innocent young Sabbatarian was natu- 
 rally much pleased, ten days afterward, at seeing in 
 the newspaper "a long proclamation from the gov- 
 ernment, recommending all parties to keep the Sab- 
 bath more strictly." He had no doubt that his letter 
 produced the proclamation : certainly the coincidence 
 amazed his employer. 
 
 Robert Owen returned to London at fifteen, and 
 found a situation with an old established house on 
 London Bridge, Flint & Palmer. The business was 
 conducted on a cash basis, and was very prosperous, 
 but its " customers were of an inferior class " to Mr. 
 McGuffog's carriage people. The work was severe, 
 and the dressing required before it began at eight 
 o'clock A. M. was an elaborate matter. "Boy as I 
 was then [1786], I had to wait my turn for the 
 hair-dresser to powder and pomatum and curl my hair, 
 for I had two large curls on each side, and a stiff pig- 
 tail, and until all this was very nicely and systemati- 
 cally done, no one could think of appearing before a 
 customer." Customers crowded the shop until ten 
 o'clock in the evening, and three or four hours were 
 required to arrange the goods for the next day. 
 
 Unable to support such a strain for a long time, 
 young Owen accepted an offer of forty pounds a year 
 and " keep " from Mr. Satterfield, a leading draper in 
 Manchester, whose " customers were generally of the 
 upper middle class, the well-to-do manufacturers' 
 and merchants' wives and families." Owen continued 
 here until he was eighteen. The diversity of his 
 apprenticeships gave him a wide opportunity for learn-
 
 ROBERT OWEN THE MANUFACTURER 39 
 
 ing the draper's business, but his career as an em- 
 ployer was to be in another direction. He was to 
 carry into cotton-spinning, however, the same indus- 
 try, readiness and aptness which won the appreciation 
 of his masters and their customers. Very mature for 
 his years, he was to make prodigious strides in a short 
 time, as a superintendent and partner. 
 
 Mr. Satterfield sold, among other things, wire 
 bonnet-frames, made by a mechanic named Jones, a 
 man of " some small inventive powers and a very 
 active mind." A favorite topic of conversation 
 between him and Owen was the " great and extraor- 
 dinary discoveries that were beginning to be intro- 
 duced into Manchester for spinning cotton by new 
 and curious machinery." This was Crompton's " mule." 
 Jones " succeeded in seeing these machines at work," 
 and was confident that he could make as good. He 
 proposed that Owen should advance the necessary 
 capital one hundred pounds and receive one half 
 of the profits of a partnership. Owen furnished this 
 sum and gave notice to Mr. Satterfield. The new 
 firm agreed with a builder to erect and rent them a 
 large machine work-shop, with rooms for some cotton- 
 spinners : forty men were soon at work making the 
 machines. Owen was entirely ignorant of them, 
 having never seen them at work, but " I looked very 
 wisely at the men in their different departments, 
 although I really knew nothing." Jones, he found, 
 was simply a working mechanic, knowing little 
 about bookkeeping, financial matters or the superin- 
 tendence of men. Owen therefore undertook the 
 accounts ; he was the first to reach and the last to 
 leave the manufactory; he observed everything in-
 
 40 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 tently, and maintained rule and order in the estab- 
 lishment. 
 
 Having discovered the lack of business capacity in 
 his partner, and not yet being confident of his own 
 powers, Owen readily accepted an offer, made in a 
 few months, from Jones and a small capitalist who 
 had overrated Jones' business ability : he agreed to 
 sell his share in the business for six mules, a reel and 
 a " inaking-up " machine for packing the skeins of 
 yarn into bundles. Jones and his new partner soon 
 failed, and Owen actually received from them only 
 three mules. With these he began the world on his 
 own account : he took a large factory in Ancoats Lane 
 and set three men at work in a small part of one of 
 the large rooms. He bought " rovings " the half- 
 made material for thread which the men spun, in 
 the cop form. Owen himself made up the thread on 
 the reel into hanks of one hundred and forty yards 
 in length : he then made these into bundles of five 
 pounds which he sold to Glasgow houses from whom 
 it passed to muslin weavers. Owen averaged six 
 pounds profit a week, letting the rest of his building 
 so as to meet his whole rent. For rovings he paid 
 twelve shillings per pound, and he sold the thread for 
 twenty-two shillings a pound. 
 
 At this time, 1791, cotton-spinning was attracting 
 the attention of capitalists, as a very lucrative invest- 
 ment. Mr. Drinkwater, a wealthy manufacturer and 
 merchant of Manchester, had erected a mill for fine 
 spinning : the manager on whom he was relying hav- 
 ing left him, he advertised for a successor. Robert 
 Owen applied for the situation. Mr. Drinkwater 
 was surprised by his youth (Owen looked young for
 
 ROBERT OWEN THE MANUFACTURER 41 
 
 his actual age), and by his reply to the question, 
 " How often do you get drunk in the week ? " Drunk- 
 enness was a common habit at this period, with almost 
 all persons in Manchester and Lancashire. " ' I was 
 never drunk in my life,' I said, blushing scarlet at 
 this unexpected question." Mr. Drinkwater was 
 more surprised, however, at the sum three hundred 
 pounds which Owen asked as salary : but Owen's 
 books convinced him that the latter was making as 
 much in his business, and he accepted the terms. 
 
 Owen entered the mill as manager without the 
 slightest instruction or explanation from any one. 
 " Five hundred men, women and children were busily 
 occupied with machinery, much of which I had 
 scarcely seen, and never in regular connection, to 
 manufacture from the cotton to the finished thread." 
 Sensitive but self-confident, he had applied for the 
 place on the impulse of the moment, with no realiz- 
 ing sense of the demands of the situation. But the 
 raw young Welshman, not yet twenty, had heroic 
 stuff hi him : he was a born manager of men, and he 
 was to become the first cotton-spinner of his genera- 
 tion. It was for him " to purchase the raw material ; 
 to make the machines, for the mill was not nearly 
 filled with machinery : to manufacture the cotton into 
 yarn, to sell it, and to keep the accounts, pay the 
 wages, and, in fact, to take the whole responsibility 
 of the first fine cotton-spinning establishment by 
 machinery that had ever been erected : . . . the new 
 mill was considered almost one of the wonders of the 
 mechanical and manufacturing world." Owen rose 
 to the stupendous demands of this situation. " I at 
 once determined to do the best I could. I looked
 
 42 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 grave, inspected everything very minutely, ex- 
 amined the drawings and calculations of the machinery, 
 as left by Mr. Lee, and these were of great use to 
 me. I was with the first in the morning, and I 
 locked up the premises at night, taking the keys with 
 me. I continued this silent inspection and superin- 
 tendence day by day for six weeks, saying merely ' yes ' 
 or ' no ' to the questions of what was to be done or 
 otherwise, and during that period I did not give one 
 direct order about anything. But at the end of that 
 time I felt myself so much master of my position as 
 to be ready to give directions in every department. 
 My previous habits had prepared me for great nicety 
 and exactness of action, and for a degree of perfec- 
 tion in operations to which parties then employed in 
 cotton-spinning were little accustomed. I soon per- 
 ceived the defects in the various processes." 
 
 Owen quickly improved the very indifferent quality 
 of the thread then considered to be extraordinarily 
 light in weight, one hundred and twenty hanks 
 making a pound. lie rearranged the factory, and 
 kept it constantly in a state to be inspected by any 
 one. His kindliness and executive talent gained the 
 respect and good-will of the workpeople, and in six 
 months " their order and disciph'ne exceeded that of 
 any other [factory] in or near Manchester ; and for 
 regularity and sobriety they were an example which 
 none could then imitate." Owen's creed had by this 
 time shaped itself into a very strong belief in the 
 omnipotence of circumstances, or the environment, in 
 forming character. The negative side of this creed 
 disbelief in all positive religions as special revela- 
 tions of any value beyond the amount of universal
 
 ROBERT OWEN THE MANUFACTURER 43 
 
 charity that they contained did not become promi- 
 nent for a number of years. The positive element was 
 a very earnest philanthropy which never ceased to 
 characterize Owen's practice, whatever were his 
 limits in intellectual clearness of view and hospitality 
 of culture. He treated his men as friends and co- 
 workers, and their regard for him was constant. 
 
 Mr. Drinkwater realized that he had hit upon a 
 man of great business ability in his youthful manager, 
 and he agreed to give him four hundred pounds salary 
 for the second year, five hundred for the third, and a 
 quarter part of the profits in the fourth. Owen's 
 name was now printed on the five-pound packages of 
 yarn, to distinguish it from that made by the former 
 manager, and it sold readily at high prices, ten per 
 cent, above the list-price of the trade. He was now 
 one of the best judges of raw material in the market 
 (he was the first to discover the fine quality of Amer- 
 ican Sea Island cotton), and for forty years he was 
 foremost in the manufacture. Within a year after 
 he took charge of the Bank Top Mill, he increased 
 the fineness of the finished thread from 120 to more 
 than 300 hanks in the pound ; 50 per cent, above the 
 list-price was easily obtained for such thread. The 
 cotton bought for five shillings a pound was made 
 into thread that was sold to Scotch muslin manufac- 
 turers at ,9 18s. Qd. a pound. The war with France 
 reduced these high prices. 
 
 Owen, now a prominent man in Manchester, enjoyed 
 the acquaintance of John Dalton, the future founder 
 of the atomic theory, and other members of the Lit- 
 erary and Philosophical Society of the city. Cole- 
 ridge, also, was a friend at this time. The connection
 
 44 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 with Mr. Drinkwater was terminated in 1795. Mr. 
 Samuel Oldknow, a noted manufacturer, was to be- 
 come Mr. Drinkwater's son-in-law, and he wished to 
 retain all the profits of the business in the family. 
 Owen was asked to name his own salary, if he would 
 resign the partnership : but he at , once threw the 
 agreement into the fire, and declined to remain as 
 manager at any salary. It was not long before his 
 high reputation as a manager brought about a part- 
 nership with two rich and long-established houses, 
 Borrodale and Atkinson of London, and the Messrs. 
 Barton of Manchester, under the name of the 
 Chorlton Twist Company. Owen superintended the 
 building of a large factory for its operations. The 
 new company prospered, of course. Owen was buyer 
 and seller for it, as well as manufacturer. Traveling 
 in the North to extend its trade, he paid a visit to 
 Glasgow in 1798, the result of which was a remark- 
 able blending of business and love-making ; it had a 
 decisive influence on Owen's future as a practical 
 philanthropist. His own detailed and animated ac- 
 count of the matter must be much mutilated here in 
 the necessary abridgment. 
 
 Arrived in Glasgow, Owen soon met a Manchester 
 friend, Miss Spear, in company with Miss Dale, the 
 oldest daughter of David Dale, " then one of the most 
 extraordinary men in the commercial world of Scot- 
 land an extensive manufacturer, cotton - spinner, 
 merchant, banker and preacher." He had the super- 
 intendence of some forty churches of an Independent 
 sect, one of the tenets of which was an aversion to a 
 " hired ministry ; " and he preached every Sunday in 
 Glasgow. Miss Dale, who was much taken with the
 
 ROBERT OWEN THE MANUFACTURER 45 
 
 talented young Manchester manufacturer, offered him 
 a letter of introduction to her uncle, one of the man- 
 agers of her father's mills at New Lanark, some thirty 
 miles above Glasgow, at the Falls of the Clyde ; these 
 were erected in 1784. After inspecting the four 
 mills and the manufacturing village, Owen said to a 
 traveling companion : " Of all places I have yet seen, 
 I should prefer this in which to try an experiment I 
 have long contemplated and have wished to have an 
 opportunity to put into practice." This referred to 
 plans for improving the condition of operatives in 
 cotton - mills. Just before this, after parting with 
 Owen for the first time, Miss Dale (as his friend, Miss 
 Spear, afterward kindly told him at a critical moment) 
 had said, " I do not know how it is but if ever I 
 marry, that is to be my husband ! " 
 
 A second visit to Glasgow on business began " to 
 create other feelings than those of mere business " in 
 the young cotton-spinner's mind. Miss Spear's en- 
 couragement, and her judicious betrayal of Miss Dale's 
 intimate speech, overcame the timidity which he felt 
 when he thought of David Dale's eminent position 
 and his religious cast. On a third visit, Miss Dale 
 told him that her father (whom Owen had not yet 
 seen) was wishing to sell the New Lanark establish- 
 ment. Owen having declared his feelings (" I was 
 now fairly in love, and deeply so "), she replied that 
 she could not marry without Mr. Dale's consent, 
 "so good a man and so kind a father," and she saw 
 no prospect that this consent could be obtained. 
 
 Business, philanthropy and probably love most of 
 all, suggested to Owen the happy thought of buying 
 the New Lanark Mills. He could at least get ac-
 
 46 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 quainted with Mr. Dale in making inquiries. Mr. 
 Dale received him coldly, if not suspiciously. At his 
 suggestion, Owen examined the mills again : on his 
 return to Manchester, his partners listened favorably 
 to his proposal to buy, and two of them went back to 
 New Lanark with him. They were much pleased with 
 what they saw, and went on to Glasgow. Mr. Dale 
 had now been informed by his daughter of Owen's 
 love for her, and had expressed himself vigorously 
 about this " land louper " who pretended to want to 
 buy New Lanark. He was surprised at Owen's 
 speedy reappearance in the company of men whose 
 high standing he knew, with an offer to open negoti- 
 ations. The next day, after he had made some in- 
 quiries, he declared himself ready to sell, and accepted 
 the price which Owen was asked by him to name as 
 fair, sixty thousand pounds, payable at the rate of 
 three thousand a year for twenty years. 
 
 The New Lanark Twist Company was thus begun, 
 in the summer of 1799, Owen being twenty-eight 
 years of age. Mr. Dale still refused to think of him 
 as a son-in-law : but Miss Dale had now resolved that 
 she would never marry any one else. Common friends 
 assisted in overcoming the father's objections before 
 long : Owen became a decided favorite with him, and 
 the marriage took place on the 30th of September. 
 Three months later Owen assumed entire charge of 
 the business in Scotland, entering " upon the govern- 
 ment of New Lanark about the first of January, 1800." 
 
 " I say government," he writes in his autobiography, 
 " for my intention was not to be a mere manager of 
 cotton-mills, as such mills were at this time generally 
 managed, but to introduce principles in the conduct of
 
 47 
 
 the people which I had successfully commenced with 
 the workpeople in Mr. Drinkwater's factory, and to 
 change the conditions of the people." 
 
 Owen's success at New Lanark was immediate, 
 signal and long-continued. The mills paid regular 
 dividends and large profits, and his plans for the 
 improvement of the character and condition of the 
 operatives were completely justified by the result. 
 New Lanark, as Owen reconstructed it, became famous 
 the world over for many years ; it was his one entire 
 success, which contrasted vividly with the uniform 
 failure of his communistic and socialistic experiments 
 in his later life. It is a bright and illustrious exam- 
 ple of what a liberal-minded and prosperous employer 
 can do for the elevation of those who work for him. 
 The thoroughness of its success in a time when the 
 industrial revolution had worked such lamentable 
 results in the whole manufacturing world is a convin- 
 cing testimony to the sterling philanthropy and the 
 fundamental sagacity of Robert Owen's genius. It is 
 an example that cannot be too carefully pondered by 
 modern employers of labor on a large scale. 
 
 New Lanark, in 1800, had a population of some 
 1,300 persons hi families. There were also 400 to 
 500 pauper children, placed there by the parish author- 
 ities of Edinburgh and Glasgow; they appeared to 
 be from five to ten years of age, but were said to be 
 from seven to twelve. Mr. Dale, though unable to 
 give personal attention to his mills, was an exception- 
 ally kind-hearted employer ; and he had provided that 
 the children should be well lodged, well fed and well 
 clothed. The attempt to teach them to read and 
 write, in the evening, was a failure, as they were then
 
 48 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 exhausted by the long day's work: "none of them 
 understood anything they attempted to read, and 
 many of them fell asleep during the school hours." 
 When their apprenticeship was over, these children 
 returned to the cities whence they came, and many of 
 them fell into vicious courses. At this time it was 
 very difficult to induce any sober, respectable family 
 to leave its home and enter the ordinary cotton-mill. 
 The force of grown-up persons at New Lanark was 
 intemperate and otherwise immoral, with very few 
 exceptions. The brother of a chief manager was fre- 
 quently off on a spree for weeks together. "Theft 
 was very general, and was carried on to an enormous 
 and ruinous extent, and Mr. Dale's property had been 
 plundered in all directions, and had almost been con- 
 sidered public property." 
 
 Owen's thoroughgoing acceptance of the theory that 
 circumstances make character naturally led him to 
 choose the course of mildness, rather than of severity, 
 in trying to alter the conditions of these ignorant 
 and vicious workers, and he could await results in 
 patience. The vast majority idle, intemperate, dis- 
 honest, untruthful were pretenders to religion. 
 Owen's faith was in good works as the test of religious 
 sincerity. He made no attack, however, upon the 
 established creed, but aimed directly at improving the 
 moral practice of the people. The old superintendents 
 were too little in sympathy with his measures, and 
 preferred to leave for situations elsewhere. Owen de- 
 termined that all changes should be made gradually, 
 and that the expense of them should be met from the 
 profits. He decided that Mr. Dale's engagements 
 with parishes respecting the children should run out ;
 
 ROBERT OWEN THE MANUFACTURER 49 
 
 that no more pauper children should be received ; that 
 the village houses and streets should be improved, and 
 new and better houses be erected to receive new fami- 
 lies, to supply the place of the pauper children. Each 
 family had had but a single room, the houses being of 
 one story : " before each door it was not unusual to 
 find a dunghill." l Owen added a story to each house, 
 giving two rooms to most of the families ; the dung- 
 hills were removed, and the renewal of the nuisance 
 strictly forbidden. The streets were swept every day 
 at the expense of the company. 
 
 Most of the families were too much used to disorder 
 and dirt to heed Owen's recommendations, and several 
 public lectures on the subject were as unavailing. A 
 general meeting of the villagers thereupon appointed 
 a committee to visit each family weekly and report on 
 the condition of the house. Most of the women went 
 into " a storm of rage and opposition," locking their 
 doors or styling the committee "bug-hunters," and 
 the like. Owen quietly encouraged the committee to 
 persevere, asking admittance as a favor only. The 
 small minority who welcomed their visits received a 
 gift of plants from his greenhouse, and a few friendly 
 visits from Mrs. Owen aided the good work. " Grad- 
 ually the weekly reports of the committee became 
 more full and more favorable." 
 
 No one was ever dismissed from New Lanark 
 except for habitual drunkenness. Spirits had been 
 sold in all of the retail shops. Owen put an end to 
 this nuisance by establishing superior stores and 
 shops that could supply food, clothing and all other 
 
 1 Robert Owen at New Lanark, by a Former Teacher, quoted by 
 R. D. Owen in Threading My Way, p. 71.
 
 50 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 things needed by the people. He bought for cash, 
 in large quantities, and sold the best quality of every- 
 thing at cost. The result was a saving of fully 
 twenty-five per cent., to say nothing of the gain in 
 quality. The improved health, better dress, and 
 more comfortable houses testified to the efficacy of this 
 indirect method of combating intemperance. With 
 such a class of people, violently prejudiced against 
 the " foreign " manager, who spoke a very differ- 
 ent language from their lowland Scotch and highland 
 Erse, it was to be expected that there should be sys- 
 tematic opposition to every change that Owen pro- 
 posed. His philosophy stood him in good stead in 
 his efforts to gain their confidence. This was not 
 fully gained, however, until the year 1807, when the 
 United States embargo placed the British cotton- 
 manufacturers in a dilemma. Most of them shut 
 down and discharged their employees. Others con- 
 tinued to work up the material at a high price, run- 
 ning the risk of a great reduction in the price of 
 material and stock on the removal of the embargo. 
 With his large works Owen concluded that it would 
 be very hazardous to continue spinning, and it 
 seemed to him cruel and unjust to discharge the 
 force. He therefore stopped all the machinery and 
 retained the employees at full wages, in return for 
 which they simply kept the machinery clean and in 
 good order. In the four months before the end of 
 the embargo the New Lanark workers received more 
 than 7,000 for their unemployed time. " This pro- 
 ceeding won the confidence and the hearts of the 
 whole population, and henceforward I had no ob- 
 structions from them in my progress of reform."
 
 ROBERT OWEN THE MANUFACTURER 51 
 
 Owen went on with confidence and at fuller speed 
 to improve the moral character of his people. He 
 counteracted their temptation to thieving by devices 
 which rendered it impracticable without almost im- 
 mediate detection. Daily returns were made to him 
 of the preceding day's business, and frequent bal- 
 ances. The most efficient check on bad conduct, he 
 thought, was his " silent monitor." This was " a 
 four-sided piece of wood, about two inches long and 
 one broad, each side colored, one side black, 
 another blue, the third yellow, and the fourth white, 
 tapered at the top, and finished with wire eyes, to 
 hang upon a hook, with either side to the front." 
 One of these was hung near each employee, and the 
 color at the front showed his conduct during the 
 previous day. Bad was denoted by black, No. 4: 
 indifferent, by blue, No. 3 : good by yellow, No. 2 : 
 and excellent by white, No. 1. " Books of character " 
 kept a two-months' record for each worker. Right of 
 complaint was reserved to him if he thought injustice 
 had been done him by the superintendent of the de- 
 partment who regulated the " monitor : " but the right 
 was very rarely exercised. The result surpassed all 
 expectation. " At the commencement . . . the great 
 majority were black, many blue, and a few yellow : 
 gradually the black diminished, and were succeeded 
 by the blue, and the blue was gradually succeeded by 
 the yellow, and some, but at first very few, were 
 white." 
 
 Owen proposed in his Bill for regulating the hours 
 of work in mills and factories, which he pressed upon 
 Parliament in 1815, that the regular hours in mills 
 of machinery should be limited to twelve per day, in-
 
 52 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 eluding one hour and a half for meals ; that children 
 should not be employed in such mills until ten years 
 old, and not more than six hours a day until twelve 
 years old : and that no children should be admitted 
 into any manufactory " until they can read and write 
 in a useful manner, understand the first four rules 
 of arithmetic, and the girls be likewise competent to 
 sew their common garments of clothing." This was 
 substantially Owen's procedure at New Lanark. He 
 was thus practically the pioneer of the ten hour day. 
 Such a limitation of hours and such care for the 
 children in the mills, " when influenced by no narrow 
 mistaken notions of immediate self-interest, but con- 
 sidered solely in a national view, will," he rightly said, 
 " be found to be beneficial to the child, to the parent, 
 to the employer, and to the country." 
 
 Owen's faith in education was of the strongest, and 
 his active and ingenious mind soon showed him that 
 the education of the children of factory operatives 
 could be begun much earlier than usual, to the great 
 advantage of themselves and their parents. The 
 homes of the poor are " altogether unfit for the train- 
 ing of young children, with their limited space and 
 accommodation . . . and in ninety-nine cases out of a 
 hundred, parents are altogether ignorant of the right 
 method of treating children, and their own children 
 especially." An infant school was the logical result 
 of such reasoning, a school where character could 
 be formed from a very early period under the most 
 favorable conditions. In 1809 Owen began work on 
 the foundations of the building for such a school, 
 which would cost, he estimated, about five thousand 
 pounds : the subsequent annual outlay would be con-
 
 ROBERT OWEN THE MANUFACTURER 53 
 
 siderable. The " improved character of the children 
 and the improved condition of the parents " would 
 amply repay such an expenditure. But, naturally, at 
 this period in the infancy of manufacturing, when the 
 main chance, a good return for capital, was foremost 
 in the minds of employers, Owen's partners did not 
 take this long and wise view of a problem that was 
 to endure for generations. As he insisted on man- 
 aging the establishment on principles which appeared 
 to him to be true, and through the practice which he 
 understood (in his own words), and which hitherto 
 had always been successful by confession of all in- 
 terested, they accepted Owen's offer of eighty-four 
 thousand pounds for their share of the business and 
 withdrew. The firm had been in existence ten years ; 
 after five per cent, interest had been paid, the profits 
 were sixty thousand pounds. 
 
 Owen would naturally have associated himself with 
 his father-in-law, as he was obliged to seek new part- 
 ners. But Mr. Dale had passed away, universally 
 regretted, and by no one more than by Owen, for they 
 had become very warmly attached to each other. Mr. 
 Dale had such an admiration for the improvements 
 which his son-in-law had wrought at New Lanark that 
 he declared publicly that he never would have parted 
 with the mills had they been in any such condition in 
 1799. Each of the two men had a thorough respect 
 for the genuine manliness, sincerity and kindliness of 
 the other. " He was the only religious man I ever 
 knew," said Owen, "who possessed real charity for 
 those who so differed from him." In the earlier 
 months of their friendship, the two often discussed reli- 
 gious and theological subjects, with entire good nature.
 
 54 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 Mr. Dale would close with the kindly remark, which 
 he doubtless knew applied also to himself, " Thou 
 needest be very right, Robert, for thou art very posi- 
 tive." 
 
 The "New Lanark Company," the new firm now 
 organized, consisted of five partners, Owen holding 
 the largest share of the capital. Two of the others 
 were sons-in-law of Mr. Campbell of Zura, a near 
 relative of Mrs. Owen. Discovering that Mr. Camp- 
 bell, some time before, had deposited twenty thousand 
 pounds with Owen in his business, they conceived a 
 great enmity to him, and objected to all his most 
 characteristic plans to the improvements for the 
 comfort of the villagers, to the liberal scale of wages 
 and salaries, and especially to the school buildings. 
 The result of the disagreement was a dissolution of 
 the partnership, the other four partners insisting on a 
 sale of the works by auction. They industriously cir- 
 culated reports to the effect that Owen's management 
 had so lowered the value of the property that they 
 would be only too happy to get forty thousand pounds 
 for it. Their plain object was to depreciate the pro- 
 perty before the sale and bid it in far below its value. 
 When questioned, they acknowledged that their only 
 objection was to Owen's " visionary schemes of edu- 
 cation and improvement and to the scale of wages." 
 " They imagined an ignorant economy to be better 
 than an enlightened and liberal treatment of the peo- 
 ple and of our customers." 
 
 The story of the manner in which Owen, now 
 " completely tired of partners who were merely trained 
 to buy cheap and sell dear," caused these deceitful 
 associates to be " hoist with their own petard " is very
 
 ROBERT OWEN THE MANUFACTURER 55 
 
 dramatic : it must be shortened here to the most neces- 
 sary particulars. Owen went up to London in 1813 
 to see to the printing of his four essays on the forma- 
 tion of character. At the same time he published for 
 private circulation a pamphlet, describing his estab- 
 lishment and his methods of conducting it in the in- 
 terests of " philanthropy and five per cent.," as a later 
 generation would have put it. Three wealthy Friends 
 John Walker, Joseph Foster and William Allen 
 took, between them, five shares of ten thousand pounds 
 each in the proposed new association out of the whole 
 thirteen (Owen holding five) : the other subscribers 
 were Jeremy Bentham (it was the only successful 
 business enterprise, said Sir John Bowring, his editor, 
 in which Bentham was ever engaged), Joseph Fox, 
 and Michael Gibbs, afterward Lord Mayor of Lon- 
 don. The contract ran that all surplus gain over 
 five per cent, should be " freely expended for the edu- 
 cation of the children and the improvement of the 
 work-people at New Lanark, and for the general im- 
 provement of the condition of the persons employed 
 in manufactories." Owen's actual partners, ignorant 
 of these protective measures taken by him, invited a 
 large party of their business friends to dine with 
 them after the auction, feeling sure of purchasing the 
 property themselves. Owen forced them, in common 
 decency, to fix the upset price at ,60,000. (He was 
 empowered by his new partners to bid X120,000, if 
 necessary.) At the sale Owen's solicitor bid steadily 
 XI 00 higher than the four partners, and the property 
 was knocked down to him at X114,100. The dinner, 
 quite naturally, passed almost in silence, as "the 
 spirits of the principals were below zero." On the
 
 56 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 other hand, Owen and three of his new partners, who 
 had come to Glasgow incognito, had a triumphal pro- 
 gress to New Lanark. The inhabitants of the old 
 and the new towns turned out en masse, and drew 
 the carriage containing the four gentlemen through 
 both places. The discomfiture of Owen's former part- 
 ners was completed when the balance sheet of the four 
 years' connection showed a net profit, after allowing 
 five per cent, interest, of 160,000 ! 
 
 Owen now pushed to completion his " institution 
 for the formation of character," which was opened 
 January 1, 1816. This was the first infant school 
 in Great Britain, and the sagacity with which its 
 founder developed its methods gives him a high place 
 among educational reformers. Children were received 
 almost as early as they could walk. Three shillings a 
 year was the fee charged, though the actual expense 
 of the education given was about two pounds. Owen 
 considered the difference " amply made up by the un- 
 proved character of the whole population, upon whom 
 the school had a powerful influence for good." No 
 punishment was allowed, and the young children were 
 instructed after the object-method by means of 
 things themselves, or of models or paintings and by 
 familiar conversation. They learned to dance and 
 sing from two years of age up, and military drill was 
 an important feature of the course later on. The 
 children were kept as much as possible in the open 
 air : in severe weather they played in rooms reserved 
 for the purpose. The large hall, also used as a chapel, 
 was the general schoolroom for the upper, third, 
 grade, where the children over six were taught read- 
 ing, writing, arithmetic, sewing and knitting, until
 
 ROBERT OWEN THE MANUFACTURER 57 
 
 they were ten ; no child could enter the works before 
 that age. In summer, excursions for the study of 
 Nature were frequent. After school hours for the 
 children, the buildings were made comfortable for the 
 workpeople who wished to attend evening school for 
 two hours : that his employees might " learn any of the 
 useful arts " was Owen's comprehensive aim, as stated 
 in his opening address. Three rooms were set apart 
 as a kind of club-house for the employees : two even- 
 ings were appointed for dancing and music : occasional 
 lectures were given to the older people on practical 
 morals. 
 
 Concurrently with these philanthropies which con- 
 cerned the " living machinery," usually so much neg- 
 lected by the mill-owner, Owen brought the whole 
 physical machinery of the establishment into the best 
 condition. Though his plans for the improvement of his 
 workpeople had the greatest interest for him, he never 
 ceased, while at New Lanark, to be one of the great 
 cotton-spinners of Britain. On his travels, he visited 
 hundreds of factories with a mind equally set upon 
 business improvement and philanthropy. The old and 
 ill-arranged machinery at home was replaced, and the 
 new rearranged. Owen devised a system of elevators : 
 his colored " telegraphs " or monitors did effective 
 service, 1 and the four superintendents of departments 
 were admirably faithful and capable subordinates. 
 The mills, the village with the 150 acres of land 
 around it, and the schools, all ran in unison " with 
 the regularity of clock-work." The cashier of the 
 
 1 Mr. Sargant thinks that this, the most " paternal " feature of 
 Owen's system, was probably a source of amusement to the employees, 
 who were willing to humor him.
 
 58 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 Bank of England, visiting New Lanark, thought that 
 what he saw must be the result of some generations, 
 and he was astonished to learn that the " high perfec- 
 tion of systematic order " which he beheld was due to 
 one man's sixteen years of determined effort. When- 
 ever the head was absent, daily reports of the business 
 were sent him in great detail. 
 
 Owen had now become a famous man. His " Es- 
 says" and his New Lanark institutions gave him a 
 world-wide repute. Bishops, statesmen, political eco- 
 nomists and philanthropists read the " Essays " and 
 discussed their ideas with the author on terms of 
 respect and esteem. Owen's disinterested efforts to 
 procure legislation for shorter hours of work and for 
 the regulation of child-labor took him a great deal to 
 London. New Lanark itself became a potent centre 
 of attraction, especially after its schools were fully 
 developed. Two thousand visitors a year came to see 
 for themselves this "Happy Valley" with its model 
 community and its remarkable schools. The Grand 
 Duke Nicholas, afterward the Emperor of Russia, was 
 the most notable of these visitors ; but princes, ambas- 
 sadors and nobles, bishops and clergy, learned men of 
 the various professions, and travelers for pleasure or 
 knowledge, all these in great numbers availed them- 
 selves of Owen's generous hospitality and his cheerful 
 exhibition of his entire establishment. A lady of the 
 highest rank of the nobility said with tears in her 
 eyes, after visiting the schools, " Mr. Owen, I would 
 give any money if my children could be made like 
 these." The Duke of Kent, the father of Queen 
 Victoria, was Owen's warm and constant friend : his 
 sudden death, in 1820, took place not long before he
 
 ROBERT OWEN THE MANUFACTURER 59 
 
 was to make a visit of three months at New Lanark, 
 with his wife and daughter. 
 
 New Lanark, under Owen's control, continued for 
 some thirty years altogether to show the excellent 
 results of his wise philanthropy. The result, from a 
 financial point of view, was that none of the partners 
 accumulated an immense fortune from the investment, 
 but all received a good rate of interest on their cap- 
 ital. " In the first thirty years of this century, the 
 clear profits, after paying the <7,000 of gratuities in 
 1806, and the expenses of benevolence, amounted to 
 XI 0,0 00 a year; but we are not told how much of 
 this accrued before, and how much after 1814." l 
 This was an average of more than 7 per cent, on 
 the capital of X130,000 which Owen and his third set 
 of partners had invested in the business. 
 
 These partners at no time complained of any reduc- 
 tion in their possible profits caused by Owen's meth- 
 ods. There was more or less friction between him 
 and William Allen for a long time, however, due 
 largely to Allen's bigoted opposition to the teaching 
 of music and dancing. In 1824 Allen so far prevailed 
 that it was agreed that the company should no longer 
 provide a dancing-master, and that nothing hi the way 
 of music or singing should be taught except psalmody. 
 The genuine benevolence of Owen's partners was 
 shown in other articles of their agreement, which pro- 
 vided for more houses, an ampler supply of water, a 
 washing apparatus, an asylum for the sick and the 
 aged, and a savings-bank. " The public kitchen was 
 to be completed. This was a building 150 feet by 40, 
 with kitchens and storerooms on the ground floor, and 
 
 1 Eobert Owen and His Philosophy, by W. L. Sargant, p. 217.
 
 60 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 a large eating-room above ; at one end was a gallery 
 for an orchestra : a library, with lobbies, occupied the 
 centre, and a lecture and concert room of the same 
 size were at the other end of the building." The in- 
 tention was to " furnish a dinner at a fixed price to all 
 who chose to come : " it was stated that four or five 
 thousand pounds a year were saved to the people by 
 this institution. 
 
 Owen himself, during the preceding years, had been 
 becoming more and more of a socialist : he had occu- 
 pied himself largely with long-continued attempts to 
 procure factory legislation in the interest of the 
 working-people, and his self-confidence, always suffi- 
 cient probably, had now become enormous. He gen- 
 eralized hastily from his favorable experience at New 
 Lanark to the sure success of a universal system of 
 communities based on socialistic principles. These 
 were not, in fact, the product of a rational evolution, 
 like the Scotch village. The failure of several social- 
 ist communities, including New Harmony, in Indiana, 
 could not discourage Owen, however. His interest 
 in these doubtful schemes of general social regenera- 
 tion, with their loose hold upon reality, had probably 
 distracted his attention largely from New Lanark, as 
 the agreement of 1824 would seem to indicate. In 
 1829 he retired from the business to devote himself 
 largely for the twenty-eight remaining years of his 
 long and unselfish life to a picturesque but uniformly 
 unsuccessful socialistic experimentation. His ardor 
 and generosity were as great as ever, but the fatal 
 mark of impracticability was on almost all his humane 
 endeavors. 
 
 Owen tells us, to return to New Lanark, that the
 
 ROBERT OWEN THE MANUFACTURER 61 
 
 hours of work were increased and the wages reduced, 
 at once, by his successors. Wages were not high, as 
 compared with those paid in England, but they had 
 not been reduced for twenty-five years, not even in 
 the distressful year 1819. In that year one of the 
 mills was burned, but work was found for the opera- 
 tives employed in it, and none were turned away. 
 In 1854 Owen could praise the management of his 
 successor, and say that " the village had not become 
 a mere money-getting place." 
 
 Owen's life, after his connection with New Lanark 
 closed, does not concern us here. That fine establish- 
 ment was not conducted on socialistic lines. The one 
 principle governing it was that the proprietors were 
 satisfied to receive a moderate return on their capital 
 (five per cent., according to the contract, and more 
 than that, in fact, as the mills were prosperous), in 
 addition to the salary of one thousand pounds paid to 
 the manager. A large part, if not the whole, of the 
 remaining profits they wished to see go to the benefit 
 of the workpeople in the form of what in later years 
 would be styled " collective profit sharing." The re- 
 sult has always been considered one of the most cheer- 
 ing records in the history of English labor. What the 
 partners resigned of possible profits built up the insti- 
 tutions which we have described, and made New 
 Lanark for thirty years a model manufacturing vil- 
 lage. Few will be found to doubt to-day that this 
 distribution of the earnings of the enterprise promoted 
 the general welfare far more effectually than the usual 
 method followed outside of New Lanark. From this 
 point of view it may well seem a misfortune that 
 Robert Owen did not confine himself to the thorough
 
 62 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 development of the plans which occupied him at home 
 until 1815, and the advocacy of their general exten- 
 sion to other manufactures. The influence of such 
 an example, unconnected in the public mind with 
 impracticable schemes of socialism, might in time have 
 been very great. 
 
 However this may be, Robert Owen, in this earlier 
 part of his life, was a generous, sagacious and devoted 
 employer of labor, who struck out a path in which 
 thousands of other employers would do wisely and 
 well to follow him. Devising such fruitful measures 
 in the early years of the factory system, he is, and 
 will always remain, a master-type of the far-seeing 
 and philanthropic captains of industry.
 
 PART H 
 
 AN INDIRECT DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 WELFARE-INSTITUTIONS IN GERMANY 
 
 AFTER the convenient fashion of their language, 
 the Germans name the various arrangements and in- 
 stitutions which an employer devises for the protec- 
 tion and comfort of his workpeople Wohlfahrtsein- 
 richtungen. Dr. Post's two large volumes on such 
 methods and institutions bear the explanatory title, 
 "Examples of personal care for their workers by 
 employers." France and Germany are the two mod- 
 ern countries in which such interest has been most 
 frequently and thoroughly shown. 
 
 The political history and constitution of Germany 
 and certain traits of the national character have 
 favored the large manifestation among employers of 
 the patriarchal spirit which looks upon a body of 
 workpeople as a family and the head of the industry 
 as a true hausvater. The stability of industrial 
 relations tends greatly to increase this family feeling, 
 which in itself springs from some of the best qualities 
 of the Teutonic character. The independent spirit of 
 democracy and the socialistic trend, so closely con- 
 nected with it in Germany, have indeed much weak- 
 ened the older feelings of respect and affection with
 
 64 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 which the German workman often regarded his em- 
 ployer, and " paternalism " is coming to be viewed by 
 him with a jealous eye. The change has not, however, 
 gone so far as to take from Germany her high rank 
 in this direction. 
 
 I shall write of these welfare-institutions descrip- 
 tively, showing them as they are, with no intention 
 of recommending them in their entirety as models 
 for imitation by an English or American employer. 
 Paternalism, in any rightfully objectionable sense of 
 the word, has more reference to some of the methods 
 of administering an insurance or pension fund, for 
 instance, than to such a fund in itself. Nearly if not 
 quite all of the institutions devised by German em- 
 ployers could be profitably adapted to Anglo-Saxon 
 uses by giving the workman a larger share, if not the 
 whole of the after control of them when once created. 1 
 Viewed in this light, the most paternal industrial 
 institutions of Germany are highly deserving of con- 
 sideration by other countries. To many cases of 
 interest in themselves I do not, however, allude : but 
 the scale on which a business is conducted has not 
 influenced the choice of instances : I have sought 
 variety in unity. 
 
 The greatest establishment which industrial Ger- 
 many has to show is perhaps also the " largest in the 
 world " (to use a phrase dear to American lips), at 
 least in its own line of work. The cast-steel works 
 of the firm Fried. Krupp at Essen-on-Ruhr with 
 the affiliated steel works at Annen and Buckau, the 
 four blast furnace plants near Duisberg, Neuwied, 
 Engers, and Kheinhausen, the iron works near Sayn, 
 1 This is notably the tendency in France.
 
 WELFARE-INSTITUTIONS IN GERMANY 65 
 
 the numerous coal and iron mines in Germany and 
 Spain, the clay and sand pits and the quarries, the three 
 ocean steamers, and the latest acquisition of the firm, 
 the Germania Shipbuilding and Engineering Com- 
 pany of Berlin and Kiel employed in 1898 the 
 immense number of 40,253 persons. 1 
 
 The Essen works, a city hi themselves, manufac- 
 ture crucible steel, Martin (open hearth) steel and 
 castings of these two kinds ; puddled steel (Milano- 
 and-Bamboo steel) ; Bessemer steel ; various alloys of 
 steel with tungsten, nickel, chrome and molybdenum ; 
 cast-iron, wrought-iron and bronze. The specialty of 
 the works in manufactured articles is, as all the world 
 knows, war material for land and sea. Cannon of 
 all kinds and all calibres, single or in complete bat- 
 teries ; projectiles of many varieties : rifle barrels and 
 armor plates are the principal output. The industrial 
 material manufactured embraces a large variety of 
 iron and steel work for railways, from the rails them- 
 selves up to complete portable plants ; plates, cylin- 
 ders, propellers and other structural parts for ships : 
 parts of all kinds of engines : sheet and roll steel, 
 and sheet iron, and other articles " too numerous to 
 mention." 
 
 Passing by the 1,600 furnaces, the 113 steam 
 hammers, the 458 steam-engines, and the 467 cranes, 
 with the 37^ miles of driving belts of the colossal 
 establishment at Essen, one may mention that, in the 
 
 1 These figures are taken from the little pamphlet of Statistical 
 Data issued by the firm for private circulation, and revised since the 
 General Census of July 1, 1898. At Essen there were employed 
 23,397 persons : at Buckau, 3,582 : at the Germania Works, 2,651 : in 
 the mines, the iron works, the proving ground near Meppen and 
 elsewhere, 10,023.
 
 66 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 year 1895-96, 752,505 tons of coal and coke were con- 
 sumed, the output of the firm's own collieries aver- 
 aging some 3,500 tons per day, and about 1,400 tons 
 of iron ore being smelted each day from their own 
 mines : about as much water was used in 1894-95 as 
 by the city of Dresden, and more gas than by Diissel- 
 dorf. The works' railway system includes over 34 
 miles of standard gauge track with 590 cars, and 
 some 26 miles of narrow gauge with 709 cars. An 
 elaborate fire department extinguished in the years 
 1886-1890 no less than 768 fires. Of the 871 acres 
 belonging to Fried. Krupp in Essen and the sur- 
 rounding parishes, over 126 were built upon. 
 
 The welfare-institutions of the Fried. Krupp firm 
 are on a scale corresponding to the magnitude of its 
 products. They are described in a volume published 
 by the firm : the description and the various bodies of 
 rules and regulations fill nearly three hundred octavo 
 pages. It is a book as unique as the famous 5,000 
 ton hydraulic press at Essen. It naturally begins 
 with the large provision that the firm has made for 
 housing thousands of its employees. 1 To assist them 
 in acquiring homes of their own, Herr F. A. Krupp 
 established in 1889 a loan fund of 500,000 m. 
 ($119,000). An employee earning less than 3,000 m. 
 ($714) could borrow money to build a home of his 
 own at three per cent, interest ; the loan must be re- 
 paid in not more than twenty-five annual installments 
 which were not much larger than the usual rent. 
 
 1 See, beside Dr. Post's volume, the admirable and exhaustive 
 " Report on the Housing of the Working People " of numerous 
 countries made by Dr. E. R. L. Gould to the U. S. Commissioner of 
 Labor (Eighth Special Report, 1895), pp. 384-387.
 
 WELFARE-INSTITUTIONS IN GERMANY 67 
 
 The firm furnished the services of the architect free. 
 In the first four years of the operation of this fund 
 seventy houses were thus acquired. 
 
 The building and renting of houses by the firm is 
 a matter of much greater size. In 1894, out of the 
 whole number of people employed at the Essen 
 works, and their families (94,752 persons), there 
 were living in houses owned by the firm (3,659 in 
 1891), 25,828 persons. The firm began to build on 
 a considerable scale in 1872 : the six separate settle- 
 ments, in the neighborhood of Essen, are called 
 colonies. The largest of these is Kronenberg, with 
 a population of 7,856 in 1892. The 52 acres of this 
 colony are occupied by 226 neat three-story hous.es in 
 barrack style, of stone and brick, with a church, school- 
 buildings, post-office, stores, market-place, a library, 
 a large hall, and smaller assembly rooms, and a central 
 park. The streets are well shaded with trees and the 
 houses have patches for gardening and clothes-drying. 
 Other colonies are not so well provided, but the 
 Colony Altenhof, for invalid and retired workmen, 
 presents a very attractive appearance. The firm is 
 content with a net income of a little over two per 
 cent, on its investment of some three millions of 
 dollars in this direction. "The rented houses are 
 extremely popular," says Dr. Gould, and a seniority 
 of ten years' service is usually required of a tenant, 
 because of the many applications : the regulations are 
 strict: water and gas are supplied to every house. 
 The Freistadt Barracks is a massive building erected 
 by the firm as a lodging-house for 1,200 men, and pro- 
 vided with a restaurant and reading-room : a smaller 
 house accommodates eighty persons. The manage- 
 ment is of military strictness.
 
 68 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 The Krupp firm supports fifty-one stores in Essen 
 and the colonies, at which supplies of all things needed 
 by its employees for housekeeping and personal use 
 can be obtained for cash: the articles kept are in- 
 variably of good quality. The administration of 
 these stores is in the hands of the firm, but the 
 advantages to the workmen in the quality and cheap- 
 ness of goods are those usually gained by the co- 
 operative store ; the profits come back to them in the 
 shape of a rebate at the end of the year. The Cen- 
 tral Store is a large three-story building, stocked with 
 a great variety of goods. Besides this there are two 
 slaughter-houses, a flour-mill, two bakeries, an ice 
 factory, a laundry, two tailor shops, a brush factory, 1 
 a paper bag factory, and a shoe factory, with seven 
 restaurants and two coffee-houses. 
 
 The restaurants have gardens connected with them, 
 and some have bowling alleys. The restaurant in the 
 Kronenberg colony has appertaining to it the large 
 hall already mentioned, seating about 1,500 persons. 
 It is used by the different Vereins of the workmen 
 for their business meetings and their festivals. In 
 the winter months the company of the Essen Stadt- 
 Theatre gives a play once a fortnight. The con- 
 sumption of beer in 1890 was 1,424,539 1. 
 
 The general sanitary conditions of the Essen works 
 are under the superintendence of the chief physician 
 of the Hospital. He keeps the mortality records for 
 the large population, and on the basis of these makes 
 his recommendations of special measures to the Sani- 
 tary Commission composed of doctors and overseers 
 
 1 The management employs half-invalids as much as possible in 
 making objects for sale, like brushes.
 
 WELFARE-INSTITUTIONS IN GERMANY 69 
 
 belonging to the works. In 1890 one workman out 
 of a hundred died. For the disposal of household sew- 
 age the barrel system is in use, and the disinfecting 
 apparatus is ample. Some kind of facilities for bathing 
 is provided by the firm in nearly all its different works. 
 At Essen a bath-house was erected in 1874 containing 
 seven bath-rooms, each having a tub, supplied with 
 hot and cold water, and a steam-bath for six persons ; 
 the price of a tub-bath is ten to fifteen pfennige, of a 
 steam-bath one mark: the families of workmen can 
 enjoy this privilege. Shower-baths were introduced 
 later, with success. At the two Hannover mines a 
 bath-house with twenty-eight shower-baths was built 
 in 1890 at an expense of 20,000 m. ; at this some 
 1,100 miners can have a free bath each day. At Essen 
 warm baths were taken by 4,231 well persons and 
 2,260 sick persons in the year ending June 30, 1891. 
 The Essen Steel Works had a sick and burial 
 fund, after 1853, which developed a pension fund : 
 this had to be severed from it in 1885. The Sick 
 Fund is much more liberal in its aid than such insti- 
 tutions usually are : men who have served over five 
 years may remain twenty-six weeks on the list. The 
 firm contracts with sixteen physicians: the patient 
 may choose his own doctor : a physician examines each 
 employee on his entrance to the works. Helpers are 
 always ready, day or night, with the needful apparatus 
 for cases of accident. A fund for the relief of sick- 
 ness at home was endowed with 6,000 m. in 1879, and 
 replaced later with a yearly contribution of 3,000 m., 
 and the interest on a later endowment of 40,000 m. 
 Two " Controllers " have the supervision of the sick 
 at home, visiting them and giving necessary assistance.
 
 70 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 Every member of the Sick Fund, by contributing 5 m. 
 a year, secures the service of a physician for such 
 members of his family as are not legally entitled to 
 belong to the fund. The Arbeiterstiftung (to be 
 described soon) advances some 1,200 m. a year for this 
 purpose. The firm supplies the service of a specialist 
 for diseases of women, free of cost : medicines are fur- 
 nished to women and children at a reduced rate. 
 
 The Krupp Hospital at Essen served originally as 
 barracks for the care of the wounded in the Franco- 
 Prussian war of 1870 : they were given for hospital 
 purposes for the firm's employees in 1872. In 1881 
 two new pavilions for women and children were added 
 to the older three for men : each pavilion contains 
 thirty beds. From May 1, 1872, to June 30, 1891, 
 there were treated 14,134 workpeople ; in the year 
 ending July 1,1890, there was an average of eighty-five 
 patients under treatment. In its other works the firm 
 has no special hospitals, but it contributes to the hos- 
 pitals of the neighboring community. For epidemic 
 outbreaks the firm is prepared with a special hospital 
 {LazaretK) of six barracks lying north of Essen, and 
 a smaller one at Altendorf , south of that city. 
 
 When the pension and sick funds of the Krupp 
 firm were separated in 1883, the new Pension Fund 
 received the entire capital of the double fund except 
 10,000 m. allotted to the new sick fund. The firm 
 contributed, annually, half as much as the sum coming 
 from the employees, until 1891 : since then it has 
 contributed as much as they do. In 1890, 312 men, 
 357 widows, and 35 orphans, and 15 men on a half- 
 pension received 240,810 m. The balance of the fund 
 from the preceding year was 2,208,851 m. The yearly
 
 WELFARE-INSTITUTIONS IN GERMANY 71 
 
 contribution of the firm is now some 240,000 m. 
 The number of persons in 1891 who had reached the 
 age qualifying one to receive a pension was more than 
 3,000. The size of the pension for an employee earn- 
 ing 1,200 m., paid by the works and the State, varies 
 from 600 m. after 20 years of service to 1,030 m. 
 after 40 years. 
 
 In 1890 Herr F. A. Krupp founded a similar fund 
 for the officials (Beamte) of the firm, with a gift of 
 500,000 m. All employees are qualified who receive 
 more than 2,000 m. a year ; the fund had increased to 
 1,450,000 m. by the 1st of July, 1891. The firm deter- 
 mined in 1890 to insure the same class of persons 
 against accidents: the law of 1884 did not apply to 
 them. In case of death resulting from the accident, 
 the family of the deceased receives his full pay for the 
 month in which he died, and for the two months fol- 
 lowing, and a certain percentage for the widow and 
 for each child thereafter, which, altogether, may not 
 exceed sixty per cent, of the salary paid. In case of 
 permanent injury resulting, the insured receives full 
 pay while he is recovering, and after recovery an 
 allowance which may run as high as two thirds, 
 according to the nature of the injury. In order that 
 no class of old people might suffer from the lack of 
 application of the letter of the pension-fund regula- 
 tion of 1884, the firm pays sums in lieu of pensions 
 to widows whose husbands died in consequence of an 
 accident while at work before the accident-insurance 
 law took effect, and to men who had become incapaci- 
 tated for work before the same date. This form of 
 aid required, in 1890, 50,732 m. 
 
 In 1877 a life-insurance association was founded :
 
 72 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 Herr A. Krupp presented to it 50,000 m., and later 
 4,000 m. more : the firm contributes, every quarter, a 
 sum equal to half the premiums paid. On account of 
 agreements made by the firm with eight life-insurance 
 companies, peculiar advantages are secured to the 
 person insured : the choice of the company is left to 
 him. The firm takes pains to inform all employees 
 concerning insurance, and it does all the bookkeeping 
 for the association, which thus has no running ex- 
 penses. At the end of 1890 the entire amount in- 
 sured was 3,628,878m., in 2,190 policies, and 564 
 policies had fallen due and been paid since the for- 
 mation of the association, amounting to 711,564m. 
 
 A foundation that has for its general object the 
 supplementing of the other philanthropies of the es- 
 tablishment by gifts in case of special need is another 
 admirable feature at the Essen works. How it sup- 
 plies that flexibility and adaptation to individual cir- 
 cumstances too often lacking where charity is abun- 
 dant but mechanical will appear from the regulations. 
 These specify seven distinct classes of persons who 
 may be relieved from this Arbeiterstiftung. For 
 instance, in case of long and severe sickness of a 
 workman, if the relief from the sick fund appears to 
 be insufficient, the management (of whose five mem- 
 bers two are workmen) will supply what is needed. 
 Pensioners who need medicines and medical attend- 
 ance are another class to whom help from the Stif tung 
 is given. Herr F. A. Krupp established this charity 
 with a gift of one million marks, in accordance with 
 the wish of his father, in 1887. The managers of 
 this fund have also authority to use the interest or, 
 in special cases, a part of the capital in setting up
 
 WELFARE-INSTITUTIONS IN GERMANY 73 
 
 new institutions for the bodily or intellectual welfare 
 of the employees. 
 
 A Stiftung with somewhat similar aims was also 
 founded by Herr F. A. Krupp in 1887 as a memorial 
 to his father, for the benefit of the city of Essen. The 
 managers of this fund of half a million marks can use 
 the interest to promote any undertakings which, directly 
 or indirectly, aim at the material or moral elevation 
 of the lower classes. Existing institutions may be 
 aided, or individuals be assisted who are in great need, 
 or who desire superior education in science, art or 
 industry. No distinction of creed shall be made. The 
 first plan adopted by the managers was the building 
 of houses for workmen : a considerable number had 
 been erected by 1891. 
 
 The interest of the Krupp firm in education is 
 shown in numerous ways. In the Altendorf colony 
 the firm has built schoolhouses and defrayed all the 
 expenses of free instruction for some 1,100 pupils 
 (1891), of whom 60 per cent, were evangelical and 
 40 per cent. Catholic : the schools have libraries and 
 botanic gardens. Fried. Krupp also provides for the 
 Altendorf community school - buildings with twenty 
 rooms, free of charge. The firm practices the same 
 generous educational policy in its other works and 
 mines. In Essen and in Altendorf it substantially 
 supports two secondary (Fortbildung) schools with 
 1,200 scholars, who (for a moderate fee) receive 
 instruction in drawing, natural science, technical 
 branches, and some modern language. 
 
 In 1875 the firm opened an Industrial School for 
 women and girls, where they could learn the art of 
 sewing, dressmaking and embroidery, not only for
 
 74 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 household purposes, but also as a means of livelihood : 
 in 1890 the average number in attendance was 186. 
 Four schools in different colonies gave instruction in 
 1891 to some two thousand children of school age in 
 sewing and knitting. The fee charged is, in case of 
 faithful attendance, returned to the pupils in the form 
 of a savings-bank deposit. A housekeeping school, 
 opened in a special building in 1889, has a course of 
 instruction four months long, in cooking and other 
 household arts: it has twenty-four girl-pupils over 
 fourteen years of age, of whom twelve leave the school 
 every two months : the fee is small, and often remitted. 
 
 The firm has always given close attention to the 
 education of its apprentices, of whom there were 361 
 in 1891. They are required to attend the secondary 
 schools mentioned above. In 1890 Herr F. A. Krupp 
 established a yearly contribution of 12,000 m. (/Sti- 
 pendienstiftung}, which should be applied toward 
 the higher technical education of sons of overseers 
 and workmen who had distinguished themselves by 
 their good conduct and their capacity. A club-house 
 (casino) for the officials (Beamte) may be men- 
 tioned here. The building, erected in 1890, has a 
 reading-room (with fifty-four home and foreign news- 
 papers and magazines, and a number of books of 
 general interest), a restaurant and a bowling-alley; a 
 garden is attached. Herr Krupp bears all the ordinary 
 expenses of the Casino. 
 
 Women and children are not employed in the 
 Krupp works. For workmen who live at a considera- 
 ble distance two dining-halls have been provided. 
 Hot coffee and a milk-roll can be obtained at cost for 
 one hour in the morning and one in the evening : hot-
 
 WELFARE-INSTITUTIONS IN GERMANY 75 
 
 water stations supply those who wish to make their 
 own coffee. In the hottest months, cold coffee and 
 trinkwasseressenz can be procured by the workmen. 
 Year in and year out a light brandy ration (one eighth 
 of a litre) is supplied free ; the expense of this for 
 the year 189091 was about 19,000 m. In the same 
 year the firm spent over 69,000 m. on clothing for 
 workmen exposed to the climate or to the furnaces. 
 The firm frequently assists with money contributions 
 a great variety of educational and religious institu- 
 tions under the control of third parties, which pro- 
 mote the welfare of their employees. 
 
 Facilities for savings being ample in Essen and the 
 neighborhood, the Krupp firm has established no sav- 
 ings fund ; but, in several minor ways, it brings the 
 above facilities to the attention of the employees, and 
 assists them to make deposits. In the schools it has 
 various regulations which tend to encourage the saving 
 habit. It will receive from any one belonging to the 
 works sums above 200 m. a month, on which it will 
 pay five per cent, interest : this privilege has been 
 largely enjoyed. 
 
 The fame of the Krupp works at Essen has gone 
 round the earth, though the elaborate nature of their 
 philanthropic institutions is not so well known. An 
 instance of such institutions on something more like 
 the usual scale of manufactures, but carried on with 
 equal regard for the workman, is afforded by 
 D. Peters & Co., weavers of Neviges and Elberfeld. 
 The most important of their plans is that for housing 
 the five hundred employees (women are employed, 
 but not after they become mothers). On the slopes 
 of the hills surrounding the works the company has
 
 76 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 built model dwelling-houses and has acquired others, 
 seventy-seven in all, of which fifty-two, valued at 
 160,135 m., have been sold to workmen. Some 
 73 per cent, of the lot on which the brick house, 
 one and a half stories high, is built is open space, 
 at the side and rear, and is used as a vegetable garden 
 with fruit trees. 
 
 " Rents are fixed at 8 per cent, of the value of the 
 house, minus 20 per cent, of the annual payments. 
 . . . The rental includes annual installments paid by 
 occupants, who are obliged to become purchasers. 
 Eight per cent, of the value of the house is paid upon 
 assuming possession, and after that 8 per cent, 
 annually until the property is paid for. As 5 per 
 cent, of this is counted as rent, the houses will be 
 fully paid for in seventeen years. . . . When the 
 head of the family has served for one year and over 
 in the employ of the company, 15 per cent, of 
 the amount annually due is deducted ; when he has 
 served five years and over, 20 per cent. ; when he has 
 served ten years and over, 25 per cent. For every 
 child who has been in the employ of the company one 
 year and over, 5 per cent, is deducted. In no case, 
 however, can the total of deductions reach beyond 40 
 per cent. When the head of the family is not in the 
 employ of the company, but two or more children 
 are, a deduction is also granted, but the amount is 
 fixed in each individual case. The company con- 
 tributes toward the cost of maintenance and repairs. 
 Payments of rent are deducted from weekly wages, 
 but carried quarterly on the books. . . . There is no 
 clause giving the proprietor the right to summarily 
 eject tenants in case of strikes or leaving employment.
 
 WELFARE-INSTITUTIONS IN GERMANY 11 
 
 ... As a rule, tenancy is permanent." 1 These 
 houses are of varied architecture : they are all within 
 a half mile of the mills: they are well kept, the 
 garden spaces are cultivated, and, with the park near 
 by, the whole settlement makes a very happy impres- 
 sion on the visitor. The firm hope to make room in 
 the same way for perhaps the larger part of their 
 several hundred employees, and for this purpose they 
 have acquired more land in the vicinity. : 
 
 For purposes of the culture and amusement of their 
 force, the firm built in 1883 and enlarged in 1897 a 
 kind of club-house (Stiftung) called " Wohlfahrt " 
 (Benefit). This is situated in the park near the mills, 
 and nearer the home of the head of the firm, and in 
 similar architectual style : it stands between Herr 
 Peters' house and the Arbeiterkolonie we have been 
 describing. Of very pleasing construction, it con- 
 tains a cooking and housekeeping school for girls 
 and women, "a manual training school for boys in 
 which card-board work, modeling, carpentery, turn- 
 ing and wood-carving are features of instruction, a 
 kindergarten, a hall for children's games, a sewing 
 school for girls, a large hall used for reading, musical 
 and singing societies, and a reading-roorn with a 
 library adjoining." Instruction is given by clerks of 
 the mills in labor-hours. The situation gives this 
 building a fine view, and the terraces and groves of 
 the Peters' park supply room for the open-air festi- 
 vals of the workmen and play-grounds for the chil- 
 dren : the children of the kindergarten (where Herr 
 Peters' daughter has been superintendent) cultivate 
 small flower and vegetable beds. The " Wohlfahrt " 
 1 My quotations are from Dr. Gould's Eeport, pp. 387-389.
 
 78 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 cost 35,000 m. and the yearly expenses are from 
 2,000 to 3,000 m. A bath-house was erected in 1896, 
 followed by a steam laundry. 
 
 The Peters' firm presents one of the best examples 
 of that excellent institution, the workmen's council 
 (Arbeiterausschuss or AeltestenratJi) . Here it has 
 gradually developed from the fund ( Unterstiitzungs- 
 kasse) established by the workmen and the firm 
 together in 1861. The council consists of a partner 
 of the firm, who presides without a vote, and eight 
 members who must be over thirty years old and have 
 seen ten years' service in the works : half of these are 
 named by the firm and half are chosen by the general 
 assembly of the workmen. The council provides for 
 the employees in case of distress or misfortune ; over- 
 sees the moral conduct of the young, and incites them 
 to self -education in their leisure hours ; combats rude- 
 ness and drunkenness ; helps in the faithful obser- 
 vance of the rules and regulations of the factory, and 
 seeks to prevent carelessness and waste. It takes 
 counsel with the firm in regard to changes in the 
 rules or the rates of wages, the hours of work, pro- 
 tection against danger in the mills, and improvement 
 in the quality and increase in the quantity of the 
 product. Herr Peters regards the work of his council 
 as important and valuable, and the institution itself 
 as deserving of wide imitation. 
 
 The firm formerly had a savings-bank for the mills ; 
 saving was voluntary, but the good- will of the firm 
 did not induce as many workmen to save as could be 
 wished. The question being put to vote, the whole 
 body of workmen unanimously decided that saving 
 should be made obligatory. The amount was fixed, in
 
 WELFARE-INSTITUTIONS IN GERMANY 79 
 
 1876, at 5 per cent, of wages for the married, and 10 
 per cent, for the unmarried. The firm adds to the 
 prevailing rate of interest an amount half as large. 
 In 1898 the savings fund was divided into two, one 
 compulsory the other voluntary. In this year the 
 joint fund held about 900 m. for each workman. 
 A small " help fund," supported by the employees 
 since 1866, receives a contribution of 1,000 m. a 
 year from the firm, and also the fines paid in the 
 factory and the income from the baths. The In- 
 valid Fund, providing pensions, has been maintained 
 entirely by the firm ; at the close of 1898 it held 
 107,605 m. ; its beneficent work is supplemented by a 
 Widows and Orphans' Fund. All the welfare-funds 
 of the firm now amount to 798,356 m. The institu- 
 tions are now the special charge of a Wohlfahrts- 
 kasse, with a capital of 20,000 m., which is considered 
 a fellow-worker with the firm, the general assembly 
 and the council. 
 
 Herr P. Brandts, in his weaving establishment at 
 Munchen-Gladbach, is a fine example of the Catholic 
 patriarchal employer of Germany who would combat 
 Social-Democracy with welfare-institutions. Believing 
 that working-people are a reasonable body, on the 
 whole, he thinks them likely to be much influenced 
 by an employer who plainly has their welfare at heart. 
 "We will not sharply draw the line between justice 
 and kindness : the farther the sphere of kindness 
 extends, the greater is the result." Herr Brandts 
 excludes from his factory all mature women, and 
 children under fourteen years of age. Experience has 
 shown that women seldom take work elsewhere in con- 
 sequence of this prohibition. At the birth of a child
 
 80 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 a small present is made to the parents by the Unter- 
 stiitzungskasse (support fund). The overseers are 
 required to set a good example of moral and religious 
 fidelity to the workpeople, and to maintain a moral 
 spirit in the factory : improper language, unbecoming 
 songs and the like are strictly forbidden. Young 
 people, unmarried, who lodge away from home, with- 
 out their parents' consent, are at once discharged : 
 girls especially must live at home. The behavior of 
 workpeople, outside of work-hours, is an object of con- 
 sideration. Social intercourse of the sexes is forbid- 
 den in the factory, and propriety must be observed 
 outside, under pain of dismissal. Young persons' 
 wages are paid to their parents. When a woman 
 worker is married, Herr Brandts makes her a present 
 of a linen outfit ; widows are aided in the care and 
 education of their children. 
 
 Premiums are given for punctuality and for any 
 excess of earnings over the average, as figured in the 
 rules of the firm. " An earnest word " prefixed to 
 these rules reminded the employees that dram-drinking 
 in the factory had greatly increased, and that it fatally 
 leads the young into temptation. A premium of one 
 mark a month was offered for abstinence from spiritu- 
 ous liquors : and this is paid to any male employee 
 over sixteen who deposits a slip in a closed box, de- 
 claring on his faith and honor that he has not touched 
 alcohol in any form during the past month. The 
 confidence thus shown by the firm has been fully jus- 
 tified : no liquor is drunk on the premises, and a third 
 of the employees, on the average, receive the pre- 
 mium. 
 
 Careful and paternal arrangements are made to
 
 WELFARE-INSTITUTIONS IN GERMANY 81 
 
 encourage savings, which receive from 4 to 6 per 
 cent, interest, according to the size of the deposit. 
 Workpeople who have served ten years in the factory 
 have a savings-book given them on their birthday 
 with fifty marks to their credit : the firm undertakes 
 the care of these savings without charge. 1 A Savings 
 Union {Sparverein) for married workmen, although 
 membership is entirely voluntary, counts as members 
 all who are qualified under the rules. A mutual aid 
 society for men and women makes loans without in- 
 terest, or gifts to those in unusual need, even before 
 their savings are exhausted ; the firm guarantees five 
 per cent, on the balances of the society. No family 
 belonging to the Brandts factory is ever obliged to ask 
 for charity from the town authorities. 
 
 Herr Brandts holds a special half-hour once a week 
 at the disposal of his employees who may wish to see 
 him in his private office. " It goes without saying 
 that in pressing cases every workman is at liberty to 
 come to me at any time of the day." The Work- 
 men's Council is a more formal means of commu- 
 nication between the head of the house and the 
 employees. It consists of the president of the Sick 
 Fund, four representatives of the firm, and eight 
 workpeople, men or women. It can call to its aid 
 special representatives of different departments of 
 the factory ( Vertrauensmanner~). This Arbeitervor- 
 stand, formed in 1873, keeps a careful oversight of 
 the manners and morals of the whole force, and en- 
 deavors to settle all difficulties before they become 
 formidable. It advised that the rule be made about 
 
 1 If a deposit is marked " Rent-money," it can be withdrawn with- 
 out notice.
 
 82 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 the payment of young people's wages to their parents : 
 it warns or dismisses incompetent or unfaithful or 
 immoral workers, and, in general, saves much friction 
 which might otherwise result, and accumulates a moral 
 capital, as the years go by, which is of great value to 
 all parties concerned. 
 
 The firm displays its interest in the comfort of its 
 people in numerous minor matters. The large lunch- 
 room has rush-bottomed chairs, and tables for small 
 groups : a quarter of an hour for coffee breaks the 
 afternoon work: young workers have half an hour 
 intermission, morning and afternoon : the wash-rooms 
 are supplemented by clothes-rooms, where the em- 
 ployees can change their ordinary garments for work 
 dress ; baths can be taken at any time of the day in 
 the tubs provided by the firm twenty-five minutes 
 are allowed, and the fee, five pfennige, goes to the 
 Arbeiterkasse. 
 
 Children of workmen, under school age but over 
 three years, may be sent to a kindergarten kept in the 
 St. Joseph's House, a fine three-story building of 
 brick and stone, surrounded by gardens and a park. 
 The latter is a playground for the children of the 
 factory in their free hours, and is provided with gym- 
 nastic apparatus : not even the smallest thefts of fruit 
 have been committed of recent years. A sewing- 
 school, at which attendance once a week is compulsory 
 for young women under eighteen, is kept two even- 
 ings a week for an hour and a quarter before the close 
 of the working-day in this house, which is a general 
 headquarters for the musical and social assemblages of 
 the employees. A small library, dining-rooms for 96 
 persons, a kitchen capable of cooking for 180, and a
 
 WELFARE-INSTITUTIONS IN GERMANY 83 
 
 cooking-school for girls are to be found here. The 
 firm supplies the instruments of the Verein for vocal 
 and instrumental music, of which it remains the owner. 
 
 Herr Max Roesler was for many years at the head 
 of the earthenware manufactory in Schlierbach, near 
 Wachtersbach in Cassel. He declared in his parting 
 address to the employees (over 400) that he had en- 
 deavored to transform the relation between workman 
 and employer, from one of mere obedience on one 
 side and a mere wages-connection on the other, into 
 a true association of labor, in which every one, from 
 highest to lowest, should work zealously and faithfully 
 " for our factory, for our Prince, for our community." 
 In this honorable effort he found a small weekly paper, 
 which he established, of much help. The " Schlier- 
 bacher Fabrikbote" (Factory Messenger) contained 
 the news of the establishment, announcements of 
 changes in the regulations, explanations of new pro- 
 cesses or inventions, personal items of interest, and 
 communications from Herr Roesler concerning the life 
 and work of the community. 
 
 An Aeltestencollegium (council of senior workmen) 
 discharges similar functions to those exercised by Herr 
 Brandts' Arbeitervorstand, but with numerous varia- 
 tions in its constitution. The head of the firm must 
 approve the decrees of the collegium : he can modify 
 them and refer them back to that body. There is a 
 central body, and sections for different departments 
 of the establishment. 1 The collegium, in connection 
 with the other authorities, has the special direction 
 and oversight of the apprentices. " In all cases it 
 
 1 The porcelain painters were allowed to choose their own super- 
 intendent.
 
 84 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 has worked excellently and is highly respected by all 
 the workmen." Herr Roesler divided the young 
 unmarried workmen among separate houses, each of 
 which has a woman of mature years as a housekeeper. 
 Houses which are built for the benefit of employees 
 are left subject to minor changes within or without, 
 according to the pleasure of the future tenants. 
 " The Aeltesten have decided that no one can marry 
 who has not spoken to the master." If any work- 
 man sets up a household before the council of his 
 department judges him capable of supporting one, he 
 must leave the community. The bride receives, in 
 every approved case, a full table service from the 
 firm. 
 
 Herr Roesler's wife in the " Fabrikbote " gave good 
 counsel to the women, telling them how to keep their 
 husbands from frequenting the saloons too often, by 
 making home more attractive to them ; but she 
 advised them not to oppose the natural desire of the 
 workman for occasional sociability with good comrades 
 at the tavern : "a drink at the right time is not al- 
 ways the ' care-bringer,' it may be a ' care-breaker. ' " 
 The overseers are provided with books of the factory 
 savings-bank, so as to give every one opportunity to 
 follow up at once an impulse to thrift : on account of 
 such facilities the business of a penny savings-bank 
 that had been established steadily declined. Men on 
 military service could have their savings sent to 
 them. 
 
 A musical union in a factory was rightly considered 
 by Herr Roesler a means of grace ; in so music-loving 
 a country as Germany, his exhortations to his work- 
 people to join the Verein of the factory were not
 
 WELFARE-INSTITUTIONS IN GERMANY 85 
 
 unheeded. This excellent " cement " of friendly 
 feelings between the owner of the works and the 
 employees is conspicuous at Schlierbach, vocal and 
 instrumental music being equally favored. The 
 various holidays and the birthday of the head of the 
 works are musically celebrated. The chorus is also a 
 fire-guard. Gymnastics are required of all male 
 members of the factory force: they join the Turn- 
 verein, and thus get a valuable preparation for their 
 army service. The cultivation of fruit and flowers 
 and the keeping of bees are successfully encouraged at 
 Schlierbach. 
 
 The bleachery and dyeing and printing works of 
 W. Spindler employ some 2,100 workers at Spind- 
 lersfeld, Copenick, near Berlin. The industry being 
 in good condition early in the year 1872, and wages 
 having risen considerably, Herr Spindler instituted a 
 fund for compulsory savings (reserved from the pay- 
 ment of wages) : until March 31, 1886, these received 
 8 per cent, interest, and since that time 6 per cent. 
 The workman can draw out every quarter what sum 
 he pleases, leaving but a definite small amount as 
 an inalienable balance, which can be drawn only in 
 exceptional circumstances. In 1874 this fund was 
 supplemented with another for the superior employees 
 (Beamte), who receive the same interest on their 
 deposits. Up to the end of 1898 there had been 
 deposited 2,267,658 m. ; the interest had amounted to 
 237,693 m., making a total of 2,505,351 m. At this 
 time there was on deposit the sum of 240,010 m. Over 
 fifty of the depositors had had accounts from the begin- 
 ning. Many of the employees regularly avail them- 
 selves of the privilege of the quarterly withdrawal,
 
 86 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 leaving only the required balance to their credit : still 
 about half the men and one quarter of the women are 
 steady depositors. The Beamtensparkasse held on 
 deposit at the same date, 103,967 m. The capital of 
 the Invalid and Pension Fund of the Spindler estab- 
 lishment amounted to 798,687 m., on the first of Jan- 
 uary, 1898 : interest for that year was 39,934 m., the 
 annual contribution of the firm, 31,072 m., and ex- 
 traordinary contributions by the firm were 51,370 m., 
 making a total of 921,063 m. For pensions (amount- 
 ing to one quarter or one half of the wages last paid) 
 and to widows and orphans there was paid out a total 
 of 27,064 m. The Accident Fund held 102,683 m. 
 on January 1, 1898 : only 312 m. needed to be paid out 
 in 1898 on account of accidents. The contribution 
 formerly made by the firm now meets the legal demand 
 of the present law of accident insurance. The Sick 
 Fund had, in 1894, 2,160 members : its receipts were 
 57,842 m., and its expenses 55,361 m. Men on mil- 
 itary service receive half-pay from the firm. Short 
 vacations of a week or less are granted to workers in 
 the summer : to the Beamte, two weeks or less. In 
 the secondary school for apprentices fourteen to seven- 
 teen years old, kept in the evening, there were three 
 classes and sixty-six pupils : as the apprentices were 
 at work from 6 A. M. to 6.30 P. M., and lost their even- 
 ing recreation because of compulsory attendance, it 
 is natural that they always rejoiced over the ending 
 of the required terms. Since 1894 the apprentices 
 attend school in Copenick at the expense of the firm. 
 The library is a comparatively common institution in 
 large German industrial establishments ; Herr Spind- 
 ler's had 2,800 volumes in its general division and
 
 WELFARE-INSTITUTIONS IN GERMANY 87 
 
 900 in its technical division in 1896 : the tech- 
 nical books were drawn only for business purposes, 
 while at Spindlersfeld, as elsewhere, the usual and 
 natural reading of these workers on long hours is 
 novels and illustrated books. Out of 2,000 workers, 
 775 used the library and 8,727 books were taken out. 
 The Spindler works have an elaborate provision of 
 baths for the force employed. A bathing-house for 
 each sex is built over the Spree for summer use : 
 instruction and use of these baths are free. For the 
 warm baths, tub or shower, Russian, Roman, sitz, 
 etc., a fee is charged. The dining-hall (Speisehaus) 
 contains two large eating-rooms for the 1,200 employees 
 who live too far away to go home at noon : food and 
 drink are sold at low prices through the day. The 
 recreation house (Erholungshaus) has a room for 
 the kindergarten : a theatre for all kinds of enter- 
 tainment ; a reading-room and a billiard-room : a 
 bowling alley and a boat-club afford other opportuni- 
 ties for physical exercises. A course of lectures of 
 a popular character is given every winter, but the 
 attendance is small, running from seventy to one 
 hundred persons : probably the long hours of work 
 are the chief reason. 
 
 The Augsburg Carding and Spinning Mills pur- 
 chased in 1873 for operatives' homes a tract of ground 
 near the mills and opposite the building intended to 
 serve as headquarters for the welfare-institutions. 
 Eighteen houses accommodated 118 families in 1893 : 
 the houses are surrounded by gardens and lawns 
 with trees and arbors. As at Spindlersfeld, there is 
 here a dining-hall for those who wish to buy their 
 dinner or to warm the food they have brought from
 
 88 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 home. The building has pleasant surroundings and 
 can accommodate 348 persons : it is open from 6.30 
 A. M. to 6 P. M., and it feeds daily some 300 persons : 
 the warming ovens are used somewhat more than the 
 cooking-ranges. The owners have taken pains that 
 the seats at the dining-tables shall be so constructed 
 as to allow of a comfortable after-dinner nap ! 
 
 A long one-story building contains excellent bathing 
 arrangements. These are open free of cost to the 
 force, each workman being allowed thirty minutes : in 
 the other thirty minutes of each hour the bath-room is 
 cleaned : each bather receives a towel, a piece of soap 
 (used but once) and a comb cleaned expressly for 
 him. With 1,000 persons employed, 120 baths on an 
 average are taken each day, all but a few availing 
 themselves of the privilege. To accommodate the 
 members of the families of clerks and employees, who 
 do not themselves work in the mills, with similar facili- 
 ties for bathing, and to provide laundry conveniences 
 for families living near, another building was erected 
 later. The laundry is open from 6 A. M. to 9 P. M. A 
 separate wash-room is provided for each woman ; no 
 charge is made for the use of it or of the drying-room. 
 Mothers using this public laundry who have small 
 children can leave them in the waiting-room in care 
 of the attendants until their work is done. In 1890 
 the 186 families in the Arbeiterkolonie and the im- 
 mediate neighborhood (with 33 single women) did 
 7,644 washings and took 2,396 baths, children not 
 counted. 
 
 In a roomy workman's dwelling Herr Mehl, the 
 head of the works, has established an infant school 
 for the very youngest children, under the care of the
 
 WELFARE-INSTITUTIONS IN GERMANY 89 
 
 capable widow of a workman. She also receives a 
 certain number of young girls from the factory, whom 
 she instructs in housekeeping, and especially in the 
 care of infants and children. A girl who has been 
 employed several years in the works may expect to 
 serve her turn in the infant school as a reward for 
 good conduct. She works half a day in the factory, 
 morning or afternoon, and the other half in the school, 
 receiving whole-day wages from the mill. Nearly all 
 the girls thus take their turn. An hour's service of 
 worship for the children is held every Sunday morning, 
 in a former school-hall in the welfare-institutions build- 
 ing : from forty to fifty children attend. In the same 
 room is a small library of books for young children 
 over five years : the room is open from two o'clock P. M. 
 to four on Sundays and holidays : the attendance varies 
 greatly according to the season and the weather. The 
 giving out of apples, from the trees on the grounds, 
 has been found to stimulate regularity ! In the same 
 building is the library and the reading and writing 
 room for older persons : the smaller use of these advan- 
 tages, as compared with other factories, is accounted 
 for by the fact that only a quarter part of the workers 
 live near the library. 
 
 The Prussian Government has shown an interest in 
 the housing of the employees in its State mines, foundries 
 and salt works since the time of Frederick the Great. It 
 has promoted the settling of miners and salt-workers by 
 advances and premiums on building, with or without pro- 
 vision of a site. To the workman in the Saarbruck mines 
 wishing to build, for instance, the Cabinet allows premiums 
 running from 250 to 300 thalers, and a loan without interest 
 of 500 thalers, which is to be reduced by a yearly payment
 
 90 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 of 10 per cent. In these coal mines, between 1842 and 
 1891 inclusive, 5,264 miners received building premiums 
 amounting to 3,787,950 m. ; and 2,944 have received ad- 
 vances without interest, amounting to 4,117,050 m. In all 
 Prussia, between 1865 and 1891 premiums of 3,471,815 m. 
 and loans of 6,050,545 m. were paid out. At Saarbruck 
 42 per cent, of the workmen own the houses in which they 
 live : in the Halle mines 27 per cent, and in the upper Harz 
 region 25 per cent. The Lower-Rhenish-Westphalian Min- 
 ing District is the largest organization of mines on the 
 Continent. Its authorities supervise nearly 180 coal mines, 
 with a yearly output of more than 50,000,000 tons and a 
 working force of more than 200,000 men. " These mines 
 have welfare-institutions of the most diverse and generous 
 kinds," for the most part not mentioned in Dr. Post's work. 1 
 
 Villeroy and Boch, who own large earthenware and 
 mosaic works at Mettlach, have elaborate plans for 
 housing their employees. Up to 1895 they had built 
 houses for 152 families at a cost, including ground, of 
 517,264 m. : 111,365 m. had been repaid in install- 
 ments by January 1, 1893. The firm gives the work- 
 men a choice of thirteen different styles, thus secur- 
 ing desirable variety : the firm prefers, itself, double 
 houses with one family in each part. A house of this 
 kind, one and a half stories high, has a lot of 7,535 
 square feet, of which 6,313 feet make a vegetable 
 garden, usually ; 23 feet of space lie between the 
 houses. "The streets are lighted with gas. ... A 
 cooking-range and two heating stoves are placed in 
 each dwelling : " each tenement has four rooms. The 
 ground is sold at actual cost : 5 per cent, of the total 
 cost is paid annually 3 per cent, being interest on 
 capital, and 2 per cent, payment on the principal. 
 
 1 Communication from the chief of the Oberbergamt at Dortmund.
 
 WELFARE-INSTITUTIONS IN GERMANY 91 
 
 Similar lodgings in the vicinity cost as much again. 
 For the first ten years the house remains the property 
 of the firm, but the tenancy must continue unless the 
 workman quits the service or fails to pay promptly. 
 At the end of the ten years the tenant can return the 
 house to the owners and the money which he has 
 paid on the principal will be returned to him, or he 
 can become himself the owner by continuing his pay- 
 ments as before. " This will, however, be the mini- 
 mum amount that can be paid annually." He may 
 liquidate the price (the original cost) at any time in 
 larger amounts. During the first ten years the firm 
 pays for ordinary repairs and insurance: alterations 
 and additions may be made, and the expense added to 
 the purchase price. Rents are paid monthly. In 
 case the tenant leaves the employment of the firm, he 
 may be summarily ejected. 
 
 Villeroy and Boch, like the Krupp firm, contribute 
 to the Pensionskasse a sum equal to that contributed 
 by the workpeople. Years well spent in military ser- 
 vice are regarded as years spent in the factory, if a 
 man has served two years altogether and marries, 
 and the firm presents him an outfit of household goods 
 from the factory. The wages of young workers must 
 be paid by them to their parents, by agreement : a 
 committee of four members of the Brotherhood of St. 
 Andrew (the association corresponding to the Aelte- 
 stencollegium in other factories) has the oversight of 
 these minors, who are forbidden to visit taverns, to 
 smoke, or to carry arms. A punishment sometimes 
 decreed by the committee is that the offender shall 
 copy a chapter of the " Compass for Youthful Work- 
 men," which is in the hands of all, so as to impress its 
 contents on his mind !
 
 92 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 A boarding and lodging house for young women 
 and young men, whose homes are at a distance, is a 
 substantial building, superintended by the Sisters of 
 St. Borromeo, who give instruction in the elements of 
 the housekeeping art. Sewing-machines are bought 
 by the firm for women who wish for them and can pay 
 the price in installments. The boarding and lodging 
 house sheltered 220 young women in 188788, and 
 sold 60,232 portions for breakfast, 63,639 for din- 
 ner, and 51,447 for supper. A hall for meetings and 
 for social purposes, built over a store owned by the 
 firm, may be used gratuitously by the employees. A 
 Turnverein and a musical association, usual organiza- 
 tions in a large German factory, find headquarters 
 here. The firm has steadily developed its institutions 
 in recent years. 
 
 Arlen in Baden, half way between Constance and Schaff- 
 hausen, is a place created by the spinning and weaving 
 factories established in 1837 by Herr M. H. Ten Brink ; 
 the firm now employs 1,200 persons. Herr Ten Brink's 
 son, the present owner, has established a great variety of 
 beneficent institutions for his workpeople, in addition to 
 the obligatory insurance against illness, accidents and old 
 age prescribed by the laws of the empire. These institu- 
 tions include the well-endowed Heinrich hospital of twenty 
 beds ; free consultation with the firm's doctor ; baths ; eco- 
 nomical kitchens for providing the midday meal for the 
 workpeople ; two cooperative companies which supply gro- 
 ceries, etc., at the lowest prices ; two libraries of 800 vol- 
 umes each ; infant schools which have been endowed and 
 made over to the commune ; besides a home boarding- 
 school, wherein young girls those already employed in 
 the factories are taught all the branches of a useful educa- 
 tion. In this school the girls pay twelve cents per day, the
 
 WELFARE-INSTITUTIONS IN GERMANY 93 
 
 remaining expense being borne by the firm ; a number of 
 the girls have already the equivalent of several hundred 
 dollars in the savings-bank. 
 
 For such as have left school, recreation halls are provided 
 under the direction of competent and sympathetic women. 
 These places, to which the young girls come to read, sing, 
 or do needlework, are a great resource in the winter even- 
 ings and on Sunday. Others of a similar kind are open 
 to young men. The great care taken of the young girls, 
 together with the fact that those who misbehave themselves 
 are immediately excluded from the workshops, has pro- 
 duced the happiest results, there being but two per cent, of 
 illegitimate births (and this has been the case for many 
 years) in the communes which surround the factories. 
 
 In the interest of mothers of families there is what is 
 called a " housekeeping sister," who goes from one home to 
 another, giving informal lessons in cooking and domestic 
 thrift herself providing the materials for many of those 
 inexpensive but nourishing dishes which are to be seen daily 
 on the tables of well-to-do people, but which the poor are 
 usually the last to adopt. This little scheme, only recently 
 introduced, is already most successful, the sister bringing an 
 element of variety as well as of distinct assistance into the 
 hard lives of the women. 
 
 There are also at Arlen two savings-banks, with sufficient 
 capital to pay five per cent, interest on the deposits of the 
 active workpeople, while pensioners and certain classes of 
 employees receive four per cent. The yearly deposits aver- 
 age $7,500. Herr Ten Brink has built a great number 
 of detached houses in the neighborhood of the factories, 
 the larger ones containing three bedrooms as well as a 
 kitchen and living-room. Those for smaller families have 
 two bedrooms only, but all possess a wholesome cellar, an 
 attic, and a garden. These houses are sold to the work- 
 men at cost, and on such easy terms ($50 down and the 
 remainder in monthly installments) that three fourths of 
 them are sold and one half entirely paid for. If a work-
 
 94 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 man has saved 300 m. towards a house, Herr Ten Brink 
 makes him a gift of 500 m. " Our experience is that the 
 workman who owns his house becomes thereby a strong 
 factor in the cause of morality and order." He is not a 
 believer in the system of profit sharing, and it is replaced 
 in his establishment by " gratifications," made in propor- 
 tion to the length of time (after five years) which each man 
 or woman has been in his employ, and credited to them in 
 one of the savings-banks. 
 
 Wages are paid to employees just as long as they are able 
 to do a minimum of really good work, while the pensions 
 to the disabled and the superannuated are on a higher scale 
 than is exacted by law. At the present time twenty pen- 
 sioners receive between $50 and $75 annually. 
 
 The results of the social organization of Arlen may be 
 summed up as follows : The material condition of the work- 
 people leaves nothing reasonable to be desired. From the 
 outset they are beyond the reach of want those of them 
 at least who take advantage of these provident schemes ; 
 they usually become owners of their little homes, and at 
 sixty years of age may possess a comfortable capital, quite 
 independent of what they have amassed by their savings, 
 and, most important of all, they regard their own pro- 
 sperity as essentially bound up with the prosperity of the 
 factories and that of the Ten Brink family. Their interest 
 is therefore to produce the best work with the least possible 
 waste of time and material. Moreover, the industrial 
 peace of Arlen is absolutely undisturbed. 1 
 
 The North German Jute Spinning and "Weaving 
 Factory at Schiffbeck, near Hamburg, is honorably 
 distinguished for the fine schools which it maintains, 
 costing some 50,000 m. to build, and 5,000 m. a 
 year to support. The edifice has gardens in the rear, 
 
 1 The above account is taken with slight abridgment from a letter 
 in the Evening Post of New York, dated at Arlen, November 17, 1898.
 
 WELFARE-INSTITUTIONS IN GERMANY 95 
 
 provided with gymnastic apparatus. The boys between 
 twelve and fourteen years of age employed in the factory 
 receive instruction in the forenoon from eight o'clock 
 to eleven o'clock, and work in the afternoon ; the 
 girls of the same age work in the morning and attend 
 school in the afternoon. The pupils have lessons, 
 from a capable student in a training college (Semi- 
 narist), in reading, writing, arithmetic, the German 
 language and history, and religion. In 1888 there 
 were fifty boys and fifty-four girls in attendance. 
 " The children instructed in the factory school have 
 become the most modest, well-behaved and diligent 
 workers." A secondary school for older scholars who 
 wish to go farther in the pursuit of knowledge was 
 established in 1885, with twenty-five pupils : in 1888 
 there were thirty-five. Attendance is compulsory, 
 but does not need to be such for the boys who have 
 attended the lower school : new-comers, on the other 
 hand, would not attend of their own accord, but they 
 are soon brought up to the same level of willingness to 
 learn. Music and drawing are added to the earlier 
 studies. This school is necessarily held in the even- 
 ing, after the day's work is over, for an hour, or an 
 hour and a half. Fines for non-attendance go to 
 make up prizes for especially diligent scholars. Three 
 savings-books prizes are given to the three who excel 
 all others. The scholars form a Turnverein, exercising 
 twice a week; this feature naturally increases the 
 interest in the regular school lessons. The girls in 
 the factory school are instructed for two hours on 
 Saturday afternoon in sewing, darning, knitting, and 
 mending. All these schools are at the expense of the 
 firm. The teachers help greatly in preserving plea-
 
 96 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 sant relations between the workpeople and the em- 
 ployers. 
 
 This firm has spent 400,000 m. in the erection 
 of 166 dwellings for its force. The rents vary from 
 2 to 3 1 m. a week: houses are sold for an annual 
 payment of 4 per cent, for rent, 2 per cent, as pay- 
 ment on the principal, and three fourths of 1 per 
 cent, for expenses. The firm insures the household 
 goods of the tenants against fire. Herr Meyer, the 
 director of the works, learned from experience that 
 the factory savings-bank would have no success un- 
 less savings were made compulsory. He instituted 
 a new compulsory arrangement at a time when a rise 
 in wages was granted, and retained a sum about the 
 size of this increase : all has gone well since. The 
 Workingmen's Council called the attention of the 
 firm to the fact that the retail dealers in Schiffbeck 
 gave long credit to the men, and reimbursed themselves 
 by charging from 10 to 25 per cent, above the prices 
 in Hamburg. The council proposed the establish- 
 ment of a cooperative store for the works. The pro- 
 posal was approved and the store, established with 
 10,000 m. capital, has paid a 6 per cent, dividend 
 since : it has 750 members and does a business of 
 120,000 m. yearly. Prices in Schiffbeck were lowered 
 some 15 per cent. The firm gives substantial aid to 
 the store. In connection with the sick fund it en- 
 gages two physicians, who may be consulted twice a 
 week in a room set apart for them : a sick-room with 
 a medicine shelf affords other relief. A creche ; a 
 large club-room with a system of low-priced lunches, 
 and rooms for reading and billiards ; a library, an aid 
 fund, a summer-house system, instruction for young
 
 WELFARE-INSTITUTIONS IN GERMANY 97 
 
 women in cooking- and housekeeping, and a band and 
 fire-guard are other institutions at Schiffbeck, where 
 there are now 1,500 employees. At Ostritz, Oskar- 
 strom and Bischweiler the company has some 2,900 
 operatives for whom it makes similar arrangements. 
 
 Among the most attractive houses erected by Ger- 
 man employers for workpeople are those at Dornbirn, 
 eight miles south of Lake Constance, in the Tyrol. 
 Here Herr F. M. Hammerle has a large cotton-mill. 
 The dwellings (one story or two stories) are rented or 
 can be acquired by monthly payments. Some have 
 room in the outbuilding for the family cow, while the 
 houses are solidly and very tastefully built, in a home- 
 like style. Artistically grouped, they stand apart in 
 garden grounds, mostly shaded by fruit-trees, and look- 
 ing upon beautiful mountain scenery. The two-story 
 houses, for rent to two families, have verandas on the 
 gable-end, round the pillars of which climbing plants 
 coil. These verandas render possible a great deal of 
 life in the open air at meal-time in pleasant weather, 
 and on Sundays. In winter the large kitchen serves 
 well as an eating-room. A tenement of this kind, 
 with a garden and pasturage, brings 80 florins a year : 
 without, 60fl. The houses for sale range in price 
 from 2,600 to 3,600 fl. : the monthly payments vary 
 from 20 to 35 fl. : great accommodation is given to the 
 would-be home-owners. 
 
 The Bochum (five miles from Essen) Company for 
 Mining and Cast-Steel Manufacture has built up " col- 
 onies " after the same style as those of the Krupp establish- 
 ment : a dozen of these colonies contain, altogether, 1,450 
 tenements for the married workmen ; a considerable num- 
 ber of families occupy one house. A very large four-story
 
 98 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 lodging-house has 150 rooms, in each of which from four to 
 twelve single men sleep. A great dining-hall in the rear 
 will accommodate 1,000 men with dinner and supper at 
 moderate prices: an orchestrion plays during the noon 
 hour : a slaughter-house supplies the meats used. The 
 expense of the double building was, in 1891-92, 36,000 m. 
 Besides the baths in the lodging-house, the company main- 
 tains a large steam-heated wash-building (Waschkasse) with 
 800 lockers and four bathing-houses connected with it. On 
 the company's farm are kept 120 cows, whose milk and 
 butter are sold to workpeople at low prices. The company 
 supports a kindergarten for 300 children, and a housekeep- 
 ing school for 50 girls. A shop where convalescents and 
 others incapable of full work make brushes, for some two 
 marks a day, is self-supporting. 
 
 Dr. H. Traun is now the sole director of the Har- 
 burg Rubber Comb Company, which employs over 
 1,200 persons at Wandsbeck, three miles from Ham- 
 burg, and in its other works. He has erected for 
 them a number of houses in a pleasing variety of 
 architecture. Nine one and a half story dwellings are 
 usually built in a connected row, and surrounded by a 
 garden ; the middle dwelling has two free tenements 
 for invalids. Rents are so adjusted that the company 
 receives about 2^ per cent, on its investment. It 
 keeps up a collective fire-insurance policy on the ten- 
 ants' furniture. In 1898, 538 workmen were thus 
 insured for 1,150,250 m. Dr. Traun gave up this 
 building system for several reasons and started a 
 building society, which is now very flourishing, with 
 1,264 members. A rent -savings fund has largely 
 done away with the advances from other funds once 
 quite regularly made. A privatunterstiitzungskasse 
 supplements the usual krankenkasse, with its compul-
 
 WELFARE-INSTITUTIONS IN GERMANY 99 
 
 sory and voluntary contributions ; it provides fairly 
 well for the sick, for burial expenses, for widows and 
 orphans, and for pensions ; the company contributes 
 the same sum as the employees. In 1898 the ex- 
 penses were 15,578 m. and the capital 188,139 m. 
 The Friedrich Traun Foundation, established by his 
 three sons as a memorial in 1881, further supplements 
 the work of the fund just named, and expends modest 
 sums for purposes of culture and amusement. The 
 capital was 10,000 m. at first, to which Dr. H. Traun 
 has added over 6,000 m. since. In 1891 the com- 
 pany expended under this account 6,570 m. (to the 
 interest on the foundation it had added over 5,000 m.). 
 This amount went for these several purposes : a Christ- 
 mas gift of 100 m. to a workman who had served 
 fifty years ; Christmas presents of money and pro- 
 visions to widows, orphans and others in need ; for 
 wedding and christening presents (twenty marks and 
 ten marks each) ; school fees in the Hamburg Trade 
 School and the Continuation Course of the Arbei- 
 terbildungsverein ; l musical instruction and instru- 
 ments (2,315 m.) ; 2 sickness and special need, includ- 
 ing widows and pensioners not sufficiently provided 
 for otherwise ; sending children into the country in 
 summer (Ferienkolonien), and the services of a dea- 
 coness in the homes of the sick or destitute. 
 
 A minor feature of special interest in this Rubber 
 Comb Company's relations with its employees is its 
 
 1 The firm laments the small number of those anxious to attend the 
 trade school (16 in 1891) or the continuation course (5). It pays 
 other school fees in cases of need. 
 
 2 A Gesangverein, " Freundschaft," counts twenty-eight members^ 
 and a Horn Chorus thirteen ; the Gesangverein " Leopoldus " contrib- 
 utes to the musical expenses.
 
 100 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 Coffee-Kitchen. Its primary object was to give the 
 workpeople a substitute for the quite unusable Ham- 
 burg water supply. It was planned on the model of 
 the Hamburg Coffee-Houses, and was controlled by 
 the workmen. The six workmen on the committee of 
 the Privatunterstiitzungskasse attend to the buying, 
 the preparation and the selling of the coffee, making 
 a monthly report to the firm. The drink is given out 
 on checks. The price has been reduced two or three 
 times : at first 4 pfennige for a cup containing four 
 tenths of a litre, it is now 2 1- pf . The demand was at 
 first 200 litres a week, and had risen to 2,400 litres in 
 1895. The company bears the expense of the kitchen, 
 the service and the heating. The experience of the 
 kitchen during the cholera epidemic of 1892 deserves 
 mention. Dr. Traun wrote on the 12th of Septem- 
 ber : " Immediately after the outbreak of the epi- 
 demic, on August 16, all the Elbe water in the Ham- 
 burg factory was shut off. The coffee was reduced 
 to 2 pf., and water boiled and then cooled was fur- 
 nished free. The use of coffee rose to 1,648 litres a 
 week, although the number of persons employed had 
 fallen to some 600. Of the nearly 100 workmen 
 living in Harburg, who work in Hamburg, and take 
 breakfast, dinner and supper in the Hamburg factory 
 in the coffee - kitchen, not one has yet fallen sick, 
 while numerous workmen taking their meals in their 
 homes in Hamburg were attacked by the plague. 
 Such a blessed result of the coffee-kitchen no one had 
 hoped or expected." 
 
 The firm supports a library of 1,000 volumes and 
 distributes free 100 copies of the weekly paper, " Der 
 Arbeiterfreund." In 1895 it purchased 100 sewing-
 
 WELFARE-INSTITUTIONS IN GERMANY 101 
 
 machines for the workmen's wives, to be paid for in 
 weekly installments of 1.50 m., and 200 bicycles for 
 the men at the same rate : an old employee cares for 
 these wheels in a building erected for them, in return 
 for his rent. 
 
 The Lead and Silver Works at Ems, with 1,400 
 employees, has, for their use, three well-equipped institu- 
 tions. The lodging and boarding house for men is a large 
 building costing 90,000 m., two stories high t in the middle 
 and three stories in the wings. It is surrounded by gar- 
 dens and fields and can accommodate 300 men in its 40 
 sleeping-rooms, in each of which are three to seven beds : 
 the building is heated by a warm-water apparatus, and has 
 a number of warm baths. The dining-hall will seat 300 
 persons, and there is a workmen's library adjoining. In 
 the morning and afternoon coffee can be obtained by any 
 one, and meals are furnished at noon and night. A second 
 house of the same kind is to be found at the mine in Ems- 
 bachthal. In 1891 both houses received 10,292 m. for lodg- 
 ing (Schlafgeld) and 23,363 m. for food. Of coffee, 155,744 
 morning portions were sold, and 149,644 afternoon por- 
 tions : 53,658 dinners and 36,601 suppers were provided. 
 
 The cooperative store established in 1875 sells goods at 
 such reduced prices as to leave a small surplus at the end 
 of the year, a part of which goes to the reserve fund arid 
 the remainder to the members in the form of a dividend. 
 The bakery attached caused a notable reduction in the 
 price of bread, especially as the store sells to all applicants, 
 whether members or not. A shoe-shop is another feature. 
 In 1891-92 the store did a business of 475,448 m., of which 
 30,893 m. were profit ; the dividend was 8 J per cent. The 
 number of members, very small at first because of the sus- 
 picions of the employees, had increased to 633 in 1892, 
 partly because the company in 1876 decided to rent houses 
 and make advances only to workmen who were members, 
 but mainly because of the effect of the earlier dividends and
 
 102 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 the fall in the price of bread due to the bakery. The 
 admirable school-building of the works accommodates 165 
 children in its four rooms ; each child costs the firm for its 
 education thirty-one marks a year. 
 
 Herr Heinrich Freese, the head of the Hamburg- 
 Berlin Venetian-Blind Factory (the main house is 
 in Berlin, with three branches elsewhere), is a pro- 
 found believer, on the basis of his own experience, in 
 the Workman's Council. In his establishment such 
 a council (Arbeitervertretung) was set up in 1884. 
 It consists of four persons named by the firm and 
 eleven by the workmen (100-120) annually. Work- 
 people who wish to attend the meetings of the council 
 as spectators are allowed to do so. The last matter 
 in the order of the day for each meeting is " wishes 
 and grievances of workers " (Wiinsche und Besch- 
 werden) ; under this head any employee has full op- 
 portunity to make known any desire or complaint he 
 cherishes. The activity of the council may be seen 
 in these instances. In 1884 it regulated the sale of 
 beer in the factory. (Good beer is bought at whole- 
 sale rates and supplied to the employees at a moderate 
 price, and a yearly profit is made (7,443 m. at the end 
 of 1898), which goes, one half to the buyers of beer 
 and one half to a savings fund). In 1887 the council 
 introduced a system of modest compulsory savings 
 from the weekly wages. These receive six per cent, 
 interest, and are repaid to the depositors at Christmas- 
 time: in 1898 they amounted to 4,889m. In 1895 
 the Support Fund, a supplement to the Provident 
 Fund, was created : it had paid out, to the end of 
 1898, 6,511 m., and owned, at the end of the year 
 1897, 5,042 m.
 
 WELFARE-INSTITUTIONS IN GERMANY 103 
 
 All changes in the rules of the factory and the 
 business are to be approved by the body of workers : 
 a one-sided alteration of the labor contract is not per- 
 missible. A general assembly of this kind in 1890 
 discussed the project of shortening the labor-day. 
 According to its decision, the council voted, April 
 28, that the eight-hour day must be rejected as im- 
 practicable, and that the proposal of the firm to 
 introduce a nine-hour day without reduction of wages 
 be accepted. On the 31st of December, 1891, the 
 firm made a scale of wages (Akkordtarife) for two 
 years to come ; a trial of an eight-hour day was made 
 in January and February, and the workmen agreed to 
 accept this scale for the shorter day, for it had become 
 plain that in eight hours they did as much as before 
 and saved the firm some waste. The men on day- 
 wages, it was agreed, should receive the same wages 
 as previously. In summer and winter alike, the men 
 stop work at five o'clock in the afternoon. In 1891 
 the council established a factory library, under the 
 direction of a committee : the choice of books is prac- 
 tically in the hands of the workpeople. Profit-sharing 
 has been in effect since 1890. Says Herr Freese : 
 " The novelty of the institution [the council] will 
 doubtless offer some difficulties at first, but these are 
 not to be compared with the advantages : from my 
 own experience I can emphatically advocate the legal 
 introduction of Workmen's Councils." 
 
 An example of the effectiveness of a support fund (Unter- 
 stUtzungskasse) on a small scale is afforded by the printing- 
 house of B. G. Teubner in Leipzig. It was established 
 in 1869 for employees of four years' standing. For every 
 employee in the house (with the exception of apprentices and
 
 104 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 school children employed) the firm pays 10 pfennige a week 
 into the fund : 10 per cent, of this must go to the reserve : the 
 employees make no contribution. A council chosen partly 
 by them distributes the aid given out. In 1897-98 the sum 
 given by the firm was 1,761 m. : 1,300 m. were allotted ; 
 the reserve fund had increased to 46,515 m. In 1891 a spe- 
 cial vacation fund was established from the reserve. For 
 an eight-day outing a workman might receive 30 m. : an 
 assistant or a woman, 20 m. : in 1897-98, 560 m. paid for 
 the vacations of 22 workmen. 
 
 From the " Personal Recollections " of the distinguished 
 electrician, Werner von Siemens, written in 1892, I take 
 the following account of the provision for their employees 
 made by the great Siemens establishments in Berlin 
 (Siemens und Halske) and London : 
 
 " It had very early become clear to me that a satisfactory 
 development of the continually growing firm must depend 
 on securing the hearty, spontaneous cooperation of all the 
 workers for the furtherance of its interests. To attain this, 
 it seemed to me essential that all who belonged to the firm 
 should share in the profits according to their performances. 
 As my brothers acceded to my view, this principle came 
 to be adopted in all our establishments. Arrangements to 
 that end were settled at the celebration of the twenty-fifth 
 anniversary of the original Berlin firm in the autumn of 
 1872. We then determined that a considerable portion of 
 the yearly profits should regularly be set aside for allowing 
 a percentage to officials proportionate to their salaries and 
 bonuses to workmen, and as a reserve fund for necessitous 
 cases. Moreover, we presented the collective body of work- 
 ers with a capital stock of 9,000 for an old age and invalid 
 fund, the firm agreeing to pay every year to the account of 
 the managers of the fund, chosen directly by those inter- 
 ested, fifteen shillings for each workman and thirty shillings 
 for each official who had served in the business uninterrupt- 
 edly for a twelvemonth. 1 
 
 1 Since 1896-97 this contribution has been doubled for the 7,218
 
 WELFARE-INSTITUTIONS IN GERMANY 105 
 
 "These arrangements have worked remarkably well dur- 
 ing the nearly twenty years of their existence. Officials and 
 workmen regard themselves as a permanent part of the firm, 
 and identify its interests with their own. It is seldom that 
 officials give up their position, since they see their future 
 assured in the service of the firm. The workmen also re- 
 main permanently attached to the firm, as the amount of 
 the pension rises with the uninterrupted period of service. 
 After thirty years' continuous service the full old-age pen- 
 sion commences with two thirds of the wages, and that this 
 is of practical importance is proved by the respectable num- 
 ber of old-age pensioners who are still strong and hearty, 
 and besides their pension continue to receive their full 
 wages. But, almost more than the prospect of a pension, 
 the endowment fund for widows and orphans connected with 
 the pension fund binds the workmen to the firm. It has 
 been proved to be the case that this endowment is still more 
 urgent than the invalid pension, as the uncertainty of the 
 future of those dependent on him commonly weighs more 
 heavily on the workman than his own. The aging work- 
 man nearly always loves his work, and does not willingly lay 
 it down without actual and serious need of rest. Accord- 
 ingly, the superannuation fund of the firm, in spite of a 
 liberal use of the pensions by the workmen themselves, has 
 only consumed the smaller part of the incomings from the 
 interest of the funded capital and the contributions of the 
 firm towards pensions. The larger part could be applied 
 for the support of widows and orphans as well as for in- 
 creasing the capital stock of the fund, which is destined to 
 secure the workman's claim for pensions in the event of the 
 possible liquidation of the business." 
 
 employees (1898). The firm having completed fifty years of exist- 
 ence in 1897, the partners presented one million marks to the em- 
 ployees, which was applied to the pension fund ; in 1898 a further 
 gift of 150,000 m. was made. Handsome sums are given to employees 
 completing 25 years' service. A special benevolent fund, restaurants 
 and stores are other institutions of the company.
 
 106 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 The Arbeiterausschuss in the machine and wagon 
 works of F. Ringhoffer at Smichow near Prague 
 (900 employees) is obliged to keep the whole body of 
 workmen informed of its doings by making two re- 
 ports at least in the year, which are distributed at the 
 expense of the firm. These reports cover the various 
 welfare-institutions of the establishment, the operation 
 and condition of which are fully described : they in- 
 clude dwelling-houses, a pension fund, and funds for 
 making loans and giving help in time of special need. 
 The council is composed of the six directors of the 
 sick fund, chosen by the general assembly of the mem- 
 bers of that fund, for three years. The council decides 
 upon the workmen to be laid off when work is slack ; 
 looks after the beer supply ; has a superintendence of 
 the houses occupied by the workpeople ; and, in gen- 
 eral, has numerous other activities, specified in the 
 detailed " Instruktion " drawn up for it by Herr Ring- 
 hoffer. The president of the council is the head of 
 the firm or his representative, whose approval is neces- 
 sary for any action to take effect. The oversight of 
 the apprentices is an important part of the functions 
 of the council. 
 
 A small fund of 10,000 florins makes short loans, 
 not above 15 fl. in amount, at a moderate interest, 
 which are repaid in ten weekly installments retained 
 from wages. More important needs are relieved from 
 the Help Fund, which assists men out of work and 
 special cases of distress by loans without interest : the 
 original foundation of this fund was 10,000 fl. A 
 fund for pensions and for widows and orphans was 
 begun with a gift of 2,000 fl. in 1870, and further 
 supported by an annual contribution from the firm of
 
 WELFARE-INSTITUTIONS IN GERMANY 107 
 
 10 fl. for each skilled artisan and 5 fl. for each day- 
 worker who has been employed for ten years : it now 
 amounts to more than 40,000 fl. : it receives the 
 income of a Provident Fund now amounting to more 
 than 100,000 fl. An employee leaving the establish- 
 ment simply because of lack of work does not lose his 
 claim upon the fund. A Safety Corps for the works 
 takes care of men who have been injured or have 
 fallen sick suddenly, until the doctor comes. A relief 
 chest, painted green and marked with a red cross on 
 a white ground, is provided for each workshop, and a 
 stretcher for the factory. The firm has extended its 
 institutions of recent years by adding an accident- 
 insurance fund, a building scheme, a library and other 
 helps. Its interesting reports are printed back to back 
 in duplicate in German and in Hungarian. 
 
 Herr Roesicke, director of the brewery at Wald- 
 schlosschen in Dessau, provides for the sick the at- 
 tendance of a physician, for a slight fee (intended only 
 to prevent needless calls), and aid may be given for 
 twenty-six weeks in extreme cases for a year : the 
 woman in childbed has a four weeks' allowance. For 
 convalescents in summer a four weeks' rest is granted 
 in a home in the Harz Mountains. A managing 
 committee of workmen keeps the relief of sickness and 
 distress at its proper level. The council has also 
 supervision of the Kantine, or restaurant, which sup- 
 plies coffee mornings and afternoons, and a meal at 
 noon for 40 or 20 pf. The brewery will give a fair 
 supply of beer to each household : beer-checks can be 
 exchanged for coffee-checks. Milk is sold at a low 
 price from the brewery farm, the preference being 
 given to families with children ; a cup of milk is given 
 to each factory child in the afternoon.
 
 108 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 Boys over six years of age receive instruction in 
 gymnastics on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons, 
 from five o'clock to 6.30. A course of industrial edu- 
 cation is provided for girls over six : this was formerly 
 in charge of Herr Roesicke's daughter. The firm 
 furnishes the material, which is taken home by the 
 children when worked up. The wishes of the parents 
 are respected as to what their children shall learn, so 
 far as possible, in these two-hour lessons on Wednesday 
 and Saturday afternoons. The " Family-House " ac- 
 commodates this school as well as the kindergarten, a 
 reading-room and library. Billiards, cards and other 
 games are provided. The house (built at a cost of 
 20,000 m., and supported at an annual expense of 
 5,000 m.) is open to the families of workmen as well 
 as to the workmen themselves : bathing facilities are 
 found in an adjoining building. Retired workmen 
 are employed here, as far as may be. 
 
 The council allows loans from the Support Fund 
 for desired improvements in the workmen's houses. 
 Allotments of land, from one sixth to one half of an 
 acre in size, are made to workmen who wish to raise 
 their potatoes and other vegetables ; ninety-seven fam- 
 ilies could do this. The firm ploughs the land and 
 supplies dressing from the factory free. 
 
 The Brothers Heyl, in their dye works at Charlotten- 
 burg, a suburb of Berlin, formerly gave special attention to 
 the practical education of children belonging to the estab- 
 lishment. Under the careful superintendence of Frau H. 
 Heyl great pains are taken for them from their first en- 
 trance into the world. The woman in childbed is supported 
 free with nourishing food (the husband getting his meals at 
 the factory restaurant) for a fortnight by Fvau Heyl and
 
 WELFARE-INSTITUTIONS IN GERMANY 109 
 
 her assistants (the former has written a pamphlet on the 
 care of infants, which she distributes among the workmen's 
 families). Apparatus for sterilizing milk and other utensils 
 for preparing food for children who cannot be suckled by 
 their mothers are provided free of expense : in 1887, eigh- 
 teen women were thus attended. 
 
 The heads of the works believe that one cannot begin too 
 early in imparting, by natural and attractive methods, a 
 practical knowledge of housekeeping and other useful arts. 
 So they established modest institutions, the Madchenheim 
 for girls and the Knabenheim for boys, with this end in 
 view (these have lately been adopted by the town, but I 
 describe them as they were operated by the firm). The 
 children learn these useful matters after ordinary school 
 hours. The little girls are first taught elementary things 
 in a separate room of the Knabenheim, and are afterward 
 transferred to the small workman's house, well furnished 
 for the purpose, and they have an outdoor resort under the 
 trees. Every household operation is carefully and system- 
 atically taught from the beginning, the processes being 
 thoroughly exemplified and the reasons for them plainly 
 given. But all is done, not in the way of set lessons, but 
 after the manner of a happy family life in which little girls 
 take pleasure in doing what their elders do, making the 
 most agreeable kind of play out of the imitation. Thor- 
 oughly organized as the Madchenheim is, formality is not 
 visible; everything done is to be as far as possible from 
 task-work. For instance, the girls cook a meal at five 
 o'clock for the boys of the Knabenheim : the girls wait on 
 the table and the boys are not chary of their compliments 
 on the excellent cooking and service ! The happiest results 
 have followed from this highly practical combination of 
 work and play, for some two dozen children, under the 
 superintendence of a well-trained woman head : the cost to 
 the firm is about 1,000 m. a year. 
 
 The A-B-C of industrial life is equally well taught, and 
 pleasantly learned by the boys of the works, between six and
 
 110 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 fourteen years old, on afternoons free from school, from 
 two o'clock until six. The Knabenheim is an educational 
 family community, like the other, in which a sense of honor, 
 truthfulness and faithfulness are learned as well as a know- 
 ledge of practical arts pertaining to the house, to clothing, 
 gardening and so on. The tasks are changed every week. 
 Besides the woman head of the Heim (a comfortable little 
 building) there are engaged, as need is, a shoemaker, a car- 
 penter, a bookbinder, a gardener, a soldier (for drill) and 
 other teachers. Excursions in the country round about, 
 singing and amateur theatricals vary the informal exercises 
 of the Heim : there is a gymnastic apparatus and a garden 
 to work in. The boys themselves keep monthly accounts of 
 their doings, entering their little wages occasionally earned 
 (by pfennige), which are put into savings-books. At con- 
 firmation each boy receives thirty marks for a new suit of 
 clothes. Much is made of economy by the teachers : every- 
 thing is mended that can be, and nothing is wasted : the 
 art-idea also comes to the front, from the Froebel-occupations 
 up to the highest tasks given out to the twenty-four boys. 
 A Christmas festival unites all the members of the works. 
 The annual cost of the Knabenheim is about 1,100 m. 
 Bathing facilities are abundant and convenient for the 
 workmen and their families. 
 
 The housekeeping of the employees has been very favor- 
 ably influenced by these two " Homes." Another step in 
 the same direction is a continuation of the half-year in the 
 Madchenheim for some of the girls in the factory restau- 
 rant (Kantine). Though the parents of these rather back- 
 ward or undocile girls are not easily convinced of the need 
 of this supplementary training, it is of much use to them in 
 their later life, in the factory or in service. 
 
 At his leather works in "Worms, and the connected 
 factories, Herr C. Heyl employs 3,902 persons. This 
 house is an excellent example of the large and gradual 
 development of institutions for the workpeople, as
 
 WELFARE-INSTITUTIONS IN GERMANY 111 
 
 their number increases. In Dr. Post's volume (1893) 
 some six or seven arrangements are described ; in the 
 firm's large quarto pamphlet of 1896 (corrected to 
 January 1, 1899), particulars are briefly given of more 
 than thirty. I will summarize them still more briefly. 
 Ilerr Heyl has a Sparkasse which at the close of 1898 
 held on deposit 360,862 m., one third of which was 
 deposited that year; a Sparverein for young people, 
 with deposits amounting to 66,928 m. ; a Pfennig- 
 sparkasse, receiving 303 m. in 1898 ; an advance 
 fund for loans up to 170 m. free of interest, which 
 loaned 18,584 m. : a pension fund, founded and sup- 
 ported by the house, paying out 24,511 m. last year ; 
 a widows' fund, expending 6,430 in. ; and a support 
 fund of 25,000 m. given by Herr Heyl, and adminis- 
 tered by a mixed committee. The Beamte whose sal- 
 aries run from 2,000 to 5,000 m. receive from the firm 
 one half of the premiums on life insurance policies of 
 8,000 to 16,000 m. ; accident insurance is free for the 
 Beamte not coming under the German law. Com- 
 pulsory and voluntary sick funds are also found here ; 
 a kindergarten with 130 pupils ; a sewing-school, 
 counting 148 female workers in eight classes ; and a 
 cooking-school of 70 pupils in six groups. A fund of 
 110,000 m. has been given to the city of Worms for 
 education of poor children ; provisions, groceries, coal 
 and beer are sold at cost (345,500 m. worth in 1898) ; 
 there is a dining-hall for supplying meals at cost ; 
 coffee-houses run on the same plan. There is a boys' 
 chorus, and vocal and instrumental associations. In 
 the four bath-houses 91,809 baths were taken in work- 
 hours ; 700 bicycles have been bought for employees, 
 to be paid for in two years ; the firm takes pains to
 
 112 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 improve the breed of goats, many of which are kept 
 by the employees ; clothes-closets, washing facilities, 
 food-warmers, a reading-room, free copies of the 
 Worms " Zeitung," continue the list to lectures and 
 festivals in the great Vereinshaus. On account of the 
 disturbance of regular work by commercial and indus- 
 trial causes, the house has a system of wages for the 
 unemployed (Wartegeld). This help is given first to 
 unmarried women, in such a way as to aid the mar- 
 ried force ; married men with children are considered 
 next : the Wartegeld recipients are frequently changed, 
 so that many may benefit ; in the last four years this 
 expenditure has varied from 2,184 m. to 11,220 m. 
 Finally, in 18 97, the house established a fund to facil- 
 itate the acquirement of homes, of which 130 persons 
 have already availed themselves. 
 
 The iron works Marienhiitte near Kotzenau, the 
 head of which is Rittmeister Schlittgen, has a work- 
 men's council, established in 1874, in which the pro- 
 prietors are not even represented. The choice of the 
 members is entirely in the hands of the workmen, as 
 well as the entire conduct of the meetings of the Aus- 
 schuss. The council meet in a pleasant room provided 
 by Herr Schlittgen: on one side hangs a portrait 
 of the Kaiser : on the other, one of Herr Schlittgen, 
 bought by the workmen. The council has the usual 
 powers of such bodies, and it also has the right to 
 express its approval or disapproval of marriages in 
 the force. Only one instance has been known in a long 
 series of years of refusal to obey the council : this was 
 naturally followed by the dismissal of the offender. 
 
 The following entry, taken from the records of 
 the council, details the action of the session of March
 
 WELFARE-INSTITUTIONS IN GERMANY 113 
 
 3, 1876 : it will give somewhat of an idea of the tone 
 of these meetings : " In to-day's session of the Aelte- 
 stenkollegium, workman P. complained that work- 
 man T. had injured him by common scolding in a 
 public house. T., questioned whether and why he had 
 done this, declares he knows nothing thereof: but 
 afterward he confesses that he might have done this, 
 as he was then somewhat drunk. P. declares that he 
 would be satisfied if he receives an apology from the 
 offender : T. is called upon to give his hand to the 
 complainant and to ask his pardon, which was done in 
 presence of the council. Smith R., again released 
 from imprisonment, asks to be received to work again. 
 The council decides by seven votes to four that, in 
 consideration of his needy condition, he may receive 
 employment, as an exception, if the management of 
 the foundry agrees ; he shall not be placed in a work- 
 shop, but simply be a transient workman (Platzarbei- 
 ter), in any case." 
 
 The Marierihiitte maintains a continuation school 
 for apprentices twice a week from five o'clock to seven 
 p. M., a system of baths, and a club-house situated in 
 grounds of several acres. The building contains a hall 
 seating 500 persons, in which lectures are delivered 
 monthly, and social meetings are held, and concerts 
 given by the workmen's musical organizations, the 
 Gesangverein, and the Marienhiitte Kapelle. The 
 library is increased by 250 volumes a year. The 
 profits of the cooperative store fall to the other wel- 
 fare-institutions. Herr Schlittgen believes heartily 
 in the personal contact of employer and employed. 
 " What is given to the workpeople should not be 
 given with condescension : the manner in which it is
 
 114 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 given is of consequence : human sympathy should 
 plainly appear." 
 
 Kiibler und Niethammer, paper manufacturers at 
 Kriebstein, near Waldheim, Saxony, are a good ex- 
 ample of German firms with numerous small and distinc- 
 tively " patriarchal " arrangements for the welfare of their 
 force. A household school for girls, a Turnverein of fifty 
 members and a Gesangverein find quarters in a homelike 
 building, surrounded by a garden, where two kindergar- 
 tens are also located, one for children of the Beamte, and 
 one for those of the workmen. Some twenty younger 
 children of school age (over six) do household tasks in the 
 forenoon, and play with the kindergarten children in the 
 afternoon. A library for young people is in the same build- 
 ing. The annual Sedan festival is a time of rejoicing for 
 all these children : they take part in a procession, enjoy 
 refreshments, and receive small presents, as they also do on 
 St. Nicholas' day. Wedding Bibles, song-books, handsome 
 savings-books, and gifts to women in childbed (25 m. if 
 she has been a year in the mills : she cannot return to work 
 for four weeks) are minor matters. More important are 
 the full payment of school fees by the firm for parents who 
 have worked two years ; if the parents have served ten 
 years, they receive 30 m. at the confirmation of each child : 
 the married man on military service receives two thirds of 
 his usual wages. A Cautionscasse is a feature of these 
 mills. Every workman must deposit in this secui'ity fund 
 5 pf . in a mark of wages each week until he has from 10 
 to 20 m. to his credit : for women, girls and boys under 
 sixteen the sum is 5 m. When the deposit is fully paid, it 
 receives 10 per cent, interest, but if a workman leave the 
 mills without giving notice, his deposit goes to the sick 
 fund. 
 
 An Alsatian house dating from 1746 is very nota- 
 ble for the thoroughness and generosity with which it
 
 WELFARE-INSTITUTIONS IN GERMANY 115 
 
 has steadily developed from the first a system of wel- 
 fare-institutions. It is now an incorporated company 
 under the name Societe Anonyme d'Industrie Tex- 
 tile ci-devant Dollfus-Mieg et Cie. It carries on all 
 branches of its general business, at Muhlhausen (Mul- 
 house), Dornach and Belfort, employing over 2,600 
 persons, and paying out more than two million francs 
 annually in wages. M. Jean Dollfus, who died in 
 1887, was at the head of the house for sixty-one years. 
 His chief stroke of philanthropy was the foundation 
 of the workmen's cities, cites ouvrieres, at Mulhouse. 
 His son-in-law and successor, M. F. Engel- Dollfus, was 
 a worthy follower. He was one of the founders, in 
 1851, of the Society for the Encouragement of Savings 
 which built a home for old men at Mulhouse, and 
 pays retiring pensions for many workmen. He erected 
 at Dornach the building which has become the head- 
 quarters of organized charity, and a hall for lectures, 
 concerts and gymnastics, with a library of 4,000 
 volumes. His " Association for Preventing Accidents 
 in Factories " has fortunately had numerous imita- 
 tors. A dispensary for sick children at Mulhouse ; a 
 triennial exhibition of paintings, and the new museum 
 of the Societe Industrielle are illustrations of what he 
 called "practical socialism . . . the good socialism 
 which consists in anticipating legitimate claims : let 
 us view those claims not from the legal standpoint, 
 but from our sentiment, our heart, and our judgment." 
 M. Engel-Dollfus held that " sickness, incapacity 
 for labor and old age are certain elements in the life 
 of the workingman, and they can be reduced to 
 figures : we should combat these evils with instru- 
 ments as certain." His calculation was that beyond
 
 116 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 his daily wages the workman's needs are as follows: 
 1 per cent, (on wages) for infant, industrial and train- 
 ing schools ; 1 per cent, for improved lodging ; 4 per 
 cent, for mutual aid in case of sickness and death ; 
 one half of 1 per cent, for women in confinement ; 
 the same percentage for life and accident insurance, 
 and 3 per cent, for retiring pensions. Of the total 
 10 per cent., 3 per cent, may fairly be demanded of 
 the workingman, in savings toward a home, and aid 
 or retiring funds. The remaining 7 per cent, should 
 be charged to the firm. In the Dollfus-Mieg house 
 the various paternal institutions are supported chiefly 
 by the interest on a fund known as the compte de 
 reserve ouvriere. This reserve amounted to 786,000 fr. 
 in 1889. On the incorporation of the business the 
 former partners endowed the company with 1,000,- 
 000 fr. (afterwards increased to 1,100,000 fr.) for 
 the philanthropic institutions and pensions. In 1898 
 these expenses were 151,000 fr., of which 44,000 fr. 
 were met by the interest on the endowment, and 107,- 
 000 fr. were a levy on the profits making together 
 a bonus of 7 per cent, on the wages paid. In addition 
 the company in 1898 paid out 35,000 fr., in accord- 
 ance with the German laws providing for accident and 
 old age insurance and sick aid. It was one of five 
 firms in Miihlhausen to establish a life-insurance fund 
 for its workmen. In 1890, under 1,000 fr. policies, 
 140 persons were insured, half the premium being 
 paid from the fund a practice also followed with 
 respect to fourteen policies held by workmen in regu- 
 lar companies. In 1865 the house established a free 
 collective fire insurance on the furniture of the work- 
 men, 380 being insured in 1890 for 697,400 fr.
 
 WELFARE-INSTITUTIONS IN GERMANY 117 
 
 The Societe Mulhousienne des Cites Ouvrieres, of 
 which M. Jean Dollfus was the lifelong president, 
 renounces all profits in providing homes for workmen, 
 and claims but four per cent, interest. The employee 
 pays two or three hundred francs down (the com- 
 pany will advance this sum if requested), enters into 
 possession, and makes a monthly payment which leaves 
 him in thirteen years full owner. From 1853 to 
 December 31, 1888, the number of houses thus built 
 and sold was 1,124 ; in these thirty-five years the 
 workmen paid in 4,584,021 fr., and there were due 
 424,949 fr. 
 
 The Societe d' Encouragement a 1'Epargne associated 
 the employers and workmen of eleven establishments 
 in Miihlhausen in order to provide retiring pensions 
 for employees. The latter were to contribute 3 per 
 cent, on wages and the employers a sum equal to 2 
 per cent. After some years most of the workmen and 
 finally all refused to subscribe ; but the manufacturers 
 kept on as before. Dollfus-Mieg et Cie contribute 
 35,000 fr. annually, and 148 of their workmen re- 
 ceive pensions varying from 120 to 600 fr. A sav- 
 ings fund receiving deposits above 5 fr. and paying 
 5 per cent, interest has been more successful. There 
 are 329 depositors, and 403,638 fr. on deposit. The 
 house contributes 5,800 fr. as supplementary interest. 
 
 The long roll of the philanthropic institutions of 
 this great corporation embraces two refectories, where 
 the workmen's food is prepared for them, the larger 
 having 88 tables for 600 persons ; a connection with 
 the maternity society in Miihlhausen at an expense 
 of 4,000 fr. a year ; and an infant school at Dornach 
 for 200 children, costing 10,000 fr. annually. Every
 
 118 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 year 35,000 fr. are allowed for these other services : 
 the distribution of bread, meat and wine to sick and 
 needy workpeople ; the furnishing of fuel in severe 
 weather and of refreshing drinks in the workshops in 
 times of extreme heat ; extraordinary pensions, and 
 special, immediate assistance ; aid to young men in 
 college ; and the expenses of some twenty sick work- 
 men sent to watering-places. Lesser philanthropies 
 are a hall and garden for the boys and girls during 
 the legal play-hours, waiting-rooms and clothes-rooms. 
 Finally, to pass from small things to great, a fund 
 of 400,000 fr. was established in 1883 by the widow 
 of M. Engel-Dollfus and the three partners in the 
 house. One half of this sum was divided among the 
 older employees, according to their ages, wages and 
 services rendered. The portions ranged from 250 fr. 
 to 10,000fr., and bore interest at 4 per cent. The 
 other half went to constitute pensions, to which the 
 pensioners contributed according to their incomes. In 
 August, 1890, this provident and retiring fund 
 amounted to 520,000 fr., and numbered 138 partici- 
 pants. 
 
 I do not wish to enter here into discussion of the 
 motives which lead various classes of German employ- 
 ers to support the many and various welfare-institu- 
 tions which I have just summarized. It goes without 
 saying that of the three kinds of patronage which M. 
 E. Cheysson names in his able report on the subject, 
 the mili tary, the patriarchal, and the liberal, 
 only the last can commend itself to-day to the Eng- 
 lish or the American workman. Of the employers of 
 the first variety, the " colonels," as M. Cheysson calls
 
 WELFARE-INSTITUTIONS IN GERMANY 119 
 
 them, 1 Baron von Stumm of Harlenberg on the Saar, 
 is perhaps the most prominent example to-day. This 
 " coal king " is called the leading spirit, in the Reich- 
 stag, of the party of political and social reactiona- 
 ries, the " Scharfmacher." Baron von Stumm builds 
 houses and has " colonies " for the workmen in his coal 
 mines and iron factories ; he gives liberal premiums, 
 and has established a library in his works. But he 
 " fights the Social Democrats, and aUows his working- 
 men no liberty in thought or action." During a recent 
 debate in the Reichstag, he denied that anything more 
 is needed for improving the condition of the laboring 
 classes, and " stood out for even abridging their pre- 
 sent rights and benefits." 
 
 I presume that very few, if any, of the employers 
 whose liberalities are described in this chapter sym- 
 pathize with Baron von Stumm. The great majority 
 would rank in M. Cheysson's other two classes ; many, 
 probably, among the " patriarchs." It has not been 
 my concern, however, to analyze the motives of the 
 employer : what he has done has interested me much 
 more than his political or social creed. My readers 
 will remember that the instances here given of welfare- 
 institutions have been selected as the most important 
 or interesting, while a much larger number have not 
 been even mentioned by name, like the Austrian owner 
 of the metal works at Berndorf , who has had a theatre 
 built for his employees, where a company from Baden 
 is to play twice a week. 
 
 1 " The ' colonels ' hold, above all, to their authority ; their workers 
 are their regiment ; they grant (octroient) their liberalities, more than 
 give them ; they do so because it is their good pleasure ; they dis- 
 pense with gratitude in those whom they oblige." (Rapport sur les 
 Institutions Patronales, Exposition de 1889, p. 35, Paris, 1892.)
 
 120 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 The magnitude of the general movement may be 
 inferred from these two facts : " Das Volkswohl," of 
 Dresden, edited by Dr. V. Bohmert and Dr. Paul 
 Scheren, in its first issue for 1899 gives a detailed 
 " roll of honor " of German corporations. According 
 to votes passed by 58 industrial companies, sums 
 amounting to nearly 2,000,000 m. were appropriated 
 for the benefit of their employees in the last six 
 months of 1898. Of this amount statutory pensions 
 took 896,000 m. ; and free-will gifts 978,472 m. The 
 Berlin " Arbeiterfreund," in a similar list, reports the 
 gifts and foundations made by 105 corporations and 
 37 private employers, during the first two months 
 of 1899, to have been 5,804,317 m. 1 Of this great 
 sum, not far from one half went to pension and aid 
 funds and foundations statutory and private ; nearly 
 one quarter for premiums, rewards and bonuses on 
 wages ; children's institutions claimed 330,000 m. ; 
 dwelling-houses nearly 300,000 m. ; and art education 
 150,000 m. The journals mentioned are not the only 
 ones devoted largely to welfare-institutions. There is a 
 Zentralstelle of information and help in Berlin which 
 publishes a considerable literature. The great impor- 
 tance of the movement in Germany will be apparent 
 without further detail. 
 
 1 Neither of these lists of corporations contains a name given in 
 this volume.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 PATRONAL INSTITUTIONS IN FRANCE 
 
 THE most striking feature of "patronal institu- 
 tions " in France is the great development of the 
 insurance of workingmen, in all its varieties. Com- 
 pulsory insurance is provided by statute for mine 
 employees only (law of June 29, 1894). The State 
 makes incumbent upon all mine operators the same 
 kind of insurance already provided by a large number 
 of collieries. 1 Old age and sickness are made the 
 objects of two distinct arrangements. To meet the 
 former need the employer is required to contribute a 
 sum equal to two per cent, at least on wages to some 
 fund for the purpose (usually the Caisse Nationale 
 des Retraites pour la Vieillesse, established in 1850), 
 and also two per cent, retained from wages. The 
 State makes no contribution, but the Caisse Nationale 
 takes charge of the entire matter, receiving these sums 
 for collective insurance from the employers, investing 
 them, and paying the pensions. 2 The advantages thus 
 gained in security and independence for the workman 
 are obvious. 
 
 This state action only supplements a great variety 
 of purely voluntary insurance schemes in which French 
 
 1 In several cases that follow I have written of the earlier practice 
 of mining companies. 
 
 2 See, for full details, chapter iv. of the one comprehensive work on 
 the subject in English, by Mr. W. F. Willoughby, Workingmen's 
 Insurance, on such insurance in France.
 
 122 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 employers of labor easily lead the world. In other 
 industries than mining, the State Fund is equally 
 open to the great number of firms that practice col- 
 lective insurance of all their employees on the same 
 lines as the mining companies : the French statute 
 was, indeed, little more than a copy of the rules of the 
 great Anzin mines. " It is impossible," says Mr. 
 Willoughby, " to overestimate the importance of this 
 kind of insurance. . . . From every point of view the 
 collective insurance of workingmen is of the greatest 
 importance. ... It would be impossible even to make 
 a list of the large concerns in France which maintain 
 insurance funds for their employees ... to an extent 
 and of an excellence that are found in no other coun- 
 try in the world. . . . Their number would probably 
 run into the thousands." 
 
 The seven railway systems which include nearly all 
 the French lines offer the supreme example of the 
 insurance plan. Of these, the Orleans Company occu- 
 pies a peculiar position, as the State guarantees a cer- 
 tain dividend to stockholders, and allows the company 
 to class the allotment for pensions (ten per cent, on 
 wages) under " working expenses," the employee mak- 
 ing no contribution. As I have previously described 
 the profit-sharing experience of this road, 1 and Mr. 
 Willoughby, in his excellent volume on "Working- 
 men's Insurance," has given many details of the 
 insurance scheme of the Western Company (essen- 
 tially the same as that practiced by the five other 
 companies), I will confine my account mainly to the 
 Paris, Lyons and Mediterranean System, the largest 
 
 1 Profit Sharing between Employer and Employee, chapter v. pp. 
 213-222.
 
 PATRON AL INSTITUTIONS IN FRANCE 123 
 
 of all. In 1889 this company contributed 6 per 
 cent, on wages for old-age pensions ; the other lines 
 vary from 5 to 8 per cent. ; since 1887 most of them 
 have had to raise the percentage. The Lyons Com- 
 pany (to designate it briefly) retains 4 per cent, of 
 its employees' wages for the same purpose, the others 
 from 3 to 5. The contribution from the men is usually 
 paid into the Caisse Nationale in special accounts, the 
 personal property of the employees. The contribution 
 from a company is paid into a special fund, or the 
 National Bank ; both contributions may go into either. 
 
 In 1894 there were 56,760 persons insured be- 
 longing to the Lyons system. The receipts were, 
 from workingmen, 1949,349.24 : from the company, 
 $1,890,304.72 : from interest and other sources, 
 $907,420.77 a total of 13,747,074.73. In this 
 year 11,089 persons received pensions, to the extent 
 of $2,477,559.53, the administration and other ex- 
 penses amounting to $99,046.06, and the assets at 
 the end of the year being $22,096,667.08. The pen- 
 sion begins after fifty-five years of age or twenty-five 
 years of service, the provisions being liberally con- 
 strued. It is calculated to equal 2 per cent, of the 
 average wages for all years of contribution, but cannot 
 exceed $2,400 in any case. One half of the pension 
 is transferred to the widow, if the pensioner was mar- 
 ried five years before leaving the service. Orphan 
 children receive the same amount, equally divided 
 among them and paid to them when they reach eigh- 
 teen years of age. If an employee leaves the service, 
 his deposits are returned to him, without interest. 
 
 The company lodges free all employees who are 
 obliged to live near the station or the workshop. At
 
 124 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 Laroche it has built thirty-three houses for its workers, 
 realizing about 3| per cent, in gross rental: only 10 
 per cent, of the lot is built upon. Each employee, on 
 entrance into the service, is examined by a physician, 
 and receives a certificate stating his sanitary condition 
 and the special employment for which he would be 
 fitted. If his wages are less than $600 per year, he 
 has free medical attendance. He is entitled to half- 
 pay during illness, or to full pay if the sickness or 
 injury was caused by the service. Twelve days' vaca- 
 tion are allowed those employees who do not have 
 their Sundays and holidays free. The company allows 
 for traveling expenses on its service : it provides for 
 accident insurance, and makes a yearly contribution 
 to the mutual aid society of its men. 
 
 The Orleans System makes special grants in money 
 and in kind to sick or injured employees : this 
 amounted to $109,644 in 1886 : it has stores at five 
 principal points whence provisions, clothing, etc., are 
 deli vered at low prices anywhere on the lines : a 
 refectory and a bakery are kept up in Paris, near the 
 shops ; evening classes for workmen and apprentices 
 are supported, and a school and workshop for girls. 
 The Northern Railway has spent 1,700,000 fr. in 
 building houses for workmen, on which it realizes 
 about 2 per cent, gross. 1 
 
 The most fully developed example of patronal insti- 
 tutions in France, as Mons. H. Brice says in his vol- 
 ume on this subject, is that set by the Coal Mines 
 
 1 See " Les Institutions de PreVoyance des grandes Compagnies de 
 Chemins de Fer " in the Bulletin de la Participation for 1898, 4 me 
 livraison ; and in the Bulletin of the Department of Lahor, No. 20, 
 " Condition of Railway Labor in Europe," by W. E. Weyl, Ph. D.
 
 PATRONAL INSTITUTIONS IN FRANCE 125 
 
 of Blanzy, situated in the department of Saone et 
 Loire, eighteen miles south of Autun. The company, 
 Jules Chagot et Cie, employs some 8,000 men and 
 mined more than 1,100,000 tons of coal in 1892-93. 
 According to its important "Notice " of 1894, a fine 
 quarto document, the cost of its welfare-institutions 
 of all kinds, hi the year 1892-93, was 1,626,032 fr. ; 
 this amount did not include lighting the streets, in- 
 terest on the value of the plant and various minor 
 subventions, the number of which steadily increases. 
 This sum means that the expense of extracting a ton 
 of coal was increased 1.456 fr. by the existence of 
 these institutions ; that the average wages of the work- 
 man were virtually increased 20 per cent., and that the 
 whole cost was 64.16 per cent, of the dividend paid to 
 the stockholders. 
 
 Since 1834 the company has built more than 1,175 
 houses for its employees, 1 at an expense of 2,574,- 
 936 fr. : the amount of the annual rent-roll is over 
 40,000 fr., but this is absorbed entirely by repairs, 
 taxes and expenses of management ; " no attempt is 
 made to secure a commercial return from the pro- 
 perty." The rent of half of a two-tenement house, 
 the style favored by the company, with a good-sized 
 garden, varies from 41 to 6 fr. per month. The four 
 cites present a very pleasing appearance, with their 
 red roofs contrasting with the abundant green of the 
 gardens and trees. The company sells land at a low 
 price on tune payments : and it formerly advanced 
 1,000 fr. to be paid within ten years, without inter- 
 est. By 1889 the sum of 500,000 fr. had been thus 
 loaned, and one sixth was still due: 1,079 workpeo- 
 1 Dr. Gould's Report, p. 357.
 
 126 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 pie, 29 per cent, of the whole number, were owners 
 of their homes. Since April, 1893, the company has 
 made the same advance to the workman wishing to 
 build, but has modified its form. The workman gets 
 his life insured on a fifteen-years policy for the sum 
 needed to build, and " La Prudence " (the cooperative 
 bank to be described later) makes him a loan of the 
 same size. The company's aid goes to make the con- 
 ditions of the loan safe for the bank and very easy 
 for the workman. In one year 113 workmen availed 
 themselves of this new arrangement which makes the 
 policy-holder at the end of fifteen years the propri- 
 etor of a house worth 2,500 fr., he having paid, alto- 
 gether, in interest and premiums, only the equivalent 
 of ordinary rent. 
 
 The Mutual Aid Society, with 7,834 members, re- 
 ceived in 1893, 467,957 fr., of which the employees 
 paid 219,336 fr., and the company 215,260 fr. : the 
 expenses were 449,004 fr. While this society gives 
 aid when wounds and illness have been contracted out- 
 side of the mines, or by the fault of the employees, 
 and pays for school supplies for the children, it does 
 not provide retiring pensions. The assessment on the 
 workman (owerter) is 2^ per cent, of his wages : on 
 the clerk (employe) it is 1 per cent, of his salary : 
 the company contributes an equal amount. It pays 
 the fees of three physicians, the druggists and the 
 sisters nursing in the hospital and attending the sick 
 in their homes. The hospital, pharmacy and dispen- 
 sary buildings were furnished by the company, but are 
 maintained by the society. 
 
 The company makes retiring allowances to all its 
 employees connected with the mines after thirty years
 
 PATRON AL INSTITUTIONS IN FRANCE 127 
 
 of consecutive service, and fifty-five years of age. 
 The pension may be as large as 900 fr. The 375 
 pensioners in 1893 enjoyed other privileges which are 
 estimated as equal to 150 fr. a year. A similar fund 
 for clerks is supported by a reservation of 2i per 
 cent, of their salaries, to which the company adds an 
 equal sum. After twenty-five years' service and fifty- 
 five years of age, the clerk can retire on his pension. 
 Widows and orphans can claim one half of the de- 
 ceased husband's or father's pension. The company 
 employs women and girls in sorting coal only : desir- 
 ing to abolish the work of women in the mines, it 
 established a weaving-mill which employed 406 women 
 in 1894. Young women receive instruction in handi- 
 crafts in industrial schools (ouvroirs) and learn to 
 make and repair garments : the 355 girls in these 
 shops earn on an average 22 fr. a month, besides learn- 
 ing the trade. Social rooms are provided for women 
 and girls. The company supplies free of charge all 
 the coal needed by its men at an expense of some 
 500,000 fr. a year : it furnishes them the most neces- 
 sary kinds of provisions and groceries at reduced 
 prices, saving the entire force more than 200,000 fr. 
 a year. 
 
 The interest of the company in education is great. 
 It supports fifteen primary and six infant schools for 
 6,292 children, taught by 118 instructors. Free even- 
 ing classes in the winter are attended by 200 to 250 
 young persons: a drawing class is held on Sunday. 
 The original cost of these schools was 800,000 f r. : 
 the expense of maintenance in 1893 was 176,405 fr. 
 The Union for Sport is an association of a number 
 of athletic and musical organizations, all of which are
 
 128 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 subsidized by the company. The workmen have a gun 
 club, an archery club, gymnastic and fencing organi- 
 zations, two brass bands, and an " artistic group," in 
 this "Union Sportif." The union holds an annual 
 festival : it maintains courses of lectures in the winter 
 on history, economics and other subjects, and a kind of 
 " traveling library " system for the different villages. 
 The patronage of the company extends to the Physio- 
 phile (a natural history class) and a number of young 
 people's societies, each of which has its chorus, and 
 animates the miners' life with games, fetes and excur- 
 sions. Rooms and halls provided for all these societies 
 free of rent, as well as contributions to the extent of 
 some 20,000 fr. a year, show the interest of the com- 
 pany. 
 
 There is a Central Committee, under the presidency 
 of the director, in which all the associations educa- 
 tional, recreative and economic are represented : 
 the needs of the various societies are discussed at the 
 monthly meetings, and recommendations made for their 
 work. The company favors individual initiative 
 whenever it is manifested, and warmly desires to see 
 its own " paternalism " superseded by the independent 
 action of the workmen in the twenty, or more, organi- 
 zations which it assists. Twelve cooperative bakeries 
 are in successful operation by the employees : most of 
 these are in close relations with " La Prudence," a very 
 important mutual-credit institution, with shares of 
 50 fr., held by the working force. Out of 400 mem- 
 bers in 1890, more than 350 were workmen : the capi- 
 tal is 80,000 fr. In the council of fourteen members 
 eleven are workmen. Primarily intended to aid in the 
 economic education of the force, it is now a real bank,
 
 PATRON AL INSTITUTIONS IN FRANCE 129 
 
 as well as a headquarters for the economic life of the 
 community. It controls two savings-banks, one for 
 shareholders and one for children, "La Tire-Lire" 
 (money-box), guaranteed by the company. " La Pru- 
 dence " incites the workmen to buy for cash in all direc- 
 tions and obtains discounts for them : it paid eight 
 per cent, dividend in 1889. 
 
 The many remaining beneficences and associations 
 of the company include the support of religious insti- 
 tutions (it has built a church and three chapels) ; free 
 baths at Les Allouettes, open all the year round : the 
 reception of deposits at five per cent, interest ; assist- 
 ance to the society of Anciens Militaires, to firemen, 
 to orphan schools, and other charities in the vicinity; 
 and other minor gifts, regular or irregular. Wages 
 have had a steady upward tendency, while coal has 
 gradually fallen, the company maintaining profits 
 by improving the processes of production. The force 
 is comparatively very stable : one fifth has worked 
 more than twenty years, and one twentieth more than 
 thirty-five years. 
 
 The princely generosity and the long experience of 
 this company with its institutions patronales impart 
 great weight to its judgment in respect to the transfor- 
 mation which it is desirable that these should assume. 
 The company says that it "has always been among 
 those who think that an employer has not cleared 
 himself with respect to his workpeople when he has 
 punctually paid them the wages they have earned, but 
 that he has social and moral duties to fulfill with re- 
 gard to them and their families." The welfare-institu- 
 tions at Montceau-les-Mines are very many and some 
 are of long date (thirty-nine were erected from 1834
 
 130 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 to 1853) : but the company found that the system did 
 not develop personal initiative : as the workmen did 
 not direct the institutions nor pay toward most of 
 them, they were not interested in them, and the com- 
 pany thought itself ill repaid for its well-meant efforts. 
 Instead of reacting into indifference toward the em- 
 ployees, the company most wisely decided to revise its 
 faulty methods. It has therefore established some 
 sixty institutions, large or small, of which the admin- 
 istration is almost entirely in the hands of the work- 
 people. " It was a veritable education to be given, 
 . . . and they have rapidly acquired it." Instead of 
 lazily accepting the institutions devised for their bene- 
 fit as their right, they learn to count on themselves 
 and to appreciate the liberality of the company in 
 cooperating with them. The company is now well 
 pleased with its methods, gradually changing them, as 
 it says, from patronage alone to patronage with asso- 
 ciation, and it closes its " Notice " of 1894 with these 
 manly words : " We do not at all claim to have solved 
 the social question, but we do claim that we have con- 
 quered the confidence and even the affection of a very 
 large number of our workers, whence results that 
 social peace we have enjoyed for a considerable space 
 of time. We are ambitious to labor energetically and 
 with absolute persistence to consolidate and develop 
 this peace, and we shall not hold back from any effort 
 for such success." 
 
 The Mining Company of Anzin (dating from No- 
 vember, 1757) is fitly named next. It employs over 
 10,000 workmen in its coal mines near Valenciennes 
 (Nord). It has given up building workmen's villages 
 on the usual plan, as not conducive to health or good
 
 PAT RON AL INSTITUTIONS IN FRANCE 131 
 
 morals ; up to 1897 it had built dwellings for 2,704 
 workers, with gardens. These are let for 6 fr. a month 
 (representing some 2|- per cent, of the cost of land and 
 buildings), which is about 5 per cent, of the miner's 
 wages. The company keeps the houses in repair. 
 The workman wishing to buy a house can pay the cost 
 price without interest in monthly installments, about 
 the same in amount as the rent usually paid in the 
 neighborhood : ninety-three men had thus acquired 
 homes. Workmen who wished to build, to the num- 
 ber of 741, had received advances on the same terms, 
 to the amount of some 1,500,000 fr., most of which 
 had been repaid : the interest which the company thus 
 declined would have amounted to 223,800 fr. Out of 
 70,000 acres which its operations cover, the company 
 lets 205 hectares to 2,500 persons at low rates. A 
 cooperative store founded in 1865 by the workmen, 
 under the auspices of the company, is entirely inde- 
 pendent of it : the central store has fifteen branches : 
 out of its profits it pays semi-annually 10 per cent, to 
 sixty-seven agents, and a dividend : the dividend to its 
 4,120 members amounts to 120 fr. a year: only one 
 or two shares can be owned by one person, at 5 per 
 cent, interest : the annual turnover is 2,000,000 fr. 
 The Anzin Company does not now desire to en- 
 courage savings in its bank (3 per cent, interest) 
 since the establishment of the Government Postal 
 Banks: so the deposits by 1,431 persons in 1877, to 
 the amount of 1,940,000 fr., had fallen in 1897 to 
 273,923 fr. deposited by 226 persons. Six mutual 
 aid societies are supported by the workmen, the ac- 
 counts being kept by the company. Assessments on 
 the workers' wages, fines, and frequent contributions
 
 132 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 from the company supply the treasury. In 1896 there 
 were 11,094 members: the receipts were 252,174 fr., 
 the expenditures, 234,014 fr. From January 1, 1887, 
 to 1894 the company deposited in the National Re- 
 tiring Fund for each year a sum equal to 1 \ per cent, 
 of the wages of the workman, the latter making an 
 equal payment ; the law of 1894 increased the contri- 
 bution for both parties to 2 per cent. ; this payment 
 continues until the workman is fifty-five years of age. 
 The company's whole contribution in 1896 for pen- 
 sions, aid and service premiums (100,000 fr. for an 
 endowment of these premiums) was 902,767 fr. A 
 workman entering at thirteen and retiring at fifty-five 
 years under this system, aided by a supplement from 
 the company, would enjoy a pension of 560 fr. : his 
 widow would receive 170 fr. a year. In cases of in- 
 firmity or serious wounds, he receives his pension and 
 a further sum which may reach 180 fr. a year : if 
 he should be killed at his work, his widow would be 
 entitled to a yearly grant of 180 fr., to which is often 
 added a bonus of the same amount : the parents of 
 workmen killed enjoy the same advantages. The em- 
 ployes are also entitled to pensions, the expense being 
 295,493 fr. in 1896. Before the introduction of free 
 public education, the company paid all the expenses 
 for instruction of the younger children connected with 
 the mines. It now supports one school for boys and 
 two for girls : it has given two schools and four kinder- 
 gartens to the neighborhood. Its school-bill for 1896 
 was nearly 26,000 fr. Its special technical school 
 receives the best pupils from the lower grades, under 
 the management of the engineers. The company has 
 built four Roman Catholic churches, and it pays the
 
 PATRON AL INSTITUTIONS IN FRANCE 133 
 
 salaries of two curates. A special fire fund provides 
 compensation for the seventy men in the service, in 
 case of injuries received, and pensions to widows. A 
 developed system of free medical attendance is to 
 be found at Anzin, costing the company, in 1896, 
 137,619 fr. The workman receives twenty bushels of 
 coal a month free : in case of sickness or of very large 
 families this amount is increased : in 1896 the coal so 
 distributed was valued at 425,427 fr. The child at 
 its first communion is given a bonus of 12 fr. : the 
 workman does not pay for his first suit of clothing for 
 work in the mines : the wife of a workman on military 
 service receives an allowance : several musical societies 
 are subsidized : prizes are offered for skill in archery, 
 ball games, etc. : a library for workmen is open on 
 Sundays. When bread rises above some 3^ cents 
 a pound, the company distributes it at this price : in 
 1873 this distribution cost -126,600. The total cost 
 to the company of its long roll of patronal institutions 
 in 1896 was 2,211,249 fr. : the sum for this purpose 
 in 1888 equaled a dividend of 12 per cent, on wages, 
 or 47 per cent, of the dividend paid to stockholders. 
 Although the gross amount in 1896 appears larger 
 than that spent at Montceau-les-Mines in 189293 by 
 the Blanzy company, this is probably due to different 
 methods of making up the account. The proportion 
 of the welfare dividend to wages and to the stock- 
 holder's dividend is considerably higher at the Blanzy 
 mines. 
 
 Several other French mining companies may be noticed 
 briefly. The Company of Roche-la-Motiere-et-Firminy 
 (near St. Etienne, Loire) supports two hospitals, and sup- 
 plies free medical attendance and medicines for its 2,691
 
 134 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 employees ; they have their coal free, and the education of 
 their children is partly defrayed by the company, which 
 also cares for orphan children. The relief fund spent 
 $24,600 in 1888, and the pension fund $6,440 ; the latter 
 is supplemented by a provident fund. The whole cost of 
 the institutions was $44,823, which was equivalent to $16.65 
 for each workman, to 7.07 per cent, on the total of $633,683 
 paid out in wages, and to 7 cents on each ton of coal 
 mined. 
 
 The Montrambert Company has similar provisions 
 in the way of funds and hospitals, baths and schools : a 
 mutual aid society and a band are subsidized. The expense 
 for these institutions was $41,620 in 1888, about $19 for 
 each workman. 
 
 The Company of Besseges (Gard) assesses its work- 
 men for 2 per cent, of their wages for a sick fund. It 
 maintains at its own expense a fund of equal size for the 
 wounded, " who accept literally and strictly the conditions 
 for indemnity fixed by the company." If an employee will 
 regularly deposit in the National Pension Fund 3 per cent, 
 of his salary, the company will deposit to his credit 2 per 
 cent. The company pays gratuities every year to a number 
 of workmen on the ground of long service, punctuality, 
 civility and good conduct, usually about one tenth of the 
 wages ; it spent on schools $39,181 in 1889. Its donations 
 in 1888 were $69,000, a sum equal to $28.59 for each 
 workman. 
 
 The Lens Mining Company (Lens, Pas de Galas) 
 have built 171 small houses in their Cit St. Edouard, 
 which their workmen rent for less than one fourth of the 
 ordinary charge. The Mining Company of Cour- 
 rieres spends over 28,000 fr. and that of Li6vin more 
 than 27,000 fr. on schools. 
 
 Messrs. Schneider Sz Co., proprietors of the im- 
 mense steel works at Le Creusot (Sa6ne-et-Loire), 
 are worthy rivals of the Krupp firm at Essen, in their
 
 PATRON A L INSTITUTIONS IN FRANCE 135 
 
 liberality toward their 12,338 employees. They have 
 built 1,200 houses, with gardens about them, which 
 are rented at very low rates; the firm also defrays 
 the general expenses of the cites ouvrieres. The same 
 method is pursued at the Decizes mines and other 
 mining properties of the firm. In 2,391 cases, be- 
 tween 1837 and 1889, there were advanced to work- 
 men, to enable them to purchase land at reduced price, 
 and building material, 3,292,671 fr. ; of this amount 
 there were due January 1, 1889, 227,203 fr. Advances 
 are made for acquiring houses already built, and for 
 the improvement of old houses and of grounds and 
 gardens. In the neighborhood of Le Creusot some 
 3,000 workmen's families thus enjoy comfortable 
 homes of their own. 
 
 Down to 1882 the firm paid the entire expense of 
 five schools for boys : since that year the city has sup- 
 ported four of these and the firm the advanced school 
 with eight teachers and 300 pupils. In the other 
 schools under patronage of the firm there were 967 
 boys and 1,781 girls, and in the infant schools 1,858 
 little children. Several churches in Le Creusot and 
 the vicinity were built and are maintained by it. The 
 firm receives deposits from employees, and it held on 
 January 1, 1889, the sum of $1,839,929 from 3,049 
 depositors. The firm paid 5 per cent, interest until 
 1878, since then 4 per cent., the maximum deposit 
 being 2,000 fr. 
 
 A provident fund existed from 1837, the year of 
 the foundation of the house, until 1872. It is now an 
 aid and retiring fund, supplementing the contribu- 
 tions to the National Retiring Fund. The firm pays 
 a sum equal to 3 per cent, of the workman's wages
 
 136 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 and 2 per cent, of the workwoman's to this last-named 
 fund for independent pensioners : the book is personal 
 property, and an employee leaving the house takes it 
 with him. A " Bureau of Beneficence " is aided by 
 the firm in helping persons whose pensions are insuf- 
 ficient: the annual amount has been over 80,000 fr. in 
 recent years. A Home for the Aged, costing 340,000 fr., 
 shelters sixty-five men and women ; a hospital with 
 110 beds is due to a union of Le Creusot and private 
 generosity. Medical service is rendered free at the 
 works, and the rules are liberal, admitting the entire 
 family of the workman and former workpeople. 
 
 The beneficent institutions of the steel works at 
 Le Creusot demanded for their support in 1888, 
 1,632,000 fr., or 136 fr. for each workman, who thus 
 received the equivalent of 10 per cent, on his wages. 
 There was a famous strike at Le Creusot in 1870 ; 
 but the general stability of the force is surprising, 
 even in Europe. Out of 12,338 workers 4,000 have 
 served over 20 years, 2,851 over 25 years, and some 
 1,500 from 30 to 69 years. In the same family one 
 sometimes sees a workman-father, an overseer-son, and 
 an engineer-grandson. The statue of Eugene Schnei- 
 der, in one of the public squares of Le Creusot, was 
 erected by a subscription of the workmen. 
 
 The Gouin Construction Company in Paris builds 
 bridges, railways and all kinds of public works : it employs 
 some 7,000 persons. The present head of the firm is M. 
 Jules Gouin. The company gives pensions to the widows 
 and orphans of workmen, and liberal allowances to those 
 who have grown old or become disabled in the service of 
 the company; there are baths, a pharmacy, free medical 
 attendance, a mutual aid society (to which the men contrib-
 
 PATRON AL INSTITUTIONS IN FRANCE 137 
 
 ute voluntarily, and which they administer), together with 
 supplementary funds for rendering various forms of assist- 
 ance in exceptional difficulties. The peculiar conditions of 
 this business, wherein periods of nearly total stagnation 
 frequently follow those of tremendous activity, have pro- 
 duced an extremely flexible social system. " We have few 
 formulated methods of relief," says M. Gouin, " but the 
 heartiest personal interest in our workpeople. They know 
 this, and are absolutely certain of receiving reasonable and 
 tangible help in time of need. This knowledge and this 
 confidence form the basis of their content and their good 
 conduct." 
 
 The proportion of men who have been in the company's 
 service between ten and forty years reaches 45 per cent, 
 among the lower, and 50 per cent, among the higher grades 
 of employees. Strikes are unknown among them ; even 
 during the "black periods," when hundreds of employees 
 have of necessity been turned away, no disturbance has ever 
 occurred. At such times neither chance nor favoritism has 
 anything to do with one man's retention and another's dis- 
 missal. These matters are regulated according to a rigid 
 rule, which is based entirely upon the length of individual 
 service. When the period of depression is at an end, the 
 same rule determines the order in which the men shall be 
 recalled. 
 
 M. Gouin has recently completed, at a cost of $320,000, 
 a magnificent addition to his social schemes, which is in- 
 tended to benefit, not merely his employees and their fam- 
 ilies, but the whole working population of the Clichy quarter. 
 This addition comprises a surgical hospital (with dispensa- 
 ries for out-patients), besides two blocks of " habitations 
 e"conomiques," or model tenement-houses. The buildings 
 the hospital and the tenements stand on opposite sides of a 
 square which has frontage on four streets, and are separated 
 by a large, beautifully laid-out garden. The hospital, which 
 is literally surrounded by gardens, is so placed as to have 
 a great number of sunny rooms, and it fulfills the strictest
 
 138 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 requirements of medical and surgical science. The use of it 
 is intended for self-respecting people of the working class. 
 The surgical attendance is free, but patients pay for their 
 board, fifty cents per day if in a ward, or one dollar in 
 a private room. 
 
 The two model tenements are five stories in height and 
 contain sixty-five flats, each of them consisting of a good- 
 sized vestibule, either one or two bedrooms, a kitchen, and 
 a water-closet with abundance of water, besides a locked 
 compartment in the cellar. There is not one dark room in 
 either house, nor a single window that looks upon a court. 
 Every room faces either the street or the pretty garden ; the 
 corridors and staircases are as well lighted as the flats. In 
 each kitchen is a convenient little cooking-range (which takes 
 up less space than a stove), gas and water, the latter being 
 supplied from an artesian well 280 feet deep, another of 
 M. Gouin's constructions. The rents in these houses range 
 between $45 and $60 per year, according to the position and 
 size of the flats. At these low figures at least one third 
 less than is asked for inferior lodgings of the same size in 
 the neighborhood this kind of property in Paris yields a 
 net income of 4 or 5 per cent. 1 
 
 A brief account will suffice of the patronal institutions 
 of several other iron and steel works in France. The So- 
 ciety of the North and East builds neat houses, with 
 gardens, which it lets at rents producing an interest of 3 
 per cent, on the investment. It supports a school and 
 adult classes. It retains 2 per cent, on wages for an aid 
 fund, making up a yearly deficit of $2,200, a special aid 
 fund being supported from profits. It insures its workmen 
 against accidents, and pays 5 per cent, interest on deposits 
 by the workmen. 
 
 The Company of the Iron Works of Champagne 
 and the Canal of St. Dizier at Wassy adds to the 
 compulsory 2 per cent, contribution from wages for an aid 
 
 1 The above account is slightly abridged from the letter in the New 
 York Evening Post, before quoted on p. 94.
 
 PATRONAL INSTITUTIONS IN FRANCE 139 
 
 fund (10 per cent, for the first month) a variable amount. 
 To the retiring fund it gives $2,400 a year and half the 
 profits of the company's stores. The income of this fund 
 helps to pay educational expenses, and for gymnastics and 
 festivals, as well as for the usual objects of such funds. 
 The schools provide for 346 pupils. An apprentice school 
 teaches girls to sew and make up garments. In the second 
 year the girl receives fifteen cents a day, and in the third 
 all the wages she can gain. The whole sum is put in a 
 savings account payable at marriage or coming-of-age. The 
 workmen are assured, as a body, by the company against 
 accidents : it receives deposits from them at six per cent, 
 interest. The stores sell for cash on checks furnished three 
 times a month by the company, and debited on wages. The 
 second half of the 10.75 per cent, dividend goes to the buy- 
 ers : trading at these stores is voluntary. Aged workmen 
 are appointed to light work or sheltered in comfortable 
 homes. The individual worker sees his real compensation 
 increased by these various institutions $11.12, the whole 
 expense for the works, being about $19,570 a year. 
 
 The efforts of MM. Les Fils de Peugeot Freres, 
 manufacturers of iron, at Valentigny (Doubs), to house 
 their force of operatives find an unusual obstacle in the 
 general refusal of the workpeople to buy the cottages or 
 tenements built by the firm. The men " prefer to buy land 
 and build houses according to their own taste." But the 
 firm advances money to help them. It gives to a mutual 
 aid society a subsidy equal to one third of the subscription 
 from the employees, and supplies the sick with help in kind, 
 to an amount equal to the money aid from the society. It 
 pays pensions after the usual regulations, half of the sum 
 reverting to the widows and orphans. It pays interest at 4 
 per cent, on workmen's savings deposited with it, and in- 
 sures the entire force against accidents at its own expense. 
 Two cooperative stores sell to the workmen and the public, 
 but only the workmen are eligible as shareholders (there 
 were 250 of these in 1889) : 75 per cent, of the profits go
 
 140 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 to the consumers : 15 per cent, to the reserve fund and the 
 shareholders. At a bakery established by a cooperative 
 society, bread is sold at 5 per cent, above cost. The firm 
 has built and maintains four schools and two infant schools : 
 a hospital has been founded by M. E. Peugeot. 
 
 What Mr. Willoughby calls " the most important 
 step that has yet been taken in the development of 
 voluntary insurance " (p. 114) is due to the Comite 
 des Forges de France, an organization similar to 
 the Iron and Steel Association in the United States, 
 and including all the leading manufacturers. The 
 Caisse Syndicate d' 'Assurance Mutuelle des Forges 
 de France was founded in 1891 for the purpose, in 
 the first place, of cooperation in general insurance 
 of workmen in this industry against accidents. Mem- 
 bership is optional, but the hope is that it will come 
 to include practically all such concerns. The total 
 amount in wages paid by each establishment is taken 
 as the general basis of contribution. The establish- 
 ments are grouped in three classes according to the 
 risk incurred : and the general basis is qualified by one 
 of the three coefficients of risk thus obtained. The 
 maximum is 1.80, 1.50 or 1.20 fr. per 100 fr. paid in 
 wages : "in practice, this maximum was required only 
 the first year." A system of rebates provides for 
 returning to each establishment " the difference be- 
 tween the amount of their contributions and the 
 amount paid to their employees in indemnities." In 
 1895 this Caisse des Forges had 46 members and in- 
 sured 56,110 employees : its receipts (dues and inter- 
 est) were 1178,676.45 (the rebates being $14,889.83) : 
 its expenditures were exactly equal : the assets, in the 
 funds for pensions, unadjudicated claims and reserve,
 
 PATRON AL INSTITUTIONS IN FRANCE 141 
 
 amounted to <f318,960.54. Encouraged by the success 
 of this very soundly organized fund, the Comite des 
 Forges established a similar fund in 1894 for insur- 
 ance against old age and invalidism. Its accident fund 
 finds companions in the insurance funds of the masons 
 and the plumbers of Paris, and in the national fund of 
 the textile manufacturers of France, organized in 1895. 
 
 The great woolen factories at Gateau, Bousies, and 
 Mauvois (Nord), founded by M. Paturle-Lupin in 
 1819, are now owned by Seydoux et Cie. The house 
 employs 2,821 men, women and children beside 800 
 hand- weavers outside the mills, and 184 employes. 
 The total bill for wages and salaries is 3,050,000 fr. a 
 year : the capital is 17,000,000 fr. : the working-day js 
 eleven and a half hours, and the day's wages run from 
 1.50 fr. to 5 fr. Premiums on production may amount 
 to 11 fr. a loom per quarter, and like the quarterly 
 premiums for regularity (12 fr.), they amount to 
 12,000 fr. a year. 
 
 Seydoux et Cie divide 25 per cent, of their profits 
 among seventy of the overseers and the clerical force*, 
 but the great body of the workers receive the benefit 
 of a large variety of institutions due to the kindliness 
 of the firm. A savings-bank, established in 1866, 
 pays 5 per cent, interest on deposits below 1,000 fr. 
 and 4 per cent, on larger sums. There are 200 small 
 depositors, depositing an average of 100,000 fr. a 
 year : the whole amount held is nearly 3,000,000 fr., 
 belonging to 325 persons. Retiring pensions were paid 
 by the firm in 1890, to the extent of 31,300 fr. : 18 
 employes had pensions varying from 800 to 1,200 fr., 
 and 37 workers of both sexes received from 150 to 
 400 fr. Supplementary pensions for the latter class
 
 142 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 are paid from a fund to those who have been forty 
 years in the service of the house. The income of 
 another fund of 200,000 fr., left by Madame A. 
 Seydoux, goes to increase all the pensions granted. 
 Aid funds supported by fines, a gift of the same 
 amount, and additional subventions from the firm 
 give medical aid and money help to all the workers, 
 but especially to widows and their children. Women 
 in confinement receive ten days' pay. Bath-houses, at 
 ten centimes a bath, are open to all. The firm pays 
 the excess of expenses over receipts (2,500 fr.) of a 
 diet kitchen which provides soup, vegetables and meat 
 at six cents a meal. It supports a creche where thirty- 
 five to forty infants are received for twenty centimes a 
 day (the expense being sixty-four) after they are 
 fifteen days old. They can remain here until old 
 enough to attend the infant school, at three years. 
 This schools numbers 300 children, and the firm like- 
 wise maintains a school for 200 girls. The small city of 
 Gateau possesses a hospital, a maternal home, a home 
 for old men, an infant school and a supply of drinking- 
 water, provided by the generosity chiefly of Mmes. 
 Paturle-Lupin and C. and A. Seydoux. 
 
 These patronal institutions at Gateau represent a 
 gift to each of the 1,746 workpeople there of 65.70 fr. 
 a year. Entire families may be found in the establish- 
 ment, and more than a third of the adult force counts 
 at least fifteen to twenty years of service. There has 
 never been a strike at Gateau, and but one slight dis- 
 turbance has occurred at Bousies. 1 
 
 The Thaon Blanchisserie et Teinturerie (Vosges) 
 
 1 See the Bulletin de la Participation aux B&n&fices for 1892, 
 pp. 67-73.
 
 PATRONAL INSTITUTIONS IN FRANCE 143 
 
 is a much younger house than the Seydoux. It was 
 founded in 1872, six miles below Epinal, on the Mo- 
 selle, to take the place in the French market of sim- 
 ilar establishments in Alsace. Mons. A. Lederlin, the 
 director, soon began a cooperative store in the new 
 village. In 1892 it did a business of 144,243 fr. on 
 a very small capital, at a profit of 21,415 fr. : the 
 average dividend is 11.82 per cent, on purchases 
 2 per cent, goes to the provident fund. A mutual 
 aid society, assisted by the company, held a surplus, at 
 the close of 1891, of 147,856 fr. A part of this sum 
 is invested in mortgages on houses built by workmen, 
 forty-eight of whom had thus been aided by December 
 31, 1892. A savings-bank allows 5 per cent, interest : 
 the deposits in this bank, a branch of the Epinal 
 Bank, and a school bank were over 2,000,000 fr. in 
 1892. 
 
 The Thaon company gives 5 per cent, of its profits 
 to a retiring fund. Beginning with the first year of 
 profits, 1880, the fund reached 375,721 fr. by 1892. 
 The pensions vary from 500 to 600 fr. : smaller 
 pensions are provided by the mutual aid society. 
 M. Lederlin supplements the work of these two funds 
 with a system of baths, a refectory, a gymnasium, 
 drawing and manual training schools, a library and a 
 reading-room. A gun club, a brass band and a choral 
 society have been organized since 1879. M. Lederlin 
 has endeavored to bestow on his employees " all the 
 moral, intellectual and material resources which spring 
 from the study and the conscientious and disinterested 
 application of the great problems of social economy." 
 
 The Societe" Anonyme de Tissus de Laine des 
 Vosges at Thillot and Trougemont in that depart-
 
 144 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 ment gives employment to 727 workers, with an out- 
 put of 5,000,000 fr. The rules of the Societe (1870) 
 reserved 15 per cent, of the profits for the employees. 
 Until 1889 this went to support a fund for " gratifi- 
 cations" (which amounted to 50,000 fr. in 1890) and 
 to create various provident institutions like those at 
 Thaon. In 1889 the Societe transferred the main- 
 tenance of these institutions to " general expenses," 
 gran ting the 15 per cent, in a direct, individual scheme 
 of profit sharing. The institutions supported by the 
 collective participation include an aid fund (now kept 
 up by 1 per cent, reserve on wages) : a retiring and 
 accident-insurance fund, maintained chiefly by the 
 Societe, and a very successful cooperative store. A 
 pension for unmarried men furnishes lodging, light 
 and washing free for thirty persons : board is 1 fr. lOc. 
 a day. No spirituous liquors can be used in the 
 house and only steady workmen are admitted. The 
 Societe has interested itself in low-cost houses ^ 
 tenements and cottages for the married men. It 
 provides a school for apprentices, who are paid wages 
 from their entrance. Other institutions are a hydro- 
 pathic house, a general school, a library and musical 
 societies. 
 
 The Waddington Sons Co., cotton spinners and weav- 
 ers, employ some 1,250 persons altogether at St. Remy- 
 sur-Avre (Eure-et-Loire), paying out over 1,000,000 francs 
 a year in wages. To the mutual aid society, founded 
 in 1827, the firm turns over the fines paid, and subscribes 
 $300 annually: to the library founded in 1885, $120 a 
 year. It has built 164 small houses with gardens, rented 
 at a low rate. The company supports entirely at its own 
 expense a creche, with 59 children cared for in 1888, at a 
 cost for that year of $859 : a maternal school, for 92 chil-
 
 dren, at an expense of $875 : free schools with obligatory 
 attendance, and gratuitous text-books ; the payment of 
 wages to men on reserve-military duty : accident insurance 
 and retiring pensions. In 1888 there were 74 workmen 
 on the retired list with an average pension of $45. The 
 mutual aid society gives no help where sickness is caused 
 by drinking habits. 
 
 Mons. P. Abrand, manager of the spinning-mill at 
 Courtivron, has a relief fund of the ordinary kind for 
 cases of sickness or accident. A peculiar institution is the 
 encouragement of savings by offering what amounts to a 
 very high rate of interest. To any sum from sixteen cents 
 up to eighty left in the postal savings-bank monthly by an 
 employee, M. Abrand adds 25 per cent. No part of the 
 whole deposit can be drawn before the end of five years if 
 the depositor wishes to receive the extra amount from the 
 house. A new period will begin at the end of the first five 
 years. In case of dismissal from employment for fault, the 
 25 per cent, increase goes to the relief fund : the work- 
 man must not fail to deposit at least sixteen cents a quarter 
 to avoid loss. If a man deposits eighty cents a month for 
 a year, at the end of that time he will have, including 
 interest and 25 per cent, bonus, $12.19 for the $9.60 saved 
 from wages an increase equal to 27 per cent, interest. 
 
 At Elbffiuf (department Seine-Infe'rieure), thirteen miles 
 from Rouen, MM. Blin et Blin, cloth makers, themselves 
 insure their workmen against accidents, after an unsatisfac- 
 tory trial of insurance through companies. A relief depart- 
 ment in the works gives immediate attention to an injured 
 person ; he is cared for until well again by the house : his 
 wages continue : and if he is partially incapacitated, he re- 
 ceives assistance in proportion to his disability. A pension 
 is given to the widow of any workman killed in the mill. 
 
 M. Albert Lung, in his cotton-mills at Moussey and 
 La Petite Raon (Vosges), supports schools for children 
 and adults ; receives workmen's savings at five per cent. ; 
 advances sums to help the employee buy real estate, or in
 
 146 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 sickness, or to put an end to purchasing goods on credit 
 the advances being repaid in monthly installments. He has 
 built houses for some $500 each, which he lets at $2 a 
 month, or sells for $400, payable at the rate of $5 a month, 
 with interest at 5 per cent. 
 
 Messrs. Saint-Freres, spinners and weavers of cotton 
 and flax at Paris and Rouen, have built 453 cottages, at 
 an expense of $222,000, which they rent to their workmen 
 at such a figure as to realize scarcely 1J per cent, on their 
 investment. They maintain schools in their different fac- 
 tories. An aid fund, a retiring fund and an accident-insur- 
 ance fund are supported by an assessment of ten cents a 
 fortnight on each of the male workpeople, and seven cents 
 on each woman and child : by a subscription from the firm 
 equal to one third of this foregoing sum : by fines : by gifts, 
 and by interest at four per cent, paid by the firm on the 
 capital. 
 
 M. D. "W alter- Seitz, a cotton spinner and weaver at 
 Granges (Vosges), has built thirty-seven stone houses (two 
 stories high, with gardens) for rental to his workpeople at 
 two thirds of the rental charged in the neighborhood. He 
 defrays the whole expense of sickness among his 500 em- 
 ployees : he insures them against accidents and their house- 
 hold goods against fire. He allows five per cent, interest 
 on deposits, and supports a maternal school receiving chil- 
 dren up to six years of age. 
 
 Villeneuvette is the name of an interesting industrial 
 establishment founded by Colbert, Louis Fourteenth's famous 
 minister, in 1666. It is engaged in making cloths for the 
 army, a business subject to great fluctuations, being in some 
 years four times as large as in others : the contract sys- 
 tem is also a feature involving much uncertainty. Vil- 
 leneuvette itself is a commune (near Clermont I'He'rault) 
 inclosed by a wall with gates, opened at 4.30 A. M. and 
 closed at 9.30 p. M. The workmen prefer to reside in the 
 commune so far as possible, in the seventy dwellings which 
 are rent-free. They are supplied with medicines and
 
 PATRON AL INSTITUTIONS IN FRANCE 147 
 
 medical attendance by two physicians of the adjoining 
 town for 8 fr. a year. There is great stability in the force : 
 four families have lived and worked there for more than 
 140 years : over 140 persons have worked more than thirty 
 years. The directors of Villeneuvette take pains to keep 
 their men employed, preferring to lose a more or less con- 
 siderable sum rather than shut down the works. The con- 
 sequence of this policy is that Villeneuvette, though possess- 
 ing few patronal institutions, is a home of industrial peace : 
 A most important factor in the situation is doubtless the 
 fact that the employer lives amongst his workpeople in 
 simple style. " Now as formerly," writes M. Maistre, 
 " what is asked by the workingman is not so much a high 
 rate of wages as security for the future. The best way to 
 give security to the workingman is to live with him." 
 
 Janvier, Pdre et Fils et Compagnie, at their rope- 
 walk, Lie Mans (Sarthe), furnish gardens for their work- 
 men large enough to supply vegetables for a family. The 
 men generally live two or three miles away, so that the firm 
 established for them a restaurant capable of supplying food 
 for 200 persons : the annual deficit is from 600 to 1,800 fr. 
 The men are insured by the firm against accidents, which 
 are very infrequent (three serious ones only in twenty-eight 
 years). The relief fund, founded by the house and main- 
 tained by a donation and fines, provides medical care and 
 medicines : wounded workmen receive full wages, and the 
 sick the usual aid. The firm also divides profits with its 
 force. 
 
 In the same town A. Cheppee, founder and builder, 
 pays pensions to members of the Mutual Benevolent Society, 
 which provides for cases of sickness and accident. 
 
 The Glass "Works at Baccarat (Meurthe-et-Mo- 
 selle), like Villeneuvette, furnish free lodgings for 
 the glass-workers proper in houses built by the com- 
 pany, with small gardens about them : 224 house- 
 holds, consisting of 897 persons, were thus housed in
 
 148 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 1888. The dwellings represent an investment of 
 800,000 fr. in addition to the cost of maintenance. 
 The company does nothing more in this line for the 
 rest of its 2,000 employees. Its provision for school- 
 ing is elaborate, comprising an infant school (with 
 100 children from three to six years old) ; a primary 
 school for 130 girls, from which they can enter an 
 industrial school where they learn sewing and house- 
 keeping (thirty-five in 1888) ; a school for apprentices 
 between twelve and fifteen years old, kept from five 
 to seven o'clock p. M. ; a more advanced school for the 
 apprentice cutters, engravers, carvers and draftsmen, 
 giving a year's instruction, followed by the school of 
 design, obligatory on the same persons, who work here 
 from 4.30 p. M. to 6 p. M. The company supports 
 the vicar of the parish, who conducts service in the 
 chapel of the manufactory, a philharmonic society, and 
 free medical service from a physician living at the 
 works. 
 
 There are three mutual aid societies for the glass- 
 makers, the cutters and the other workmen, adminis- 
 tered by councils composed of a majority of oper- 
 atives elected by the force : 215 persons are aided 
 each month on the average. The three societies paid 
 out, in 1888, 27,000 fr., and received 28,000 fr., 
 17,000 fr. from the workmen represented assessments 
 varying from 1 to 2 per cent, on wages, and 11,000 fr. 
 from the company was a 2 per cent, contribution on 
 the total wages : interest is paid by it at 5 per cent. 
 The company provides for cases of accidents, which 
 rarely occur, not one death on the average in four 
 years. Religious services for the dead are also pro- 
 vided for.
 
 PATRON AL INSTITUTIONS IN FRANCE 149 
 
 The company supports, entirely at its own expense, 
 a retiring fund, which in 1888 gave to 109 men and 
 
 19 women pensioners $9,199 : the woman's pension is 
 
 20 fr. a month ; the man's varies, but may not be less 
 than 25 fr. a month. Allowances to women in child- 
 bed (they can return to work only six weeks after 
 confinement) ; a creche ; a system of free baths ; a 
 special fund for the fire company of 70 employees 
 (giving an injured workman his full wages, or the 
 widow, in case of death, a pension of 300 fr.) ; a 
 savings-bank, holding accounts, in 1888, with 1,308 
 workpeople, who had 760,000 fr. on deposit, are other 
 features of the Baccarat establishment. It is esti- 
 mated that the force saves 10 per cent, of its wages. 
 The patron al institutions represent 5 per cent, on the 
 same sum, or 1.75 per cent, on the capital of 6,000,- 
 000 fr. The stability of the force is great : one half 
 have served over nine years, one quarter more than 
 twenty years, one tenth more than thirty years. 
 There has never been a strike or an attempt at one. 
 " The working population is a true family. . . . the 
 attachment of employer and employed has been re- 
 peatedly manifested." 
 
 The glass works operated at Folembray (Aisne) 
 by the Society de Poilly, Fitz-James et Brigode, 
 lodges its workpeople gratuitously, like the Baccarat 
 works. Its other benefactions are more informal than 
 usual, but comprehensive. They include kind treat- 
 ment of the children (schooling, lodging at the works, 
 a free ration of meat, winter and summer suits, etc.), 
 aid to sick workmen (the company also paying from 
 one third to one half of the physician's fee), reduction 
 of military service so far as is legal, money loans
 
 150 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 without interest and various other minor philanthro- 
 pies. 
 
 The cite which one sees at the Chocolat Menier 
 "Works at Noisiel (Seine-et-Marne) has an attractive 
 appearance. The brick houses are solidly built, with 
 iron flooring and tile roofs ; there are large gardens : 
 on the broad, well-shaded street a house on one side 
 faces a garden on the other, thus giving the best cir- 
 culation of air possible. There are 295 of these tene- 
 ments (mostly two to a house, costing some 10,000 fr.), 
 sheltering 1,400 persons out of a force of 2,100. The 
 rent, about that charged for inferior accommodations 
 elsewhere in the vicinity, represents three per cent, 
 gross on the investment of 1,800,000 fr., and from 
 one tenth to one twelfth of the earnings of the heads 
 of the houses. The Menier brothers are content with 
 a small return ; for they pay taxes, repairs, and other 
 expenses (such as light for the streets and water for 
 the houses) equal to one half of the rent charged ; but 
 they do not sell any of their houses, in order to keep 
 out undesirable persons. They reduce rents according 
 to a fixed scale after ten years' occupancy (the oldest 
 workmen thus pay no rent), and the stability of the 
 force is high. 
 
 Around a central square are situated the various 
 institutions maintained by the firm. A general store 
 supplies all the necessaries of life provisions, dry 
 goods, firewood, etc. at cost, the firm baking bread, 
 and furnishing meat from cattle raised on its farms : 
 the store's sales amount to 400,000 fr. a year. In large 
 refectories employees from outside the cite can warm 
 the food they bring with them. Restaurants and 
 " canteens " supply board and lodging at low prices
 
 PATRON AL INSTITUTIONS IN FRANCE 151 
 
 fixed by the firm. Bath-houses and laundries meet the 
 needs of the population for cleanliness. A physician 
 is attached to the works, whose services are free, as 
 well as necessary medicines. A sick man receives 
 forty cents a day aid, a sick woman half as much : aid 
 is given to women in confinement, and to infirm old 
 men. 
 
 The schools have every facility, including large sep- 
 arate playgrounds, paved with wood : books and other 
 material are free. A concert hall, meeting-rooms, a 
 club-room, a library and a hospital also face the cen- 
 tral square. " The inhabitants of Noisiel attend very 
 regularly the lecture-room, the library, which contains 
 1,200 select volumes, and the concerts given on Sun- 
 days and holidays by the band of the works." The 
 firm pays six per cent, interest on deposits from the 
 workmen: the total amount in 1888 was nearly 2,000,- 
 000 fr. " The philanthropy of the proprietor," says 
 Dr. Gould, "has carried him into these various enter- 
 prises, but the results which have been reached, he 
 believes, justify the economic expenditure which they 
 have necessitated." 
 
 The French State has a monopoly of the manufacture 
 of leaf tobacco into smoking and chewing tobacco, snuff, 
 cigars and cigarettes. In the State factories the entire 
 force, in 1875, amounted to 22,974 persons, of whom women 
 formed nine tenths. They, as well as the men employed, 
 are very stable workers : the average length of service is 
 twelve years. From 1861 to 1882 the administration of 
 the factories paid into the National Retiring Fund four per 
 cent, of the wages of the employee. 1 Since 1882 this contri- 
 
 1 The State uses this bank to insure many other employees, in 
 forests, on roads, on telegraph lines, and other than tobacco fac- 
 tories. Payments in 1893 for all such employees amounted to 
 $475,534 (Willoughby, p. 127).
 
 152 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 bution has been made at the expense of the State. Between 
 1861 and 1889 the whole payment was 13,000,000 fr. : the 
 average amount on a book was 460 fr. in 1889. Mutual 
 aid societies have been founded in various factories : some 
 of these have baths and libraries : two thirds of the expense 
 of creches are paid by them. 
 
 The crockeryware establishment of Hippolyte Boulan- 
 ger & Co., at Choisy-le-Roi, employs 956 persons men, 
 women and children. For the latter it provides education 
 an infant school, separate schools for boys from three to 
 six years old, and those working in the factory, and a 
 boarding-school for fifty apprentices, orphan children of 
 former employees : and a school for girls from three to 
 thirteen years. A Scholar's Savings Bank receives not 
 more than 100 fr. from each depositor, and pays 6 per 
 cent, interest. Another savings-bank grants 5 per cent, 
 on deposits from employees up to 2,000 fr. A " Family 
 Council," composed of leading employees, delegates of the 
 two mutual aid societies, and of the firm, settle all questions 
 of gifts, aid and pensions. The latter are granted from the 
 income of a donation of 60,000 fr. from M. Boulanger, and 
 contributions from the aid societies and the firm : the 
 house insures against accidents. 
 
 The publishing house of Annand Colin & Co., of 
 Paris, offers premiums to young employees who pass ex- 
 aminations in evening schools. It supplies the aid of a 
 physician when needed : wages are continued during illness. 
 Besides annual presents, it gives a bonus, usually of 100 
 fr., to valued employees when a marriage, a birth or a death 
 takes place in their families. The house deducts 5 per cent, 
 from wages to place in the National Retiring Fund, adding 
 itself 50 per cent, of this sum for persons employed less 
 than eight years, and the same amount as the assessment 
 for the employees of more than eight years' standing. A 
 pension is thus secured amounting to 600 to 1,200 fr. 
 The house receives deposits up to 500 fr., and pays 6 per 
 cent, interest.
 
 PATRONAL INSTITUTIONS IN FRANCE 153 
 
 That great printing establishment, the Imprimerie 
 Chaix of Paris, has a model system of instruction for its 
 apprentices. As the house is a noted instance of profit shar- 
 ing, it has been fully described by Mr. Sedley Taylor in his 
 " Profit-Sharing " (pp. 50-61) and in my own volume on 
 this subject (pp. 143-154). A detailed account of the 
 technical schools is given in the " Notice sur 1'Ecole pro- 
 fessionelle de jeunes Typographes de la Maison A. Chaix et 
 Cie," printed by the firm in 1878. A mutual aid society, 
 giving liberal help, and a voluntary pension fund are sup- 
 ported by the employees. 
 
 A notable institution of the Lock Works, at Neuilly 
 (Seine-et-Oise), is a workshop aid fund, which does the 
 usual business of such a society rendering accident and 
 sick aid, and paying pensions to retired members or their 
 families on this basis : The house pays in a sum equal to 
 2 \ per cent, on the whole amount of wages : 1 per cent, is 
 retained from wages : gifts are made and interest at 5 per 
 cent, is paid by the house on the capital. 
 
 Pleyel, "Wolff & Co., pianoforte manufacturers, at 
 Paris, have a workshop school in their factory which re- 
 ceives boys from five to eight, and girls from five to twelve 
 years of age. The firm doubles the savings of apprentices : 
 receives deposits from workmen up to 2,000 fr., at 5 per cent, 
 interest : pays pensions of 365 fr. a year to workmen sixty 
 years old, who have worked thirty years : contributes gener- 
 ously to the mutual aid society : makes advances to work- 
 men to be repaid in small weekly installments : supports a 
 small library, and pays the expenses of an archery company 
 and a band. In twenty years the firm expended 730,000 f r. 
 for all these philanthropic purposes. 
 
 Solvay et Cie, manufacturers of soda and chemical 
 products, at Varangeville-Dombasle (Meurthe-et- 
 Moselle), have built for their force 389 four-room 
 dwellings since 1878, housing 2,122 persons. Em- 
 ployes and foremen pay no rent ; the workman pays
 
 154 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 12 fr. per month, only half the price near by for the 
 same kind of accommodation. An abatement plan 
 begins with workmen who have served seven years 
 and have two children (or one year, and have six 
 children) : these are entitled to 25 per cent, reduc- 
 tion. Whenever a child goes to work the number of 
 the family is held to have been diminished by two. 
 Employees who have served ten years and have six 
 children, or twenty-eight years and have two children, 
 get their houses for nothing. Under this plan the 
 tenant pays rent regularly: but, at the end of the 
 year, one half of the sum abated is returned to him : 
 the other half, deposited to his account in a savings- 
 bank, must remain there five years at 5 per cent. In 
 1889 houses costing 440,000 fr. were thus rent-free. 
 The gross rental is less than 2 per cent, on the capital 
 invested. Workmen may buy these rented houses, or 
 borrow of the company at 2 per cent, to build them- 
 selves : fifty-seven workmen had taken this latter 
 course by December 31, 1898, and the sums loaned 
 amounted to 143,642 fr. The company pays deposit- 
 ors 4 or 5 per cent, according to the amount : grants 
 medical service free, and medicines also to the work- 
 men over two years in service, with reductions to 
 those who have served a shorter time, and to the 
 families of all workmen ; it grants sick aid, accident 
 insurance and pensions. For the latter purpose, it 
 contributes in any year when capital has received 10 
 per cent, a sum which equals 10 per cent, of the 
 wages of employes or foremen who have served six 
 full years, and so on up to 20 per cent, for those who 
 have served twenty-one years and over. The ordinary 
 workman must subscribe 1^ per cent, of his wages to
 
 PATRON AL INSTITUTIONS IN FRANCE 155 
 
 the National Ketiring Fund : the company adds twice 
 as much and pays to the account of every workman 
 employed more than ten years 1 fr. for each of these 
 years : in 1898, 1,544 workmen subscribed 213,541 fr. 
 and the company paid 487,150 fr. Other institutions 
 provided by this philanthropic company are baths 
 (plain and mineral), a hospital with a visiting nurse, 
 indemnity during temporary military service, garden 
 plots at low rent, and scholarships for especially capa- 
 ble children of workmen, in the industrial school at 
 Nancy. 
 
 The Lafarge Lime-Kilns at Viviers (Ardeche) owns 
 workmen's houses, which, being much sought after, for 
 cheapness and comfort, are let only to families with three 
 or more children. The company supports two primary 
 schools, that for girls being supplemented by a workroom 
 where they learn housework. A " Youth's Circle " pre- 
 pares the most capable boys for foremen's situations and 
 provides amusements also. A lecture hall and a gymna- 
 sium stand in the central circle of the village. To the com- 
 pany are also due a hospital and a church, the curate being 
 supported by it. The unmarried men are lodged and 
 boarded for 35 fr. a month in the company's house for 200 
 persons. The company pays 4 per cent, interest on work- 
 men's deposits ; contributes to the aid fund one fifth as 
 much as the \\ per cent, on wages retained for the fund ; 
 doubles the contribution of this fund for insurance against 
 accident by a collective premium ; and pays pensions to old 
 workmen, of whom there were 19 on January 1, 1889, re- 
 ceiving 8,545 fr. annually. The company sets aside for 
 these various institutions five centimes per ton of lime pro- 
 duced, before profits are ascertained. The aid fund has 
 established a bakery and a grocery. 
 
 Five houses may be next named together in one paragraph. 
 F. Hubin, Harfleur (Seine-Inferieure) aids a mutual be-
 
 156 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 nevolent society, supports a primary and an infant school, 
 and builds two kinds of houses for workmen which are 
 much in request. H. Ducher, Paris, aids a provident and 
 savings-bank, which is the foundation of a special provident 
 fund. In the seven years ending with 1889 M. Ducher 
 otherwise assisted his force to the amount of 130,000 fr. 
 Sautter, Lemonnier et Cie of Paris, a profit-sharing 
 house, give various facilities to the two savings groups 
 formed by the workmen, and aid a provident fund, likewise 
 administered by the men themselves. F. Pinet, manufac- 
 turer of boots and shoes, Paris, pays to a retiring fund a 
 sum equal to five per cent, of the wages of his employees, 
 if they are members of a mutual aid society. F. Benoist 
 et L. Berthiot, opticians, Paris, have a mutual aid soci- 
 ety, membership in which is conditioned on belonging to a 
 local aid society : the firm contributes as much as the em- 
 ployees. 
 
 M. Fanier, a large shoe manufacturer of Lillers (Pas- 
 de-Calais), has built 160 houses for his workpeople, so rented 
 as to yield 4 per cent, interest on the cost : the tenant may 
 become owner of his house by paying 2.75 fr. a week for 
 520 weeks. M. Fanier has two free bath-rooms in his fac- 
 tory, ready for use at all times, and two schools. To induce 
 workmen to join the Mutual Benevolent Society of Lillers, 
 founded by M. Fanier, Sr., in 1861, a workman's cottage is 
 given every year (two in 1887) to the society, to be drawn 
 by lot. 
 
 M. Mathieu Dollfus is the owner of Chateau-Mon- 
 trose (Saint Estephe, M^doc), an estate producing from 
 100 to 200 casks of wine. Each household of the employees 
 has a cottage rent-free, with its garden ; fuel, wine, med- 
 ical care and medicines are also free, as well as schooling 
 for the children. A share in the profits adds about ten per 
 cent, to wages, and M. Dollfus pays a premium of two 
 francs on each cask of wine. 
 
 The Parisian Gas Company assesses one per cent, 
 on the wages of its force for a provident fund, and adds
 
 PATRONAL INSTITUTIONS IN FRANCE 157 
 
 an equal amount. It makes an annual contribution of 
 85,500 f r. to a pension fund, which is increased by 2,500 fr. 
 interest on a legacy from a former managing director, and 
 by donations. 
 
 The General Omnibus Company of Paris supports 
 a pension fund by retaining one franc a fortnight from the 
 employee under forty years of age at entrance on its ser- 
 vice, and by an annual contribution in favor of those whose 
 pay is less than 1,800 fr. a year : this contribution is 12 fr. 
 after their first year and 24.5 fr. after the third year. Be- 
 tween 1855, the year of the foundation of the company, and 
 1888, it thus contributed 681,180 fr. " It has beside ex- 
 pended 1, 089,720 fr. for assistance granted to various insti- 
 tutions." The accident-insurance fund is supported by 
 monthly payments from each officer and employee, and by 
 fines. It has a considerable deficit each year, paid by the 
 company (4,593,380 fr. since 1855) : to this contribution 
 are to be added the fees of the twelve physicians employed 
 (473,1 10 fr. from the beginning). Burial expenses are al- 
 ways paid by the company (109,685 fr. in the same time). 
 Indemnity for employees on military service amounted to 
 147,560 fr. : the quarterly premium to drivers having the 
 fewest accidents to 323,615 fr., and premiums to the most 
 deserving employees to 298,785 fr. Restaurants supply food 
 at low prices in all the important stations : a general store 
 sells provisions and groceries to the force. 
 
 The General Hackmen's Company of Paris con- 
 tributes to the Mutual Benevolent Society of the employees 
 one tenth of the fees paid by them a sum amounting to 
 223,575 fr. in the period 1867-1889. 
 
 The Ocean Mail Company (capital 60,000,000 fr., with 
 a fleet of 61 steamships and a force of 11,847 persons) 
 founded in 1888 with a gift of 100,000 fr. a provident fund 
 for its clerks, to be supported by an allowance of 1 per 
 cent, upon the annual dividend, and a 5 per cent, assessment 
 on salaries ; the claims of the clerks vary according to the 
 number of periods of six years which they have served.
 
 158 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 January 1, 1899, there were 1,055 members : the receipts 
 had been 2,330,267 fr. and the disbursements 839,740 fr. 
 The aid fund of the workshops at La Ciotat (Bouches-du- 
 Rhone) is managed by 17 members, of whom 13 are 
 elected : and it has 3,466 members. This fund receives 
 assessments varying from 10 to 70 centimes a week ; 3 per 
 cent, on the profits of contract work ; a gift of 6,000 f r. 
 from the company ; 6,500 to 7,000 fr. as gratuities, equal to 
 a half day's pay, on each ship-launching, and other gifts. 
 The company encourages its workmen to secure pensions 
 by adding 30 per cent, to their deposits in a retiring fund. 
 It builds houses which are let at a rental of some 3 per 
 cent. 
 
 The Compagnie Generale Transatlantique divides 
 profits with its employees mainly by a system of premiums 
 which increases wages and salaries about fifteen per cent, on 
 the average. To meet the many needs of its dangerous 
 business, it has established two separate relief funds. No. 
 I. is for the force in harbors : they pay in one per cent, of 
 their income : this amount is increased by collections and 
 concerts on board. This fund (200,000 fr. in 1889) dis- 
 tributes some 60,000 fr. a year to twenty per cent, of the 
 whole force, under necessarily strict rules of division. Fund 
 No. II. is for the whole body of employees on sea and on 
 shore : it is administered by the council of the company : its 
 resources are increased by contributions from visitors on 
 board the packets in harbor, by profits from the sale of 
 tobacco and cigars to passengers, and by fines. In 1887 
 the capital was 55,000 fr. and it distributed 40,000 fr. to 
 135 persons. Clerks can buy food, wine, fuel and clothing 
 at wholesale rates, through the company : a restaurant at 
 the central office gives them a breakfast below cost: the 
 same class of employees receive medical aid free. 
 
 The Marseilles Dock and Warehouse Company 
 supports a system of pensions for its clerks and agents. 
 They pay in four per cent, of their salaries ; the company 
 adds an equal sum, and more in case of need. On the 20th
 
 PATRON AL INSTITUTIONS IN FRANCE 159 
 
 of June, 1887, there were twenty-eight such pensioners, 
 receiving 18,440 fr. 
 
 The Suez Canal Company divides two per cent, of its 
 net profits among its force, a part going to establish pensions : 
 a pensioner having four persons dependent on him receives 
 fifty per cent, more than an unmarried man. The company 
 has a complete medical service, a hospital, and a villa for 
 convalescents. On his marriage, the employee receives a 
 grant equal to one or two months' pay. 
 
 According to a report of the French Labor Depart- 
 ment, out of 2,673,314 workpeople employed in 1896, 
 in 296,797 establishments subject to factory inspec- 
 tion, 115,896, in 229 establishments (4.35 per cent.), 
 enjoyed the benefits of pension schemes " introduced 
 and worked under conditions fixed by the employer." 
 Deducting 17,340 operatives employed in the govern- 
 ment tobacco and match manufactories (and provided 
 for by the National Superannuation Fund), these 
 figures would be 98,656 workpeople out of 2,656,074 
 (3.71 per cent.). All miners (about 166,000) and 
 seamen (about 120,000) are legally bound to belong 
 to a fund making provision for old age. In trans- 
 portation industries (railways, tramways, omnibuses), 
 some 196,000 employees are the subject of pension 
 funds voluntarily introduced by employers. Under 
 the War Office, in the manufacturing departments, 
 some 20,000 operatives are insured, and some 42,000 
 roadmenders and similar workmen in other State ad- 
 ministrations. Altogether, in France, some 660,000 
 wage-earners out of some 3,900,000 in the employ- 
 ments named above (17 per cent, at the outside) 
 receive the benefit of pension schemes due to private 
 initiative or to State intervention. Very many, if not
 
 160 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 all, of the 120 or more profit-sharing concerns in 
 France have a variety of patronal institutions. Only 
 a few of these have been mentioned, for special rea- 
 sons, in this chapter, which is shorter than that on 
 Germany mainly because the latter country was con- 
 sidered first.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 PATRONAGE IN HOLLAND AND BELGIUM 
 
 LEAVING France with its abundance of patronal 
 institutions, especially in the line of voluntary insur- 
 ance of the workman by his employer against sick- 
 ness, accident and old age, one finds in Belgium and 
 Holland some striking instances of the same methods. 
 From several points of view the most interesting 
 examples in these two countries are the Netherlands 
 Yeast and. Spirit Manufactory at Delft in Holland, 
 and the collieries of La Vieille Montagne and 
 Mariemont and Basooup in Belgium. 
 
 Mr. J. C. Van Marken founded what is now 
 claimed to be the largest yeast factory in the world in 
 1870 ; after twenty-six years of remarkable pro- 
 sperity, the number of workers (at Delft, Delfthaven 
 and Bruges in Belgium) was 670 : the works occupy 
 ten acres of ground, and the wages paid equaled 
 .33,000 : the production of yeast had increased fifty 
 fold between 1871 and 1896. The Netherlands Oil 
 Works (150 employees), located near by, are con- 
 nected with the yeast factory, in the directorship 
 and in the employers' institutions we have to describe. 
 The Delft Glue and Gelatine Works, on the other 
 side of Delft, are under the same direction as the 
 yeast factory Mr. Van Marken and his nephew, 
 Mr. Waller. Profit sharing has been for a number of
 
 162 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 years practiced by these three concerns with success. 
 The Van Marken Printing Company is a notable 
 instance of veritable copartnership in which the 250 
 shares are now being steadily transferred from the 
 founders to the workmen, 175 having already been 
 passed over. A Cooperative Photographic Studio is a 
 recent creation. 
 
 The combinations thus far named are productive 
 enterprises, conducted on a basis of profit sharing or 
 copartnership. The " Common Property Society " 
 was established in 1883 to procure for the whole body 
 of employees other benefits of cooperation in general 
 supplies and houses : the sub-title calls it the " Society 
 for Meeting the Elementary Needs of Life." It is 
 located in Agneta Park, a fine tract of land, ten acres 
 in extent, near Delft and the yeast factory. It was 
 laid out in the English style by a prominent landscape 
 gardener. In this " Dutch Paradise," as it has aptly 
 been called, Mr. and Mrs. Van Marken have their 
 residence, and the social life of the whole industrial 
 establishment centres here. The Common Property 
 Society bought a part of the park for building work- 
 men's cottages of a convenient and pleasing style. 
 The plan for disposing of the houses is novel. The 
 capital of the cooperative society is 160,000 gulden, 
 or $64,320 ; of this Mr. Van Marken subscribed one 
 fifth, and the other four fifths " was borrowed from 
 his friends at 4^ per cent, interest upon a mortgage 
 on the property." There are now ninety cottages. 
 " At first Mr. Van Marken was the only stockholder 
 . . . but as the houses were rented at a figure equal 
 to 7-^ per cent, of their total cost, and as this amount 
 was greater than interest, taxes, management, contri-
 
 PATRONAGE IN HOLLAND AND BELGIUM 163 
 
 bution to reserve funds and other expenses, the sur- 
 plus was credited to the tenants, who in this way be- 
 came shareholders of the company. Before obtaining 
 the full ownership of shares of stock, they received 
 credit for 3 per cent, interest on the money so saved. 
 In the course of tune the tenants will in this way 
 come into possession of four fifths of all the shares of 
 stock." i 
 
 The society has built a large grocery and provision 
 store, and a smaller drapery store. The profits of the 
 stores and the cottages are divided annually among 
 the tenants and the buyers according to the rent and 
 the purchases. This bonus is entered on the society's 
 books, and the cash goes toward paying off the mort- 
 gagees and the original shareholders. When a tenant's 
 or a buyer's account is 100 florins (8 6s. 8c?.), a 
 share is given to him. After the mortgage is paid off 
 the tenants and the consumers will be the chief owners. 
 The paying off of the oldest shares must be continued, 
 insuring ownership to the actual tenants and con- 
 sumers. " The results of this company," says Mr. 
 Tjeenk Willink, in the Cooperative Productive Federa- 
 tion " Year Book " for 1898, " have not been so satis- 
 factory as might have been expected. This is due to 
 different reasons, among others to the want of coopera- 
 tive education among the Dutch working class. Of 
 the whole capital (share and mortgage), 13,000, only 
 1,000 have been paid off, and this not without very 
 great difficulties. However, the later years have been 
 the best, and the annual amount of sales and rents is 
 now 15,000, being 8,000 in 1886." 
 
 A great variety of institutions for the benefit of the 
 1 Gould's Report on Housing, etc. pp. 396, 397.
 
 164 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 workingmen have been gradually established by Mr. 
 Van Marken, all centring in the charming Agneta 
 Park, beautifully diversified with lakes, trees, lawns 
 and cottages. There are two savings-banks in the 
 yeast and oil works: one is for voluntary savings, 
 the other is " obligatory for a part of the premiums l 
 and of the share in profits." From the second bank 
 the depositor may draw half a year's wages in case of 
 marriage, and two weeks' wages on the birth of a 
 child: he may also draw for private insurance, the 
 acquisition of a house, and similar thrifty purposes. 
 On December 31, 1896, these banks had on deposit 
 7,850. 
 
 In case of illness full wages are paid up to eight 
 weeks ; in severer cases the United Committee on the 
 Interests of the Employees takes charge, funds being 
 supplied by the factories. Full wages until recovery 
 are paid to sufferers from accident : if the disability 
 is complete, or death ensues, two years' wages are 
 given. The yeast works deposits annually with an in- 
 surance company a sum equal to nine per cent, of the 
 workmen's wages, toward an old-age pension after 
 sixty years of age. Forty payments (from twenty to 
 sixty) would assure a pension equal to the average 
 annual wage. If the workman dies before reaching 
 sixty, his widow or children are entitled to nine per 
 cent, of the entire amount of wages earned by him in 
 his whole term of service. Pensions are granted also 
 in the oil works and the printing office. A general 
 policy protects the buildings against fire. 
 
 The community building or hall is the culture-centre 
 of the park. It contains a library and reading-room, 
 
 1 The premium system is very fully developed in these works.
 
 PATRONAGE IN HOLLAND AND BELGIUM 165 
 
 a gymnasium, a concert hall, school-rooms and a com- 
 mittee-room. The schools and classes are for chil- 
 dren of all ages, apprentices and adults of both sexes : 
 the girls and boys attend work-schools. There is 
 a brass band, a magic lantern, a choral society, a 
 horticultural society, a " Tent," or summer casino, on 
 the recreation ground of Agneta Park, with bowling, 
 billiard, boat, gymnastic and skating clubs. A factory 
 newspaper is issued weekly, under Mr. Van Marken's 
 editorship. A silver cross is given on the completion 
 of twelve and one half years, and a gold cross at the 
 end of twenty-five years' service in the yeast works. 
 The United Committee is a general body composed of 
 the different committees in charge of the various clubs, 
 societies and institutions and gives unity to their 
 management. In both the yeast and the oil works 
 we find the " Kernel " (like the noyau of the Maison 
 Leclaire), or Workmen's Council, made up of three 
 chambers (each having its own chairman and secre- 
 tary), meeting as a whole twice a year : one chamber 
 is made up of the fourteen managers : a second of the 
 foremen and chief clerks (the two oldest, and eight 
 elected by their fellows for two years) : a third of 
 sixteen workmen (the four oldest and twelve elected.) 1 
 
 1 See for a full account of all these institutions the volume by Dr. 
 J. C. Eringaard, a son-in-law of Mr. Van Marken, Hollandische Mus- 
 terstatten personlicher farsorge von Arbeitgebern fur ihre Geschdftsan- 
 gehorigen, published by the Van Marken Press. Mr. Van Marken is 
 seconded in all his philanthropic endeavors by his wife, after whom 
 the park was named. He declares that the prosperity of the busi- 
 ness is not the cause of these institutions, but their result in large 
 part. The money spent upon them is not thrown away, but placed at 
 a high rate of interest. Mr. and Mrs. Van Marken take part in the 
 gatherings of the working people, which are irreproachable in all 
 respects : not a case of drunkenness in the works has been known.
 
 166 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 The firm of Gebriider Stork & Co., machinists and 
 engineers, at Hengelo, employing 300 men, are fol- 
 lowers of Mr. Van Marken in the spirit and in many 
 of the details of their welfare-institutions. These in- 
 stitutions are maintained by a certain percentage of 
 the profits (known only to a few of the superior em- 
 ployees), which is assigned to the whole body of work- 
 people. A part of this sum goes into the pension 
 fund, and the remainder for general purposes. In 
 January, 1895, when the firm celebrated its twenty- 
 fifth anniversary and opened the new casino, it in- 
 augurated a thorough scheme of administration of its 
 institutions. Eight persons (three members of the 
 firm and five selected by the senior workmen from 
 their number) constitute the board of directors of the 
 " Union for Promoting the Interests of the Employees 
 of the Works of the Brothers Stork & Co." This 
 board names committees, varying in size, on the casino, 
 on the cafe and kitchen, on lectures, library and read- 
 ing-room, on the kindergarten, and the cooking and 
 sewing schools, and on the housekeeping and the draw- 
 ing schools : and a Head Committee (two employers 
 and two workmen) which considers all the plans and 
 proposals of the other committees. When approved, 
 these are carried out by the sub-committees. The 
 workmen contribute three per cent, of their wages to 
 the pension fund, if on piece-work (the usual system) : 
 if they are on day wages, the firm pays this percentage. 
 The capital of this fund is loaned to help the men in 
 building houses, of which fifty have been erected. 
 The widows' and orphans' fund is assisted by the firm. 
 
 The kindergarten has over eighty pupils : the ap- 
 prentice schools in the higher grades teach physics
 
 PATRONAGE IN HOLLAND AND BELGIUM 167 
 
 and drawing, great importance being attached by the 
 firm to this instruction. In case of the apprentices 
 who earn over five gulden a week, sixty per cent, of 
 the wages are deposited at five per cent, interest : half 
 of this sum is paid to the apprentices on reaching 
 twenty-three years, and the other half is at the dis- 
 posal of the parents, who are apt to let it accumulate, 
 and then make a present of it to the son on his mar- 
 riage, when he can also draw the other portion. 
 
 The premium system gives the workman ten per 
 cent, extra compensation for good work ; if it is ex- 
 traordinarily good, fifteen per cent. : monthly premi- 
 ums are also paid to the best workmen. Matters of 
 this sort are attended to by the Arbeiterausschuss or 
 Kern. The workman may contribute to a voluntary 
 savings fund (five per cent, interest), and he must 
 contribute to the sick fund 21 per cent, on his wages. 
 A small weekly contribution for every member of a 
 family assures the attendance of the doctor or the 
 midwife : funerals are at the expense of the general 
 Verein. The usual cooperative store and bathing fa- 
 cilities are not wanting at Hengelo ; and, as at Agneta 
 Park, there is a weekly factory paper, the " Fabrik- 
 bote." The handsome casino, or recreation house, built 
 in 1895 at an expense of 40,000 fl., contains seven 
 large rooms, some for the use of the schools already 
 mentioned, others being the kitchen, the restaurant, 
 the library, and the social hall, fitted with a neat stage 
 for concerts, theatricals and lectures on popular sci- 
 ence, especially patronized by the reading-union called 
 the Lese-Abend: here centres the intellectual and 
 social life of the Hengelo Works. 
 
 In the Gastel Beet Sugar Factory, at Oud-Gastel,
 
 168 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 near Roosendaal (North Brabant), Herr J. P. Vlekke, 
 the manager, who is taken by Dr. Eringaard as a type of 
 the Catholic-Socialist employer, finds especial difficulties in 
 the way of the usual forms of welfare-institutions, arising 
 from the nature of the business. The last three months of 
 each year are the busy season, and 400 persons, including 
 a few women and girls, are employed. For the remainder 
 of the year only 100 can be utilized. Herr Vlekke exerts 
 himself to procure work for the others with the beet-farmers 
 as far as may be. All are insured against old age in the 
 Allgemeine Niederlandischen Arbeiter Bund, the firm pay- 
 ing a variable part of the premiums (not far from half in 
 1895) : in the dull season of the year it pays the whole of 
 these for the unemployed : the pension is three florins a 
 week after sixty years of age, five florins after sixty-five 
 years. If the insured dies before reaching sixty years, the 
 heirs are entitled to the premiums paid. A sensible rule of 
 the widows' and orphans' fund allows the usual three florins 
 a week for the children to be drawn by the father, in case 
 of the death of his wife. Premiums do not exist to any 
 appreciable extent at Oud-Gastel, and money fines are un- 
 known : there is a sick fund, modest but effective, appara- 
 tus for first help in case of accident, provision for voluntary 
 savings, arrangements for cooperative purchase of flour and 
 fuel, a small library, instruction in drawing, musical oppor- 
 tunities, baths, and a dining-hall, used on Sundays for the- 
 atrical and musical performances and dancing ; and, finally, 
 a fortnightly paper, " Die Kleine Courant." 
 
 Herr W. Hovy, the director of the Brewery and Vinegar 
 Factory De Gekroonde Valk (now a stock company, for- 
 merly Van Vollenhoven & Co.) of Amsterdam and Dordrecht, 
 sets aside a certain sum from the annual profits, which is 
 divided among the workmen judged to be most deserving, 
 but the workman is not supposed to have any right to this. 
 Like Herr Vlekke, Herr Hovy pays full wages for holidays, 
 being convinced that " a holiday cannot be properly kept 
 on an empty stomach ! " The company has built sixty-four
 
 PATRONAGE IN HOLLAND AND BELGIUM 169 
 
 neat houses in Amsterdam, which are let to its workmen at 
 two thirds of the usual rent : it sells pure groceries and 
 other supplies from one of these houses, retaining the profits. 
 The sick employee receives half or full wages for a fort- 
 night. The company makes an annual payment toward an 
 old-age pension for each person employed, although it does 
 not pledge itself to do this. The person insured can make 
 deposits himself at four per cent, interest. The heirs have 
 no claim in case of his death, whether the pension has begun 
 or not. There is a widows' and orphans' aid society, which 
 is not a fund or an insurance. This Onderling Hulpbetoon 
 is supported by an average contribution of two per cent, on 
 wages from all the employees, the company contributing 
 twice as much. The assembly of the workpeople decides 
 upon the size of their contribution and of the assistance to 
 be given : in March, 1893, the society assisted thirty widows 
 and fourteen children. On the birth of a child the father 
 receives an extra week's wages. 
 
 Other Dutch firms which maintain various institutions for 
 the benefit of their working force, on a less elaborate scale 
 than the four treated in detail by Dr. Eringaard, are the 
 chocolate works of C. J. Van Houten and Son, at Weesp ; 
 the machine works Werft Conrad, in Haarlem, and Heine- 
 veld, in Delft; the cigar factory of Herr Dobbelman, in 
 Rotterdam, and the starch works of Herr Jacob Duyvis, in 
 Utrecht. 
 
 As in France, so in Belgium, there is a state-regu- 
 lated system of insurance of miners, erected on the 
 basis of a remarkable development of private benefi- 
 cence in this direction. The interference of the State 
 is a minimum quantity : there is no costly bureaucratic 
 system : the expense of administration is very low (two 
 per cent.), and there has been a great absence of 
 friction. 1 
 
 1 See Willoughby, op. cit., chapter v. : " the best example of the
 
 170 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 In 1839 the Liege Mutual Insurance Fund was es- 
 tablished by twenty-five mining companies, and it was 
 followed by five other central funds, the six dividing 
 the whole country into as many districts. These funds, 
 bearing the names of Liege, Namur, Mons, Charleroi, 
 Centre, and Luxembourg, report annually to the govern- 
 ment and " are subjected to a financial control." Each 
 fund is independent, making its own rules, but there is 
 a general likeness. In the Mons fund the employer 
 pays as much as the employee, three fourths of one 
 per cent, of the latter's wages : in that of the Centre, 
 the sum is 1^ per cent. : in Luxembourg one half of 
 one per cent. : in Charleroi the employers pay the whole 
 amount, 1| per cent, on wages : in Liege they pay 2 
 per cent. : in Namur about half a franc per person a 
 month. The funds are assisted by subsidies from the 
 State and the provinces, interest on invested capital 
 and gifts and bequests. The pensions paid by them 
 are chiefly for miners injured by accidents. In the 
 Centre fund 1 the monthly amount varies from the sum 
 paid to a workman still able to earn from 71 to 85 
 per cent, of his usual wages (2.40 to 8 fr.) to that 
 paid to the totally disabled man (15.40 to 30 fr., as 
 he is married or single, or under or over nineteen years 
 of age). In the same fund old-age pensions vary from 
 15 to 20 fr. a month, with the usual conditions : but 
 this is an exception among these funds. Pensions are 
 granted to the immediate relatives of workmen who 
 are killed by an accident. In 1894 there were insured 
 
 insurance of a particular class of workingmen," " the most interest- 
 ing type of insurance institutions in Belgium," he calls the system. 
 I am indebted for my details to Mr. Willoughby's volume. 
 
 1 See Mr. Willoughby's report in the U. S. Bulletin of Labor for 
 November, 1896.
 
 PATRONAGE IN HOLLAND AND BELGIUM 171 
 
 in the six funds 117,359 persons : the expenditures 
 were $470,781. 81 ; the value of pensions then running, 
 $461,312.27 ; and the assets, $1,534,216.44. Of the 
 total receipts, $515,890.54, the employers contrib- 
 uted $407,511.84, and the employees $39,836.16 : 
 $57,910.23 came from interest, and $10,562.32 from 
 subsidies. In 1893, 16,920 persons were aided. In 
 18841893 of the average number insured, 15.6 per 
 cent, received aid annually. 
 
 The Belgian law requires each mining company to 
 maintain a special fund to provide for sickness and 
 minor accidents. The employee pays a percentage on 
 his wages, and the employer so many times as much 
 usually a far greater sum. Regulations like those in 
 France govern these funds. In 1893 the receipts were 
 $49,687.85 from the workingmen, and $299,240.13 
 from the mine proprietors, making a total of $348,- 
 927.98 : the expenditures were some $7,000 more. I 
 will give some particulars concerning other varieties of 
 institutions in three Belgian mining and foundry com- 
 panies. " Almost all of the larger employers of labor," 
 in Belgium, says Mr. Willoughby, as in France, have 
 established private insurance funds. " Notable ex- 
 amples are the great zinc works of Vieille Montagne ; 
 the iron works of Cockerill & Co. ; Solvay & Co. ; 
 M. Rey, at Leideberg ; and various railway companies." 
 
 La Societe de la Vieille Montagne (Kelmisberg), 
 at Ch6n6e, near Li&ge, is one of the largest zinc 
 mining and manufacturing companies in the world, 
 with branches in France, Germany, Sweden, England, 
 Italy, Spain, Tunisia, and Algeria. Everywhere it 
 has been much concerned for the comfortable housing 
 of its employees. It encourages building societies or
 
 172 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 builds houses itself, according to local conditions : or 
 it sells land or material, or both, at cost or near it. 
 Its houses are usually single dwellings of four rooms 
 with gardens and stables, renting for considerably less 
 than one tenth of the employee's usual wages (the 
 premium system increases wages from 10 to 25 per 
 cent.). The sale of liquor is prohibited in the work- 
 men's cites as in other places of the kind, and the 
 houses must be kept neat and clean. In 1897, 1,700 
 employees, one out of six, had become owners of their 
 homes. The company pays 5 per cent, interest on 
 deposits in its savings fund (to 900 persons in 1889, 
 or 13 per cent, of the whole number employed : hi 1898, 
 1,608 workmen had 3,000,798 fr. to their credit). 
 Its aid fund for the usual purposes, as well as the 
 pension fund for workmen, is supported entirely by the 
 company. The latter fund gives pensions amounting 
 to one fifth of the workman's highest wages plus one 
 centime per day for each year of service after the 
 fifteenth. During the ten years, 18871897, the two 
 funds expended a yearly average of 513,810 fr. : for 
 1850-1860 the proportion of this aid to wages was 
 3.53 per cent. : for 1890-1896 it was 7.61 per cent. 
 For the superior employees the company has also 
 established a pension scheme: the employee pays 5 
 per cent, on his wages and the company adds as much. 
 A home for pensioned workmen was erected in 1893 
 at an expense of 300,000 fr., with an orphan asylum, 
 sheltering twenty-five children. The company im- 
 ports large quantities of light wines from Spain and 
 Italy, which it sells below cost to the workmen, as a 
 preventive of alcoholism. On schools and churches it 
 had spent, to 1897, some 900,000 fr., and on amuse-
 
 PATRONAGE IN HOLLAND AND BELGIUM 173 
 
 ments and recreations, 175,000 fr. The force is very 
 permanent, and there have been no strikes. 
 
 The Marcinelles and Couillet Company has coal 
 mines and blast furnaces in these two places in Bel- 
 gium, and employs between 5,000 and 6,000 workmen. 
 The mines are in the Charleroi district, and the com- 
 pany pays li per cent, on wages to the central accident 
 and pension fund. For employees other than miners 
 the company supports an aid and retiring fund by 
 retaining 3 per cent, on the workman's wage and 2 
 per cent, on the employe's salary, contributing itself 
 a sum equal to 1 per cent on wages and salaries, all 
 the fines and unclaimed wages, and occasional dona- 
 tions. In two schools founded by the company 353 
 children between three and seven years old are in- 
 structed. The girls pass into the company's primary 
 school, remaining until twelve : the boys attend the 
 communal schools subsidized by the company. A 
 great number of houses have been built by it, which 
 are rented at low rates. A workman can pay one 
 fifth in cash, and acquire a home in eight years, by 
 monthly installments equal to ordinary rent. 
 
 The coal mines of Mariemont and Bascoup (Hai- 
 nault) are distinct organizations, but under the same 
 management. They have become well known to stu- 
 dents of labor questions through their admirable Cham- 
 bres d 1 Explications and Conseils de Conciliation et 
 d" Arbitrage, which are model methods of settling dif- 
 ferences in an industrial establishment. The two 
 companies employ over 6,000 men. They have built 
 more than 600 houses which, as M. Ballaert of Bascoup 
 says, are "spacieuses, commodes, coquettes meme." 
 They are satisfied with a return of 2^ per cent, on an
 
 174 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 investment of more than 2,000,000 fr. The com- 
 panies advance money for building purposes : forty 
 houses a year, on an average, are built by the em- 
 ployees themselves : and over 25 per cent, now own 
 their homes. The proprietors of the mines spend 
 70,000 fr. a year on the health service, employing 
 twelve doctors and fourteen pharmacists : a sanitary 
 commission has charge of this work. The choice of 
 his physician is left to the workman, who contributes 
 nine tenths of a franc a month. 
 
 The two mines belong to the Centre district of Bel- 
 gium : in this district the workmen are represented on 
 the council of the Provident Society. A special aid 
 fund for the sick and injured is supported by the com- 
 panies and the men jointly : the companies contribute 
 20,000 fr. a year for pensions. There are mutual aid 
 societies of the men, in thirteen sections with 3,250 
 members, and they have also formed a large number 
 of savings societies which invest in bonds of Belgian 
 cities. The spirit of these welfare-institutions is " self- 
 help " for the employees. The companies wish to in- 
 tervene only so far as the workmen cannot well take 
 the initiative : they subscribe to the creed " Le patron, 
 en matiere de tutelle, doit preparer son abdication." 
 The Morlanwelz Technical School, subsidized by the 
 companies, offers a full course of industrial training. 
 Music is the affair of the noted musical society, 
 " L'Harmonie : " it has a hall for winter and a park 
 for summer concerts, with a fine library, and it sends 
 its most promising pupils to the best teachers in 
 Brussels; there is also a choral society, with excur- 
 sion and horticultural associations. The Morlanwelz 
 Society for Popular Education maintains frequent
 
 PATRONAGE IN HOLLAND AND BELGIUM 175 
 
 lectures, diffuses books and publishes a weekly paper. 
 The companies have founded cooperative stores : they 
 sell coal to workmen at two thirds the regular price, 
 and also supply wood and gas at reduced rates. Bread 
 ovens are numerous, and bathrooms also. 
 
 The most important instance of welfare-institutions in 
 Italy is the Rossi Woolen Mills at Schio, Vicenza. It 
 employs 5,000 persons, and since 1873 has expended 5 per 
 cent, of the net profits, equal to l per cent, on wages, on 
 the support of numerous institutions for the employees. 1 
 The list includes a creche, infant and primary schools, a 
 library, baths, a laundry, an ice-house, a hospital, coopera- 
 tive stores, a mutual aid society, a savings fund, pensions 
 and subsidies, improved dwellings, a theatre and a gym- 
 nasium. " The management considers the expense of these 
 philanthropic institutions as only proper aid to its force of 
 workers : " and it keeps them up in bad years as well as in 
 good. 
 
 The Iron Works of the Hungarian State at Di6s- 
 Gyor employ some 6,000 workmen. The welfare-institu- 
 tions to be found here include sick and pension funds, with 
 free medical attendance ; a hospital of modern style ; a fine 
 bath-house, the fees being two kreutzers (one cent) for an 
 ordinary bath, and four kreutzers for a Turkish bath ; a club 
 with a library of 1,000 volumes ; choral and musical so- 
 cieties ; a dining-hall for 4,000 persons, where a great organ 
 plays during meals (a dinner can be had in the restaurant 
 for fourteen kreutzers) ; a cup of tea (four kreutzers) may 
 be had by the workmen in the shops, in winter, or a glass of 
 beer in summer (five kreutzers) ; lawn tennis grounds and a 
 skating pond ; a cooperative store, with slaughter-house and 
 bakery ; a kindergarten and an elementary school. Similar 
 
 1 These are described in a pamphlet, prepared for the Turin Ex- 
 position of 1898 Memoria sulle Istituzioni morali private e collettive 
 fondate dal Senatore Alessandro Rossi.
 
 176 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 institutions exist in the State's other iron works at Zoly6m- 
 Brez6. 
 
 The Hungarian State has an elaborate- system of insti- 
 tutions for the benefit of employees on the State Rail- 
 ways. A pension fund for 19,695 superior employees 
 held 11,930,801 fl. in 1895 : there was a sick fund with 
 3,289,246 fl., and an aid fund with 146,583 fl. ; a consum- 
 verein : a savings fund with 951,812 fl. on deposit ; several 
 arbeitercolonien, with schools, etc. ; and numerous asso- 
 ciations for musical and general culture. 
 
 The Carlsberg Breweries in Copenhagen build ex- 
 cellent houses which their workmen may acquire on easy 
 terms. In the old Carlsberg brewery, with 270 employees, 
 all are entitled to a pension after ten years' service : the 
 pension fund is now 2,500,000 kronen. A Carlsberg 
 family fund affords aid since 1881 to sick or infirm work- 
 men, in the new brewery (230 employees) as in the old.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 BRITISH EMPLOYEES' INSTITUTIONS 
 
 WHEN one enters the labor world of England he 
 finds a different sentiment from that prevailing in 
 France or Germany. " Paternalism," or anything 
 that savors of paternalism, is far less agreeable to 
 the English workman than to the French or German 
 operative. Employers' institutions for the benefit of 
 their workmen have had a much less extensive devel- 
 opment, in the face of the trade-union, the cooperative 
 store and the friendly society. But that there is 
 room in England for the interest of the employer in 
 his employees to show itself in an admirable and com- 
 prehensive fashion is sufficiently evident from several 
 examples. 
 
 The Lever Brothers, Limited, have built up a new 
 industry (begun in 1886, and moved to its present 
 location three years later) with as much concern for 
 its moral and social aspects as for its material pro- 
 cesses. They illustrate what can be done where there 
 is a free field for the employer to work in. Port 
 Sunlight is the name of the manufacturing commu- 
 nity founded by the Lever Brothers on a branch of the 
 Mersey, three miles from Birkenhead. They have 
 bought 174 acres of level grazing ground, the works 
 now covering fifty-five acres, 1 and the remainder being 
 
 1 The floor of the working-rooms is composed of wooden blocks on 
 concrete ; this keeps the feet warm and dry.
 
 178 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 devoted to the village. Some 2,200 persons are em- 
 ployed, the majority of whom live at Port Sunlight. 
 which has about 3,000 inhabitants. The works turn 
 out 2,400 tons of soap a week : all the printing of the 
 firm is done in one department : another is devoted to 
 the manufacture of boxes of pasteboard and of wood : 
 the firm has a cotton-seed oil factory at Vicksburg 
 on the Mississippi, and a cocoanut oil factory at Syd- 
 ney in New South Wales. 
 
 The Lever Brothers have erected nearly 500 " Old 
 English " cottages, of varied architecture, in the park- 
 like settlement adjoining the works. In letting these 
 red brick and half-timbered houses they formerly prac- 
 ticed an unusual method of dividing profits with their 
 employees. What would ordinarily have been the 
 bonus was applied to the construction of houses, in 
 the allotment of which the men longest in service had 
 the preference, and there was much competition for 
 them. Each cottage, occupied by a family, has three 
 bedrooms at least, and a bathroom, is lighted by gas, 
 and has a small lawn about it. Rents ranged from 3s. 
 a week to 3s. Qd. for houses with parlors: there are no 
 taxes. At the end of the tenant's first year the rent 
 was reduced thirty per cent. ; at the end of the third 
 year thirty per cent, more, and at the end of the fifth 
 year the same percentage. The tenant thenceforth 
 paid ten per cent, of the original rent to meet the 
 expenses of maintenance and repairs. This arrange- 
 ment was discontinued after a time, the firm consid- 
 ering that living rent-free almost would impair the 
 workman's feelings of self-respect and independence. 
 A tract of land is allotted for kitchen gardens : the 
 tenant pays Is. a year for the use of his strip, contain-
 
 BRITISH EMPLOYERS' INSTITUTIONS 179 
 
 ing eight rods : water is supplied free. Two dwellings, 
 it may be mentioned, are careful reproductions, ex- 
 ternally, of the Shakespeare house at Stratford-upon- 
 Avon. 
 
 The workmen's houses face on wide roads of boule- 
 vard style, shaded by elm and chestnut trees ; there is 
 a centrally situated park, a large recreation ground on 
 one side, and in most directions the open country or 
 the river is seen. On a prominent corner stands the 
 village shop, a cooperative store for the community. 
 The schools, built in 1896, and supported by the firm, 
 form a large and pleasing group of buildings of ecclesi- 
 astical architecture, accommodating 500 children, who 
 follow the usual board courses of study. The central 
 hall of the main building is used for religious purposes 
 on Sundays. The Girls' Institute is located on another 
 corner, with a tennis ground opposite. It has classes 
 in cooking, confectionery, dressmaking and shorthand ; 
 eighty girls learn in one of these classes to make their 
 own clothing : the fee is Is., to which the firm adds 3s. 
 A restaurant furnishes such a meal as the girls desire 
 for dinner for \d. to 4d. The fee for the reading- 
 room in the institute is Is. a year : there is a girl's 
 social club using the tennis court and other means of 
 recreation. Gladstone Hall is an attractive building 
 which contains a large kitchen and dining-room : here 
 food brought in by the employees can be warmed 
 without charge: and a cooperative arrangement pro- 
 vides dinners ranging in price from 2c?. to Qd. : there 
 is a special dining-room for women. The hall is open, 
 at the end of the day's business done in it, as a place 
 of general resort. Every Thursday evening in the 
 winter months a first-class entertainment is provided
 
 180 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 by the firm : Sunday evening lectures or concerts are 
 given here, or the programmes, partly secular, partly 
 religious, known as " Pleasant Sunday Evenings." 
 The Men's Club, where the usual features of such 
 organizations are found, bowling alleys, billiard and 
 smoking rooms, faces a pretty bowling-green. The 
 brass band of Port Sunlight has uniforms and instru- 
 ments provided for it by the Lever Brothers. The 
 various clubs and institutions are now on a self-sup- 
 porting basis, and are managed by their own commit- 
 tees. There is no public-house in the place. The 
 majority of the men are trade-unionists ; the firm does 
 not interfere in any way with such membership. A 
 system of premiums on wages has the effect of in- 
 creasing them in some departments twenty-five or thirty 
 per cent. ; in all the departments wages are higher 
 than elsewhere in the district. Work begins for men 
 at 7.50 o'clock A. M. and stops at 5.30 P. M. on 
 Saturday at 12.30 P. M. The women work from 8 A. M. 
 to 5 P. M. on Saturday to 12 M. Deducting the 
 hour for dinner, this arrangement gives forty-four 
 hours a week for women and forty-eight hours for 
 men. The result has been very satisfactory to the 
 firm. One savings-bank works under the auspices of 
 the company, and another in connection with the Em- 
 ployees' Provident Society. A sick and funeral club 
 is on a self-supporting basis. 
 
 In the Belle Sauvage works of the printing and 
 publishing house of Cassell & Co., London (1,000 
 employees), the visitor finds a kitchen and dining- 
 rooms where meals are furnished to the workers at 
 cost. The glee club, musical association, athletic club, 
 ambulance corps and fire department are voluntary
 
 BRITISH EMPLOYERS' INSTITUTIONS 181 
 
 organizations. Saturday afternoon excursions to 
 museums, picture galleries and places of historic 
 interest in and around London are occasionally organ- 
 ized in the spring and autumn, when the most compe- 
 tent persons hi the city serve as guides. The wash 
 basins and water-closets for the works are in an addi- 
 tion running up one side of the building ; these rooms, 
 lined with porcelain tiles, are separated from the main 
 building by closed, tight-fitting doors. The Belle 
 Sauvage sick fund, an employees' organization, is sup- 
 ported by a weekly contribution of two pence from 
 each member. In 1878 the amount payable on the 
 death of a member was increased X5 from the firm, 
 if the deceased had been employed less than seven 
 years, and <10 if a longer time : five years is now the 
 dividing line. 
 
 This was a part of the large scheme devised by the 
 company in that year for promoting the welfare of 
 their permanent staff. They voted to " set aside a 
 fixed proportion of their profits to form a fund out of 
 which certain benefits might, at their discretion, be 
 paid." The scheme has since been several times re- 
 vised, each tune in the direction of greater liberality 
 to the employees, a course made feasible by the wise 
 actuarial calculations which have always exceeded the 
 demands made upon the fund. Since 1896 all the 
 employees have been within the operation of the fund. 
 They are divided into three classes, the members of 
 which shall be entitled to varying amounts, after five 
 years of service, if incapacitated for labor by accident 
 or disease or by old age after sixty-five years: the 
 same sums are to be paid to the family or the repre- 
 sentative of a member. These amounts run from .30
 
 182 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 to a third-class person, after five years' service, up 
 to twice that amount for one of the first class ; the 
 amount being two and a half times as large in each 
 class after twenty years' service. In the period 
 18781896, payments were made to 151 persons in 
 sums varying from 5 to 147 10s., and amounting 
 in all to 7,868 14s. Qd. The trustees of the fund 
 now hold 778 fully paid shares of Cassell & Com- 
 pany, valued at some 15,000. An emergency fund 
 provides for medical service to employees at a nominal 
 fee of Qd. for three months from the doctor's first 
 visit ; seventy to eighty persons a year avail them- 
 selves of this privilege. In 1878-1895 some 711 
 were spent in exceptional relief, and 936 granted in 
 temporary loans. 
 
 Six small pension funds, founded by special trust 
 deeds, from partners or their families, secure pensions 
 varying from 8 to 20 a year for nine persons. In 
 order to encourage life and accident insurance, the 
 company in 1889 made arrangements with insurance 
 societies, which agreed to take monthly premiums at 
 the same rate as for yearly premiums. The company 
 reserve the amount from salaries or wages, and the 
 commission allowed them as agents is divided among 
 the insured. Five share investment societies have 
 been formed among the employees (all are eligible) 
 for the easy acquirement of shares in the company by 
 the payment of a shilling a week. The Belle Sauvage 
 Company, for instance, had taken up and fully paid 
 for 1,018 shares in 1886. A sixth society is now in 
 operation, its predecessors having attained the object 
 for which they were formed. 
 
 Hazell, Watson and Viney, Limited, is the title of
 
 BRITISH EMPLOYERS' INSTITUTIONS 183 
 
 a well-known company of London engaged in printing and 
 publishing. The works are situated in Kirby Street and 
 Long Acre, London, and in Aylesbury, Bucks. The 
 employees number 1,300, and the wages bill runs up to more 
 than 80,000 a year. The chairman of the directors is 
 Walter Hazell, M. P. In his introduction to the fifty-six 
 page pamphlet, " After Hours," which gives an account " of 
 the recreative, educational and social institutions at work " 
 among the employees of the company, he speaks of the 
 diverse fortunes of such institutions. " Some schemes have 
 been started with a good deal of enthusiasm, and in the 
 course of time they have had to be improved or even dis- 
 continued : " among the last is a system of profit sharing. 
 "Others have kept on from year to year growing in 
 strength and in interest." 
 
 The company " do not make a fetich of the virtue of 
 thrift. It is only one of many good habits, and, like other 
 virtues, may be carried to an excess and become a vice. 
 But, in general, few will question the social advantage to a 
 man of carefully husbanding his resources till he becomes 
 a shareholder in the concern he works in ; and this is the 
 pleasing condition of hundreds of our staff . . . the total 
 number [of workmen investors] reaches hundreds, and the 
 value of their investments, when the payments are com- 
 pleted, will approach 30,000, no small part of the capital 
 required to work the concern." The company savings- 
 banks are three in number, the first having been opened in 
 1876. An employee of the company is the honorary secre- 
 tary of each bank, and he is in attendance at the London 
 houses to receive and pay out money once a week, while 
 wages are being paid. At Aylesbury, a half hour on Mon- 
 day is given to this purpose. Interest was five per cent, 
 until the latter part of 1898, when it was reduced to four 
 per cent. On January 7, 1899, the accounts last made up 
 showed 438 depositors in the three presses, who had 8,512 
 7s. \d. to their credit. " As security to the depositors 
 the company's four per cent, debentures to the amount of
 
 184 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 10,000 are held by the trustees . . . acting on behalf of 
 the depositors under a suitable trust deed." Referring to 
 old-age pensions, the company calls attention to the fact 
 "that 2s. a week, deposited from the age of eighteen to 
 sixty, at four per cent, compound interest, would amount to 
 about 550. This sum, at the present rate of investment, 
 would purchase a life annuity from the age of sixty of 
 nearly 1 a week." 
 
 The London houses support a sick fund, with 276 mem- 
 bers, who pay 3d. a week, and twenty-eight half members 
 (those whose wages amount to ten to twenty shillings a week : 
 they pay half fees and receive half benefits). The highest 
 sum that can be paid to a member in a year is 9 15s. 
 There is a similar fund at Aylesbury with 173 members 
 and forty-three half-members (in 1896). "The directors 
 have at their disposal a certain number of letters for Con- 
 valescent Homes," and for several hospitals and medical aid 
 societies. The Provident Fund meets "the needs of the 
 members during exceptional sicknesses and calamity, and 
 also, to a limited extent, helps their families on the occasion 
 of a member's death." It was started by a small donation 
 from the firm, which has recently contributed 300 a year. 
 The 500 members pay Id. a week (109 in 1897) : the 
 capital is now 3,352, managed by trustees independently 
 of the fortunes of the firm. " The main call upon the fund 
 is a payment of 15, on the decease of a member, to his 
 nearest relative, with an additional 5 if there be a child 
 under fourteen years of age." " Practically all the employees 
 who are eligible have elected to become members, though 
 the great majority are also members of one or other of 
 the great Friendly Societies," and also of the sick funds 
 of the company. According to a plan adopted in 1898, 
 any member who desires a loan of a moderate amount 
 toward building a house, buying shares or some other pur- 
 pose of thrift is eligible to a loan from the directors of the 
 company at four per cent. A small additional charge is 
 made to insure the applicant's life, so that if he should
 
 BRITISH EMPLOYERS' INSTITUTIONS 185 
 
 die before full payment the family will not be disturbed 
 in the property acquired. 
 
 Three distinct schemes have enabled employees of Hazell, 
 Watson and Viney to become shareholders in the company. 
 The first, Mr. Hazell's, led to the ownership by 160 pel-- 
 sons of 444 shares, the scheme terminating in 1897. Each 
 share was purchased at its market value, 17, and one 
 shilling a week was paid for 340 weeks, making the same 
 amount. In all this time the subscribers received the divi- 
 dends earned (10 per cent., more recently 9 per cent.) ; 
 thus nearly all the premiums paid by the subscriber were 
 returned to him in dividends, "and ultimately the share 
 became his property at three quarters its market value : " 
 and arrangements were made that, should the subscriber 
 die at any time after paying the first installment, his family 
 would own the share without further payment. " The 
 payments were made with great regularity for the period of 
 six and a half years." Shortly after Mr. Hazell's scheme 
 came to a close, the company repeated his offer, and the 
 company Scheme No. 2 is now in force. Between its 
 opening, April 1, 1897, and September 30, 1897, 259 per- 
 sons subscribed towards 401 shares 1,042 5s. 8d. While 
 Mr. Hazell's scheme was still in progress, the company 
 put out its Scheme No. 1, differing in system but " not in 
 value." Employees could acquire a limited number of 
 shares by the weekly payment of a shilling, until they had 
 paid 12 10s., and the dividends were not to come to them 
 until all the payments were made. This scheme was not so 
 popular as the first one, though more simple in its operation ; 
 but ninety persons began September 7, 1895, to subscribe 
 for 175 shares, and they had paid in 1,817 13s. on March 
 31, 1898. The dividends on shares are paid free of incom.e 
 tax, this being previously paid out of the general profits of 
 the company. If the holder is not liable to an income tax, 
 it arranges to have the tax that has been paid returned to 
 him. 
 
 A refreshment room has been supported by the company
 
 186 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 since 1878, at Kirby Street, providing light luncheons ; 
 there has been a deficit, which has been gradually reduced 
 from 420 to 115 ; if ever there is a profit made, it will be 
 applied for the benefit of the employees, as at Aylesbury. 
 Here the company provide five o'clock tea and coffee : " the 
 charge is three pence a week for five afternoons, for nearly 
 a pint of tea or coffee with milk and sugar. This small 
 charge has more than covered the bare cost of the materials, 
 the firm providing the attendance, gas and other expenses 
 without charge." On one occasion a pianoforte was pur- 
 chased from the profits for the Institute. This is " the body 
 which carries on all the recreative and educational work " 
 at Aylesbury. The three-story house on Silver Street was 
 bought for this purpose sixteen years ago. It has a read- 
 ing-room and a lending library on the ground floor : the 
 first floor is given up to billiards, chess and cards, and the 
 younger members use the second floor for bagatelle and 
 minor games. A lecture hall is also rented on Castle Street, 
 which has gymnastic apparatus, the hall being much in 
 use for practice by the brass and string bands (instruments 
 are provided by the company), and for classes, lectures and 
 entertainments. 
 
 A recreation ground of some six acres provides oppor- 
 tunity for cricket, football, tennis and quoits. A swimming 
 class for girls, a singing class and a Shakespeare class have 
 been connected with the Institute. The company assisted 
 its work to the extent of some 76 in 1897. Five acres 
 of land adjoining the recreation ground are let to fifty-two 
 tenants for gardens. The annual rent is nine pence per 
 pole ; this includes fencing, water taxes and other expenses. 
 The land is building land, worth 220 an acre, and the 
 rent pays a very small interest on this. The nearness to 
 the works and the fertility of the soil make the privilege 
 valuable to the employees. The company made an experi- 
 ment in building six cottages of a better kind than the ordi- 
 nary, but did not find encouragement to continue the plan. 
 
 The Kirby Street Institute does a more modest work than
 
 BRITISH EMPLOYERS' INSTITUTIONS 187 
 
 the one at Aylesbury. The company encourages its appren- 
 tices to acquire a good technical knowledge of their busi- 
 ness, by allowing them to attend, in business hours, classes 
 conducted by certain technical institutions in London, they 
 being paid as if still at work. Attendance on evening 
 classes is also encouraged. An apprentice who conducts 
 himself well will receive a bonus of 10 on the expiration 
 of his term ; 2 2s. of this sum go to make him a life 
 member of the Printer's Pension Society : it is expected 
 that the apprentice will save a sum equal to the bonus. 
 The very considerable risk of fire in the three presses is 
 met by three voluntary fire brigades : each has its summer 
 outing as the guest of the firm. 
 
 The proprietors of The Graphic and Daily Graphic, 
 of London, instituted in 1891 a Thrift Fund, contribution 
 to which has been obligatory for all employees on weekly 
 wages beginning since January 1, 1892, but optional for 
 others. The contributor determines each week the size of 
 his contribution, but he must pay in not less than 2 per 
 cent, of his earnings, nor more than 5 per cent. ; if his 
 earnings exceed 4 a week, only that sum shall be the basis 
 of his contribution. Three per cent, compound interest 
 shall be paid, together with the principal, to any contributor 
 leaving the service of the company. Otherwise the principal 
 shall remain in the hands of the company until his death 
 while in their employ, or until he is incapacitated for work, 
 or until he is fifty-five years of age or more, after contribut- 
 ing ten years at least. Under any of these conditions the 
 company adds 50 per cent, to the amount subscribed, and 
 the contributor or his representative shall also receive 3 
 per cent, compound interest on the entire amount. If a 
 contributor desires to withdraw any sum, after having con- 
 tributed five years, he can do so, according to a sliding 
 scale : but the company will add only 25 per cent, to the 
 contributions. The directors reserve the right to modify 
 or abolish the scheme, if desirable, and also to close any 
 man's account, if it should appear to them necessary ;
 
 188 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 but his claims shall be as great as if his contributions had 
 remained the required time. The scheme has been very 
 successful. The fund had to its credit, December 31, 
 1898, including contributions, donations and interest, 
 14,503 3s. Id. 
 
 The delegates of the Clarendon Press, Oxford, built 
 in 1893 an institute for their employees at an expense of 
 5,000. It contains a large central hall, which was to be 
 used as a gymnasium, or for entertainments and meetings, 
 and rooms for reading and study and recreation. There 
 are special rooms for women and boys, and for the classes 
 of the City Technical Instruction Committee. 
 
 Saltaire, the model industrial village of Yorkshire, 
 was founded by Sir Titus Salt, the famous woolen 
 manufacturer and philanthropist, in 1853. It is sit- 
 uated three miles from Bradford, on the river Aire. 
 The works cover ten acres of ground, and they were 
 constructed with every appliance then known for the 
 comfort of the 3,000 to 4,000 operatives; the air in 
 the mills, for instance, was cooled in summer, as well 
 as warmed in winter. By 1877 there had been built 
 850 convenient cottages, and 45 almshouses accommo- 
 dating 75 pensioners, on 26 acres adjoining the works ; 
 the houses erected up to 1867 had cost ,106,000 (a 
 man with a wife in an almshouse, or cottage, received 
 10s. a week, and a single person 7s. Gd., beside house 
 rent). 
 
 The other institutions established by Sir Titus from 
 time to time included a fine Congregational church 
 (sites were given for other churches) erected at an 
 expense of .16,000 ; an infirmary ; a system of baths 
 (24) and wash-houses, costing X7,000, and supplied 
 with machinery for laundry purposes ; a public park 
 of 14 acres: school buildings for 750 children, erected
 
 BRITISH EMPLOYERS 1 INSTITUTIONS 189 
 
 for 7,000 in 1868 and converted into secondary 
 schools in 1870, when Board Schools were instituted ; 
 a dining-hall where meals could be procured at cost or 
 less, and food was cooked for operatives bringing it ; 
 and the Saltaire Club and Institute, a 25,000 build- 
 ing. This contained a library with several thousand 
 volumes ; a reading-room ; a lecture and concert hall 
 seating 800 persons ; schools of art and science, with 
 class-rooms and a laboratory ; rooms for minor games, 
 billiards and smoking ; an armory and drill - room ; 
 and a gymnasium. The fees for the use of the build- 
 ing varied from two shillings to six pence per quarter. 
 The Institute was under the control of a committee, 
 eight members being selected by the firm and eight by 
 the members of the Literary Institute. A boat-house 
 and a cricket ground further provided for physical 
 culture, and a great variety of organizations ath- 
 letic, social, musical, educational and benevolent 
 came into existence. Pensions were given to em- 
 ployees who were manned for life. Public houses were 
 not allowed in the place. 1 
 
 James Smieton and Sons are manufacturers of jute 
 at Carnoustie, near Dundee, Scotland. Since 1858 they have 
 erected, less than half a mile from the factory, eighty-nine 
 model dwellings which are fully described by Dr. Gould 
 (" Report," pp. 340-342). In addition to a lawn in the 
 rear of each house, about 1,500 feet of land are set apart 
 for each family, next to the house or in the vicinity, for 
 
 1 Saltaire long enjoyed a fame similar to that of Pullman, Illinois, 
 in later years : but its institutions are reported to have gradually 
 fallen into neglect since the death of Sir Titus Salt in 1877. Rev. 
 R. Balgarnie in his biography, dated in that year, speaks of the In- 
 stitute as destined to change into ' ' higher grade schools." Informa- 
 tion is difficult to procure. See Harper's Magazine for May, 1872. 
 Saltaire had at least twenty-four years of prosperity.
 
 190 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 vegetable and flower gardens, for which no charge is made. 
 About 12 per cent., on the average, of the tenant's wages 
 go for rent : for similar lodgings, not owned by the firm, he 
 would probably pay about half as much again. The firm 
 estimates its net income at 3 per cent. A " People's Palace," 
 opened in 1865 and costing 1,756, contains a reading- 
 room, a library (1,300 volumes), an entertainment hall seat- 
 ing 600 persons, and a billiarcl room : the cost of mainte- 
 nance is about 32 a year. No charge is made for the use 
 of the building and its privileges, but the expense of daily 
 papers and periodicals is divided equally between the mem- 
 bers and the proprietors. A penny savings-bank, paying no 
 interest, leads up to the post-office savings-bank. 
 
 From the " Life of Samuel Morley," by Edwin Hodder, 
 I make the following extract (p. 188). Samuel Morley, 
 born in 1809 and dying in 1886, was engaged in the hosiery 
 manufacture at Nottingham and Hackney (London). 
 " For the benefit of the workpeople [about 1847, no date 
 given in the chapter] a most beneficent system of annuities 
 was instituted. It is an open secret that Mr. Morley's 
 treatment of old and faithful employees, in the way of pen- 
 sion and allowance, was altogether unprecedented in the 
 annals of commercial houses, and these dispossessed hand- 
 knitters [Mr. Morley had substituted machinery in place of 
 the old hand looms] were the people who had the first con- 
 sideration as annuitants. The pension scheme was sug- 
 gested by Mr. Samuel Morley, and for many years he went 
 down and paid the first installments of gifts and pensions 
 to the old hands. The cost of this was borne by the firm, 
 and the amount paid in any one year was never less than 
 2,000. The system still remains in force." 
 
 Thomas Adams & Co. are large lace-makers in Not- 
 tingham. The day for the girls in their factory begins 
 with the Church of England service read in the chapel, 
 which seats 800, by one of the three chaplains engaged by 
 the firm. The half-hour service is entirely undenomina- 
 tional. " We find that the service brings to us girls of a
 
 BRITISH EMPLOYERS' INSTITUTIONS 191 
 
 very high character," says one of the firm. " Every morn- 
 ing, between ten and eleven o'clock, a tradesman visits the 
 warehouse with refreshments. The girls leave their coun- 
 ters, and refresh themselves in a large, cool room with a 
 glass of milk and a bun, and then resume their work till 
 one o'clock, when they go home for dinner, returning at two. 
 From four to half-past six, they go down to the tea-room, in 
 batches of about seventy at a time, each making her own 
 tea from a huge boiler, and at seven o'clock their day's 
 work is over." 1 
 
 Thomas Mason and Sons, Ashton-under-Lyne, 
 beside paying wages above the trade-union list prices, pro- 
 vide for their workpeople very good sanitary houses. They 
 support a system of baths (shower and swimming), a read- 
 ing-room, a lecture-room (with excellent lectures), a gym- 
 nasium and a bowling-green. Prizes are offered for plant 
 growing, and an annual flower show is held in the lecture- 
 room. 
 
 The Cadbury Brothers are well-known manufac- 
 turers of cocoa and chocolate at Bournville, seven 
 miles from Birmingham. The sixty acres now the fac- 
 tory property were formerly a country seat, Bournville 
 Hall ; the works are said to absorb one third of all 
 the cocoa imported into England. Mr. Richard Cad- 
 bury, the head of the firm, died in Jerusalem in March 
 of the present year. Birmingham owes to him a great 
 educational institution for the working classes, a con- 
 valescent home for children, and various provisions for 
 the aged ; these buildings alone are valued at 1 0,000. 
 
 The Cadbury Brothers employ some 1,900 un- 
 married women, 600 workmen and some 200 clerks. 
 The works proper occupy a site of ten acres, and are 
 connected by subways and bridges. The heavier work 
 is apportioned to the men : men and women do not 
 
 1 Home Magazine for 1898, " The Girl-Workers of Britain, VI."
 
 192 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 work together in any department, and no married 
 women are employed. The result of this regulation 
 is that the girls in the Cadbury works marry three 
 years later than the average in the country adjacent, 
 and their marriages are said to be much happier, as 
 a rule, than the usual lot : " they are less liable to be 
 married by men in search of a wife to support them." 
 The Bournville works are especially noted for the 
 kindly manner in which the girls, the great majority 
 of the employees, are treated ; only ten per cent, of 
 them come from Birmingham, the remainder from the 
 surrounding villages. In the busiest part of the year, 
 from September to December, the hours of work are 
 from 6 A. M. to 5.30 p. M. (1 p. M. on "Wednesday, and 
 12.30 P. M. on Saturday). The girl arriving so early 
 receives a cup of tea and a tea biscuit ; she is allowed 
 half an hour for breakfast, fifteen minutes for lunch, 
 and one hour for dinner. For the other months of the 
 year the hours are from 8.45 A. M. to 5.30 p. M., 
 1.30 P. M. on Saturdays. The girls, in the morning, 
 leave their shoes, if damp, on racks in the cloak-room 
 above the hot-water pipes, wearing slippers at their 
 work, for which they put on a white holland dress ; 
 they pay two thirds of the cost of the material, and 
 make the dresses themselves : these must be clean every 
 Monday. The first five minutes of the day are spent 
 in a brief devotional service, conducted by some mem- 
 ber of the firm, who makes a two-minute address. 
 Dinner is taken in a great hall (used also for lec- 
 tures), divided into rooms for the girls, the men, the 
 clerks and the firm, the fare provided being the 
 same for all. Food brought by the employees will be 
 warmed or cooked free of charge, and meals may be
 
 BRITISH EMPLOYERS' INSTITUTIONS 193 
 
 taken outside of the dining-room. The kitchen employs 
 some twenty persons. The tariff is such as to pay 
 the bare cost of the food, other expenses being borne 
 by the firm. Cold meats at \d. or 2c?. a plate; eggs 
 Id. each ; puddings, pies, and tarts, at \d. ; tea and 
 coffee, d. per three quarters pint, milk lc?., and bread 
 ^d. per slice, will indicate the very moderate prices 
 charged. The girls now bring meat, if they wish it 
 hot : hot joints were formerly served, but the practice 
 was given up, as " all the girls wanted the best cut." 
 Fruit is liberally supplied the year round. After the 
 meal the girls are free to scatter over the eleven acres 
 of ground which are their portion of the old estate, 
 laid out in paths, shrubberies and playgrounds. The 
 men have a range of the same size. Five gardeners 
 keep up these grounds, which are open to workers at 
 all times. 
 
 The girls' pay is from Is. Qd. to 2s. a week higher 
 than in any other business in the Midlands. Two dis- 
 trict nurses visit sick girls, and a committee of fore- 
 women give out tickets once a week for hospitals, etc. 
 The Hall is a home for sixty girls, who pay six shil- 
 lings a week for board and lodging : the vinery sup- 
 plies grapes for the sick-room, 1,200 bunches were 
 so given out in 1897. The girls are remarkably 
 healthy, the works being well ventilated, warmed and 
 lighted: their bicycles are numerous, and a cycle- 
 house shelters them. In the diamond jubilee year of 
 the Queen the Cadburys deposited in the post-office a 
 sovereign for each girl who had been employed three 
 years, and a half sovereign for every other. Thus 
 each girl has a savings account (increased in nine 
 months of 1897 by 1,200) ; the Cadburys increase
 
 194 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 the interest paid by the postal bank, and the accounts 
 are so managed that only the depositors know the 
 size of their accounts. Fines for lateness go to the 
 hospital Saturday fund, others to the sick club. One 
 object of this club is " to provide means for paying 
 sums weekly to members who are compelled to absent 
 themselves from work in consequence of infectious 
 disease in their families : " a clean bill of health must 
 be presented by any worker who has been so exposed, 
 and full pay is assured him or her while shut out. 
 The Cadbury works have the usual number, at least, 
 of special organizations, musical, literary and other 
 clubs, and technical schools, all aided morally and 
 materially by the firm. 
 
 Adjoining the factory grounds are some 140 acres, 
 which are gradually being laid out so as to make it 
 " easy for workingmen to own houses with large gar- 
 dens, secure from the danger of being spoilt, either by 
 the building of factories or by interference with the 
 enjoyment of sunlight and air." The gardens average 
 about one sixth of an acre, and the size of the house is 
 so determined that the garden may not be overshad- 
 owed. The land is leased for 999 years for a half- 
 penny to a penny a yard, ground rent. By 1893 there 
 had been built thirty-six attractive cottages, " which 
 might be described as semi-detached villas," each hav- 
 
 O 
 
 ing five rooms and a scullery ; the rent is five shillings 
 to six shillings a week. The Cadburys will advance up 
 to X20,000 on mortgages at 21 per cent, to those who 
 wish to build, and can pay one fifth of the cost in 
 cash. This building plan is open to any one, whether 
 an employee or not, who can repay the loan in small 
 installments. No person can own more than four
 
 BRITISH EMPLOYERS' INSTITUTIONS 195 
 
 houses. Seven acres have been set aside as a recrea- 
 tion ground, smaller plots for children's playgrounds, 
 and for schools, baths and an institute all to be in 
 charge of a committee appointed by the tenants. No 
 shops (except a few retail ones in allotted positions), 
 factories or business of any kind will be allowed on 
 the estate. 
 
 It is not strange that this remarkable combination 
 of business ability and active kindliness has produced 
 the happiest results. The Cadbury works are not 
 disturbed by labor troubles. The girls are a very 
 cheerful and contented company : the country folk say 
 that they can easily tell a Cadbury girl, " She sings 
 hymns at the wash-tub." Nor is it strange that visit- 
 ors to this immense factory, surrounded by green 
 fields, shady lanes and highly cultivated grounds, call 
 Bourn ville " a Worcestershire Eden," and speak of 
 its women-workers as "the luckiest girls in the 
 world." 
 
 The Fry Brothers of Bristol are the oldest cocoa firm 
 in the world, dating back to 1728. They now employ some 
 2,000 workers, of whom 1,600 are girls. Their work-hours 
 are from eight A. M. to five P. M., with intervals for meals. 
 " One of the floors at the chief factory has been made into 
 a huge meeting-room, and here, each morning, after the 
 girls have been at work an hour, a service is held lasting 
 about twenty minutes, conducted by one of the firm. . . . 
 Often there are considerably over 2,000 workers present. 
 The employees join heartily in the singing, and the silence 
 during prayer is very impressive. [The Frys are Quakers : 
 "for the best of all employers commend me to a Quaker" is 
 a common saying.] A short gospel address is given, and a 
 chapter read from each of the Testaments, and then the 
 people make their way back to their respective rooms. Pro-
 
 196 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 vision is made for the girls to have dinner inside the works, 
 and at night various classes are held on the premises, at 
 which the girls learn sewing, cookery, and receive instruc- 
 tion in all manner of subjects likely to be helpful to them." l 
 
 Tangyes, Limited, engineers of Birmingham, employ 
 some 3,000 men in the great Cornwall works. From their 
 penny pamphlet describing their numerous institutions for 
 their employees I take these particulars. Science classes in 
 connection with the Birmingham and Midland Institute, in 
 mathematics, geometry and machine drawing, are open to 
 employees only. The company pays a considerable part of 
 the instructors' salary ; the fee is from two shillings six pence 
 to five shillings per term. Lectures on subjects suggested 
 often by the men have been given on Tuesdays and Thurs- 
 days throughout the year. The addresses are delivered in 
 the messroom during the last half of the dinner-hour, while 
 the men smoke, and " have always been very much appreci- 
 ated by large and attentive audiences." The messroom or 
 dining-hall accommodates 1,000 persons ; with the kitchen 
 attached, it is rented to a contractor who provides meats, 
 pies, puddings and drinks at a low rate. For every person 
 using the room the contractor may receive one penny a 
 week, in return for which he warms food and supplies hot 
 water for making tea and coffee. Dinner is provided free 
 for some sixty chief clerks and managers. 
 
 A Sunday-school is held at the works at eight o'clock 
 Sunday morning ; the teachers meet half an hour earlier for 
 breakfast. Reading and writing are taught and Scripture 
 lessons given (to 325 scholars in 1884). In connection with 
 the school there is a lending library (800 volumes), the fee 
 being one halfpenny a week, which covers the school ex- 
 penses and provides new books ; a savings fund, allowing 
 interest on deposits ; a sick fund, with a subscription of 
 two pence a week, the benefit being 6s. per week for 26 
 weeks, and 3s. a week for a further 26 weeks. On the 
 
 1 " The Girl Workers of Britain, No. VII." in the Home Magazine 
 of London for 1898.
 
 BRITISH EMPLOYERS' INSTITUTIONS 197 
 
 death of a member a levy contributes 3, or of his wife 2, 
 or of a child 1. The balance in hand at the end of a 
 year is divided among the members. 
 
 A meeting for worship is held Sunday evening, and a 
 temperance meeting every Saturday afternoon, with an 
 average attendance of 500 persons. A dispensary was built 
 and equipped by the firm ; it is managed by a surgeon and 
 a dispenser, whose services are confined to the workpeople 
 and their families ; 4,636 members, in 1884, contributed 
 for medicines and medical attendance almost enough to 
 cover the cost of maintenance. Each person engaged in 
 the works and his wife pay 4s. per annum, and for each 
 child 2s. 6e?., the maximum charge for a family being 18s. ; 
 the payments are deducted from wages. A sick-visitor 
 devotes his whole time to his work. The " Cornwall Works 
 Provident Sick Society " is managed by the usual officers 
 (from the firm or the counting-room) and twenty-one com- 
 mitteemen from the various departments. The members 
 are divided into three classes according to their wages. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Death of 
 
 3<p 
 
 
 Rate 
 
 Contribu- 
 
 Sick 
 
 Death 
 
 Death of 
 
 Member's 
 
 1>' 
 
 Class. 
 
 of Wages 
 
 tion per 
 
 Benefit 
 
 of 
 
 Member's 
 
 Child if 
 
 <b 
 
 
 per Week. 
 
 Fortnight. 
 
 per Week. 
 
 Member. 
 
 Wife. 
 
 under 14. 
 
 fc^ 
 
 A 
 
 
 2d. 
 
 3/- 
 
 1 13 
 
 
 
 Id 
 
 B 
 
 " 15/- 
 
 3d. 
 
 4/6 
 
 2 10 
 
 
 
 d 
 
 C 
 
 15/ - & over 
 
 6d. 
 
 9/- 
 
 500 
 
 2 10 
 
 100 
 
 1,1. 
 
 Sick or disabled members may receive 13 weeks' full pay 
 and 26 weeks' half pay ; a contribution of \d. a week will 
 continue membership during the rest of their illness. A 
 Foremen's Trust Fund was established in 1878 with a gift 
 of 2,000 : it gives a weekly payment in cases of illness 
 and 100 in case of death. Every employee who is a mem- 
 ber of a provident society may enjoy the benefits of an acci- 
 dent fund, which pays in case of disablement from 5s. to 
 15s. per week, and in case of death from 25 to 100 ac- 
 cording to wages.
 
 198 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 The issue of bonds of 50 to some of the older work- 
 people (described in my " Profit Sharing," p. 286) was dis- 
 continued after some years subsequent to 1883 in favor of 
 other methods. The Tangyes men support a choral society, 
 and a Saturday collection for the hospital, generally a penny 
 a week from each man. " On the last Saturday of the hos- 
 pital year the men work one hour over time, devoting the 
 proceeds to the fund." 
 
 At the Elswick Works, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 
 the great firm of Sir W. Gr. Armstrong, Whitworth & 
 Co. have an " employes deposit fund," which receives 
 deposits of not less than one shilling nor more than 
 one pound a week : officials paid quarterly may de- 
 posit not more than two pounds in one week, the limit 
 for them being X400, and for employees paid weekly 
 X200. Four per cent, interest is added to each ac- 
 count semi-annually, and a bonus " equal to half the 
 difference between the fixed rate of four per cent., and 
 the dividend payable on the shares of the company." 
 The company does not express itself on the workings 
 of this scheme, as it has not been long in operation 
 here. The company has both ordinary and "pre- 
 mium " apprentices, the latter having opportunity to 
 learn the business in a variety of departments. For 
 the last half century there have been connected with 
 the Elswick works a Mechanics' Institute, a day school 
 with a science class, and a night school, mainly for 
 apprentices, with classes in mathematics and natural 
 science : these have enjoyed the patronage of the heads 
 of the concern and have had very excellent results. 1 
 
 1 Professor Paul Bureau, author of a prize essay on Participation 
 aux Binifices written in 1895, reports that " in the important gun 
 foundry now under the direction of the son of the great employer 
 philanthropist, Sir Joseph Whitworth, each workman, with the ex-
 
 BRITISH EMPLOYERS' INSTITUTIONS 199 
 
 Several English railways have relief departments 
 for the benefit of employees. The Midland Com- 
 pany is reported to have contributed in 1898 to the 
 superannuation fund of the salaried staff, ,16,643, 
 and to the funds of the workmen's friendly society, 
 16,678. The London and Northwestern Com- 
 pany established in 1877 its " Insurance Society," 
 which provides " pecuniary relief in cases of tempo- 
 rary or permanent disablement while in the discharge 
 of duty, and in all cases of death." The contributions 
 are one penny a week from boys, and others with wages 
 under twelve shillings a week, two pence from porters, 
 and three pence from passenger guards and brakemen. 
 In case of members who agree beforehand " to accept 
 the contribution to the funds of the society" by the 
 company in full of all claims, the payments made 
 by the trustees (the chairman, deputy chairman and 
 secretary of the company) are from two to three times 
 as large as in the case of those who do not so agree. 
 For guards and brakemen, for instance, the payments 
 are, in case of death by accident while in service, <100 
 or =40 : for permanent disability, X100 or <35 : for 
 temporary disability, 21s. a week, or 18s. : for death 
 
 ception of the upper overseers of each shop, may deposit with the 
 house any sum at the rate of a pound sterling a week. These de- 
 posits receive a dividend equal to that on shares, and even in bad 
 years five per cent, interest: they can be withdrawn at will, after 
 notice. ' About one third of the workmen,' Mr. J. Whitworth tells 
 me, ' have profited by this opportunity : at present more than 20,000 
 sterling have been thus deposited and some have more than 5,000 fr. 
 The system has been in operation more than twenty-five years ; it 
 gives us the best results. . . . We have succeeded in attaching to our 
 works an important group of very honorable workmen, of a social 
 level above the average.' " The Whitworth firm has since been com- 
 bined with the Armstrong company, and the latter's method seems 
 to be a modification of that reported by M. Bureau.
 
 200 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 from any cause not provided for in the rules, 10 in 
 case of service or not. The number of members of the 
 Insurance Society, December 31, 1893, was 44,439 : in 
 that year there were seventy deaths from accidents 
 on duty for which the society paid .5,029, and 431 
 deaths from other causes for which the payments 
 were .4,246 : for permanent disablement .6,985 were 
 disbursed : for temporary disablement, 20,328. The 
 total receipts of the society to December 31, 1893, 
 were 535,369, of which the members paid 322,964, 
 and the company 200,396. 
 
 The Provident and Pension Society, established in 
 1889, provides weekly allowances in case of temporary 
 disablement, retiring gratuities for old or disabled 
 members in certain cases, death allowances, allow- 
 ances toward the funeral expenses of a member's wife 
 and pensions to the old or disabled. Membership is 
 compulsory, with three classes, members of the first 
 and second classes paying one penny a week. The 
 company contributes for pension benefits 3,000 a 
 year until the first and second class contributions 
 amount to this sum, and then it gives an amount 
 equal to the members' contribution, but in no case 
 more than 6,000 a year. The company in like man- 
 ner contributes for provident benefits 800 a year, in 
 addition to the fines. The management in general is 
 the same as that of the Insurance Society. Pensions, 
 payable after sixty-five years of age and twenty years' 
 contribution, are 12s. or 9s. a week : disability pay- 
 ments, 12s. or 6s. : the payment on death of a wife is 
 5 : retiring gratuities range from 6 5s. to 50. 
 The society's report for 1893 gave the number of 
 members as 34,280, the receipts as 46,963 (from 
 the company 6,683) and expenditures as 37,686.
 
 BRITISH EMPLOYERS' INSTITUTIONS 201 
 
 The London, Brighton and South Coast Rail- 
 way Company has two relief departments the 
 "superannuation fund" and " railway servants' insur- 
 ance " corresponding generally to the departments 
 of life insurance and pensions hi other companies; 
 but the system appears to be compulsory, 1 and the 
 allowances in case of death or superannuation are 
 different, and the premiums and contributions are 
 larger in the ratio of larger life insurance and weekly 
 allowances. All officers and other regular employees 
 not over forty years of age must be contributors to 
 the superannuation fund. If a contributor has been 
 ten years in the employ of the company, he can retire 
 at sixty upon an allowance of twenty-five per cent, 
 of his average salary : for each year of contribution 
 above ten, one per cent, is added up to the maxi- 
 mum, after thirty-five years' contribution, of fifty per 
 cent. The contribution is 2^ per cent, on the sal- 
 ary earned ; the company contributes an equal sum. 
 The applicant for admission to the " railway servants' 
 insurance " signs a form varying, according to five 
 classes, from first class (a), carrying a life insurance 
 of X300 and a weekly allowance of 20s. in case of 
 injury (premium Is. Qd. every two months), to class 
 No. 3, with X100 insurance, 10s. allowance, and 6d. 
 premium. He releases the company from all other 
 claims in case of injury or death. 2 
 
 The Great Western Railway maintains at Swin- 
 
 1 " Forty large industrial undertakings, including the Midland Rail- 
 way Company, make compulsory insurance in employers' own benefit 
 societies, the premiums being peremptorily deducted from wages." 
 Industrial Democracy, by Sydney and Beatrice Webb, vol. ii. p. 551. 
 
 2 See for fuller details concerning the Northwestern and Brighton 
 railways, Railways and their Employees, by O. D. Ashley, pp. 80-90.
 
 202 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 don, Wilts, its locomotive works, its central works for 
 the construction of carriages and wagons, its mills for 
 producing " merchant iron," and its foundries, all of 
 which cover, with the yards, 208 acres. In all kinds 
 of construction, fitting and repairs, it employed, in 
 March, 1898, 11,898 persons, with 300 more in the 
 traffic and permanent way departments. The company 
 subscribes directly to the Great Western Railway Me- 
 chanics' Institution, which had 7,810 members on 
 March 31, 1899 ; its library contains 20,750 volumes, 
 including a reference library ; in the reading-room 
 seventy-nine copies of various daily newspapers are 
 taken, in addition to those procured for the smoking- 
 room, and the ladies' reading-room, and many weekly 
 papers and magazines. The building also contains a 
 large hall, a lecture hall (where a series of popular lec- 
 tures was given in 189899, with an average attend- 
 ance of 650 persons) ; a recreation-room ; a billiard- 
 room ; a chess and draughts room, and a chorus-room, 
 for the choral and orchestral union, which last season 
 produced " The Messiah " and " Elijah." A dancing 
 class is held, and at the annual juvenile fete in 
 August, 1898, 13,468 adults and 10,952 children 
 paid the admission fee. The annual trip at the ex- 
 pense of the company is taken in excursion trains to 
 any station on the lines, the members returning the 
 next week. Magic lantern entertainments for school 
 children, and other items, brought up the total ex- 
 penses of the institution, as stated in its fifty-fifth 
 annual report for the year ending March 31, 1899, 
 to 3,093 Is. ~Ld. The company subscribes to the 
 mutual assurance and sick fund societies. The fifty- 
 second report of the medical fund society, for the year
 
 BRITISH EMPLOYERS' INSTITUTIONS 203 
 
 1898, states that there were 12,142 members. It 
 speaks of the hospital and dispensary (built by the 
 company) ; the washing baths, used by 33,020 persons 
 in 1898, with an income of 403 16s. 9d. ; the Turk- 
 ish baths, used by 1,683 persons, with fees paid 
 amounting to 51 13s. Gd. ; the swimming baths, used 
 by 25,231 persons (exclusive of Board School chil- 
 dren), who paid 198 5s. 5d. as fees (the bath sys- 
 tem is aided by the company) ; the accident hospital ; 
 and the nineteen hospitals in London and elsewhere, 
 to which letters were given to sick members; the 
 members contributed 8,510 Is. 4c?. The sick fund 
 society of the Great Western Railway locomotive and 
 carriage departments, in its fifty-fifth report for 1898, 
 gave the number of members as 10,968 ; the income 
 from them as 7,824, with 369 as interest received ; 
 it expended for superannuation benefit, 569; for 
 sick benefit, 5,431, and for funeral benefit, 920 ; 
 its balance was 11,335. The company has provided 
 at Swindon a church, a recreation park, a large drill 
 hall, and school accommodation for some 800 children. 
 England is notable for the prevalence of that ex- 
 cellent institution for the workman, the Saturday half 
 holiday. Besides the stipulations of the factory laws, 
 applying to women and young persons, which pro- 
 hibit work after 12.30, 1 or 2 o'clock p. M. according 
 to circumstances, the Early Closing Association has 
 done much in this direction : the majority of its vice- 
 presidents are large employers. Early closing on 
 Saturday is the practice of some hundreds of houses in 
 London, and is more general outside London : Thurs- 
 day is sometimes, as at Nottingham, substituted for 
 Saturday, for local reasons. Payment of wages on
 
 204 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 Friday is a natural accompaniment of the Saturday 
 half holiday, and it has had the best results, in respect 
 to increasing temperance and otherwise. 1 
 
 The institutions of the Scottish Cooperative 
 'Wholesale Society, at Shieldhall, near Glasgow, 
 show what workmen will do for themselves where the 
 principles of cooperation are well understood. The 
 buildings in which the nineteen branches of industry 
 are carried on are of model construction. " The rooms 
 are lofty, spacious and well ventilated. They are 
 warmed throughout by steam and lighted by gas and 
 electricity. The best sanitary arrangements are every- 
 where provided, and the healthy appearance of the 
 workers in every department testifies to the favorable 
 conditions under which they perform their daily labor. 
 Two large dining-rooms are provided on the premises, 
 one for each sex, capable of accommodating at one 
 sitting 700 to 800 persons : and in close proximity to 
 the dining-rooms there are also two large reading- 
 rooms, provided with numerous papers and periodicals, 
 and the means of innocent recreation. Food of the 
 best quality, and well cooked in a series of large gas 
 stoves in a spacious cooking-room, is supplied to all at 
 cost price. . . . The full recognized standard rates of 
 wages are paid, while the hours worked in some de- 
 partments are two and a half per week less than they 
 are in private workshops. . . . Every worker in the 
 business, from the youngest to the oldest, receives on 
 his or her wages, out of the profits, the same amount 
 per pound as the shareholding societies receive on the 
 amount of their purchases." 2 The adult workers may 
 
 1 See The Saturday Half-Holiday, by Rev. James Yeames, in publi- 
 cations of the Church Social Union, No. 36. 
 
 2 The Leeds Mercury.
 
 BRITISH EMPLOYERS' INSTITUTIONS 205 
 
 become shareholders ; in 1894 this recent arrange- 
 ment had allowed 166 employees to procure shares to 
 the amount of <1,132, on which 5 per cent, interest 
 is paid : one half of the bonus must be so invested. 
 
 Another example of " social engineering " is af- 
 forded by the United Cooperative Baking Society 
 of Glasgow. It had 911 employees in 1898, occu- 
 pied in its baking, restaurant, catering (" we furnish 
 everything for weddings except brides "), farming 
 (103 acres in one piece for roses and other flowers), 
 and building departments. The employees " belong to 
 the union of their trade, if there is one ; " the bakers 
 working fifty hours a week "get one shilling more 
 than trade-union wages, and their bonus in addition." 
 The society, which is a federation of societies, has 
 always shared profits with its workmen, and seven 
 years ago it gave them a voice in the management. 
 A Bonus Investment Society was formed of the 
 employees who wished to become stockholders : this 
 society represents the employees at general meetings 
 of the Baking Society. Employees cannot become 
 members of the managing committee or officials, but 
 a joint committee on educational work (three direc- 
 tors and three employees) supervise the gospel meet- 
 ings, the two swimming clubs for men and women, 
 the women's guild, the literary and music classes, the 
 draughts club, the Bonus Investment Society, the 
 physical drill, the ambulance class and the fire bri- 
 gade. The women employees are given the dresses 
 they wear at work, and the rooms are artificially cooled 
 for their benefit. 1 
 
 1 See Labor Copartnership, by H. D. Lloyd, p. 311.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 
 
 PATERNALISM is not a word or a thing acceptable to 
 the American workingman. He very properly desires 
 to be his own master outside of work-hours, and he is 
 quick to resent any manifestation of the patriarchal or 
 patronizing spirit in his employer. The same demo- 
 cratic feeling, nevertheless, logically welcomes the evi- 
 dences of a disposition on the employer's part to treat 
 his employees with natural kindness and unpatronizing 
 generosity. When he founds institutions for their 
 benefit, they should have the chief part in the admin- 
 istration of them this is the essential matter, as we 
 shall see. Further preface to an account of what 
 some American employers are doing seems to be here 
 unnecessary. 
 
 One of the most remarkable factories anywhere to 
 be found, by general confession of those who have 
 seen it, whether home or foreign observers, is the 
 American Waltham "Watch Factory, at Waltham, 
 Mass. In the same prosperous town that saw the 
 first fully developed cotton-mill in which all the pro- 
 cesses of the industry are carried on under one roof, 
 the " American method " of making watches by 
 machinery has been carried to its present astonishing 
 state of perfection (if perfection be possible in this 
 world). The 1,900 workers who perform the 3.750 
 distinct processes required in making a stem-winding
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 207 
 
 watch are nearly all American by birth, and most of 
 them are of New England lineage. It is not likely 
 that the noted factory girls of Lowell in the first third 
 of this century, who contributed to the " Offering," had 
 a higher average level of intelligence than the young 
 women in this watch factory. As one notices at noon 
 or evening the great company of workers leaving the 
 factory, he sees such a crowd as comes out from a 
 concert or a lecture in a New England town. Only 
 their dress, which is that of every-day for sensible 
 persons who adapt their array to their duties, indi- 
 cates that this is a multitude of workers who have 
 just dropped their tools or quitted wonder-working 
 machinery, instead of a throng who have been enjoy- 
 ing leisure in a refined way. No large company of 
 operatives in this country is superior in intelligence 
 and character, and it is doubtful if any other is quite 
 equal all things considered. 
 
 The relations between these exceptionally intelli- 
 gent and independent workers and the corporation 
 which employs them have always been friendly : no 
 strike has occurred since the establishment of the 
 works in 1853. Wages are liberal as compared with 
 those paid in other industries, and the company has, 
 from the beginning, shown a sincere desire to attach 
 its employees to the factory by following a generous 
 policy in all its dealings with them. It has, for in- 
 stance, steadily encouraged the married workers to 
 become owners of homes. It early purchased a large 
 tract of land adjoining the factory (which backs upon 
 the Charles River) ; two small parks face the factory, 
 and another has been reserved at a distance. It sold 
 lots to employees at low prices, often aiding them to
 
 208 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 build with loans and other assistance, and the steady 
 employment it has given has been one of the best 
 guarantees of safety to the would-be builder. The 
 company has also built many houses itself and either 
 sold them on easy terms to its workers, or rented 
 them at low rates : they are probably the best homes 
 for workers in the country. The residt is that over 
 one fourth of the married employees own their homes ; 
 the proportion is increasing year by year. A coopera- 
 tive loan association has aided this good tendency. 
 
 The company provides a large boarding-house where 
 "150 of the young women, a very few married couples, 
 and half a dozen bachelors " were found boarding by 
 Mr. John Swinton in 1887. 1 The " Adams House," as 
 it is called, charges only three dollars a week for board 
 and lodging, two young women occupying one room. 
 This price " influences, if it does not always fix, the 
 terms at other boarding-houses in the city for female 
 operatives." The company desires to see only an 
 equality of income and expense in running the Adams 
 House. At the men's boarding-house (the Shawmut 
 House) the company's only authority is in fixing the 
 rates: men are charged $4.50 per week (two in a 
 room) ; the married men pay $3 for their wives' 
 board. The " mealers," who lodge outside, are numer- 
 ous at both houses. The fare in both places is abun- 
 dant and varied for the price paid, and the social life of 
 the Adams House, in particular, is animated and recre- 
 ative, as might be expected from the high standing 
 of the boarders among working people. Mr. Swinton 
 
 1 See Mr. Swinton's valuable "social study" entitled, A Model 
 Factory in a Model City. Mr. Swinton spent a week at this house 
 while making a thorough investigation of the factory.
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 209 
 
 was introduced to one of the foremen in the factory 
 as Mayor Fisher, and he met immediately after four 
 aldermen, a deacon, two directors of the public library, 
 the chief of the city fire department, several militia 
 officers, and a member of the factory brass band (one 
 of the best in the State) all employees. Quite a 
 number of the workmen and workwomen are stock- 
 holders in the company, as well as owners of their 
 homes. Drunkenness is almost entirely unknown 
 among the men of the factory. 
 
 The company, being naturally desirous of keeping 
 up the high grade of its employees, carefully respects 
 their independence. (" You won't find a more inde- 
 pendent set anywhere in creation," said a townsman 
 to Mr. Swinton.) No condition is made as to race or 
 birth, precedent to employment : the employee is per- 
 fectly free to join any labor organization that he 
 pleases ; and the privileges already mentioned are 
 offered to the employee, not forced upon him. There 
 is no permanent committee of conciliation, as in Euro- 
 pean factories ; but any aggrieved individual can state 
 his grievance to the president, and it receives immedi- 
 ate consideration. Where a number of persons are 
 concerned, they " appoint a committee to present their 
 case, experts are called in, the foreman of the depart- 
 ment is summoned, and the matter is settled in joint 
 conference, somewhat after the manner of an arbi- 
 tration board. The cases of moment that arise are 
 very few, not more than three or four in a year." 
 
 The Watch Factory Mutual Relief Association had 
 a membership, January 1, 1899, of 1,033. The mem- 
 ber pays twenty-five cents a month, and the company 
 contributes $200 a year. A bicycle shed yielded
 
 210 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 $203.25 in 1898. The total receipts for 1898 were 
 $3,138.75; benefits paid were $2,531, and the bal- 
 ance, January 1, 1899, was $1,772.87. The visiting 
 committee attends to sick members, who may draw 
 four dollars a week for ten weeks as benefit money : 
 $50 is paid for funeral expenses : the work of the 
 association is carried on in the factory during work- 
 hours. In a city of which the employees in the watch 
 factory form so important and so integral a part, pro- 
 vision for their intellectual and social life is very 
 wisely left by the company to the community, one 
 of the most intelligent, temperate and thrifty in the 
 State. A fine public library, an excellent school sys- 
 tem (including a manual training school), lecture 
 courses, musical organizations, and the higher social 
 entertainments in abundance minister to the intellec- 
 tual and social needs of a population which is suburban 
 to Boston, with all its opportunities. The factory has 
 a fortnight's vacation in the summer. 
 
 This great establishment, which illustrates in a 
 signal manner the triumph of machinery in its most 
 delicate applications the oldest watch factory in the 
 country and the largest in the world, sending out 
 watches by the half million each year, shows what can 
 be done materially and morally to make the relations 
 of employer and employee permanent and kindly. 
 The vast building is a model of construction and 
 maintenance, as regards light, ventilation, even tem- 
 perature and general cheerfulness of aspect : the social 
 life of those who work in it evinces a true mutual 
 esteem and a sincere cooperation, without any altera- 
 tion of the methods of the existing wages system. 
 The treasurer, Mr. Bobbins, believes that all the in-
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 211 
 
 vestments of the company which tend to make the 
 environment of the worker pleasant the parks, the 
 lawns and the gardens near the factory pay in 
 many ways. Their chief value, he holds, is in their 
 moral influence upon the workpeople. The interest, 
 as well as the obligation and the pleasure of the em- 
 ployer, is found in such a policy. " Anything that 
 tends to lighten the strain of labor upon the mind, or 
 serves to promote cheerfulness and contentment, is an 
 economical advantage. In short, Mr. Bobbins claims 
 that he serves his company best when he secures at 
 any expense a willing and contented service from his 
 employees." 
 
 The Elgin Watch Company at Elgin, 111., employ- 
 ing some 2,000 persons, keeps up a hotel, accommodating 
 300 men who are unmarried, at such rates as make it no 
 expense to the corporation; the company has provided a 
 fine gymnasium for the whole body of employees. 
 
 Among the most desirable institutions for the bene- 
 fit of workingmen is the club-house which, indeed, 
 groups together a considerable variety of institutions 
 and arrangements under one roof, after the manner 
 of a Young Men's Christian Association or Union. 
 Especially where great numbers of men are employed, 
 as in iron or steel works, is the club-house controlled 
 by the workmen themselves an excellent institution. 
 A number of such houses are now to be found in the 
 United States. The pioneer among several in the iron 
 and steel industry, and the one with the most fully 
 developed circle of activities, is the Athena3um of the 
 Illinois Steel Works Club at Joliet. Mr. W. E. 
 Stirling, of Chicago, then a director in the company, 
 was active in establishing this model institution, which
 
 212 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 was brought to its present state of completeness under 
 the superintendency of Mr. Walter Crane, now in 
 charge of the Carnegie Club at Braddock, Penn. 
 
 The Steel Works Club of Joliet is a corporation, 
 organized under the laws of Illinois, December 14, 
 1889 : its objects are stated to be the promotion of 
 " healthful recreation and social intercourse between 
 its members " and the affording of " opportunities for 
 physical, intellectual, scientific and moral culture." 
 It is under the control of fifteen directors, seven 
 elected one year and eight the next, to hold office for 
 two years, with the usual officials. The directors 
 have no power to make the club liable for any debt 
 beyond the income. Any employee of the Illinois 
 Steel Company (there are some 2,400 in all, receiv- 
 ing over a million dollars a year hi wages) is eligi- 
 ble to resident membership : there are also honorary 
 members. The membership fee is two dollars a year, 
 payable in advance, or in semi-annual or quarterly 
 installments. The club meets regularly four times a 
 year, and the directors once a month. The provisions 
 of the lease of the Athenaeum from the company were 
 adopted as a part of the regulations of the club : one 
 of these was a veto power on the action of the direc- 
 tors, but there has never been an occasion for exercis- 
 ing this. 
 
 The Athenaeum is a handsome stone building, 
 located near the works, on the eastern side of Joliet. 
 It was erected by the company in 1889 at an expense 
 of $53,000. It contains a gymnasium (45 x 45 ft.), 
 a hand-ball court (32 x 32 ft.), baths, swimming pool, 
 reception and reading rooms, a library, billiard (six 
 tables) and game and class rooms, and a hall that
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 213 
 
 will seat 1,100 persons. The building is heated by 
 steam and lighted by electricity from the works, and 
 in the rear of it are grounds for flower-beds, croquet 
 and lawn tennis. The gymnasium is well supplied 
 with apparatus ; naturally it is more popular with the 
 boys and the younger men than with the older men of 
 the works, but the two bowling alleys are in general 
 favor. It has twenty-one dressing-rooms and 248 
 lockers. There are classes with free instruction for 
 young men, young Women and boys. The bathing 
 arrangements are admirable ; the large swimming 
 pool occupies part of two stories : there are sixteen 
 baths shower and tub : one towel is furnished free 
 and others for a cent apiece. The bath-house is open 
 from 7 A. M. to 9.30 P. M. : sons of members, from 
 nine to sixteen years old, can enjoy the privilege of 
 using the pool for the summer season of five months 
 for 25 cents : in 1890, 13,000 baths were taken, and 
 this has been about the average since, though the 
 number of members has varied from 800 to 1,300. 
 The city of Joliet furnishes water for the building 
 free, while the company pays for light, heat, taxes 
 and the salary of the superintendent : the company 
 also keeps the building in repair. No spirituous or 
 intoxicating liquors can be sold or used on the pre- 
 mises or brought to them : no betting or gambling is 
 allowed. 
 
 No religious or political meetings can be held in the 
 large hall, which is used for lectures and entertain- 
 ments (twenty-seven in 189091, in a course for a two- 
 dollar fee), and for a Sunday afternoon song service. 
 An orchestra meets in the art-room once a week. 
 There are evening classes, at a small fee, in arithmetic,
 
 214 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 shorthand, penmanship, drawing and other practical 
 subjects. The kindergarten is free to children of 
 members ; others pay one dollar a month for tuition. 
 Wives and adult daughters of members can join the 
 evening classes, and can take books from the library 
 (over 5,700 volumes) in their own names for twenty- 
 five cents a year. The race mixture at Joliet is shown 
 by the presence of books and periodicals in German, 
 Swedish, Polish and Hungarian. 
 
 There is a committee of the members on benevolent 
 action, and the works have a mutual aid society, with 
 1,400 members : the assessment is 25 cents a month : 
 the relief is 75 cents a day, and $100 in case of 
 death. There is a savings-bank and a mutual life in- 
 surance company in the club, and the club writes fire 
 insurance at the lowest legitimate rates. The mem- 
 bers paying for their houses on installments can bring 
 their papers to the library and receive information as / 
 to their precise financial position : those intending to 
 build can have working plans and specifications made 
 for them without charge. There are cooperative ar- 
 rangements for the purchase of flour, coal and po- 
 tatoes, books, magazines and newspapers, and rail- 
 road and steamship tickets. The librarian furnishes 
 stationery for correspondence free, issues foreign 
 drafts, and domestic and foreign money orders, and 
 exchanges foreign money. An annual flower exhibi- 
 tion, a monthly bulletin, " ladies' day " (Friday of 
 each week) and university extension classes are other 
 things to be noted. The building has a homelike 
 appearance as if run by workingmen for their own 
 comfort, spittoons abound, and no placards exhort the 
 members in the language of " Don't." The influence
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 215 
 
 of the club upon character has been marked, and the 
 generosity of the company is fully appreciated by the 
 more intelligent part of the force. 
 
 The Carnegie Steel Company, of Pittsburg, at its 
 various establishments, the Lucy Furnace, Keystone 
 Bridge Works, Upper and Lower Union Mills, at 
 Pittsburg ; the Homestead Steel Works ; the Edgar 
 Thomson Steel Works, at Braddock, and the Du- 
 quesne Steel Works, employs about 15,000 men. 
 When running full-handed, it pays them some $13,- 
 500,000 a year in wages, about $50,000 a day, 
 and an average of $3 a day to each employee. In 
 1889 Mr. Andrew Carnegie adopted a plan for en- 
 couraging savings by the men and for manifesting the 
 good-will of the company, which has had very bene- 
 ficial results. The company established a savings 
 fund, making no charge for clerical or other service, 
 with the following rules : A first deposit, not less than 
 $3 is received from any employee (from no other 
 person except by special arrangement), and subse- 
 quent deposits can be made in sums not less than 
 $1 up to $2,000 in all: by special arrangement 
 only can this amount be exceeded. On his deposit 
 the employee receives 6 per cent, interest every year, 
 without regard to profits or losses made by the com- 
 pany. Every manager of a department will receive 
 deposits, for the convenience of the employee. The 
 number of depositors availing themselves of this gen- 
 erous rate of interest (fifty per cent, higher than the 
 savings-bank rate in Pittsburg) has been large, and 
 in 1898 a million dollars in round numbers stood to 
 their credit : quite a number of men have had com- 
 pound interest on their deposits for some years. The
 
 216 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 great advantages of this plan to the thrifty employee 
 are obvious : and it is only natural that a Pittsburg 
 paper, speaking of the contention of English iron and 
 steel manufacturers for " the same freedom in the em- 
 ployment of labor as that enjoyed by the Carnegie 
 Steel Association," should remark : " It is important 
 that they should understand exactly what the Carnegie 
 company does." The company has also loaned on 
 long-time mortgages over half a million dollars, to 
 workmen desirous of building houses of their own : a 
 large number have thus acquired homes. 
 
 Mr. Carnegie's high estimation of public libraries 
 as a social force and his munificence in establishing 
 them are well known in Great Britain and the United 
 States. When he promised, some years ago, to erect 
 a library at Homestead, it was before "experience 
 taught us at the Edgar Thomson works that a library 
 was much, but not all." 1 Accordingly, first at Brad- 
 dock and then at Homestead, a little nearer Pittsburg, 
 Mr. Carnegie has built and generously endowed insti- 
 tutions which, while called " libraries " for short, are 
 combination buildings like that at Joliet, and which 
 are more properly to be styled club-houses. The in- 
 stitution at Braddock, the Carnegie club and library, 
 while finely equipped, is surpassed, from the material 
 point of view, by the imposing structure on the hill- 
 side at Homestead. 
 
 The Braddock Library has cost some $300,000 to 
 build and equip, and it receives $10,000 a year from 
 Mr. Carnegie : but this last sum does not include his 
 frequent gifts. Its many activities much resemble 
 
 1 Speech at the dedication of the Carnegie Library, Club-House, and 
 Museum at Homestead, November 5, 1898.
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 217 
 
 those which Mr. Crane formerly superintended at 
 Joliet, while they are maintained on a larger scale. 
 I note, therefore, but a few details. The club fee for 
 employees is one dollar a quarter, for non-employees 
 twice as much. A course of eight lectures and enter- 
 tainments is given once a fortnight for a dollar fee. 
 Classes will be organized for ten persons desiring in- 
 struction in a practical study, for fifty cents a month 
 tuition. Smoke talks and concerts and an annual 
 exhibition of paintings are held. The library proper 
 is free to all the residents of Braddock : it is open 
 Sunday afternoons as well as week days : it has ex- 
 change stations at three centres near, like Wilkins- 
 burg: and it sends traveling libraries of 50 to 100 
 children's books to the schools in outlying districts. 
 The club and library publish a monthly " Journal." 
 
 The Carnegie Library at Homestead is a mag- 
 nificent fireproof building, 228 x 113 feet, in the 
 French Renaissance style. It has a park about it 
 and commands a fine view. The music hall occupies 
 the eastern end: the auditorium seats about 1,200 
 persons, and contains a fine organ, to the right of the 
 stage ; the latter is arranged for theatrical or concert 
 uses. The hall will be rented for entertainments of 
 reputable character, and the use of it is given for 
 the commencements of the high schools of Homestead 
 and Mifflin township, and for meetings " held for 
 the general good of the public." The library proper 
 occupies the centre of the structure : it contains some 
 7,000 volumes, the use of which is free to residents 
 of Homestead and vicinity. Books may be ordered by 
 telephoning to a delivery station in the town : a book 
 will be reserved for an applicant for one cent to pay
 
 218 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 for a postal card notifying him of its return to the 
 library. Access to the shelves is given to the public 
 to select books or to examine those of any one class. 
 There is a special reading-room for children, and a 
 " Library News " published monthly for the whole 
 institution. Over 35,000 volumes were drawn between 
 November 5, 1898, and April 1, 1899. 
 
 The Homestead Library Athletic Club has its quar- 
 ters in the western end of the building, devoted to a 
 gymnasium, baths and swimming pool, bowling alleys, 
 and billiard and card rooms. It is under the control 
 of nine directors elected by the members. The mem- 
 ber eighteen years of age or older pays four dollars 
 in one payment or six dollars in quarterly payments, 
 if an employee : other persons (217 out of a total of 
 1,198, January 1, 1899) pay six or eight dollars, ac- 
 cording to the time of payment. Women pay one dollar 
 a quarter and boys under eighteen, fifty cents, for the 
 use of the club in limited hours : boys are not admitted 
 to the billiard or card rooms. The library endowment 
 supplements the fees received. Forty classes in the 
 gymnasium numbered 904 in January, 1899. There 
 are committees on bicycling, baseball, Rugby, cricket, 
 football, bowling, tennis and quoits, as well as for 
 the other usual purposes. Grounds for outdoor sports 
 will be laid out. The educational department of the 
 club will be developed, the institution so splendidly 
 housed being yet in its infancy. Doubtless Mr. Car- 
 negie will be able to say of it in time, as of the Brad- 
 dock club, that its " influence has been as potent as it 
 has been beneficial and surprising." 1 
 
 1 Mr. Carnegie has announced his intention of building a similar 
 library and club-house at Duquesne, a few miles from Homestead.
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 219 
 
 The Cambria Steel Company (formerly the Cambria 
 Iron Company), of Johnstown, Penn., maintains a public 
 library with some 10,000 volumes. In the library building 
 is a good gymnasium, used by the Athletic Club. The com- 
 pany has a public hall, the use of which is given for enter- 
 tainments, lectures and Christian Association meetings at a 
 nominal sum. It has established classes for mechanical 
 drawing, and gives rooms for the meetings of art and mu- 
 sical associations. The Cambria Mutual Benefit Associa- 
 tion competes successfully with the benevolent and fraternal 
 orders, often supplementing their assistance, and is more 
 liberal than the accident-insurance companies. Membership 
 is voluntary ; on October 31, 1898, there were 8,170 mem- 
 bers : dues received from members during the year were 
 $68,356.30 ; the pro rata donation of the company was 
 $7,392.58; the total receipts were $88,968.80; the dis- 
 bursements were $72,183.73 ($5,090 for hospital expenses 
 and furnishing), and the balance was $16,785.07. Mem- 
 bers are classified as general and special. General members 
 are all those not over forty-five years (1) who pay 30 cents a 
 month, and receive three dollars a week for disability ($30 
 for funeral expenses) ; (2) who pay 40 cents, and receive 
 four dollars for disability ($40 for funeral) ; (3) who pay 50 
 cents and receive five dollars ($50 for funeral). An em- 
 ployee over forty-five years can join either of the forego- 
 ing divisions by paying 25 cents a month additional. The 
 special class consists of ordinary shop hands, clerks, women 
 employed in factories, and outside laborers, paying 75 cents 
 monthly ; and of all other employees in and about the mines, 
 mills and works, including mechanics and machinists who 
 pay one dollar a month : if between forty-five and fifty-five 
 years of age, a member of the special class pays 25 cents 
 a month additional. The benefits to all alike are five dol- 
 lars a week for disability; $50 for funeral expenses, in 
 case of death from disease or from general accidents ; $500 
 in case of the loss of a hand or a foot by accident while at 
 work, or going to, or returning from it ; $1,000 in case of
 
 220 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 total blindness resulting from an accident under the same 
 conditions, and $200 if the accident happened while at work 
 and caused the loss of an eye, the greater benefits covering 
 the less ; needless exposure on a railway track vitiates the 
 member's claim. The company erected a hospital which 
 the association maintains. The company acts as treasurer ; 
 supplies office room and clerical service free ; contributes 
 one dollar a year for each member, and guarantees the pay- 
 ment of all benefits. In return, the member releases the 
 company from liability to actions for 1 damages so long as 
 he is a member. 
 
 The employees (1,000 in number) of the Ingersoll-Ser- 
 geant Drill Company, of Easton, Perm., started a 
 mutual benefit association, modeled on the Cambria associ- 
 ation, January 1, 1899 ; it numbers already 518 members. 
 The contribution is but 25 cents a month : the benefits are 
 those of the special class in the Cambria association ($50 
 more for funeral expenses). 
 
 The Pennsylvania Steel Company, of Steelton, 
 Penn., has given to that borough a large modern style 
 schoolhouse, and established in it a small library for the 
 pupils and for the citizens of the town. The company pro- 
 vides informally for workmen disabled by accident or old 
 age. The branch of this company at Sparrow's Point, 
 near Baltimore, has there a tract of 1,000 acres of land ; it 
 owns all the schools, boarding-houses and dwellings, but 
 leases the sites of the different churches. A branch savings- 
 bank, not managed by the company, is well patronized. No 
 liquor is sold, and prices at the company's store are lower 
 than the prevailing rates ; there is a small club-house. 
 
 The Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company has mines 
 and furnaces at Marquette, Ishpeming, and other 
 points in Marquette County, Michigan, on Lake Supe- 
 rior. Its benefit fund works as follows : From each 
 employee's monthly pay thirty cents is deducted, and 
 the company contributes an equal amount. For every
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 221 
 
 fatal accident or total disablement $500 is paid. To 
 men partially disabled in the mine, and having to stop 
 work, payment is made at the rate of $25 per month 
 for a married man, and $20 for a single man. These 
 payments are made on the authority and requisition of 
 the physician in charge of the hospital. The company 
 leaves the accounts perfectly open, and defrays the 
 entire charge of keeping them. A joint committee of 
 the men and the company worked unsatisfactorily, the 
 men paying but little attention to it, and it being 
 difficult to get them to attend a meeting to approve 
 items of expenditure : it was therefore abandoned eight 
 or nine years ago, and there has been no complaint. 
 The hospital service is maintained by deductions from 
 the pay of each man of one dollar a month. This is 
 paid to a corps of physicians and surgeons, who keep 
 an excellent hospital, dispensary and pharmacy, and, 
 without any further charge to the men or their fam- 
 ilies, attend them in all cases of sickness as well as 
 accidents, at their houses, if they can be properly 
 cared for there, or if not, at the hospital. The com- 
 pany contributes no money for this, but simply exer- 
 cises its judgment as to the efficiency and character 
 of the physicians and surgeons. The several mining 
 companies in the city of Ishpeming unite in this hos- 
 pital plan, and thus enough money is collected to em- 
 ploy a very efficient medical service. The company 
 pays prizes for the best-kept premises, for vine plant- 
 ing and for window-box gardening this year these 
 prizes are twelve amounting to $148 ; four amount- 
 ing to $30 ; and four amounting to $20 respectively ; 
 the competitors obtain plants and shrubs at reduced 
 prices. The mines employ an average of 1,200 men.
 
 222 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 The number of persons to whom competition for these 
 prizes is open is about 650, including those renting 
 houses or simply town lots from the company. On 
 its steamboats the company employs about 250 men ; 
 it insists that the quarters of the sailors be kept 
 cleaner than is customary, these being provided with 
 facilities for the occupants to keep them in order, 
 and suitable bath arrangements. The vessels are in- 
 spected once or twice a year, and reports are sent 
 around to the various ships, thus stimulating each to 
 make a good record. The engineers and firemen re- 
 ceive prizes awarded to the force of the boat which 
 has made the most improvement during the year. 
 Prizes are given to the captains who bring their ships 
 through the season without accident. 
 
 The Pope Manufacturing Company, of Hartford, 
 Conn., shows its interest in the comfort of its 3,000 
 workmen in various ways. In the basements of the 
 several buildings in which the manufacture of bicycles 
 is carried on, each man has a spacious locker for 
 himself, with all the facilities for quick cleaning up. 
 Warm water is kept flowing by the rows of lockers, 
 for the first rinsing, and each locker has its individual 
 faucet with cold water for the final washing. A bicycle 
 stable is provided for the large number who ride the 
 wheel. Most of the men bring their dinner or buy it 
 at the lunch counter, where everything is of good 
 quality and sold at a cost price. A large bowl of 
 soup or stew is sold for five cents, the price of two large 
 mugs of coffee or a bowl of crackers and milk. The 
 company has an ample lunch-room capable of accom- 
 modating 1,000 persons : after dinner the men smoke 
 and play cards, or go into the large adjoining room,
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN' 223 
 
 which is stocked with daily and weekly papers and 
 magazines, and has a small library. There is a brass 
 band and an orchestra, made up of employees. The 
 Pope Company Mutual Benefit Association, with 300 
 members, pays $6 a week relief in case of sickness 
 and -150 for funeral expenses. 
 
 Whitinsville, Mass., is a notable instance of the 
 advantages resulting from the ownership of an in- 
 dustry continuing from the first to the third genera- 
 tion in the same family, residing in the factory town 
 itself. The Whitins now number several distinct 
 households, the heads of which are engaged in the 
 general cotton machinery manufacture originated be- 
 tween 1825 and 1830. The village itself is one of the 
 most complete examples to be found in the United 
 States of a manufacturing place dominated by a single 
 industry in the hands of one family. (In the present 
 corporation half-a-dozen Whitins are the paramount 
 owners of stock and the conductors of the business.) 
 One reaches Whitinsville by the railroad running from 
 Worcester, Mass., to Providence, R. L, getting off at 
 a station called Whitins'. A few rods away is a 
 cotton-mill employing some 100 hands which is owned 
 by the Whitins : a few neat tenements stand near. 
 On the other side of the mill pond is the residence of 
 one of the family. Keeping on in the same direction 
 for a mile and a half, the omnibus brings us into Whit- 
 insville itself : the carriage has followed through the 
 pine woods a railroad track used for freighting from 
 the village to Whitins' station. On this line runs the 
 first electric motor used for freight purposes in the 
 country : it is now, of course, somewhat out of date in 
 its style. A more conservative tendency of the family
 
 224 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 was shown in the late introduction of the electric 
 light, and it still appears in the conspicuous absence of 
 a trolley line between the village and the station. 
 
 In Whitinsville we find at once the marks of a high- 
 class New England village fine roads with asphalt 
 sidewalks and well-shaded, flower gardens about the 
 residences not owned by the company, churches and 
 schools in abundance. We see another cotton-mill 
 on the left before coming to the great and special 
 industry of the place, the manufacture of machinery 
 for the cotton business, in which 1,500 men are em- 
 ployed. The men are chiefly a high grade of Irish, 
 the business demanding more than usual intelligence. 
 They live, with their families, in some 300 houses 
 owned by the Whitins (who offer no special induce- 
 ments to them to become owners of homes). These 
 tenements are considerably above the average of those 
 to be seen in the ordinary cotton manufacturing town, 
 but the range is great from a few old houses on a side 
 street (quite out of keeping with the general looks of 
 the place) through the large number of very decent 
 houses up to the attractive cottages near the pond 
 above the village. Opposite the machinery works is 
 the old Whitin house, surrounded by beautiful grounds, 
 in full view from the street. 
 
 A short distance down the street is the Memorial 
 Building erected on a central corner by the Whitins 
 over twenty years ago. This was before the archi- 
 tectural revival due largely to the Philadelphia Ex- 
 position in 1876, and the building, though large and 
 commodious, has not the beauty of similar halls in 
 other New England villages. It has more of the air of 
 a plain high schoolhouse. It contains a large hall in
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 225 
 
 the second story for lectures and entertainments: 
 several smaller halls and class-rooms, and a library for 
 the village, for the use of which a dollar a year is 
 charged. 1 As the centre of the town (Northbridge) 
 is at some distance, with its town hall, this memorial 
 hall supplies its place for all those general purposes 
 which the town hall serves in New England. 2 
 
 The school system of Whitinsville is provided with 
 a fine high school and other buildings for lower grades : 
 ff 80,000 is reported to have been the cost of all these: 
 evening schools are held. When it is known that 
 some 76 per cent, of the property in the village is held 
 by the Whitins, it will be seen that a large part of 
 the expense of keeping up the roads, the schools and 
 other public institutions must be borne by them, at 
 their own instance or by vote of town meeting. Purely 
 voluntary gifts made by the family are the point of 
 land made into a little park in the centre of the village, 
 
 and the handsome stone church of the Congregational- 
 
 * 
 
 1 Where, as in Whitinsville, one learns that a library of this kind is 
 not largely used, it is well to remember that in this day of free public 
 libraries, any fee, however small, has the effect of restricting the cir- 
 culation greatly. Uniformly experience has shown that the removal 
 of the fee is followed by an increase of the number of card-holders to 
 sixfold the previous list at least. In small communities, again, the 
 custom can safely be followed always successful where it obtains 
 of leaving the books, uncovered, on shelves entirely accessible to 
 the frequenters of the library. No community can fairly be called 
 disinclined to reading if it has not free access of this sort to the books 
 in a public library. The small losses thus incurred sometimes are 
 much more than counterbalanced by the many advantages of the 
 plan. 
 
 2 M. E. Levasseur in his valuable work, L'Ouvrier Amfricain, makes 
 the mistake of asserting that there is no municipal administration in 
 Whitinsville, i. e. that it is separate from the town of Northbridge 
 in which it lies. He is more correct in stating that no liquor is 
 allowed to be sold in the village.
 
 226 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 ists (to the expense of which the family was the chief 
 contributor). The thrifty habits of the workpeople 
 are indicated by the fact that in 1896 the savings- 
 bank of the place had $633,000 on deposit, at 4 per 
 cent, interest. 
 
 Hopedale, Mass., is one of the most finished and 
 best kept manufacturing villages anywhere to be 
 found ; there is a large absence of the usual depress- 
 ing features, and evidences abound of private taste 
 and the employer's liberality. The place owes its 
 name to Rev. Adin Ballou, who established here on 
 Mill River in 1841 the most sensible and practical of 
 Christian Socialist communities. 1 This did not have 
 a sufficient financial foundation, and the Hopedale 
 community had to give place in 1856 to the manufac- 
 turing and mechanical talent of the Draper family, 
 who have by no means desired to extirpate the kindly 
 spirit of the earlier years of Hopedale, which is still 
 much in evidence under other forms. 
 
 The population of the town (set off from Milford 
 in 1886) is 1,100, nearly all of whom are connected 
 with the shops where the Draper Company, the suc- 
 cessor of five preceding firms (capital 6,000,000), 
 manufactures machinery for cotton - mills, looms, 
 "temples," adjustable spinning-rings, spindles, etc., 
 over 100 kinds of machines in all. Of the 1,400 men 
 at work, the great majority come from the adjoining 
 towns where shoemakmg and farming have been the 
 chief industries. The population is not stable beyond 
 some 40 per cent. : the skilled mechanics are restless 
 and ambitious to improve their lot, and much inclined 
 
 1 See the History of the Hopedale Community, by Adin Ballou, 
 edited by W. S. Heywood. Thompson & Hill, Lowell, Mass., 1897.
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 227 
 
 to move away after a few years, though they fre- 
 quently return : they do not care, as a rule, to own 
 their houses. Under these circumstances, the com- 
 pany largely owns the dwellings of the place : there are 
 no tenements of the usual style, and the variety of the 
 cottages is great. Nearly all the company's houses 
 have lawns, bathrooms, furnaces and all the modern 
 conveniences, water, gas and electric light, with good 
 drainage : garbage and ashes are removed every day 
 or two by the town authorities. Sanitary rules are 
 strict and all buildings are kept in good repair by the 
 company. Prizes amounting to $200 are offered 
 annually for the best looking yards, etc. Rents vary 
 from $ 6 to $20 a month : in years past they have paid 
 the company from 2 to 4 per cent, on its investment : 
 there are two large boarding-houses or hotels, owned 
 by the company and leased. 
 
 The Hopedale Mutual Benefit Association is an en- 
 tirely independent organization. For the six months 
 ending June 1, 1899, its receipts were $1,208.30, and 
 its expenditures $706.85 : in eleven years the asso- 
 ciation paid to disabled members $8,118.88, and to 
 representatives of deceased members $2,300. The 
 clergyman of the Hopedale Parish or some one of its 
 organizations relieves cases of distress not provided 
 for by the association, with funds contributed by indi- 
 viduals or the treasuries of these bodies. 
 
 George A. Draper and Eben S. Draper, sons of 
 George Draper, have built a fine church of stone in 
 memory of their parents, at an expense of some 
 $60,000, replacing Adin Ballou's simple structure. 
 A town hall of brick was a gift to the new munici- 
 pality from George Draper. It contains a well-selected
 
 228 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 4 
 
 library of 7,000 volumes: the town appropriates $500 
 a year for new books and $1,000 for administration. 
 Mr. J. B. Bancroft, of the company, is building a 
 handsome public library of granite, to cost $40,000, 
 as a memorial to his wife. A statue of Adin Ballou 
 will soon be erected in this dale where his hope has 
 experienced such a sea-change. 
 
 The National Cash Register Company, of Day- 
 ton, Ohio, has deservedly attracted much attention 
 in the last three or four years on account of the con- 
 sistency and thoroughness with which the two brothers, 
 J. H. Patterson (president) and F. J. Patterson 
 (vice-president), have reorganized the usual factory 
 regime. The ordinary superintendent has been done 
 away with, for some five years. " The entire business 
 is conducted, under the direction of the president, 
 vice-president and general manager, by a series of 
 committees. For the business departments there is the 
 executive committee, composed of nine members, with 
 the general manager of the company as chairman and 
 executive officer, under whom is the direction of the 
 general policy of the business and the conduct of its 
 affairs. The working department is controlled by a 
 factory committee of five experts in various lines of 
 factory work, each of whom acts as chairman in turn. 
 This committee meets regularly for general consulta- 
 tion. . . . The duties are such as are generally as- 
 signed to a superintendent and his assistants. . . . 
 There are besides an invention committee, the office 
 committee, and other similar groups having special 
 duties to perform. . . . The selling-force ... is under 
 the immediate supervision of seven district managers, 
 who are responsible to the manager of agencies. . . .
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 229 
 
 They meet at the factory every few months. . . . 
 Each of these committees and divisions has its special 
 work, and makes its decisions independently. . . . 
 Important matters . . . may be carried from the 
 lower to the higher for decision. Only matters of 
 the greatest importance are referred to the president 
 and vice-president, so that a large portion of their 
 time may be devoted to the study of methods for en- 
 larging and extending the business." l 
 
 A series of monitor-boards in colors takes the place 
 of record, stock and other books, for the ordering and 
 planning of the work of the committees and the de- 
 partments. The company practices the greatest pub- 
 licity with its employees ; placards inform the workers 
 of the number of registers to be made, the orders on 
 hand, and the size of shipments. Frequent meetings 
 of all or a part of the factory force are held, semi- 
 monthly meetings of the foremen of factory depart- 
 ments (sixty-five in all), and annual conventions of 
 the salesmen (some 300) and the employees (1,500), 
 lasting during a whole week. 
 
 The company encourages employees in several ways 
 to make suggestions or criticisms. In every depart- 
 ment is an autographic register which receives sugges- 
 tions in duplicate, the employee keeping his own draft. 
 In 1897 some 4,000 suggestions were thus made, of 
 which 1,078 were adopted : in 1898, 2,500 were made, 
 the number naturally diminishing with time and the 
 improvement of the manufacture. Every six months 
 
 1 See the handsome pamphlet issued by the company, A New Era 
 in Manufacturing. The company publishes a variety of papers and 
 pamphlets describing its business, which it distributes widely. It 
 makes great use of the printing-press, doing its own work in this 
 line.
 
 230 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 $615 in gold are given in prizes varying from $5 to 
 $50, to the fifty members of the factory and office 
 forces who make the best suggestions for improvement 
 in the manufacture of registers, or in the conduct of 
 the business. Officers and heads of departments, with 
 their assistants, are debarred from competition. The 
 presentation of prizes is made the occasion of an 'out- 
 door festival in summer, with music and fireworks, 
 and a celebration in the Dayton Opera House in the 
 winter. Public monitor boards in the making, selling 
 and recording divisions show the proficiency of each 
 department in the five most important elements of its 
 work, in the factory, for instance, health, punctu- 
 ality, quality, quantity and cost ; these records are 
 printed in the semi-monthly magazine, the " N. C. E,." 
 The department showing the highest standing for the 
 month is the prize department, and it receives a ban- 
 ner which hangs in its room during the following 
 month. The department with the best record for the 
 year receives a special prize, usually a day's trip to 
 Cincinnati with a special entertainment and all ex- 
 penses paid. Monitor boards are used largely in 
 other directions by committees and departments. The 
 employment bureau thus keeps a record of all persons 
 employed and of all the applications made. Only 
 high school graduates are eligible for office work ; only 
 men educated in mechanical and manual training 
 schools for some of the factory rooms ; and, after 1915, 
 a placard facing the entrance gives notice that no one 
 will be engaged who has not attended a kindergarten 
 in childhood. 
 
 The company pays great attention to the pleasant- 
 ness and healthfulness of the surroundings of the
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 231 
 
 employees. The buildings, plainly furnished, are no- 
 tably light, clean and cheerful looking; palms and 
 flowers are seen in various places, and the factory 
 grounds were laid out by a landscape gardener. The 
 South Park of Dayton, as this quarter is now called, 
 has been made very attractive by the pains which the 
 company has taken to encourage improvement : it gives 
 prizes, through the Improvement Association, to the 
 extent of $250 a year, for the best kept houses, back 
 yards, window-boxes, ornamental planting and vine 
 planting. It supplies ground, tools, seed and instruc- 
 tion for forty boys to learn vegetable gardening, with 
 prizes of $50 a year. 
 
 The men work nine and one half hours a day with 
 ten hours' pay. Each employee can take a bath 
 weekly or oftener (twenty minutes time allowed) in 
 work-hours, in the company's bathrooms. The two 
 hundred young women employed work in separate de- 
 partments from the men : they come to work an hour 
 later and leave ten minutes earlier, eight hours' 
 work for ten hours' pay, reckoning the ten minutes' 
 recess, morning and afternoon. Luncheon is served 
 free in the pretty dining-room on the fourth floor : 
 coffee, tea or milk, and the hot portion of a good 
 luncheon are supplied from a model kitchen : the girls 
 bring whatever else they wish. A rest-room is at the 
 service of the indisposed : a piano, purchased by the 
 young women, and reading matter are available during 
 the noon-hour. The women have regular holidays 
 during the year : they are furnished aprons and over- 
 sleeves, laundered free of charge, and they sit at work 
 in chairs with high backs and foot-rests. 
 
 The general charge of the numerous institutions
 
 232 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 which the Cash Register Company maintains for the 
 benefit of its employees is in the hands of the Ad- 
 vance Department. The list includes a kindergarten 
 with 100 pupils; a school of mechanics, meeting 
 Thursday evening (some 300 men in the company's 
 employ study in various schools) ; a small library, 
 which is also a branch of the Dayton public library ; 
 an industrial school for 110 girls on Saturday morn- 
 ing ; a cooking class for about the same number, twice 
 a week ; sewing and cooking classes for women ; a mil- 
 linery school ; the boys' gardens ; a penny bank, and a 
 kitchen-garden for children ; the domestic economy de- 
 partment ; a dancing school with three classes ; a boys' 
 club ; an autoharp club ; a janitors' glee club (twenty- 
 four members) ; a band and orchestra ; and boys' and 
 girls' gymnasium classes. Most of these activities centre 
 in the N. C. R. House, a cottage across the street, 
 which is also a kind of social settlement on a small 
 scale, with a deaconess in charge. 
 
 Other organizations, meeting chiefly in the factory 
 buildings or in the N. C. R. Hall, in the centre of 
 Dayton (used also for lectures and entertainments, 
 largely at the company's expense), are the Relief 
 Association with 933 paying members, quarterly 
 receipts about $1,000, and expenses $725 ; the Ad- 
 vance Club, which includes the officers and upper 
 employees, meeting once a week for an hour and a 
 half in work hours, to consider suggestions and com- 
 plaints ; the Women's Century Club (208 members) ; 
 the Women's Guild (93 members) ; the South Park 
 Girls' Literary Club (140 members) ; the Men's Pro- 
 gress Club, with 369 members ; the Young People's 
 Club ; the Bicycle Club (90 members) ; the Boys'
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 233 
 
 Military Brigade (120) ; and two Improvement As- 
 sociations. The company takes an interest in many 
 sides of the life of its employees, from their 500 
 bicycles which it cares for in stables, to their children, 
 for 700 of whom it supports a Sunday-school, with a 
 teachers' association : " Pleasant Sunday Afternoons " 
 is the weekly record of the school, and a leaflet ex- 
 plains the special lesson, which may be devoted to 
 music, flowers, or home-care, as well as to Bible truths. 
 The great business success of the National Cash 
 Register Company is undoubtedly due, in large part, 
 to the good feeling which its sincere efforts to benefit 
 its employees have engendered. Six years ago it was 
 losing $1,000 per day ; there were many strikes and 
 lockouts, and the factory was set on fire three times, 
 "supposedly by disaffected employees." Now the 
 visitor remarks at once not only the high degree of 
 intelligence of the force, but the pervading feeling and 
 spirit of cooperation in a common cause. A situation 
 in the factory is eagerly sought : 4,000 applications 
 for employment are sometimes on file ; the banners, 
 the prizes, and the monitor boards are genuine and 
 effective stimulants ; but the friendly feeling of the em- 
 ployer for the employed, shown hi so many and varied 
 ways, is the great secret of the company's prosperity. 
 It is an open secret, for visitors are welcomed and 
 many come ; much is put into print and widely circu- 
 lated which is elsewhere jealously hidden. The com- 
 pany figures that the luncheon given to the girls costs 
 three cents, and that the woman does five cents more 
 work each day ; this it holds to be a paying invest- 
 ment. In all its other arrangements for the comfort 
 of its employees the company finds " it pays " to be
 
 234 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 kindly. The result is a very notable combination of 
 business sagacity and humane helpfulness: it will 
 doubtless exert great influence. 1 
 
 The Stillwell-Bierce and Smith-Vaile Company, 
 of Dayton, Ohio, engineers and contractors, has adopted 
 the factory committee, instead of the superintendent, to 
 take charge of the shop. It is made up from the officers of 
 the company and heads of departments in the engineering 
 division, and holds daily sessions. Suggestions are invited 
 from every employee, and those that prove of practical 
 value are paid for. The men's beneficiary association pays 
 five dollars a week benefit. Many of the men have secured 
 homes through the building and loan associations for which 
 Dayton is noted. 
 
 The Cincinnati (Ohio) Milling Machine Company, 
 makers of fine machine tools, employs 240 men. On May 
 1, 1899, it advanced wages and, in addition, offered its em- 
 ployees a quarterly dividend on wages " depending upon 
 the increased output that they might bring about through 
 increased efforts : our cost-book will show the gain in pro- 
 duction per man." The company awards $250 semi-annu- 
 ally in prizes for suggestions for the benefit of the industry ; 
 any suggestions used but not receiving a prize " will be paid 
 for at their actual value." The company provides an annual 
 outing for its employees and their families : each employee 
 receives a turkey at Christmas, and the heads of depart- 
 ments additional presents. The company intends soon to 
 provide a kitchen, dining-room, baths and a club-room for 
 its men. 
 
 The Acme Sucker Rod Company, of Toledo. Ohio, 
 the head of which is Mayor S. M. Jones, employs 50 men. 
 The day's work is eight hours. Mayor Jones declares that 
 it costs $40 to $50 more to drill an oil well on this tune 
 
 1 See an excellent article in the American Journal of Sociology for 
 May, 1898, by Paul Monroe, " Possibilities of the Present Industrial 
 System."
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 235 
 
 than on the twelve-hour plan. The employees receive a 
 week's outing with pay, and for four years they have had a 
 dividend of five per cent, on wages handed to them at 
 Christmas. Each employee is addressed in the dividend 
 letter as u Dear Brother," and a booklet accompanies it set- 
 ting forth Mayor Jones' views of the need of social reform. 
 The Golden Rule is framed on the walls of the factory as 
 the factoi-y rule. Golden Rule Park is a corner lot next 
 the works, which has become a playground for children, and 
 a pleasant resort for their parents : at " Pleasant Sunday 
 Afternoons " the questions of the day are discussed : in the 
 winter months Golden Rule Hall is used. There is a coop- 
 erative insurance plan in effect among the employees. 
 
 North Eastern, Mass., is distinguished among New 
 England manufacturing villages by the possession of 
 a series of public buildings, the work of the famous 
 architect, H. H. Richardson, and the gift to the town 
 of the Ames family. Oliver Ames, the first of that 
 name in the shovel manufacture, learned the indus- 
 try of his father, who began it in West Bridgewater 
 as early as 1776. The son set up in business for 
 himself at North Easton in 1803 ; 1 Ziba Randall's 
 account-book charges Oliver Ames one dollar, " april 
 17, 1805, for Carting 6 Dousin of Shovels to boston." 
 This was the manufacture which now employs some 
 500 men and turns out nearly a million and a half of 
 shovels every year. 
 
 Oliver Ames, 2d, a son of the first Oliver, has been 
 the special benefactor of the place. His first gift 
 was a beautiful stone church, built at an expense of 
 $100,000 a gift supplemented by $30,000 for the 
 erection of a parsonage, and the perpetual care of the 
 
 1 See the History of Easton, by W. L. Chaffin, pp. 593, 594 a 
 model town history.
 
 236 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 two buildings and the adjoining cemetery (the gift of 
 the Ames family). Mr. Ames died in 1877, and his 
 will contained several important public bequests. A 
 sum of $50,000 was left for a free library of which 
 one half was to provide a building, one fifth books, 
 and the balance a fund for maintenance. The hit- 
 ter amount was nearly tripled by his widow, and 
 the generosity of his daughter was such that, when 
 the library was opened, the amount that had been 
 spent on the building and books and cataloguing was 
 nearly $80,000 ; there are now 12,000 volumes on the 
 shelves. 
 
 A second bequest by Oliver Ames was a fund of a 
 like amount for the improvement of the highways of 
 the town, on condition that the town should, every 
 year, add $2,000 to the income. In 1886 his nephew, 
 Governor Oliver Ames, son of Oakes Ames, gave 
 $2,000 for planting shade trees by the roads, on con- 
 dition that the town appropriate $500 for the same 
 purpose: this gift was to be renewed annually until 
 all the roads should be well shaded. 
 
 In 1868 Oliver Ames and Sons (now a corpora- 
 tion) built a large three-story schoolhouse (for high 
 and grammar grades) from the foundation, at an 
 expense of $40,000. A third bequest from Oliver 
 Ames, 2d, a fund of $50,000, was made for the benefit 
 of the schools of Easton. Provision was wisely made 
 that the town should every year appropriate a sum 
 at least equal to the average amount raised per 
 scholar, in the preceding year, by the towns of the 
 State. In 1896 the Oliver Ames High School building, 
 costing $70,000, was dedicated. Oakes Ames, the 
 eldest son of the original Oliver, left $50,000 by will
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 237 
 
 " for the support of schools in, and for the benefit of 
 the children in, what is now School District No. 7, 
 in North Easton ; " the population of Easton (some 
 5,000) is mainly in the North village. The income 
 of this fund has been used for various purposes. 
 " Illustrated and scientific lectures are given weekly 
 through the winter months in Memorial Hall, in- 
 tended more especially for the children, but open to 
 all without admission fee." Magazines ("St. Nich- 
 olas " and others) have been placed in each family in 
 North Easton having children in school ; and members 
 of the Ames family have extended this gift to the rest 
 of the town. This fund has also provided supple- 
 mentary books and apparatus for the schools, teachers 
 and supplies for the industrial classes (sewing and 
 cooking for the girls, and wood-working and mechan- 
 ical drawing for the boys), physical training, and a 
 kindergarten. 
 
 The Memorial Hall, the most imposing building in 
 North Easton, was erected by the children of Oakes 
 Ames. Built on high ground, upon a natural ledge, 
 it contains two small halls on the first floor, a large 
 hall on the second floor, and a Masonic hall above. 
 It is one of the most striking works of Richardson's 
 genius, which is also seen in the library, the hand- 
 some railway station (a gift to the road by F. L. 
 Ames, son of Oliver Ames, 2d), and the picturesque 
 lodge at the entrance of the F. L. Ames grounds. 
 The shovel business is now in the hands of the third 
 and fourth generations all the Ameses, who super- 
 intend it, first learning the trade in the stone shops. 
 
 St. Johnsbury, Vt., is a manufacturing village 
 properly named in connection with North Easton.
 
 238 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 E. and T. Fairbanks and Company here manufacture 
 over 60,000 scales annually, employing more than 
 1,000 men, the largest factory of the kind in exist- 
 ence. The labor employed is mostly of a high grade, 
 the men being of American birth, largely from the 
 surrounding towns. Thrift and taste mark the whole 
 place ; the workmen are home-owners, and many have 
 been in the employ of the firm from twenty to forty 
 years. A kindly feeling between the two parties 
 has always prevailed. " The senior (Governor) Fair- 
 banks used to say to the men, ' You should always 
 come to me as to a father.' " He taught economy and 
 industry in theory and in practice. " His sons worked 
 in the shop, and thoroughly learned the trade." 
 
 Formerly the employees sustained a lyceum with 
 the aid of the firm, liberal prizes being offered for the 
 best essays read. Horace Fairbanks founded a free 
 library and reading-room and an art gallery. The 
 Athenaeum building contains also a large lecture hall. 
 There are now 12,000 volumes in the library. Dr. B. G. 
 Northrop wrote, some fifteen years ago, " Having 
 visited nearly every town of Massachusetts and Con- 
 necticut, and traveled widely in this country, I have 
 nowhere found in a village of this size an art gallery 
 so costly and so well supplied with paintings and 
 statuary, a reading-room so inviting, and a library so 
 choice and excellent as this." Thaddeus Fairbanks, 
 another founder of the scale factory, built and en- 
 dowed the St. Johnsbury Academy, at an expense of 
 1200,000. A Young Men's Christian Association 
 building was the gift of Henry Fairbanks, and the 
 Museum of Natural History was presented to the town 
 by Franklin Fairbanks, then the head of the company.
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 239 
 
 The widely known industrial community of Pull- 
 man, 111., is probably the most remarkable attempt 
 yet made to establish a model town for workmen. It 
 was begun in May, 1880, by the Pullman's Palace Car 
 Company, which had then a capital of some sixteen 
 million dollars, with two million dollars more in deben- 
 ture bonds, 1 and could manufacture in 1885 eight mil- 
 lion dollars' worth of freight and passenger cars. Mr. 
 George M. Pullman, desiring to give the large num- 
 ber of workmen the benefits of good air, drainage and 
 water, and freedom from the temptations of a great 
 city, secured 4,000 acres of land on the Illinois Cen- 
 tral road, ten miles south of Chicago, in the town of 
 Hyde Park ; the city has since annexed the whole 
 town, but Pullman has still the advantages of a sub- 
 urb. It covers 300 acres, and lies on the west shore 
 of Lake Calumet, which drains into Lake Michi- 
 gan, three miles distant ; there are no marshes near, 
 and the land about the town is well ditched. The 
 company first expended nearly a million dollars on a 
 thoroughly scientific scheme of drainage. One system 
 of pipes and sewers takes the rainfall directly into 
 Lake Calumet, securing a good cellar for every house. 
 A second system conducts house sewage into a large 
 reservoir with a capacity of 300,000 gallons, under 
 the water-tower ; the sewage is immediately pumped 
 to a large model farm, " now a source of profit ; " no 
 offensive odor can be perceived at the tower or the 
 farm. The water-tower which pumps its supply from 
 Lake Michigan stands in the centre of Pullman. 
 
 1 The capital in 1894 was $36,000,000, with $25,000,000 surplus. 
 The value of the real estate in Pullman had also increased greatly. 
 See the Report of the Chicago Strike Commission of 1894.
 
 240 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 The company then proceeded to build the town, 
 which in 1884 had 1,520 brick tenements in houses 
 and flats, with a frontage of five miles of solidly paved 
 streets. The town was laid out by skilled architects, 
 civil engineers and landscape gardeners, and it pre- 
 sents a preeminently neat and attractive appearance. 
 The houses, mostly in blocks, and ranging from those 
 rented in flats for the unskilled laborers, to the few 
 which stand apart, were built in a great variety of 
 styles, the sky-line being much diversified. The 
 streets (eight miles in 1894) are wide, well shaded 
 and well kept, and are sprinkled daily. The com- 
 pany erected a large market-house, the only place 
 where meats and vegetables are sold ; a fine arcade, 
 containing offices, shops, a bank, a library and a 
 theatre, all shopping being under cover in these 
 two buildings ; and a handsome hotel, which keeps the 
 only bar allowed in the place ; naturally, saloons abound 
 in Kensington and other quarters near, but it is a 
 great gain for temperance to have only one open bar 
 in Pullman. 
 
 The company does not sell land or houses, and is 
 thus the one landlord. It stated in 1894 that the net 
 revenue from the place was never six per cent, on the 
 entire cost (which is said to have been eight million 
 dollars) ; 4| per cent, was realized in some years. 
 It keeps in order the lawns before the houses, collects 
 garbage, and provides for usual repairs : it deducts 
 rent from wages as these are paid. Rents range from 
 $4 a month, for the cheapest flat of two rooms, to 
 $100 for the largest separate house in the place ; the 
 usual rent is from $14 to $25. Each house has water, 
 gas and numerous closets. Most of the houses are
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 241 
 
 two stories in height, containing five rooms, besides 
 cellar and pantry ; a large number have seven rooms 
 and a bathroom. The rentals " are a little higher 
 for the same number of rooms than in Chicago ; but 
 in Chicago the tenement would be in a narrow street 
 or alley, while in Pullman it is on a broad avenue, 
 where no garbage is allowed to collect, where all 
 houses have a back-street entrance, where the sewage 
 arrives at a farm in three hours' time from its being 
 deposited, and where beauty, order and cleanliness pre- 
 vail and fresh air abounds." When these advantages 
 are considered, " the rent rates are in reality much 
 lower." 1 
 
 Pullman had 8,513 inhabitants on September 30, 
 
 1884, and 14,000 in 1894, half of whom were born 
 in the United States : in 1884 some 3,000 workmen 
 were employed in the car works, and another thou- 
 sand in related industries in the brick yards, the ice 
 business and the carpenter shop ; in 1893 the whole 
 number was 6,324 ; the great company laundry em- 
 ploys women. Wages, which reached a total of more 
 than seven million dollars in 1893, have been "some- 
 what higher than those paid for like work in other 
 
 1 See the Sixteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Statistics of 
 Labor of Massachusetts, dated in August, 1885. Part I. of this Report, 
 devoted to Pullman, was based upon a three days' study of the place, 
 in September, 1884, by thirteen representatives of labor bureaus of as 
 many States, with the present U. S. Commissioner of Labor at their 
 head. The report was signed by the thirteen gentlemen, and pub- 
 lished in the reports of their States for 1885. It is the most judicial 
 statement yet made concerning Pullman, and I have quoted from it 
 freely as to conditions in 1884. In Harper's Magazine for February, 
 
 1885, Professor R. T. Ely published the results of his private investi- 
 gation. The article, which is illustrated, is somewhat less laudatory 
 of the company. Professor Ely speaks of rents as averaging about 
 three fifths of those in Chicago.
 
 242 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 places," say the labor commissioners : " the same as 
 elsewhere," says Professor Ely. There are no taxes to 
 be paid by the tenant. His children attend school in 
 a fine building : the school authorities of Hyde Park 
 have charge of the school system. The public library 
 is open to those paying a fee of three dollars a year 
 an objectionable feature, as it has greatly limited the 
 usefulness of the institution : only 270 persons used it 
 in 1893. There are several religious organizations in 
 the place, but only one church, built by the company, 
 which charges a rent that has, a large part of the time, 
 been found too high for the societies that would like 
 to occupy it : the company's policy here seems to be 
 a mistaken one, and it has been charged with indiffer- 
 ence in regard to the religious life of its employees. 
 Two churches have been erected just over the track, on 
 leased land. " There is but little crime or drunken- 
 ness," one officer appointed by Hyde Park composing 
 the whole police force in 1884, and making but fifteen 
 arrests in two years. The fire department is sus- 
 tained by the company. " There is no pauperism in 
 Pullman." " The company pays for the services of a 
 physician and for medicines in cases of accident, and 
 it has provided a gymnasium, an amphitheatre for 
 games and baseball grounds." The beautiful theatre, 
 seating 800 persons, is rented once a fortnight or 
 oftener to companies from Chicago and elsewhere, 
 approved by the Pullman company. The death rate 
 in Pullman for the first three years was less than one 
 third the average for American cities, and has con- 
 tinued to be very low. The moral influence of the 
 exceptional surroundings has been very good. Mr. 
 Pullman appreciated profoundly " the commercial 
 value of beauty," as Professor Ely says.
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 243 
 
 Despite the many advantages which Pullman offers 
 to workmen and their families, and the fact that 
 all went well until 1893, the great strike of 1894 
 showed that the body of employees then at work were 
 not on the whole on friendly terms with the company. 
 That this was due in large measure to the policy 
 which allowed no employee to buy land or house in 
 the place (though he could do so not far away, with 
 financial encouragement from the company and from 
 a savings-bank from which deposits can be at once 
 withdrawn) l seems to be generally admitted. 2 It was 
 supposed in the earlier days of the place to be a tem- 
 porary policy only, but the company defended its plan 
 in 1894 as the best, and it has not modified the scheme 
 since. Charges of favoritism and nepotism in the ad- 
 ministration have been made ; but the absence of an 
 independent newspaper in the place has been a more 
 obvious defect. 3 A recent judicial decision has this 
 year denied the legal right of the Pullman company 
 to build and maintain such an industrial community 
 under the terms of its charter, and its future policy is 
 therefore a subject of much interest. Whatever this 
 may be, the disinterested observer cannot fail to join 
 with the labor commissioners of 1884, in their praise 
 
 1 On July 1, 1893, there was on deposit in this bank $582,380, to 
 the credit of 2,425 employees. 
 
 2 Rents at Pullman take up a large percentage of the workman's 
 wages, from 20 to 33 per cent., it has been stated, and were not re- 
 duced when wages were lowered. Of 2,246 Pullman workers living 
 on the borders of the town, about 1,000 were said to own their homes 
 in 1894. 
 
 8 The policy of the company toward trade-unions was one of non- 
 interference previous to the strike ; since then it has insisted that its 
 employees shall not belong to the American Railway Union, which 
 the men joined extensively in 1893-94.
 
 244 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 for the large-mindedness with which this model work- 
 man's town was projected, and the thoroughness with 
 which every physical detail has been worked out : the 
 company might learn much from experience concern- 
 ing the moral details. 1 
 
 One of the most interesting of industries to the 
 general observer is paper-making. In its higher grades 
 the manufacture of fine writing-paper and bank- 
 note paper it becomes an almost aristocratic in- 
 dustry through the extreme neatness and refinement 
 with which most of the business can be carried on : a 
 large part of the factory can be kept almost spotlessly 
 clean, and the necessary littering by waste material is 
 hardly worse than that of a private office. Certainly 
 the manufacture as conducted by the Cranes, at Dalton, 
 Mass., has an attractive aspect, and its surroundings 
 are such as to justify enthusiasm in a lover of the 
 picturesque. It is another instance of an industry 
 carried on through three successive generations by the 
 same family, who have wisely and happily continued to 
 live where their fortune is made. Dalton is one of the 
 most beautiful of many beautiful towns in Berkshire 
 County, elevated about 1,300 feet above the sea level : 
 its population of some 3,000 persons (in 1890) lives 
 mainly scattered on one long street. 
 
 A ride of five miles from Pittsfield, in a trolley car, 
 through a picturesque country, environed with hills, 
 brings one to the first of the four Crane mills, by the 
 roadside : this is devoted to the manufacture of paper 
 for United States government bonds and bank-notes. 
 The trolley car soon leaves the highway and descends 
 
 1 " No paternalism has ever been in the plan," said Vice-President 
 Wickes, in 1894.
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 245 
 
 to the bank of the clear, rushing stream (a branch of 
 the Housatonic) which furnishes the water-power for 
 most of the industries of Dalton. It was this stream 
 which captivated the eye and the judgment of the 
 young paper-maker, Zenas Crane, in 1799, when he 
 was seeking a site for a mill of his own, leaving his 
 brother in eastern Massachusetts, with whom he had 
 been connected. This " pioneer of paper-making in 
 western Massachusetts" (now a great industry in 
 the Connecticut Valley, as well as among the Berk- 
 shire hills) found here abundance of water-power, 
 easy of control, and very pure. From the country 
 and from Albany, thirty miles distant, he could pro- 
 cure the linen rags (the only raw material then used 
 for pulp : it is still rags only that are used to-day, as 
 the company make no cheap papers) : and the same 
 population would supply a market for his product. 
 First the private " post-riders " and then traveling 
 tin peddlers collected rags for this mill from women 
 who had the good of their country and the interests 
 of their own families at heart (the patriotic advertise- 
 ment so called upon them to save rags and encourage 
 American manufactories). The " Pioneer " mill, with 
 a single vat, turned out a hundred pounds of paper 
 each day : it was a hand manufacture for thirty years. 
 Seven employees worked for modest wages (as they 
 would now appear to be) under Mr. Crane's superin- 
 tendence. The simplicity and democratic nature of 
 labor relations in those days were great. The paper 
 manufacture at Dalton has developed greatly : admir- 
 able machinery has taken the place of much of the 
 hand labor, so that the 160 men, women and children 
 now employed turn out an immense product, compared
 
 246 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 with those earlier days : wages have risen as well as 
 profits, but the kindly spirit of the older days has 
 continued, and the prosperity of the Crane family has 
 been finely reflected in the common life of the town. 
 
 The second mill, on the line from Pittsfield, manu- 
 factures fine note paper : it is a plain brick structure 
 with the Housatonic at its back, and in front a rural 
 scene of park-like style, unspoiled by fences. First 
 one sees, near by, a few cottages, houses belonging to 
 the Cranes which they have erected for their employees 
 (these are rented, but not sold). A neat little wooden 
 building at the first corner is the former library for 
 the works, now superseded by the town library. In 
 one direction are a few more houses of the workers. 
 In others lie the various homes of the Cranes of the 
 second and third generations. Directly opposite is the 
 noble brown-stone mansion of the present Mr. Zenas 
 Crane, with its beautiful grounds, its conservatory, 
 its tennis court surrounded by a vine-covered trellis, 
 and its pretty pond all in the near neighborhood 
 of the mill. A large number of the employees live on 
 the other side of the stream, in homes of their own. 
 As we ascend the watercourse, the valley widens to 
 contain two considerable ponds surrounded by wide 
 expanses of turf. Two larger mills, the new Pioneer 
 (a model of factory construction) and that where Old 
 Berkshire paper is made, are situated in this valley. 
 To the left and the right, on two converging streets 
 that run from Crane ville to the centre of the town 
 are the homes of other members of the Crane family, 
 including the present lieutenant-governor of Mas- 
 sachusetts, Mr. W. Murray Crane, the best known 
 member of the several corporations which, under
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 247 
 
 various names, but with an identity of interest, man- 
 ufacture paper in ths several mills. 
 
 Where the main street attains its highest level, we 
 see on the south side a handsome stone structure 
 which cost $75,000, the gift of the Crane family to 
 their native town. It is a happy combination of opera 
 house, town hall and library. The large audience 
 hall upstairs is suited to the size of the town, and is 
 admirably appointed: below it is a plainer hall for 
 ordinary town meetings : on the same level with this 
 hall is the town lockup, while on the ground floor is 
 the selectmen's room and the library and reading- 
 room. Near by is a fine stone church, a memorial 
 raised to the former Cranes by the present bearers of 
 the name. Dalton impresses the visitor as a singu- 
 larly finished town, in which the generosity of its lead- 
 ing family has not had the effect of pauperizing the 
 municipality. On the contrary, an excellent high 
 school building, roads in the best condition, and a 
 very general air of comfort and carefulness about the 
 houses and grounds show that this generosity is appre- 
 ciated, and that the effort is to make the village thor- 
 oughly attractive. At the other end are the mills of 
 another corporation: the lack of any notable gener- 
 osity toward the operatives or the town on its part may 
 be responsible for the h'ttle that one would like to see 
 amended in this quarter of the place. So far as the 
 influence of the Crane family has extended, it has had 
 the happiest effect upon the life of Dalton, and has 
 made it a model industrial community. 
 
 The great paper mills of S. D. Warren and Com- 
 pany, at Cumberland Mills, Maine, a few miles out 
 from Portland, manufacture from fifty to sixty tons of
 
 248 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 paper a day, when running at full speed, and employ 
 about 1,000 persons. When the business began the 
 firm had to erect houses for its force, as there was not 
 a sufficient number near by. The low rents originally 
 fixed were raised as the place grew in population, in 
 order to make real wages uniform to all the em- 
 ployees, whether tenants of the company or not ; and 
 rents now stand at five per cent, of the actual value of 
 the house (the land is not taken into account, as it 
 was bought cheaply long ago), taxes, insurance and 
 water rates being added. Taxes are included as " a 
 measure of security to the company, because it makes 
 tenants more careful in voting for measures which 
 might influence the tax rates." Dr. Gould, from 
 whom I quote these words, ranks the later houses 
 built by the company "among the most tasteful, at- 
 tractive and conveniently arranged dwellings to be 
 found anywhere." While the company receives a 
 good interest on its original investment (the building 
 expenses have been about $125,000), the rent charged 
 for a $1,500 house, $9 a month, is 25 per cent, less 
 than would be charged by other landlords. The com- 
 pany owns a hundred houses of various styles. Most 
 of the employees (some 400 families) live in houses of 
 their own ; a large part of these formerly occupied 
 company houses ; the company does not sell its dwell- 
 ings, the principal reason given being that it may some 
 time need the land for other purposes. It is easy 
 for a family to save enough to make it safe to invest 
 in a home, as every member of it old enough to work 
 can find employment, and the company gives the pre- 
 ference to young persons who help their parents. " A 
 man earning twelve dollars a week (as more than one
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 249 
 
 third of the men do) may, by strict economy, come into 
 possession of his own home at Cumberland Mills." 
 
 The free library and reading-room maintained by 
 the company for the benefit of the employees is on the 
 floor above the offices an attractive room contain- 
 ing over 4,000 volumes and the leading magazines of 
 the day and scientific and technical journals. A lit- 
 erary society of the women workers meets regularly in 
 this library. The company laid out some f 5,000 on 
 the library originally, and pays the annual expenses, 
 some 8300. 1 It owns a large hall in the town, which 
 cost about 810,000, and it lets this, for the moderate 
 rentals of $400 a year, for lodge and society gather- 
 ings. For several years the company also practiced a 
 plan of profit sharing, which lapsed for the sufficient 
 reason that profits to warrant an appreciable dividend 
 to the force were not made. 
 
 Two large lumber firms, one in New Brunswick and the 
 other in Wisconsin, while they do not maintain institutions 
 especially for the benefit of their employees, yet greatly 
 resemble such families as the Fairbankses and the Ameses 
 in making gifts to the town, the population of which con- 
 sists mainly of their employees, past or present. 
 
 The Knapp, Stout & Co. Company employs over 
 1,000 men in the manufacture of lumber, laths and shingles 
 at Menomonie, Wis., some sixty miles east of St. Paul, 
 on the Red Cedar River. Its operations are extensive, at 
 various points along the Mississippi, giving employment 
 to 3,000 men in all : the company is now fifty-four years 
 old and has had no strikes in its history. The vice-pre- 
 sident of the company, Mr. Andrew Tainter, built in 1890 
 a fine stone building costing $120,000, in memory of his 
 daughter, Mabel. It contains a large auditorium, amuse- 
 1 There is also a public library in the town.
 
 250 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 ment and class rooms, G. A. R. and club rooms, and a free 
 library of several thousand volumes (the city has also a 
 public library) all supported by the donor. The trustees 
 of the Mabel Tainter Library, Literary and Educational 
 Society hold the building for general educational purposes, 
 and especially for the Unitarian Church, for its religious, 
 charitable and social work. Mr. J. H. Stout, a son of the 
 president of the company, has built and equipped a manual 
 training school, at an expense of $100,000, now controlled 
 by the school board. Mr. Stout also supports two kinder- 
 gartens, the main one in the basement of the high school. 
 He is said to have originated the system of traveling libra- 
 ries in Wisconsin. A deceased member of the company 
 gave to the city a fine central park, and this year the com- 
 pany has given twelve acres of woodland along the river 
 for another park. 
 
 Marysville, N. B., two and a half miles from Fred- 
 ericton, on the Nashwaak River, is a kind of Canadian 
 Pullman. Mr. Alexander Gibson is the owner of some 
 170,000 acres of timber land, and Marysville has been built 
 up by him around the three lumber-mills and the cotton- 
 mill here erected. Over 700 men are employed in the man- 
 ufacture of lumber, laths and shingles, and some 500 per- 
 sons in the cotton-mill. The two large stores, the hotel, the 
 boarding-houses, the fifty brick tenements and the large 
 number of wooden dwellings are the property of Mr. Gib- 
 son. He has erected a Methodist church, costing $50,000, 
 all the expenses of which he meets, and fine school build- 
 ings. The public hall for entertainments and general meet- 
 ings is over one of the stores, but a new hall and a public 
 library are soon to be built. No liquors are allowed to be 
 sold, and the population is said to be better housed than 
 that of any other Canadian factory town. 
 
 Rhode Island, says Colonel T. W. Higginson, " is 
 the only State in the Union where chief justices write 
 poetry and manufacturers treatises on the freedom of
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 251 
 
 the will." The manufacturer intended in this epigram 
 was Rowland G. Hazard, born in Peace Dale (1,200 
 inhabitants in 1889), a village of South Kingstown 
 (in which Narragansett Pier is another settlement), 
 in 1801. The year before, his father, Rowland 
 Hazard, established on the Saugatucket the woolen 
 business, still carried on by the family in the fourth 
 generation, under the style of the Peace Dale Manu- 
 facturing Company. R. G. Hazard was an able 
 man of business as well as a metaphysician highly 
 respected by John Stuart Mill, whose doctrines he 
 criticised. 1 To him and to his son Rowland (the son 
 has regularly taken the grandfather's name in the 
 family succession) are due most of the philanthropic 
 features which have given Peace Dale a wide repute. 
 Omitting the profit-sharing experience of the company, 
 which I have given in detail elsewhere, 2 I will mention 
 the other welfare-institutions for the 450 employees. 
 
 The Peace Dale company has built a number of 
 single houses for its men which were sold on easy 
 terms. The Hazard Memorial Hall brings Peace Dale 
 into line with the five New England manufacturing 
 towns already described in this chapter instances 
 of the long continuance of a business in one family, 
 of which our future history will doubtless have many 
 illustrations. The hall was dedicated in 1891 to the 
 memory of R. G. Hazard, who died three years before : 
 centrally situated and a very pleasing specimen of 
 village architecture, it contains a music hall upstairs, 
 
 1 See The Works of R. G. Hazard, in four volumes, edited by his 
 granddaughter Caroline Hazard, now president of Wellesley College. 
 
 2 The second Rowland Hazard established profit sharing in the 
 mills in 1878 : see Profit Sharing, pp. 296-300.
 
 252 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 seating 600 persons. Here the Narragansett Choral 
 Society of Peace Dale (75 members) gives three or 
 four concerts each year and holds a festival in the 
 spring, when it renders such works as " Elijah," 
 "Stabat Mater," "The Creation," or Sullivan's 
 " Golden Legend." It has the reputation of being 
 the best drilled chorus but one in the State. Its 
 director comes from Providence for the weekly re- 
 hearsals, from the beginning of October to the end of 
 May. The library below, open every day, has an ex- 
 cellent collection of 6,800 books, with some 1,200 
 card-holders; in 1896, 12,038 volumes were taken out 
 by 7,603 readers. There was a library in the place 
 as far back as 1855 : it was made free and public in 
 1875, and it receives $100 yearly under the State 
 law, for the purchase of books, in addition to its 
 other income. It supplies seventeen villages and 
 neighborhoods in the large territory of South Kings- 
 town. The hall has a room which is the headquarters 
 of the town " circles " of King's Daughters, where a 
 sewing-school is kept up, and a " miniature hospital " 
 a collection of appliances for the sick-room, which 
 are loaned free. 
 
 The modest Town Hall to the south was the gift of 
 R. G. Hazard, in 1877. Rowland Hazard designed 
 and built the " model village church," seating some 
 500 persons, with its Margaret Chapel, a memorial to 
 his wife. The company once had a system of public 
 gardens which it abandoned. The fine grounds of 
 Oakwoods and The Acorns, the family residences, are 
 near the factory and open to all : Peace Dale offers 
 another happy instance of the employer's family living 
 in close touch with the industry.
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 253 
 
 The Merrimac Manufacturing Company, Lowell, 
 Mass., has built 206 plain but convenient tenements, con- 
 taining from four to ten rooms each. The value of the 
 land and buildings is estimated at $664,500. The average 
 net profit has been about 2.3 per cent., not deducting re- 
 pairs : the taxes, amounting to some $11,000, are paid by 
 the corporation. In the more recent houses rents are from 
 15 to 20 per cent, lower than for similar accommodations 
 near by : the wage-earner spends 20 per cent, of his income 
 on rent. The company owns and rents boarding-houses, 
 fixing the rates, which are very moderate. " The girls pay 
 $1.75 per week, and the company supplements this by 
 thirty cents in each case where the operative boards at one 
 of its houses. In this way the corporation pays out $3,000 
 a year in bounties. . . . The results have been profitable " 
 on account of the contentment of the working forced 
 
 At Lawrence, Mass., various textile corporations let 
 their boarding-houses at nominal rentals so that lower rates 
 of board can be afforded. Tenants of the companies are 
 not pressed for rent when work is slack. One company 
 remits rent entirely when the mill is not running. Provi- 
 sion was formerly made for libraries and lecture courses ; 
 but the D. A. White fund for these purposes and the fine 
 library erected by the White trustees, have rendered such 
 provision unnecessary, as is also the case with respect to 
 relief and housing. The salary of the City Missionary is 
 largely paid by the corporations, and some support free beds 
 in the hospital. 
 
 The Howland Mills Corporation, of New Bedford, 
 Mass., has built fifty houses, unusually pleasing in style 
 and convenient in arrangement, for its employees, at a total 
 cost of $104,000. The rent averages about 15 per cent, on 
 wages, and 3 per cent, on the investment. A men's board- 
 ing-house for twenty-four persons, is conducted by a person 
 chosen by the company, which charges him no rent. 
 
 1 Gould, Report, p. 335.
 
 254 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 Whatever one may say in praise of other American 
 manufacturing villages where the conditions of the 
 workman's life, in the mills and in the home, are 
 .unusually good, it is difficult to resist the convic- 
 tion that the nearest approach to the ideal has been 
 made at South Manchester, Conn., by the Cheney 
 Brothers. Various causes have concurred to give 
 these noted silk works this preeminence. The Cheney 
 family have resided in Manchester for more than a 
 hundred years. The story of the triumphs of the 
 American silk industry is largely the tale of their 
 inventions and successes. Among the several hundred 
 manufacturers of silk in this country, they are the 
 largest, employing 2,500 hands in their great and 
 admirable buildings. They were the owners of a large 
 tract of land (over 1,000 acres), and could locate the 
 mills in scenery of much natural and acquired beauty. 
 As the virtual makers of the village of South Man- 
 chester, opposite the park, they could keep a generous 
 and wise oversight of its growth. While in no sense 
 engaged in business for philanthropy, they have always 
 been mindful of their responsibilities as employers of 
 great numbers of men. They have given the workman 
 mills in which all the conditions of health and safety 
 are observed ; and a home and community life distin- 
 guished by comfort, order, beauty and intelligence are 
 placed within reach of all. " An ideal manufacturing 
 village " and " a terrestrial paradise " are terms which 
 Hon. S. J. Barrows of Massachusetts applied to the 
 place, in the " Atlantic " some twenty years ago, in 
 an article on " The Silk Industry in America." 
 
 Manchester is reached by the New England Rail- 
 road, which runs through the northerly part of the
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 255 
 
 town, or by trolley car from Hartford, eight miles 
 west. Various manufactures are located in the town, 
 which had a population in 1890 of 8,222 persons, 
 but the leading industry is the silk-mills. The town 
 enjoys all the conveniences of civilization, in the shape 
 of good water and sewage systems, the electric light 
 and the electric and steam railways, and a fine school 
 system. Other parts are attractive and well kept, 
 but South Manchester is the largest and most im- 
 portant quarter. One may step into the steam car, 
 operated by the Cheney company, that runs from Man- 
 chester to South Manchester, and he will then make 
 his entrance by rail into the very centre of the silk 
 works. Alighting at the little station, the visitor finds 
 himself in a park-like neighborhood. He has just 
 passed on his left the long front of the new mills for 
 weaving and spinning, and he sees in front, in the near 
 distance, the outlines of the older mills and the office 
 building. Across the street is the Cheney Hall, but 
 no hotel or large boarding-house is visible. A few 
 cottages of simple style, but surrounded with vines and 
 flowers, are dotted here and there along the main and 
 side streets, and others of later date and more am- 
 bitious construction appear in the distance. Walking 
 a few rods east or south, one sees, looking through the 
 trees and over the wide lawns, the homes of the vari- 
 ous branches of the Cheney family : there are fourteen 
 families of the name residing here. 
 
 The usual accessories of manufacturing are absent, 
 the dirt, the smoke, the roar heard at a long dis- 
 tance. No textile industry is noiseless, of course ; not 
 even its most refined department, the making of silks, 
 can be carried on in quiet, within the walls. But
 
 256 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 these mills are as if set in large private grounds, and 
 every external shows the greatest pains taken to do 
 away with the repulsive features of the ordinary fac- 
 tory. Tending a great variety of more or less com- 
 plicated machinery, or performing the processes where 
 hand labor is required, a large force of 2,500 persons 
 of both sexes may be seen, healthy, cheerful and con- 
 tented looking to a degree. Bicycles stand in long 
 array in the vestibules, some of them probably taking 
 the place of those vehicles for the employees, living 
 at a distance, which used to astonish visitors from 
 abroad, quite unaccustomed to see operatives " riding 
 home from work in their own carriages." 
 
 The company exercises no constraint upon its em- 
 ployees as to their residence, and many of the 800 
 houses of the employees stand outside of the grounds, 
 in the thrifty quarter on the east. The company 
 encourages the ownership of homes, but prohibits 
 liquor selling and the keeping of nuisances. The 
 houses are for the most part single cottages with gar- 
 dens. There is a great variety of styles, showing indi- 
 vidual tastes : the only exception being the older and 
 smaller houses before noted. Garden plots are pro- 
 vided for every house, and all the homes show an 
 external harmony with the beautiful surroundings. 
 No shiftless tenants are in evidence. 
 
 The Cheney Brothers built in 1860 the simple 
 structure of brick which contains the fine and large 
 Cheney Hall, and smaller rooms below for lodge meet- 
 ings. In the main hall lectures and reputable enter- 
 tainments of all kinds are given, no charge being 
 made for the use of it, and it is much used. Formerly 
 unsectarian services and a Sunday-school were main-
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 257 
 
 tained on Sunday afternoon : there is now a consider- 
 able number of churches in Manchester and South 
 Manchester, which are well attended. 
 
 The schools of South Manchester are unsurpassed 
 in the State, and this fact is due mainly to the en- 
 lightened generosity of the Cheney Brothers. This 
 ninth school district contained, in 1894, 1,003 schol- 
 ars. They attend lessons in a large schoolhouse of 
 wood, containing thirty-five rooms. The interior is 
 finished in wood, the ceilings as well as the side walls. 
 Each room is intended for twenty-five scholars, or 
 fewer, with single desks, and each has light on two 
 sides. It is also provided with a collection of books 
 for reading and reference, in the whole building 
 there are 3,500 volumes : the number of text-books is 
 small. The school is connected with the State Normal 
 School at New Britain, five teachers out of every six 
 coming from there. These student teachers are super- 
 vised by the permanent teachers, and the results show 
 a high level of instruction. There is a kindergarten 
 department for children over three years of age, con- 
 ducted according to the most approved methods : the 
 little ones are introduced to natural science and good 
 literature, in a pleasing succession. They learn to 
 read and write before leaving this department, and 
 then go on to the upper grades, which include high 
 school branches. Manual training is a feature, with a 
 workshop and instruction in woodwork and mechan- 
 ical drawing. Another feature is the gymnasium on 
 the upper floor ; gymnastics are a part of the regular 
 daily programme. Each girl over eleven has a hun- 
 dred lessons in cooking ; the course includes instruction 
 hi buying material. In the high school there were 
 six teachers and one hundred pupils in 1895.
 
 258 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 From the kindergarten to the students preparing 
 for college, the instruction in natural science is con- 
 tinuous. The emphasis laid upon literature and 
 manual training is in accordance with the best educa- 
 tional thought of the day. The work of the schools is 
 continued and supplemented for the community by 
 the free public library, like the schoolhouse, a gift 
 of the Cheney Brothers ; it is open every afternoon 
 from three o'clock to six, Sundays included. 
 
 In that excellent little book, " Old- World Questions 
 and New- World Answers," published in 1884, Mr. 
 Daniel Pidgeon, F. G. S., ranked the Willimantic 
 (Conn.) Thread Company as the " one establishment 
 which, more than any other in America, encourages 
 hope for the future of labor." He went on to describe 
 various uncommon features which distinguished from 
 other mills these factories where some millions of 
 miles of cotton thread are manufactured each year, 
 the cooperative store, the flowers in the great spin- 
 ning-room of the new mill No. 4, the dining-room 
 with its low-price dinners and its light refreshment 
 for the younger help at nine o'clock in the morning, 
 the various schools, and the kindly intercourse of 
 operatives and managers. Colonel W. E. Barrows, 
 the originator of these features, did not succeed in 
 permanently converting to his enlightened views the 
 majority of the directors of the company : difficulties 
 ensued and he resigned his position. The visitor 
 finds that the aesthetic features of the mill (in so far 
 as they were not wrought into its construction) have 
 disappeared almost entirely. The " pockets " between 
 the piers of the great spinning-room (a room nearly a 
 thousand feet long and two hundred feet wide) are no
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 259 
 
 longer "filled with soil, forming great flower-beds 
 planted with climbers . . . together with geraniums, 
 petunias and flowering shrubs:" only a few large 
 tropical plants lead a precarious life at one end of the 
 building. The dining-room is appropriated to other 
 uses. The cooperative store in the two lower stories 
 of Dunham Hall (the library building) has been given 
 up, and the space taken by the counting-room and 
 purchasing department of the company. 
 
 But though a more strictly commercial policy has 
 superseded, wisely or unwisely, the original and attrac- 
 tive work of Colonel Barrows (which probably had 
 some defects of its own), the Willimantic Thread Mills 
 still deserve to be ranked high among the manu- 
 facturing establishments of the country for the ad- 
 vantages enjoyed by the employees. These number 
 about 1,500 and the pay-roll amounts to some $40,000 
 a week : the great majority of the hands are Irish, 
 women predominating. The "new mill," built by 
 Colonel Barrows, is an immense one-story structure 
 on the south side of the Willimantic River, which 
 furnishes the water-power: this is supplemented by 
 an electric-power plant. The motive power is in the 
 basement, and the main floor, with its fifty thousand 
 spindles, is firm to the foot of the operative. The 
 older mills of granite, six stories high, are on the 
 other side of the river in large grassy yards. The 
 older tenements of the company, on the main street 
 near the older mills, with two rows of equal length 
 back from, and parallel with this one, are neat and 
 well kept, though no attempt at gardening or orna- 
 ment is visible. 
 
 Off from South Main Street (on the same side of
 
 260 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 the river with the new mill), one in search of the new 
 tenements built by Colonel Barrows is attracted by a 
 new settlement which suggests to his eye a much 
 improved tenement quarter with a large measure of 
 individual variation in styles. Attractive as com- 
 pared with the larger part of the older town (and 
 Willimantic is an attractive place), this quarter, which 
 .one soon learns is entirely private property, yields in 
 interest and good looks to the Oakgrove quarter be- 
 yond it. Here are some forty cottages, built after 
 four types, agreeably intermingled, which present a 
 most pleasing ensemble. One type is located on a lot 
 of 10,500 square feet : the house, sitting well back 
 from the street, has half the frontage of the lot, and 
 occupies little more than a tenth of its area. A lawn, 
 with walks, a garden and a clothes-yard are thus 
 sufficiently provided for. The two-story frame build- 
 ing contains six rooms and rents for 81.93 a week, a 
 sum which Dr. E. R. L. Gould thinks is " probably 
 a little over one third of what would be charged for 
 fairly similar accommodation in the neighborhood. 
 Smaller houses rent for from $1.62 to $1.75 per 
 week." i 
 
 The company gets a three per cent, gross interest 
 on its investment in these new houses, the property 
 being estimated at 860,000 ; the rent is deducted 
 from wages. A sign of the liberal disposition of the 
 company is the fact, noted by Dr. Gould, that " rents 
 were lowered in July, 1885, in consequence of a re- 
 duction of wages. The old rate of wages was subse- 
 
 1 See, for full particulars of construction and plans and views of 
 these taking cottages, Dr. Gould's report on The Housing of the Work- 
 ing People, pp. 327, 328.
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 261 
 
 quently restored, but the rents were not advanced." 
 These cottages form the most attractive group of 
 workmen's houses which it has been the good fortune 
 of the writer to see ; there are others, as at Wal- 
 tham, Mass., of a higher grade, but there is nowhere 
 a more pleasing environment. The general park-like 
 arrangement of the quarter, the vine-clad porches, the 
 flower and vegetable gardens, the oak grove on one 
 side and the handsome public school on the other, give 
 this group of workmen's houses a lasting place in the 
 memory of the visitor, as a proof of what generosity 
 and good taste on the part of the employer can do to 
 make the homes of working people healthful and beau- 
 tiful. The rental of such a picturesque and conven- 
 ient home requires but the moderate proportion of 10 
 to 12^ per cent, of the workman's wages. 
 
 There are no benefit associations among the Thread 
 Company's employees, but Willimantic is well sup- 
 plied with ordinary savings-banjcs, and a branch of 
 the Connecticut Cooperative Savings Society pays five 
 per cent, on deposits. 
 
 Dunham Hall, the tasteful library building, con- 
 tains in its upper story an excellent library and a 
 reading-room stocked with papers and magazines : the 
 hours are from 12 M. to 9 P. M. The company pays 
 ten dollars a week in salaries on account of the hall, 
 and defrays the cost of heating and lighting and 
 of new books : there are now several thousand vol- 
 umes. I quote elsewhere in this book Dr. Gould's 
 statement, derived from the present management, con- 
 cerning two or three "paternal" features of the for- 
 mer management which have been dropped : they were 
 not in themselves important matters. The Williman-
 
 262 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 tic Linen Thread Company is to-day a company for 
 the enlightened employer to take example from. 
 
 The Warner Brothers have in Bridgeport, Conn., 
 a large manufactory of corsets, employing about a 
 thousand women. On the opposite corner from their 
 factory (Lafayette and Atlantic streets), the firm has 
 erected a club-house of the first rank for beauty and 
 convenience. It was opened November 10, 1887, by 
 Mrs. Grover Cleveland. The Seaside Institute, as it is 
 called (it is two or three blocks from the fine Seaside 
 Park, which Mr. Joel Benton calls " a pleasure-ground 
 tmequaled by anything on the sea-line from New 
 York to Newport "),* is open all day and through the 
 evening : it is a brick and stone building, presenting 
 a striking architectural effect. The basement is a 
 step or two below the level of the street : there are 
 two high-studded stories above, and a half-story under 
 the main roof : the circular tower on the corner rises 
 to a full third story. The Institute was built without 
 regard to expense, hi the most thorough manner. The 
 first stimulus to the erection of it came from the 
 Warner Brothers' perception of the need of a good, 
 warm lunch for their employees. This need, which is 
 one felt by every factory operative, was especially 
 perceptible in the case of the women workers, who 
 constitute the great majority of the force here. In 
 the basement of the Institute, therefore, the Warner 
 Brothers located a lunch-room and refectory fitted up 
 with every convenience. Here at the usual hours, the 
 employees can procure at cost tea, coffee or chocolate, 
 sandwiches, cake, pie and other eatables, so that they 
 
 1 See Mr. Benton's interesting article in the American Magazine 
 for March, 1888.
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 263 
 
 are under no necessity of bringing a lunch-basket in 
 the morning. The restaurant is now open to the gen- 
 eral public. 
 
 The entrance hall, reached by a few steps from the 
 street, has the dignity and finish of a large private 
 mansion. A memorial window fronting the visitor 
 commemorates the mother of the founders of the In- 
 stitute a most appropriate dedication. (Elsewhere 
 is found a portrait of the deceased wife of Dr. I. 
 De Ver Warner, who took a deep interest in this 
 building.) A parlor of liberal dimensions and hand- 
 somely furnished opens from the hall on one side. 
 On the same side are music and reception rooms, and 
 toilet-rooms. (The six bathtubs, with hot and cold 
 water, are free to all members of the Institute.) On 
 the right is a very attractive reading-room communi- 
 cating with the library (containing some 4,000 vol- 
 umes) in the rear. In connection with her other 
 duties, the librarian conducts classes of the members 
 in English Literature and Shakespeare, and there are 
 classes in music : a number of other studies have been 
 pursued, such as shorthand and typewriting, but the 
 list varies according to the demand. On the second 
 floor we find a concert hall, seating 500 persons : the 
 stage is adapted to theatrical purposes, and the floor 
 to dancing. Lectures and concerts have been more 
 or less regularly given in this hall from the begin- 
 ning : but the " Firemen's Brigade," an organiza- 
 tion of the young women employees, has lately been 
 responsible for most of the entertainment offered. 
 In a city of the size of Bridgeport the employees are 
 not of course dependent upon the Institute for re- 
 creation as they might be in a smaller town. In this
 
 264 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 direction as in others the Warner Brothers have been 
 at school to experience a teacher whose lessons they 
 willingly accept. At the opening of the Institute a 
 number of sewing-machines were placed in a room on 
 the second floor for the use of the employees in doing 
 their own mending and sewing. Sewing-machines are 
 now so common that few of the girls brought any 
 private work from their homes or boarding-places to 
 this room : it is now used for factory purposes, in 
 tune of pressure ; but there are still a few machines 
 in the Institute available for the employees who wish 
 to use them. The building has a pool-room well 
 patronized, and a number of rooms in the third story 
 are occupied as lodging-rooms by the matron and 
 others. 
 
 The thoroughness and generosity with which the 
 Seaside Institute has been built and equipped (at a 
 cost of some $60,000) are evident to the most casual 
 observer. He cannot fail to remark the bright and 
 intelligent looks of the regiment of women here em- 
 ployed (not John Knox's " Monstrous Regiment "). 
 They do not maintain any benefit association (a 
 direction in which women workers need to advance), 
 but the company give half pay (or even whole pay 
 in extreme cases) to sick employees. In all ways 
 the Warner Brothers show a high conception of their 
 responsibilities as employers a conception of which 
 this " American Palace of Delight " (as Mr. Benton 
 felicitously calls it) is the chief but not the only em- 
 bodiment. 
 
 One who walks up Shipman Street in Newark, 
 N. J., from the trolley line passes some small tene- 
 ments as bad for their size as any to be found in New
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 265 
 
 York, and two or three uninviting factories, and then 
 sees on the corner of another square a large four-story 
 building about the nature of which he may be a little 
 uncertain. The many windows are provided with 
 plain white curtains, looped up at the side, but there 
 are no flowers visible in them, such as one might see 
 in a hospital. The woodbine covering a considerable 
 part of the street front would indicate that the build- 
 ing is not a public school. If the stranger is looking 
 for the factory where the Ferris Brothers Company 
 manufacture the so-called " Common-Sense Waist," 
 he will conclude at once that this is the factory he is 
 in search of the curtains taking for him the place 
 of a sign. He steps in and finds before him an in- 
 terior marked by neatness and great simplicity : the 
 office is a plain room on the third floor, without 
 elaborate furnishings, bringing the treasurer and the 
 superintendent in easy reach of the great body of the 
 workers on that floor, the one above and the one 
 below. 
 
 Nearly 500 women, mostly young and unmarried, 
 and a few men make up the working force : there are 
 mothers and daughters, working side by side, and 
 earning from nine to fourteen dollars a week on piece- 
 work. The visitor who is sensitive to such impres- 
 sions, is struck by the air of good-will and good- 
 fellowship in a work which interests all, that seems to 
 pervade the establishment. All know the assistant 
 superintendent pleasantly and are known by him : he 
 has a pride in them as the " finest body of women 
 workers to be found in the country." It is a laudable 
 chauvinism which the Waltham Watch Company, the 
 Chicago Telephone Company, the National Cash
 
 266 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 Register Company or the Warner Brothers might also 
 feel ! There is room, emotionally, if not in strict logic, 
 for numerous bodies of such " finest " women workers. 
 The friendly spirit in the establishment is explained 
 when one learns of the various measures which the 
 firm takes to lighten the labors of its employees and 
 to show its sincere interest in their welfare. 
 
 In the basement one finds a large room fitted up 
 with conveniences for taking the lunch which a large 
 proportion of the women bring with them in the 
 morning. (A number buy their noonday meal at the 
 Young Women's Christian Association near by : and 
 a larger number have time to go to their homes and 
 back.) A number of girls form a " mess : " each 
 member takes her weekly turn in caring for the table, 
 and washing the dishes. At a quarter before twelve 
 she leaves her work, to set the table from the locker 
 provided for it, and to get for it the supply of hot 
 tea, with sugar and cream, which the firm provides. 
 After the girls have eaten their lunches, 1 they repair, 
 if they choose, to the large room in the fourth story 
 devoted to recreation. Here are to be found the 
 current magazines and a few books of interest, and a 
 pianoforte. A smooth floor invites to a few lively 
 turns before work begins again. On each floor are 
 two baths of which the workers avail themselves at 
 pleasure, at any time during the day. 
 
 As the firm has been steadily prosperous, it has 
 pursued a very liberal policy with respect to former 
 employees who wish to return, wholly or partly, to its 
 service. It stands ready to take them back at any 
 
 1 These were once bought from one source for fifteen cents each, 
 but the present system is more satisfactory.
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 267 
 
 time, for as many hours a day as they are able to 
 work ; in 1898 this liberality was especially helpful 
 to the wives of volunteer soldiers in the Cuban war, 
 who had formerly been in the factory, but had left it 
 upon marriage. The firm displays a kindly interest 
 in sick employees : it has established for them two 
 free beds in a Newark hospital. While there is no 
 regular benefit association among the women, cases of 
 need are frequently provided for by voluntary weekly 
 collections, sometimes to the extent of ten dollars a 
 week for the disabled employee. The Ferris Brothers 
 send a large number of their help on a two weeks' 
 vacation to the seaside cottage which they own at 
 Long Branch, ten going at a time. 
 
 These various measures and institutions have for 
 their natural effect the procurement for the firm of a 
 high grade of labor and the solid establishment of good- 
 will between them and all their employees. 
 
 The Edison Electric Illuminating Company, of 
 New York, has, since 1895, paid a dividend at the 
 holiday season, based on earnings. " After deducting 
 from the gross returns of the company the charges for 
 wages, fuel, depreciation, etc., and for interest at five 
 per cent, on loan and share capital," a percentage 
 upon the balance equal to the rate of dividend paid to 
 stockholders is set apart for the Employees' Benefit 
 Fund. This sum was about 113,000 in 1896 and 1898, 
 representing a six per cent, dividend. One per cent, 
 on yearly wages is paid to men who have done continu- 
 ously faithful service for one year : 2 per cent, to those 
 of three years' service, 3 per cent, to those of five, 
 and 4 per cent, to those of ten : at the close of 1898 
 twenty-nine men had been in service over ten years,
 
 268 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 and 222 men over five years. In 1898 fourteen men 
 enlisted for the Spanish war, and their pay was con- 
 tinued and their places kept open for them. Nomina- 
 tions for a Labor Council were made for the first time 
 in 1898 by all the employees who had served a full 
 year, and the council was appointed from the number 
 by the company. During the year many of the sug- 
 gestions made from the various sections and depart- 
 ments for increasing the safety, comfort or convenience 
 of the employees were found practically useful, and 
 were adopted. Other subjects of administration and 
 labor relations were profitably discussed. 
 
 The Chicago Telephone Company employs some 
 500 young women, of whom 300 are in its main "ex- 
 change " on Washington Street. The company meets 
 the needs of its machinery and equipment and of its 
 workers at the same time by supplying artificially an 
 even temperature and pure air throughout the year, 
 the air being warmed in winter and cooled in summer. 
 It goes beyond this, however, in providing for its 
 "living machinery," in the shape of the intelligent 
 and alert young women whom the business demands, 
 a variety of conveniences on the floor below the ex- 
 change. Here are a parlor and reading-room, a large 
 lunch-room, toilet arrangements, and a matron who 
 keeps a careful oversight of their physical condition. 
 A relief system provides against undue strain. The 
 result of these measures and the general good treat- 
 ment is that places are eagerly sought for and long 
 retained, marriage having a much less disturbing 
 effect on the business than is usually the case where 
 women are employed. 
 
 The several hundred young women in the employ
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 269 
 
 of the New York Telephone Company at the Cort- 
 landt Street Exchange are furnished wire lockers for 
 their hats and wraps, the keys being in charge of the 
 matron. They take their lunch in a large, well-fur- 
 nished dining-room. Hot tea, coffee or chocolate, and 
 milk are provided free of expense. Twice a day the 
 employees leave their seats for twenty minutes' rest 
 from their exacting work. A reading-room is well 
 stocked with papers and magazines. There is a retir- 
 ing-room for the operators who may feel indisposed. 
 If a girl falls ill, she is taken to this room, and a phy- 
 sician is summoned. When she is well enough to be 
 moved, " she is sent home in charge of another girl 
 in a closed carriage." Night employees work from 
 7 P. M. to 7 A. M., with three hours' rest. The young 
 women " are allowed time to shop occasionally when 
 they ask permission, and no deduction is made from 
 their wages." One week's vacation on full pay is 
 given yearly. 
 
 In May of 1893 Mr. Stuyvesant Fish, president of 
 the Illinois Central Railroad Company, issued a cir- 
 cular outlining a plan by which the employees might 
 become shareholders. The strike of 1894 prevented 
 the scheme from going into full operation: but in 
 May of 1896 another circular was issued restating the 
 company's proposal. On the first day of each month 
 the company will quote to an employee a price at 
 which his application for shares will be accepted dur- 
 ing the month. He can subscribe for one share, pay- 
 able by installments of five dollars, or any multiple of 
 this sum : the first payment is to be made at once ; 
 on the completion of the payments, the company de- 
 livers to him a certificate of the share registered in his
 
 270 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 name. He can then begin the purchase of another 
 share. The officer or employee subscribing for shares 
 in this way receives interest on his deposits at four 
 per cent, providing he does not let a year pass without 
 making a payment : if he does, interest will cease, and 
 the sum to his credit will be returned to him on appli- 
 cation. If a subscriber wishes to discontinue pay- 
 ments, he can have his money returned to him with 
 accrued interest : he can do this if he leaves the ser- 
 vice for any cause, or he can pay up for the share 
 and receive his certificate. An employee can pur- 
 chase shares for cash if he wishes. An experienced 
 trainman was engaged by the company to explain this 
 plan among the men. On June 30, 1898, more than 
 700 employees owned stock; the number of shares 
 subscribed for was 2,042, of which 1,569 were fully 
 paid. The deposits on the 473 shares in process of 
 payment were $28,621.49. 
 
 There has been a steady increase in the number of 
 employee shareholders since, but " the increase has not 
 been large, owing to the marked appreciation in the 
 value of the stock." The men fear a fall in price, but 
 if they see reason to get over this feeling " it is be- 
 lieved that they will invest as freely as before." Prac- 
 tically every class of labor is represented in the list of 
 paid-up shares. Many of the employees have used the 
 stock-subscribing privilege as a means of saving at 
 interest, withdrawing their deposits or selling their 
 shares, for purchasing homes, or in case of emer- 
 gencies. " The whole tendency of the plan," says 
 Vice-President Welling, who has charge of its appli- 
 cation, " is in the line of better f eeling. ... In every 
 particular the operation of the plan has been satisfac-
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 271 
 
 tory, and it is to be hoped that other roads will adopt 
 it with similar success." 
 
 The Chicago Great Western Railway Company 
 began in 1893 " to assist those in their employ to buy 
 through partial payments one share at a time of the capital 
 stock." Four years later, 399 officers and employees (none 
 of them members of the board of directors) owned 1,969 
 shares, and partial payments had been made in 1,624 cases 
 " on account of the further purchase of one share apiece." 
 (The Chicago newspaper which gave this account probably 
 referred to the salaried employees chiefly.) The secretary 
 of the company would " undertake on application to purchase 
 the stock desired at its market value without charge for his 
 services, the purchase price, if desired, to be paid for at the 
 rate of ten dollars per share at the time of application, the 
 balance to be paid in monthly installments of ten dollars 
 until the purchase price is paid, when the stock will be reg- 
 istered in the name of the purchaser and a certificate of 
 ownership delivered." A recent communication from a 
 high official of the company states that the plan " has not 
 been much of a success. Forty or fifty employees made 
 small investments, but apparently soon became tired of 
 saving, and as the stock advanced in price many have sold 
 out." l 
 
 1 In support of his statement that " it is certainly an uphill job to 
 induce workingmen to try to save," the official quoted gives this inter- 
 esting instance, which could be easily paralleled from the ranks of the 
 salaried classes : 
 
 "I once had a man in my employ as station agent at $40 a month. 
 He supported his family and paid his bills promptly. As he was a 
 bright man I transferred him to a station where he got $80, and 
 finally took him into my office at $100, and increased his salary in 
 due course of time to $150. After his salary had been advanced to 
 $150 a month, I noticed that a good many parties came in and talked 
 to him privately, and he seemed anxious. I asked him what was the 
 matter, and he said in effect : ' When I got $40 a month I had no 
 difficulty in paying my expenses ; at $80 it was quite difficult, and at 
 $150 a month it is impossible. All these men that you see come in to
 
 272 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 Six American railroads now have relief depart- 
 ments for the benefit of their employees. Of these 
 roads the Baltimore and Ohio had a relief associa- 
 tion established May 1, 1880. It was immediately 
 succeeded, on the repeal of its charter, by the B. & 
 O. Relief Department, a regular department of the 
 company's service : the system is a comptdsory one, 
 like that of the Plant Company. " The company 
 gives the needful service of its officers and employees 
 on the lines ; furnishes office-room, furniture, and use 
 of facilities, such as mail and telegraph, becomes 
 the custodian of the funds, and guarantees the obli- 
 gations of the department. It contributes in cash 
 $31,000 annually to the pension fund and $2,500 
 for physical examination of employees." A commit- 
 tee of the president and directors of the company 
 has charge and final control of the three sections 
 the Relief, Savings and Pensions features. The 
 president appoints the officers. One advisory com- 
 mittee of seven members the general manager and 
 two men chosen annually from the machinery, trans- 
 portation and road departments by the members of 
 the Relief Feature has charge of the lines east of 
 the Ohio River and another of the lines west. A 
 superintendent has immediate charge of the depart- 
 ment. 
 
 The members of the Relief Feature substan- 
 tially all the employees are divided into the haz- 
 
 talk to me are dunning me for payment of bills which I am unable to 
 pay.' He soon left my employment, about 1879. I have not seen 
 him since until last year when I was in Canada, and found him there 
 an old gray-headed man, as station agent, getting probably $50 or $60 
 a month. I asked him how he was getting along, and he said, in the 
 most cheerful manner, ' First rate.' "
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 273 
 
 ardous and non-hazardous classes, the former being 
 engaged in operating trains or rolling stock. Each 
 class has five divisions according to its pay. Divi- 
 sion A contains those men whose wages are $35 per 
 month or less : its contribution is $1 a month ; divi- 
 sion B (pay between $35 and $50) contributes $2 : 
 division C (pay between $50 and $75) contributes $3 ; 
 division D (pay between $75 and $100), contributes 
 $4 ; and division E (pay over $100) contributes $5. 
 The divisions of the non-hazardous class pay 75 cents 
 in the first division, and 75 cents additional in each 
 following division. Disabled members do not con- 
 tribute while receiving benefits. Contributions are de- 
 ducted on the pay-rolls. The benefits are the same 
 for the two classes. In division A, in case of dis- 
 ability from accidents " on duty," 50 cents a day are 
 paid up to 26 weeks ; if longer aid is needed, 25 cents 
 & day ; surgical attendance is given, and $500 are paid 
 in case of death. For sickness or accident off duty, 
 50 cents a day are paid after the first week (Sundays 
 and holidays not being counted), not exceeding 52 
 weeks ; $250 are paid in case of death. The bene- 
 fits hi the other divisions are two, three, four or five 
 times as large, respectively. An employee may pro- 
 cure additional natural-death benefit, up to five times 
 that of the lowest class, by paying 25 cents a month 
 for each $250. Membership lapses with retirement 
 from the service, except that a retiring member may 
 retain his natural-death benefit. Injury or sickness 
 due to intoxication, sexual immorality, breach of peace 
 or violation of law receives no benefits. 
 
 The Savings Feature comprises a savings-bank and 
 a building and loan association, under the usual
 
 274 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 regulations. The wife, child, father or mother of 
 a member, or the beneficiary of a deceased member 
 may deposit. The savings-bank lends to the build- 
 ing association at six per cent. ; repayment is made 
 by monthly installments not less than $1.50 per 
 $100 of the loan, deducted on the pay-roll. The 
 company's original annuity plan not being success- 
 ful, it instituted in 1884 the Pension Fund now in 
 operation. The appropriation available for the sup- 
 port of this fund is now $50,000 a year : $15,000 
 of this amount is interest on a $375,000 surplus of 
 the department : the remainder is the company's 
 contribution. The usual pension age is sixty-five. 
 The committee of the president and directors decides 
 who shall receive pensions, which are, apparently, 
 granted to those considered most worthy of aid. 
 The rate is one half the rate of sick benefits, vary- 
 ing from twenty-five cents a day to $1.25. There 
 were 218 names on the pension roll June 30, 1895, 
 the payments for the year having been $34,800.05. 
 The Relief Feature, paid between May 1, 1880, and 
 July 31, 1896, for deaths from accidents and sick- 
 ness, disability and surgical expenses, $4,392,000. 
 The membership in 1898 was 20,710. The receipts 
 from the members for 1894-95 were $366,000, and 
 from interest and sundries $17,000. The expenses 
 were for benefits $308,000, for general expenses 
 and minor expenses $53,000. The deposits were 
 $268,000, and the loans $176,000. The amount 
 loaned to employees has been used for building 838 
 houses, buying 782, improving 174, and releasing 
 liens on 365. The dividend in 1894-95 was 5^ per 
 cent.
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 275 
 
 The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad has also an in- 
 teresting and effective system of traveling libraries 
 for the use of all its employees, east and west of the 
 Ohio. 
 
 The Pennsylvania Railroad Voluntary Relief 
 Department began operations in 1886. It has a 
 superintendent, and an advisory committee of thir- 
 teen members. The general manager of the road 
 is chairman ; the board of directors choose six mem- 
 bers annually, and the contributing members of the 
 Relief Fund six. The company's general relations 
 to the department are like those of the Baltimore and 
 Ohio. " The operations are divided into periods of 
 three years. If the contributions of members are 
 not sufficient to pay the benefits, the company pays 
 them as they become due, and if at the end of any 
 period of three years a deficiency exists, the com- 
 pany, having paid it as it accrued, charges the 
 amount to itself, thereby giving the amount of the 
 deficiency to the Relief Fund, which starts off afresh." 
 If a surplus should exist at the end of any period, 
 it is set aside to be used eventually for a superan- 
 nuation fund, or for some other purpose for the 
 sole benefit of members : " from year to year cer- 
 tain safe amounts are permanently transferred to 
 the surplus fund." Membership is voluntary, and 
 terminable at the end of any month ; withdrawal 
 from service ends all benefits. Members are divided 
 into five classes according to pay, though a member 
 can enter any higher class he chooses, if he passes 
 the medical examination. He can enter any lower 
 class if he wishes. The first class embraces those 
 men paid less than $35 a month and paying 75
 
 276 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 cents; this amount is increased in ascending order 
 75 cents for each upper class. The pay limits are 
 $ 55, $75 and $95. The benefit in the first class is 
 50 cents a day in case of accident on duty up to 52 
 weeks 25 cents a week after that, with surgical at- 
 tendance free. In case of accident or sickness off 
 duty, it is 40 cents a day, after the first three days, 
 not exceeding 52 weeks. The death benefit is $250, 
 whatever the cause of the death. The benefits in the 
 higher classes are two, three, four and five times as 
 great as in the first class. Death benefits may be in- 
 creased by making larger contributions. 
 
 The " company relief " of the Pennsylvania Rail- 
 road Company, in existence since October, 1897, 
 is "in fact a liberal pension fund arrangement by 
 which the company, entirely at its own cost, con- 
 tributes to the support of those members of the 
 Relief Fund who have drawn their fifty-two weeks' 
 sick benefit, and are still sick and needy." In De- 
 cember, 1896, the company relief was $3,600 for 
 some 350 persons : the annual bill is about $40,000. 
 The company pays the operating expenses of the 
 relief department, some $100,000 a year. The mem- 
 bership, December 31, 1895, was 36,432, and is now 
 over 40,000 about 60 per cent, of the total num- 
 ber of employees, and 80 per cent, of all those eligible. 
 Between February 1, 1886, and December 31, 1895, 
 there were received from members, in round num- 
 bers, $4,600,000; interest on balances and surplus, 
 $113,000 ; contributions of the company, $1,037,000 ; 
 total, $5,750,000. There were disbursed in 1886- 
 1898 for disability from accident, on and off duty, 
 and sickness, $3,321,808 ; for deaths from these
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 277 
 
 two causes, $2,793,861. The company paid in this 
 time $1,057,451 for operating expenses, $309,560 for 
 extraordinary relief, $74,499 for deficiencies, and 
 $60,653 in special payments in 1886, making a total 
 of benefits paid by the relief fund and the company 
 of $7,167,832. There was a balance, December 31, 
 1898, of $257,338, and a surplus fund will, before 
 long, constitute the basis of a superannuation fund: 
 the surplus is reported this year as being $635,970. 
 In 1895 the cases of disability from accident aided 
 were 8,765 : of sickness, 23,112 : of deaths from 
 accident, 99: of other deaths, 343 a total of 32,319 
 cases, in which aid was given to the extent of 
 $591,495.97. 
 
 The relief department of the Pennsylvania Lines 
 West of Pittsburg, established in 1889, varies but 
 slightly in its regulations from that of the Eastern lines. 
 The membership, June 30, 1896, was 15,884. The receipts 
 to that date had been $1,986,000, the disbursements 
 $1,916,000. 
 
 The Philadelphia and Reading and the Burling- 
 ton systems are modifications of the Pennsylvania. The 
 Beading department was organized in 1888 : its advisory 
 committee has fifteen members, with larger powers than 
 elsewhere. The company pays a part of the operating ex- 
 penses, now five per cent, of the members' contributions. It 
 does not guarantee the payment of benefits. Substantially 
 all the employees are members, and all new men must join. 
 The members pay the medical examiner. In case of death, 
 besides the death benefit, there is a payment of $100 from 
 the surplus fund : November 30, 1895, this fund amounted 
 to $309,000 ; the membership was 15,789. 
 
 The Burlington Voluntary Relief Department, 
 beginning in 1888, includes the roads affiliated with the 
 Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. To avoid
 
 278 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 the surplus accumulated under the Baltimore and Ohio and 
 Pennsylvania systems, the rate of payment of sick benefit 
 was increased 25 per cent., making it equal to accident 
 benefit : the distinction between accident on duty and acci- 
 dent off duty was abolished, and the privilege of continu- 
 ing death benefit after the termination of service was 
 extended. The maximum death benefit is from $1,000 to 
 $1,500, according to class. With some other minor differ- 
 ences, the Burlington system is the same as the Pennsyl- 
 vania. On December 31, 1898, the membership was 
 16,325, or 61.81 per cent, of the whole number of em- 
 ployees ; in 1895, of the train, engine and yard men, nearly 
 91 per cent, were members, and of all others about 50 per 
 cent. To December 31, 1898, receipts from members were 
 $2,339,525 : interest on monthly balances paid by the com- 
 panies, $31,713. Operating expenses, paid by the com- 
 panies, were $449,185, deficiencies, also so paid, $42,533 ; 
 a total of $541,718. There was an estimated surplus of 
 $214,958. 
 
 The Plant System Belief and Hospital Depart- 
 ment was established July 1, 1896, on the general plan of 
 the Baltimore and Ohio, with important differences. In a 
 few months 95 per cent, of the employees voluntarily joined 
 the department. The members have little voice in the 
 management, which is mainly in the hands of a committee 
 named by the president. The company contributes $12,000 
 a year. The contributions are higher on account of the 
 hospital feature, in the lowest class 25 cents a month, 
 and in the higher classes 50 cents, more than the B. & O. 
 sums. The company guarantees the obligations of the de- 
 partment, and any surplus will go toward a pension fund. 
 
 The employees of the Lehigh Valley Railroad have 
 a relief system established in 1878. Employees make a 
 voluntary contribution to the amount of one day's wages or 
 less, but in no case more than three dollars, as called upon 
 by the administrators of the fund. The company contributes 
 an equal amount. The daily benefit for an accident to any
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 279 
 
 one who responded to the last call for contributions is three 
 fourths of his last contribution, not longer than nine months. 
 In case of death $50 is paid at once, and the family receive 
 the accident benefit. In 1878-1895 the total contributions 
 were $432,845.04, and the payments $6,089.16 less ; the 
 average number of contributors in 1895 was 5,332. 
 
 In these relief departments the acceptance of bene- 
 fits operates as a release and discharge of all claims 
 against the company for damages on account of the 
 injury. The member agrees that, after an injury, he 
 will elect either to seek damages from the company 
 or to accept the benefits of the fund ; having made his 
 choice, the other course is not open to him. The 
 contracts of five relief departments to this effect 
 have been sustained by the highest State courts and 
 by Federal courts. In all other respects than the one 
 just named the contract between the company and 
 the member is " a one-sided one in favor of the mem- 
 ber, the benefits being securely guaranteed to him, 
 and nothing guaranteed the company." The advan- 
 tages to the employees are indeed great in this which 
 eminent judges have styled "the highest order of 
 mutual benefit association." 
 
 Mr. J. C. Bartlett, the superintendent of the Bur- 
 lington relief service, closes his able address on " Rail- 
 way Relief Departments," which I have freely used 
 in this account, by stating his belief, from the side of 
 the company, that " whether the outlay is entirely 
 offset or not, the balance, if any, against the relief 
 department is small, and is but a small price to pay 
 for the improved conditions. . . . The money value 
 of such abstractions as peace, harmony, good-will, so- 
 briety, thrift and contentment cannot be expressed in
 
 280 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 dollars, but it is, nevertheless, real." Mr. Willoughby, 1 
 noting that one seventh of the railway employees of 
 the United States are now comprehended in insurance 
 departments, makes various suggestions for their im- 
 provement which deserve the attention of all railway 
 companies intending to take up this important system 
 of relief for their employees. 
 
 A notable benefit has been conferred upon their em- 
 ployees by numerous American railways through their 
 patronage of the Young Men's Christian Associations. The 
 Railway Department of the Y. M. C. A. has now some 
 twenty-one homes or club-houses for railroad men. These 
 buildings contain reading-rooms and libraries ; halls for 
 lectures, concerts and social gatherings : class-rooms for the 
 study of mechanical drawing, penmanship and other 
 branches, with lunch-rooms, baths, rooms for games and 
 smoking, bowling alleys and gymnasiums, and sleeping- 
 rooms. The usual fee for membership is but 25 cents a 
 month. Over sixty railroad companies interested are ap- 
 propriating some $160,000 a year for the support of this 
 work, and have erected, or are erecting, buildings at rail- 
 road centres along their lines, ranging in value from $4,500 
 to $175,000. This work is now in operation at 136 points, 
 with the cooperation of railroad officials. The most costly 
 buildings are that in Philadelphia, where the Pennsylvania 
 Railroad gave $33,000 toward an edifice now valued at 
 $130,000 ; that in New Haven, where the New York, New 
 Haven and Hartford Railroad gave some $43,000 ; that 
 in Chicago, where the Northwestern Road contributed 
 $18,000, and that on Madison Avenue, New York, erected 
 for the employees of the roads using the Grand Central 
 station (including express companies), by the late Cornelius 
 Vanderbilt, now valued at $225,000. This last is one of 
 the finest club-houses in the country, and it is open day and 
 
 1 Workingman's Insurance, pp. 309-318.
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 281 
 
 night for the usual fee of the railway association. At West 
 72d Street is another club-house for the men in the freight 
 service of the New York Central Company. 
 
 On the Brooklyn Bridge Railway, owned by New 
 York city, the employees receive higher wages than on the 
 elevated roads in New York or Brooklyn ; " free medical 
 attendance in case of injury, and usually half their regular 
 wages as long as needed ; a two weeks' vacation on full 
 pay, rubber coats and gloves, and two suits of uniform a 
 year." l 
 
 The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company controls 
 five electric railways of that city and employs some 
 4,500 men on its cars. On account of the fan shape of 
 Brooklyn, the company is obliged to support several car 
 depots more than the usual number. After the strike 
 of 1895, it converted two dingy " extra rooms where 
 car crews spend their time when off duty into attrac- 
 tive quarters, well lighted, ventilated and heated." 
 They were equipped with gymnastic apparatus, a 
 library table supplied with newspapers and magazines, 
 games, a pianoforte, and a pool table. This change 
 " has corrected the tendency to frequent saloons." 
 
 At one of the depots the men have built a stage on 
 which minstrel shows and other entertainments are 
 occasionally given : the proceeds are devoted to ath- 
 letics as uniforming the baseball and football teams. 
 From time to time the company engages profes- 
 sional talent to give a vaudeville entertainment for 
 the men and their families, followed by a general 
 dance. In cold weather the company contracts with 
 a coffee-house to furnish ten-gallon tanks of good 
 hot coffee at the various depots, where men on the 
 
 1 Professor E. W. Bemis on Street Railways, in Municipal Monop- 
 olies, p. 566.
 
 282 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 road may stop and " warm up " free. In the hardest 
 summer days sandwiches of Vienna bread and ham, 
 with coffee, are provided at the principal pleasure re- 
 sort terminals. At the close of the busy summer 
 season the men of each division have an outing, in the 
 form of a trolley ride to a grove where the day is spent 
 in sport, or of a steamboat excursion up the Hudson, 
 where the annual track athletics are held. A fund of 
 $10,000 provided prizes for the men who have a clear 
 record for the year : this had the effect of dimmish- 
 ing accidents and the need of discipline. The general 
 effect of the company's policy has been to elevate the 
 condition of those already in the service and to enable 
 it to have a better class of men. 1 
 
 The Chicago City Railway, operating cable and 
 trolley lines on the south side of the city, has pro- 
 vided for the use of its employees, who number over 
 1,600, club-house quarters in its five " barns " or car- 
 houses. Each of these houses has a gymnasium, a 
 library and reading-room, a billiard-room, and a vari- 
 ety of baths. These are supported by the men them- 
 selves paying a small annual fee, the company giving 
 the rent of the rooms. Their feeling is that the men 
 will appreciate more highly facilities for which they 
 pay something. This principle is justified here in the 
 great interest which the employees show and the large 
 amount of time they spend in the club-houses when off 
 duty. 
 
 The Employees' Mutual Aid Association is a very 
 flourishing organization, which was constituted Septem- 
 ber 26, 1894. On the 1st of October, 1897, it had 
 2,021 members (of whom 400 were former employees 
 
 1 Communication from the general passenger agent.
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 283 
 
 who retained their membership), and the amount of 
 insurance in force was $1,010,500. The "aim and 
 purpose " is " to maintain a benefit fund, out of 
 which shall be paid, on the death of a member in good 
 standing in the association, to his family or those de- 
 pending upon him, as he may have directed, the 
 amount of one assessment [on the whole body of 
 members], provided that such amount shall not ex- 
 ceed the sum of $500." In the year 1896-97 six 
 assessments more than paid for twelve deaths: in 
 189596 five assessments paid for nine deaths : in 
 189495, seven assessments paid for seven deaths. 
 This statement " shows a steady decrease in cost to 
 each member for each death : " the annual fee is fifty 
 cents in advance, and the assessment calls for the 
 same sum within thirty days. The railway company 
 contributed $350 in 1896-97, "this amount being 
 computed on a basis of 100 memberships." The com- 
 pany is authorized by the constitution of the associa- 
 tion to deduct from a member's salary " each and 
 every assessment, which said assessment, so collected, 
 said treasurer shall remit to the treasurer of the 
 association. ... It is understood that the Chicago 
 City Railway Company shall in no way or manner be 
 liable for the assessments so made, or collected by it 
 or its treasurer, the said treasurer only acting as an 
 individual and not in his official capacity as treasurer 
 of the Chicago City Railway Company. . . . Every 
 application for membership shall be accompanied by 
 the medical examiner's fee ($1.50), the sum of 50 
 cents for annual dues, and by the amount of two 
 assessments ($1)," making $3 in all; half of this 
 sum is remitted if the report of the examiner is un- 
 favorable.
 
 284 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 The great success of this association is probably 
 due in some degree to the two excellent provisions of 
 the constitution concerning intoxicating liquors. Any 
 member leaving the employ of the company and en- 
 gaging thereafter " in the manufacture or sale of 
 intoxicating liquors shall cease to be a member of 
 this association immediately upon entering into such 
 occupation." If he fails to notify the secretary of his 
 entering such an occiipation, but continues to pay his 
 dues, " then, in the event of his death, his beneficiary 
 shall not be entitled to any benefits of the association, 
 and his membership shall be considered as canceled 
 upon the date he entered into such occupation." 
 
 " Any member habitually using alcoholic beverages 
 to excess will not be considered in good standing, and 
 such member will be notified to appear before the 
 board of directors, and will be given a hearing, after 
 which, should the board of directors, by a majority 
 vote, deem it necessary for the good of the association, 
 they may expel said member permanently." The 
 prosperity of the association for its first three years of 
 existence reminded the president of "a remark once 
 made by a railway man in regard to the operation of 
 a certain street railway, which was to the effect that 
 ' it would take a much better man to stop it than to 
 run it.' " 
 
 In the anthracite coal mines of Pennsylvania something 
 has been done by employers to improve the hard lot of the 
 miners. The Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron 
 Company established a relief fund in 1877 with an endow- 
 ment of $20,000. The system is practically compulsory. 
 " All employees are put upon the list, and the monthly dues 
 deducted from wages, without asking the consent of the
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 285 
 
 'contributors.' . . . The arrangement is generally acqui- 
 esced in, and is, indeed, generally regarded as an advan- 
 tageous arrangement by the men." 1 There are four classes 
 of men, assessed from 15 to 50 cents a month ; $2 a week 
 benefit is paid to those of the fourth class, and $5 to those 
 in the other classes. Thirty dollars in cash and $2.80 a 
 week for a year are paid to the family of a member of the 
 fourth class if he dies from an accident while at work ; the 
 same funeral expenses and $7 a week in the case of a mem- 
 ber of the upper classes. In 1896, 27,626 men contributed 
 $125,921.64, and the fund, $1,460. 
 
 The Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company has 
 maintained a more liberal plan for its 5,000 employees since 
 1883. The company contributes the interest on a fund of 
 $20,000 and a fixed sum for each ton of coal mined ; the 
 inside men contribute one half of one per cent, on wages, 
 and the outside men one fourth of one per cent. In 1895 
 the receipts were $14,143, $8,335 from the company and 
 $5,808 from the employees : benefits paid were $16,396 ; 
 these benefits are $30 for funeral expenses and half pay for 
 eighteen months to the family ; half pay for not more than 
 eighteen months is the allowance for disability from acci- 
 dent. 
 
 The Lehigh Valley Coal Company, the Delaware 
 and Hudson Canal Company, and some of the compa- 
 nies controlled by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, 
 have relief funds ; employees are asked to contribute a day's 
 wages, the company paying an equal sum. " When the 
 fund is exhausted, another call is made. . . . The plan is 
 thought to be fairer for the men, especially those who are 
 only temporarily employed, than that of the Reading or the 
 Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company." The fund is usu- 
 ally disbursed upon orders from a colliery committee, con- 
 sisting of the mine's foreman and two employees. The 
 Lehigh and Wilkesbarre Coal Company pays funeral 
 
 1 "The Anthracite Mine Laborers," by G. O. Virtue, in the Bulle- 
 tin of the Department of Labor, No. 13, p. 771.
 
 286 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 expenses, and makes a monthly allowance for accidents 
 according to the condition of the injured person's family. 
 Coxe Bros. & Company give $50 for funeral expenses 
 in case of death from accident, and pay $3 a week to the 
 widow and $1 a week for each child, for a year : the firm 
 also regularly assists men disabled by accident. 
 
 The Solvay Process Company manufactures soda- 
 ash under patents from the French company of the 
 name, at Syracuse, N. Y., having over 1,500 em- 
 ployees. It has attempted to improve their condition 
 by work done with and for their children. A small 
 sewing - school for girls, started by the wife of the 
 president of the company in 1886, began with some 
 twenty-five pupils. It soon outgrew the quarters avail- 
 able, and in 1890 the company built a hall, in con- 
 nection with a dwelling-house, arranged with special 
 reference to the sewing-school and similar work. The 
 number of girls is now 250 ; the course is graded, 
 using the Pratt Institute system. The ladies of the 
 families of the officers and chief employees give their 
 services, and the expenses for material, etc., are met 
 by the King's Daughters. An embroidery class makes 
 fine work, which is sold at an annual bazaar, and 
 helps largely to provide funds. There are classes 
 in household work and cooking. A gymnastic class 
 for boys and girls over twelve was formed in 1887, 
 on a self-supporting basis, and ran for six years, being 
 then superseded by a dancing class, organized among 
 the boys and young men in 1890. This also contributes 
 to the treasury of the King's Daughters. The im- 
 provement wrought by the classes carried on by these 
 ladies has been great. Kindergartens in Solvay vil- 
 lage and in Syracuse have been promoted by them.
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 287 
 
 The Solvay company has divided profits with the 
 general officers and the chief employees since 1887, 
 the bonus being proportioned to the dividend on stock. 
 In 1890 " a junior class of participation " was formed, 
 taking in the foremen and assistant foremen, depend- 
 ing upon dividends in a reduced proportion. Between 
 seventy-five and one hundred persons are now profit 
 sharers, and the plan is stated to have worked admir- 
 ably. The Mutual Benefit Society of Solvay had a 
 balance on hand, February 15, 1899, of $7,925.59 : 
 the company, with one representative on the board, 
 contributes half as much as the men, having given 
 twice or three times this amount in former years. 
 
 The operation of a pension fund, established in 
 1892, has not been satisfactory, and it is being wound 
 up. The company had contributed nearly $ 200,000 
 by 1895, and 1,500 men were interested ; they had 
 individually consented and agreed to the articles gov- 
 erning the fund, which were of the usual kind. But 
 some twenty-five suits were brought against the com- 
 pany to compel the payment of pass-books given under 
 these conditions, which had not been complied with, 
 and a typical case was decided against the company, 
 which appealed, and it is now pending. Rather than 
 have further difficulty, the company has paid out a 
 large sum in settling claims presented to it, and is 
 paying off and canceling the pass-books, being assured, 
 so far as possible, that the sums paid are actually 
 expended for the purposes named. The president 
 believes that the class of workmen employed at Solvay 
 are not yet ready to appreciate a scheme of this char- 
 acter. 
 
 Fels & Co., manufacturers of soap, Philadelphia,
 
 288 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 Penn., employ some 175 persons, of whom about one 
 third are women. The firm, while paying very good 
 wages, reduced the working day for men, some years 
 ago, from ten hours to nine. More recently the girls' 
 day has been reduced to eight hours ; and in dull times 
 the day for men and boys is eight hours, without re- 
 duction in wages, their week being five and one half 
 days, and that of the girls five days. Office em- 
 ployees and foremen receive a vacation, and factory 
 employees have Saturday afternoons in summer, with 
 pay. Dressing-rooms are provided : a lunch-room for 
 girls is a fact, and one for men is a probability. An 
 open space, laid out with grass and plants, gives oppor- 
 tunity for lounging and games during the noon-hour. 
 The employees' mutual aid association is subsidized 
 by the firm, which offers facilities for savings that are 
 well used. The firm does not yet see " an increase in 
 material work equal to increase in wages and decrease 
 in hours, but the result in that direction is not dis- 
 couraging. There is recognizable, however, a cheer- 
 fulness and interest throughout the place to be attrib- 
 uted largely to the sense of fair treatment. The need 
 of close overseeing is less than formerly. We think 
 we see a more self-respecting bearing in the force and 
 a cordiality towards the firm which fully justify the 
 concessions made." 
 
 The Sherwin-Williams Company, of Cleveland, 
 Ohio, are paint and color makers, employing some five 
 hundred persons. Two floors of one of their build- 
 ings have been converted into lunch-rooms, with a 
 kitchen annexed, under a veteran cook. The method 
 is like that of the National Cash Register Company, 
 serving tea or coffee, and a stew or a soup free ; but
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 289 
 
 there are some extra dishes which are provided at cost 
 price for those who wish them. The men take weekly 
 turns in serving on each table. (The seventy-six girls 
 employed have a separate room.) The president, the 
 officers and the traveling salesmen, when in town, take 
 their lunch here. The men lunch in two shifts ; their 
 lunch-time is limited, from the nature of the business, 
 but there are books and magazines in the room at 
 their disposal, if they have time for them. There is 
 also a branch of the Public Library in the factory 
 with ninety-nine names on its list. The company does 
 much printing, and the work is often put before the 
 men at lounging-time for inspection and suggestion. 
 There is a complete laundry in the factory which 
 washes the large number of towels and aprons needed 
 in the work, and the table linen of the lunch-rooms. 
 There are large bath and wash rooms, which are in 
 frequent use. The employees and their families are 
 invited to an annual outing : each employee receives a 
 turkey for Thanksgiving. The Mutual Benefit Soci- 
 ety (182 members) pays a benefit of 50 per cent, of 
 regular wages for not more than twelve weeks, and a 
 death benefit of $25, to which the company adds $75. 
 The member's contribution is one cent on a dollar of 
 wages up to $10 a week. The company prints a 
 monthly magazine for circulation among the men. 
 " We are very confident that what we are doing for 
 our employees is most heartily appreciated by them. 
 We believe that it pays." 
 
 The immense works of the H. J. Heinz Company, 
 of Pittsburg, Penn. (pickles and preserves), employ 
 some 2,500 persons, of whom 400 are women (dressed 
 in blue gowns and white caps). For the benefit of
 
 290 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 its female employees the company has numerous con- 
 veniences. On the fourth floor of one of its large 
 buildings it has a lunch-room with a seating capacity 
 of 500; it is attractively decorated and furnished, with 
 a hundred or more pictures on the walls and a piano- 
 forte in one corner. Tea and coffee are provided for 
 a cent a cup, and food is warmed or cooked : a " free 
 lunch" was not relished by the more independent 
 girls. In the story below are the large dressing- 
 rooms, where each girl has a separate locker, with 
 bathrooms and a rest-room with two beds and a med- 
 icine closet for women indisposed. A matron has 
 the oversight of the girls. The roof of the building, 
 with a fountain playing on it, is available as a roof- 
 garden during the noon-hour: there is an organ in 
 the tower. The lunch-room is used for concerts and 
 lectures winter evenings. The men employed have 
 access to a restaurant where food is sold at cost, and 
 there is a circulating library open to all. In a new 
 building just erected there is a men's dining-room like 
 that for the women. In the fourth and fifth stories 
 is an auditorium 100 x 100 feet and 30 feet high, 
 lighted by a large dome in the roof, and seating 2,500 
 persons. This is to be used for lectures and enter- 
 tainments for the employees, for the annual Christ- 
 mas festivities, and, under certain restrictions, for 
 public meetings and entertainments. On the top of 
 the building is a roof -garden 100 x 180 feet, with 
 plants, flowers and shrubbery, and connected by an 
 elevator with the lower floors. 
 
 The P. Lorillard Company, tobacco manufacturers of 
 New York, established in 1882 a library, reading-room, 
 and gymnasium for the use of its numerous employees in
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 291 
 
 Jersey City, where its works are located. These institu- 
 tions were in Booraem Hall, on the corner of Grove Street 
 and Newark Avenue. The catalogue printed in 1884 
 showed over 6,000 titles of popular and standard literature 
 in its 82 pages : the library is open daily from 10 A. M. to 
 10 P. M., for women on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fri- 
 days, and for men on the alternate week-days: for both 
 sexes on Sundays and holidays. Ten daily papers and 
 thirty-five weekly papers and magazines are kept on file. 
 Evening schools have been, kept in this hall in compliance 
 with the New Jersey law, and over two hundred boys and 
 girls attend on an average. The need of extra room was 
 so great that the gymnasium was surrendered to the schools 
 some years ago. Testimony to the effect that " the Loril- 
 lards are good people to work for " is not lacking. 
 
 At The Fair, one of the great department stores of 
 Chicago, one will find on the restaurant floor, and occupy- 
 ing a part of the restaurant space during its session, a 
 school for cash girls, which might well be imitated by other 
 department stores. It has been in charge of the same lady 
 teacher for ten years : as many as 106 girls are in attend- 
 ance for two hours every morning. The instruction has a 
 practical bearing naturally. " The Fair " employs the 
 teacher, buys the text-books, and in other ways shows its 
 sympathy with this plan for remedying the defects in the 
 school education of these children put to work so early. 
 
 The Bullock Electric Manufacturing Company, 
 of Cincinnati, Ohio, furnishes its employees with lunch- 
 rooms, bathrooms and reading-rooms. The Eastman 
 Kodak Company, in its camera woi-ks at Rochester, 
 N. Y. (1,000 employees), has a lunch-room for the girls, 
 with a cook who prepares the material furnished by them ; 
 there is a similar arrangement for the men, and also a lunch- 
 room for the women employed in the office building. S. E. 
 Packard and Sons, paper-box makers, of Campello, 
 Mass., have equipped a lunch-room for their seventy-five 
 employees. They have provided dressing-rooms and
 
 292 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 lockers, with uniform overalls and coats for men, laundered 
 at the firm's expense. They have adopted the committee 
 system, having a factory committee and an executive com- 
 mittee composed of the foremen and one of the firm. 
 
 The Remington - Sholes Company, of Chicago, 
 makers of typewriters, with two hundred men, offered 
 prizes April 1, 1899, for useful suggestions from them. 
 In the next three months it received about thirty sugges- 
 tions, " some of which are useful, and one of which has 
 been embodied in our machine. . . . The experiment has 
 awakened great interest and will be productive of good, and 
 result in closer relations with our employees." The United 
 States Printing Company, of Cincinnati, Ohio 
 (labels and show-cards), has adopted the autographic regis- 
 ter plan, and is " very much pleased with the results ob- 
 tained." 
 
 F. A. Brownell, manufacturer of photographic appara- 
 tus (in connection with the Eastman Kodak Company), 
 Rochester, N. Y., employs about 1,000 hands, 100 to 150 
 of whom are young women. The young women help are 
 employed entirely on the first story, entirely separate from 
 the men, who occupy the basement and remaining five 
 floors. The young women have a dining-room with a com- 
 petent cook in charge, who furnishes a satisfactory dinner 
 each day at a price of sixty cents per week, which is con- 
 siderably less than cost. There is a large dining-room on 
 the fourth floor for men and boys ; their kitchen is not yet 
 in operation ; they bring their own luncheons. Adjoining 
 the dining-rooms are separate libraries and reading-rooms 
 for the men and young women ; each being in charge of a 
 competent librarian. Connected with the young women's 
 cloak-room is a hospital for their exclusive use. On the 
 sixth floor is a convenient hospital for the use of the men 
 and boys. All employees taken suddenly ill or injured 
 are given immediate aid, and a surgeon called, or they are 
 sent to a physician or surgeon, as the case requires. Racks 
 are placed in convenient places on the first floor for the
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 293 
 
 accommodation of the young women who ride bicycles, 
 while a system of bicycle storage is provided in the base- 
 ment for some three hundred men who ride wheels to and 
 from their work. The basement, which is a light, airy 
 room with asphalt floor, is also being fitted up with lockers 
 for men and boys. The factory was built on the mill- 
 construction plan, with very large windows which furnish 
 excellent light and ventilation. The building is heated by 
 hot blast, with which the air in the entire factory may be 
 entirely changed every ten to twenty minutes ; the same 
 system supplies hot air in the winter and cold air for ven- 
 tilation in the summer. In December, 1898, a suggestion 
 system was adopted. Eight prizes, from $5 to $25 in 
 amount, were to be offered each month. A number of 
 iron post-office boxes are located at convenient points about 
 the factory. The suggestions are written on blanks, a pad 
 of which is attached to each box. Three prizes, $20 to $50, 
 are offered for the best suggestions adopted during the 
 year. A " Prize Awards Bulletin " is published monthly, 
 giving the suggestions adopted, the prizes awarded and 
 various matters relating to the factory. In the eight months, 
 December, 1898, to July, 1899, the number of suggestions 
 made varied from 81 to 208 ; from one eighth to one 
 quarter of these were adopted. From money not given 
 out as prizes (because of insufficient merit in the sugges- 
 tions) prizes have been offered for those offering the largest 
 number of suggestions adopted but not winning prizes. 
 
 The Bausch and Lomb Optical Company, Roches- 
 ter, N. Y., adopted in May, 1899, a plan for inviting sug- 
 gestions, from their 982 employees, for improvements in 
 regard to the work, the finished product and the factory 
 conditions. Each quarter seven prizes, varying in size 
 from $5 to $25, are offered for the best suggestions, and a 
 grand prize of $100 for the most valuable suggestion of the 
 year. Up to June 27, forty-six suggestions were received 
 " some of which are very good." The J. C. Ayer Com- 
 pany, manufacturing chemists, of Lowell, Mass., has
 
 294 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 recently put in a number of autographic registering ma- 
 chines, and offered prizes for the best suggestions. The 
 A. B. Chase Company, makers of pianofortes and organs, 
 Norwalk, Ohio, with 125 to 200 men, offered prizes in 
 February, 1899, for the best suggestions for improvements, 
 economies and the advancement of the company in any 
 direction. In the next four months the company " received 
 a large number of suggestions, and have been able to in- 
 stitute many profits in our goods and in process of manu- 
 facturing." The Farrand-Votey Organ Company and 
 the F. H. Sanborn Company, both of Omaha, Neb., 
 have adopted the committee systeni of management. 
 
 The Siegel-Cooper Company, department store, New 
 York, on January 1, 1899, presented a life-insurance policy 
 of $1,000, with the first year's premiums paid ($26,415), 
 to some 504 men, who had served a year or more. The 
 president of the company, Mr. Henry Siegel, outlined a 
 pension fund scheme for the benefit of employees showing 
 ten years of service. The endowment fund of $200,000 
 is protected by a life-insurance policy of that amount taken 
 out by Mr. Siegel, payable at his death or on maturity of 
 the policy in 1919. As the store has been in operation but 
 three years, it will be seven years more before this scheme 
 can become operative ; the details have not been worked out, 
 but the general plan contemplates pensions equal to 50 
 per cent, of the employees' income, the maximum being 
 
 The First National Bank, of Chicago, HI., 
 adopted May 1, 1899, a plan of pensioning officers 
 and employees, which is modeled on that of the Bank 
 of Montreal, and is said to be in force in a number 
 of banks in England and Canada. Three per cent, of 
 wages and salaries is deducted monthly, and pensions 
 will be granted after fifteen years of service and sixty 
 years of age. Retirement is to be usually compulsory
 
 AMERICAN LIBERALITY TO WORKMEN 295 
 
 at sixty-five years. In case of voluntary resignation 
 or dismissal, all payments made will be returned with- 
 out interest; in case of the death of a contributor 
 who has not been fifteen years in service, and leaves 
 a widow or children, the bank may grant a pension or 
 return to the estate all moneys paid in, with interest 
 at four per cent. Members whose term of service has 
 been under twenty-five years at retirement will be en- 
 titled to a pension for as many years after as they have 
 served. Others will be entitled to pensions for life. 
 The widow will receive half her husband's pension 
 until re-marriage, for a term not longer than his term 
 of service : and if she dies leaving children, they shall 
 receive the benefit of the pension until the youngest 
 is eighteen years old. No clerk is allowed to marry 
 on a salary of less than $ 1,000 a year, under penalty 
 of dismissal. The pension is fixed on the basis of one 
 fiftieth of the salary at superannuation for each year 
 of service, but in no case can it exceed thirty-five 
 fiftieths of the salary. A clerk on a $2,000 salary 
 could thus retire at sixty on $600 a year, after con- 
 tributing $60 a year for fifteen years. The bank has 
 set aside a considerable sum to insure the adequacy of 
 the fund, and will, from time to time, charge to ordi- 
 nary expenses such further sums as may be needed. 
 The 250 employees of the bank, from the officers to 
 the janitor, have all become members, and member- 
 ship will be compulsory hereafter. The National 
 City Bank, of New York, has had a simpler pension 
 scheme in operation for two years.
 
 PART III 
 
 A DIRECT DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 FIVE CASES OF PROFIT SHARING 
 
 WE have already met several instances, in our sur- 
 vey of employers' institutions, in which there is a more 
 or less regular practice of paying a dividend to the 
 employee, based on his wages. When the employer 
 adopts this method formally and embodies it in a set 
 of rules and regulations, promising to give the bonus 
 in one form or another, not to the whole body of work- 
 men collectively, but to the individual workmen, he 
 enters upon the system usually known as profit shar- 
 ing. After the detailed treatment given to this sub- 
 ject in my previous volume (1889), I need only 
 supplement that work with two chapters devoted to 
 the developments of the last ten years. I will first 
 ask attention to one French, one English and three 
 American instances, in which the system has had an 
 unusually interesting outcome, and will give some- 
 what detailed accounts of the experience of the five 
 companies. In the Baille-Lemaire case the transition 
 from the older form of ownership is marked by novel 
 features. In the Bourne Mills the conditions were 
 such as are generally supposed to be peculiarly adverse 
 to the success of profit sharing. With the Procter
 
 FIVE CASES OF PROFIT SHARING 297 
 
 and Gamble Company we meet the fullest recognition 
 of the right of the workingman to an explicit dividend 
 on his wages. In the case of the South Metropolitan 
 Gas Company, profit-sharing employees are entitled 
 to vote for workman directors of the company. With 
 the N. O. Nelson Company the effort is making to 
 convert the business into a cooperative enterprise. 
 
 THE MAISON BAILLE-LEMAIRE. 
 
 The opera-glasses made by the Baille-Lemaire 
 house of Paris are known throughout the civilized 
 world. The industrial system practiced by it is far 
 from having had the same wide report, but this de- 
 serves to be signalized among the leading instances 
 of patronal institutions and participation which have 
 not been frequently described. Its union of busi- 
 ness sagacity and human kindliness was recognized in 
 the conferring upon it of one of the five gold medals 
 of the Prix Audeoud, given in 1889 to commercial 
 establishments of great merit. 
 
 M. A. Lemaire began the manufacture of opera- 
 glasses in March, 1847, on a very modest scale. He 
 started with one apprentice only, and after several 
 months of good business he engaged two workmen, 
 who soon left him, as he would not grant an un- 
 warranted increase of wages in the revolutionary year 
 1848. (This is the only labor trouble that the house 
 has had in its half century of existence.) Keeping 
 only two apprentices thereafter until 1849, M. Le- 
 maire took into partnership, in that year, his cousin, 
 M. Daumas, a locksmith, who is still the director of 
 the workshops. M. Lemaire was a skillful inventor 
 of new processes, and his work was recognized by
 
 298 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 the various expositions in prizes awarded to his 
 house, which grew rapidly and numbered about one 
 hundred workmen in 1860. He always considered 
 the improvement and development of the working 
 force to be a matter demanding as much interest 
 and care as the plant of the establishment. So, in 
 1861, he began the " social organization " with a 
 school for apprentices, which was followed by a pre- 
 mium-for-attendance system in 1869 ; the Aid Fund 
 (caisse de secours) in 1865 ; the Retiring Fund in 
 1878 ; rifarmonie des Ateliers Lemaire in 1881 ; 
 profit sharing and the Committee of Direction in 
 1885, and F Union de Ttpargne in 1886. M. J. B. 
 Bailie, a graduate of the Polytechnic School, became 
 the son-in-law of M. Lemaire in 1870, and his de- 
 voted collaborator in 1871 ; on the death of M. Le- 
 maire in 1885, the entire ownership and direction 
 passed into the hands of M. Bailie. Three years 
 later the house was employing twenty-five apprentices 
 and some five hundred workmen, half of them em- 
 ployed in the shops and half outside on the parts of 
 opera-glasses not needing any motive power for their 
 making. 
 
 M. Lemaire established his school for apprentices 
 in 1861 in order to solve some of the difficulties 
 which the decay of the old system of apprentice- 
 ship had caused. These difficulties, both intellec- 
 tual and moral, were such as to impress especially 
 such a man, deeply aware of the importance of keep- 
 ing up the morale of his house. After he had 
 brought up a number of apprentices as he himself 
 had been trained, the growth of his business and 
 the increasing difficulty of finding workmen faithful
 
 FIVE CASES OF PROFIT SHARING 299 
 
 and skillful enough to manage his new machinery, 
 led him to establish his boarding-school for appren- 
 tices. The boys are taken at thirteen or fourteen 
 years of age and kept until seventeen or eighteen, 
 the whole cost of their food and lodging being at 
 the expense of the firm. A small sum, enough to 
 excite their interest, is paid them at first as wages, 
 and they soon receive sufficient to relieve their par- 
 ents of all expense. Two overseers have charge of 
 them in the eleven working hours, and trusty work- 
 men keep an eye on them at other times. Two 
 teachers from the Parisian schools give instruction 
 in the evening, chiefly in geometrical drawing as 
 the basis ; but attention is also given to arithmetic, 
 the history of France, natural science, hygiene and 
 practical morals. Each evening closes with a read- 
 ing by a pupil from some interesting book, like the 
 romances of Erckmann-Chatrian or Jules Verne, 
 or selections from Michelet. A taste for good read- 
 ing is thus formed which brings about a steady use 
 of the library of the school. The boys enjoy a fort- 
 night's vacation each year at M. Bailie's country 
 seat. Between 1861 and 1887 there were 309 
 minors connected with the school; of these, eighty- 
 seven completed the full course, the firm placing no 
 obstacles in the way of a withdrawal at pleasure. 
 Only those remaining for the four years, however, 
 were admitted to the shops, and the firm selected, 
 of course, the best in ability and character for its 
 service. Regular pay each week, admission to the 
 aid and retiring funds, and a savings account, pay- 
 able at the close of the apprenticeship, were for- 
 merly stipulated for each minor, but are now optional
 
 300 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 with the firm, according to the work and conduct 
 of each boy. 
 
 The Baille-L/emaire house has always insisted much 
 on steady employment of its plant as desirable from 
 the point of view of self-interest ; it has stopped work 
 as little as possible, preferring to do work in advance 
 of orders, and to take other measures attended by 
 some risk, rather than shut down, even for a short 
 time. Faithful attendance by its workpeople being 
 just as desirable for the interests of the house, it 
 began in 1869 to pay a premium for regularity. 
 Every workman who lost less than three hours per 
 week received seven per cent, additional on his wages ; 
 this was afterward increased to ten per cent. All the 
 workmen, with rare exceptions, now earn this pre- 
 mium, but any man absent three successive Mondays 
 without good cause is dismissed. To avoid acciden- 
 tal stoppages, harmful to all concerned, two steam- 
 engines and two boilers are in use, so that there is no 
 loss of time for the usual repairs when one breaks 
 down. Work has been interrupted only during the 
 siege of 187071, and the week of the Commune in 
 May, 1871. 
 
 The Aid Fund (caisse de secours~) is supported 
 from the general expense account, not from profits, 
 it being a cardinal principle with the Baille-Lemaire 
 house that th'e men shall be kept in good repair as 
 well as the machinery, at the expense of the house. 
 Besides an indemnity of three francs a day during 
 sickness, and the expense of medicines and medical 
 attendance, the workman is entitled to receive 100 
 fr. on his marriage ; 100 fr. on the birth of each 
 child, and 50 fr. on the decease of his wife ; 100 fr.
 
 FIVE CASES OF PROFIT SHARING 301 
 
 a year if he becomes a soldier, and a certain sum per 
 diem while on reserve service ; at his death 100 fr. 
 are paid to the widow, and 50 fr. for each child under 
 fifteen years of age. The house is in the habit of 
 making small loans without interest to its employees, 
 even to those who have savings in the bank, but pre- 
 fer to make use of the loan system. 
 
 The Retiring Fund (caisse de retraite) was founded 
 in 1878. Half of the ten per cent, premium on wages 
 for regular attendance is paid in cash. The other 
 half goes to constitute this fund, which is paid into 
 the State Retiring Fund, the house acting simply 
 as an intermediary, to hand over the money, semi- 
 annually, on inalienable accounts. The operation of 
 the fund is such that the workman who receives an 
 average of forty francs a week, and begins to deposit 
 at eighteen, would have at sixty an annuity of some 
 1,500 fr. This was the return when interest was 
 five per cent. ; the rate has been reduced since, but 
 the workman's receipts from the profits will increase 
 his savings. From 1878 to 1888 the total deposits 
 were 195,979 fr., of which 11,400 fr. were extra 
 savings made by the employees. 
 
 MM. Baille-Lemaire were of the opinion that the 
 transformation of their establishment into a true 
 cooperative productive house would have various in- 
 conveniences. They have preferred to diminish gen- 
 eral expenses as far as possible, even to the extinction 
 of interest on the capital employed. In 1885 they 
 began a system of profit sharing, having this end in 
 view. For fifteen years (1885-1900) the profits 
 were to be divided yearly into four parts. One of 
 these is apportioned among the overseers and work-
 
 302 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 men ; the other three go to liquidate (or amortize) 
 the capital. The sums liquidated no longer bearing 
 interest, the expenses rapidly decrease. When the 
 entire sum is amortized, one half of the profits will go 
 to capital, which will then receive no other remunera- 
 tion, and the other half to the working people. A 
 deduction will first be made in favor of the institu- 
 tions of the house. When one half of the capital 
 has been liquidated, the profits are to be divided into 
 three parts, two of which shall go into the liquidation. 
 This house will thus be soon in a unique position. 
 The capital in it will do its work, but receive no 
 wages and only one half of the profits. M. BaiUe 
 will still be master and proprietor, and he will be free 
 to introduce modifications of his plan if he should 
 desire to do so. At the present time he has a con- 
 sulting committee of six overseers ; it meets frequently 
 for familiar discussion of the business, each overseer 
 presiding in turn ; they thus acquire a practical know- 
 ledge of commercial affairs. The transformed house 
 will possess a very desirable elasticity in its business 
 relations. 
 
 The profit sharing proper operates in this way. A 
 deduction is first made for rewards for improvements 
 in the processes of the work, and an account of the 
 year's business is rendered to a committee of direction. 
 At present one fourth of the profits are divided among 
 the workmen, and the remainder applied to the liqui- 
 dation of the capital. When this process has been 
 accomplished, forty per cent, of the profits will go to 
 the workers, forty per cent, to capital (without inter- 
 est), and twenty per cent, to endow the various funds. 
 Of the sum now going to the working force, two thirds
 
 FIVE CASES OF PROFIT SHARING 303 
 
 falls to the overseers and the responsible workmen, 
 in unequal shares, and one third to the other work- 
 men, according to wages and seniority. The profits 
 divided annually are affected by the varying rate of 
 interest allowed to capital, from three to six per cent., 
 according to the state of the market, and by payments 
 to the reserve fund. When an employee has been 
 twenty-five years in the service of the house, he will 
 receive a premium running from 100 francs a year up 
 to a possible 2,000 francs. 
 
 An attractive feature of the Baille-Lemaire en- 
 semble of friendly relations between master and men 
 is r 'Harmonie des Ateliers Lemaire, established in 
 1881 and reorganized in 1888. This society of the 
 workers who have musical ability admits honorary 
 members, and M. Bailie is the honorary president, 
 but it is governed by its own committee ; self-govern- 
 ment here, as everywhere else, says M. Bailie, tends 
 to moderation and tolerance. There are three re- 
 unions every year in the house, at all of which the 
 Harmonie Lemaire contributes greatly to the general 
 enjoyment. New Year's day the workmen and their 
 families call upon the head of the house, in turn, and 
 gifts are distributed to the children. A summer 
 festival is held on a pleasant afternoon at M. Bailie's 
 country seat. In the winter the Harmonie Lemaire 
 gives a banquet and ball, at which M. Bailie and his 
 family assist. There is no thought of patronizing on 
 their part ; but these social events are friendly meet- 
 ings of a large industrial family, in which M. Bailie 
 declares that he tastes his highest and purest plea- 
 sure. Even when the master's wine flows freely there 
 has been no excess or impropriety. The American
 
 304 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 reader who has seen them will be reminded of the 
 reunions of the Riverside Press at Cambridge, and of 
 the Procter and Gamble employees at Ivorydale, near 
 Cincinnati. 
 
 The Union de 1'Epargne was established volun- 
 tarily by the Baille-Lemaire workmen in 1885, and 
 is under their own control. Each member pays in 
 from one to five francs weekly ; at the end of three 
 years the property of the union was 45,697 fr. 25 c. 
 This association is regarded by the proprietor of the 
 house as one of the strongest evidences of the success 
 of his far-sighted plans. The best of feeling reigns 
 in the establishment, and M. Bailie considers his 
 prosperity as due to the gradual development of the 
 admirable institutions we have briefly sketched. 1 
 
 THE BOURNE MILLS. 
 
 A striking illustration of what profit sharing can do 
 may be found in a line of industry in which the rate of 
 compensation to the worker is not high, comparatively, 
 in which the first cost of the plant is large, and the 
 importance of hand labor by the side of machinery is 
 low, and in which the average grade of intelligence is 
 not up to the common level of the environing society. 
 The Bourne cotton-mills of Fall River, Mass, (the mills 
 are just over the state line in Tiverton, R. I.), supply 
 all these conditions, which will at once be recognized 
 as in themselves unfavorable to any high degree of 
 success in the application of profit sharing. The in- 
 telligence and " animated moderation " with which the 
 
 1 This account is based upon M. Bailie's Notices of his Institutions 
 Patronales, published in the Bulletin de la Participation aux Benefices 
 for 1890, pp. 21-62.
 
 FIVE CASES OF PROFIT SHARING 305 
 
 idea has been applied there have, however, made this 
 experiment one of the most successful instances on 
 record. It has these distinct excellences as an illus- 
 tration of the possibilities of industrial partnership, 
 that it is of recent date, while it has yet been in force 
 long enough (ten years) to give assurance of sta- 
 bility ; that it has been subject to disadvantages from 
 which many occupations are free, such as the compara- 
 tive unintelligence of the French Canadian workers, 
 now so important a force in New England factory 
 towns; and that it has been conducted through six 
 years of prosperity and four of extreme depression, 
 while subject to continuous hostile criticism from the 
 other mill-owners of the city. 
 
 Mr. Jonathan Bourne, the first president of the 
 Bourne mills, had long been a whaling merchant, and 
 was familiar with the usual custom, which works so 
 well in whaling and sealing, of giving the men on 
 each vessel a " lay," or share in the profits of the 
 product. After two years of handsome dividends in 
 the new mills, and a year's careful consideration of the 
 scheme, the directors, through Mr. George A. Chace, 
 the treasurer, issued a circular May 23, 1889, an- 
 nouncing that profit sharing would be adopted for 
 the six months beginning July 1. Mr. Bourne died 
 a month later, and the directors have pursued a very 
 conservative course ever since in regard to their time 
 limit. Every six months the plan was readopted for 
 six times, before a whole year's experiment was sanc- 
 tioned : in the entire ten years a favorable vote for 
 continuance has been given fourteen times. The di- 
 rectors, while actuated by feelings of good-will toward 
 their employees, adopted and have continued the
 
 306 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 profit-sharing method, not as philanthropy, but as 
 " good business," operating for the benefit of all con- 
 cerned. The treasurer has taken pains, in his regular 
 communications to the working force, to emphasize the 
 duty of every employee to contribute his share toward 
 the best possible operation of the mills. 1 
 
 Every employee of the 400 or more, who has served 
 six months and worked faithfully during the term of 
 this scheme, has a share in the profits " in proportion 
 to the dividends declared and paid to the stockhold- 
 ers." The share is paid as a dividend upon the wages 
 earned. A sum amounting to not less than six, nor 
 more than ten per cent, of the amount paid to the 
 stockholders (the percentage being determined by the 
 directors) is divided by the largest total wages which 
 the force can earn in six months. This gives the 
 percentage on wages to be paid to each worker. His 
 " divvy," as the men call it, varies thus according to his 
 whole wages. The average of the twenty semi-annual 
 dividends on wages for the ten years has been 3.3 per 
 cent. (2 was the lowest, and 7 per cent., paid once, 
 
 1 Mr. Chace writes thus in August, 1899 : " Profit sharing has 
 been voted upon by our board of directors now fourteen times, and 
 no dissenting vote has ever been recorded. Neither have I ever re- 
 ceived or heard of any opposition to it upon the part of any of our 
 stockholders. I have, on the contrary, on various occasions, obtained 
 information, either directly or indirectly, to the effect that it was a 
 pleasing experiment to them. Some, of course, look upon it favora- 
 bly from a philanthropic standpoint, and are gratified to believe that 
 a profitable investment in which they are personally interested is 
 being used, as they think, to advance the condition of employees and 
 promote better feeling between capital and labor, while others regard 
 the venture in a purely business way, and conclude from the results, 
 in the comparative returns of dividends upon capital, that it is a 
 profitable method of employment of workmen, and hence they too 
 are pleased."
 
 FIVE CASES OF PROFIT SHARING 307 
 
 the highest : 3, or a little over, was the usual rate), 
 66 per cent, in all. The average wages of all the 
 employees were 10 per cent, greater in 1897 than in 
 1889, though the standard price of wages was higher 
 then than in 1897 (except for mule-spinning), and the 
 mills ran two hours more a week : the tendency has 
 been uniformly to increase. Employment has been 
 almost constant in the Bourne mills for these ten 
 years, " really the greatest advantage of all " to the 
 employee, says the treasurer. Stoppages amounted 
 to only 3 per cent, of the maximum full time. 
 
 Between 1889 and 1895, inclusive, the Bourne mills 
 paid nearly twice as large dividends as its competitors, 
 a fact largely due to profit sharing, it is reported, 
 and sufficiently explanatory of the treasurer's state- 
 ment in July, 1897, that the plan has never "been 
 more satisfactory than at the present time." Mr. 
 Chace has always warned the employees and the gen- 
 eral public against expecting too much from the new 
 method. But, " within certain bounds, under favora- 
 ble conditions, it is worth the trial of any fair-minded 
 man of business," he has recently said in print. A 
 secret vote of the employees on the continuance of the 
 system was taken in November, 1895. It showed 
 but six ballots against the system, while several hun- 
 dred believed it an advantage to themselves and a 
 benefit to the corporation. One conscientious work- 
 man voted " No " because he felt that the corporation 
 did not receive a full equivalent for the bonus ! 
 
 Mr. Chace, who has taken great pains to educate 
 the employees in a right understanding of the system, 
 issued a circular in December, 1895, giving the result 
 of the ballot of the month before, and continuing
 
 308 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 thus : " The plan has now been in practice long 
 enough for all to understand that it means a sum of 
 money to every one who conforms to the simple con- 
 ditions during a term of six months. I can assure 
 you that I pay this money to you as heartily as I pay 
 the dividends upon which it is based ; and I am glad 
 to be able to add that never has an objection or mur- 
 mur reached me from a stockholder on account of it 
 since the plan was adopted, nearly seven years ago. 
 It seems no more than right, however, that it should 
 be made clear to every one expecting a share in the 
 profits, that there is no intention on our part to make 
 a free gift of money for nothing, but rather that every 
 payment is the carrying out of a distinct agreement or 
 contract, under which both parties to it are hoping for 
 mutual benefit. To emphasize this point, in future 
 all persons whose names are entered on the profit- 
 sharing rolls will agree to and sign the folio whig con- 
 tract, which has been printed on cards for that pur- 
 pose, namely : 
 
 TREASURER BOURNE MILLS: 
 
 Please enter my name in the profit-sharing roll for the 
 term ending June 13, 1896, upon the conditions named and 
 hereby agreed upon ; namely, that I will endeavor through- 
 out the term 
 
 (1) To do faithful service as an employee of the cor- 
 poration. 
 
 (2) To promote its interests as far as my acts and in- 
 fluence go, both in and out of the mill (knowing that its 
 success will contribute to my own welfare, too). 
 
 (3) To deposit some sum of money every month, if 
 possible, in the Employees' Savings Fund or in some savings- 
 bank, 
 
 it being further agreed that I shall forfeit all claim to
 
 FIVE CASES OF PROFIT SHARING 309 
 
 any share of the profits if any of these conditions is 
 infringed. 
 
 " The signing of this agreement on the part of those 
 who want to share in the profits of the next six months 
 is simply putting in writing what has been understood 
 all along ; and every one, every man, woman, and child 
 in our employ, is just as cordially invited to parti- 
 cipate as ever before. I would like to enter every 
 name on the pay-roll in the profit-sharing roll also. 
 I appreciate the interest that has been taken by a 
 great many of you during the past nearly seven years 
 in promoting the success of the Bourne mills ; and, 
 while we can hardly hope that seven more fat years 
 will follow, I am here to do the best I can, and that 
 is all I will ask of any one of you." 
 
 A sign of the liberal spirit in which the Bourne 
 mills interpret the three conditions given above is the 
 following notice sent to a number of employees in 
 December, 1895. " The directors regret to remind 
 you that you forfeited your dividend September 23, 
 by quitting work without obtaining permission. As 
 it might seem harsh, however, to cut off the whole of 
 it under the circumstances, they have restored to you 
 under the form of a gratuity [5 per cent, on wages] a 
 sum larger than any dividend paid you heretofore, 
 though not as much as you might have received ex- 
 cept for your action at that time." 
 
 Another letter of the treasurer to the employees, 
 under date of July 1, 1897, spoke of the great de- 
 crease in the number of " seconds " made in the mills 
 under profit sharing (a reduction from five to one) ; 
 and this, too, " means an improvement in the general 
 quality." These results " are not the spasmodic out-
 
 310 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 come of an experiment just begun, but the daily 
 routine after eight years of experience." The super- 
 intendent and the treasurer united in declaring that 
 "it has been a pleasure rather than a task to do 
 business under these conditions the last eight years." 
 
 THE PROCTER AND GAMBLE COMPANY. 
 
 The Procter and Gamble Company (established in 
 1837 and incorporated in 1890, with 14,000,000 
 capital) manufactures soap, candles and glycerine, at 
 Ivorydale, seven miles north of Cincinnati, Ohio. 1 
 Here the company has some thirty large buildings ; 
 the architect, Mr. Beman, had been the architect of 
 Pullman, 111. " The result of his labor ought to 
 satisfy the aesthetic taste even of the fastidious. Rus- 
 kin himself could hardly be displeased with it. A 
 genuine attempt has been made to apply the prin- 
 ciples of art and to beautify the daily surroundings of 
 the people." The company has every convenience 
 and facility for the economical manufacture and trans- 
 portation of its products that modern art and science 
 can supply, in the way of the finest machinery, rail- 
 way tracks and locomotives of its own, and the utili- 
 zation of all waste matters. There are some 600 
 workpeople at Ivorydale, and 100 more in the Cin- 
 
 1 The authorities for this account are Professor F. W. Blackmar, of 
 the University of Kansas, in an article in the Forum, of New York, 
 for March, 1895, on " Two Successful Examples of Profit Sharing ; " 
 another article, " An Experiment in Profit Sharing," by Mr. W. C. 
 Procter, of the company, in the New York Independent, for May 2, 
 1895, and a third by Mr. I. W. Howerth, of the University of Chicago, 
 in the American Journal of Sociology for July, 1896, on " Profit 
 Sharing at Ivorydale." Messrs. Blackmar and Howerth studied the 
 subject on the spot, as I have also done, beside receiving communi- 
 cations from the company.
 
 FIVE CASES OF PROFIT SHARING 311 
 
 cinnati office and on the road. Soap-making does not 
 demand much skilled labor : wages are comparatively 
 low for this reason, averaging $10 per week for men, 
 $4.75 for women, and $3.50 to $7 for boys ; in the 
 wrapping department the girls are on piece-work. 
 
 The firm had _much_trquble with its employees, who 
 were mostly ordinary, unskilled laborers, in the year 
 1886 ; thiSfe'were fourteen gfcrilmg,. ianolving^Eroni If 
 to ~ 114 workara ; Afly wyg for " a-11 sorts nf 
 
 Causes." It adopted ^profit sharing in 1 ft jjJ^J 
 
 to secure relief and establish friendly relations with 
 the employees. The plan gave a reasonable salary 
 ($4,000) to each active member of the firm, as a 
 portion of the expenses. The net profits were divided 
 between the firm and the employees, in the propor- 
 tion that the wages paid bore to the whole cost of 
 production. If the business done, for example, was 
 $100,000, the net profits $10,000, and the wages 
 $20,000, then two ninths of $10,000 went to the 
 workpeople and seven ninths to the company, wages 
 being that proportion of the cost of production 
 ($100,000 - $10,000 = $90,000). Three months' ser- 
 vice only was required as a condition of participation, 
 some seventy-five boys and girls earning less than 
 $4.50 a week being excluded. " The plan was ac- 
 cepted by the employees in a half-hearted way and 
 without any belief that it would be of material bene- 
 fit." But the first six months gave a dividend in 
 October, 1887, of 13.47 per cent, on wages, one person 
 receiving $275 ; the second dividend was 11.80 per 
 cent., and the third 9.33 per cent. There was, how- 
 ever, but a slight and temporary increase of interest 
 among the workpeople, immediately after the distri-
 
 312 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 bution. In October, 1889, to put an end to this in- 
 difference, the company divided them into four classes. 
 Those who tried to prevent waste and do better work 
 and to advance the interests of the business were to 
 be paid twice the regular dividend. The bulk of ~the 
 employees should receive this regular dividend. Those 
 who did not show much interest were cut down to one 
 half, and the careless, indifferent and wasteful were 
 to receive no bonus whatever. 1 As a result, probably, 
 of this wise classification, the dividend of April, 1890, 
 rose to 15.57 per cent. (That of April, 1889, had 
 been 12.13 per cent, and that of October, 1889, 
 12.50 per cent.) The average for three years was 
 per cent. Carelessness gradually diminished, and 
 one of the directors could say, that " indifference has 
 entirely disappeared." 
 
 In July, 1890, when the firm became a stock com- 
 ^pany, the prospectus promising 12 per cent, on the 
 common stock, if earned, the plan was changed so far 
 as to pay the workmen the same dividend on wages 
 as the common stock earned. A stockholder having 
 $500 worth of stock and an employee earning $500 a 
 year receive $60 each, 12 per cent, having been paid 
 since January, 1891. The number of employees par- 
 ticipating has risen from 225 in 1887 to 550 in 
 January, 1899, being fully 92 per cent, of the whole 
 number. The right to deny the dividend for cause is 
 reserved by the company, but the classification has 
 been given up, having accomplished the desired effect. 
 Any waste or loss of material, due to carelessness or 
 
 1 The whole amount of the bonus was not affected by the number 
 sharing ; the share of the debarred employee went to the others : 
 under a later arrangement, to the pension fund.
 
 FIVE CASES OF PROFIT SHARING 313 
 
 neglect by an employee, is charged against his divi- 
 dend, as when a laborer climbed upon an engine, 
 where he had no right to be, and pulled the throttle, 
 and the engine demolished a wall in front. Only four 
 men had any charges against them in the last half of 
 1895, carefulness having much increased. 
 
 The employee is encouraged to become an owner of 
 stock. If he makes a written application, inclosing 
 $10, the company will buy for him a share of common 
 or preferred stock at the market price; he must 
 finish the payment within two years, by installments 
 of f>5, or multiples thereof. The company charges 
 interest at 4 per cent, on the unpaid balance, taking 
 this out of the dividends on the stock, which it holds 
 as security ; equitable arrangements are made in case 
 cancellation of such an engagement is desired. Eighty 
 workpeople have taken 191 shares so far, 70 being 
 bought by as many different persons. " Under an 
 earlier plan over 1,000 shares, which are now nearly 
 paid for, were taken by the clerical force and fore- 
 men." In order to induce the employees to become 
 stockholders more generally, the company, which be- 
 lieves firmly in this method of cooperation, is intend- 
 ing to guarantee them against loss by making their 
 stock a first lien upon the property. " A most 
 marked improvement," says one of the firm, " is 
 shown by those who have purchased stock, not only in 
 their ability as employees of the company, but in the 
 general character of the men." 
 
 A pension fund was established in 1894. Five 
 hundred dollars are semi-annually set aside for it, half 
 being from the bonus and half paid by the company. 
 The president of the company is the chief trustee, and
 
 314 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 the four others are employees elected annually. If at 
 any time they find the income in excess of the amount' 
 needed, they can discontinue the above payments for 
 a season. A pensioner must have been seven years in 
 service before permanent disability, partial or total, 
 has been caused by accident, sickness or old age. No 
 pension can exceed 75 per cent, of the average wages 
 earned in the last two years of service. The company 
 provides work, such as they are able to perform, for 
 those entitled to a pension, and the fund pays a 
 further sum, large enough to make the whole amount 
 received equal to their former average wages. The 
 fund amounted to $2,608.90 in January, 1896, with 
 only one pensioner, and $6,203.09 in January, 1899, 
 with one pensioner still. 
 
 About one half of the employees live near Ivory- 
 dale, but the company has only a few houses let to 
 them, as it prefers to have them independent, rents 
 being low. A building- association, however, has been 
 in successful operation nine years, and is now useful as 
 a savings-bank " in which many of the employees have 
 neat balances to their credit." A cooperative grocery 
 was unsuccessful, as the employees living near failed 
 to take interest in it after one year. A library and 
 reading-room, with rooms for smoking and card-play- 
 ing, provided by the company, has not been much ap- 
 preciated by the employees, who have many mutual 
 aid clubs and prefer associations outside of the group 
 in which they work. The company hopes for an in- 
 crease of good results with the development of social 
 and intellectual life, toward which the Saturday half 
 holiday, without loss of pay, will contribute. The 
 semi-annual distribution gives in addition two full holi-
 
 FIVE CASES OF PROFIT SHARING 315 
 
 days " dividend days " devoted to games, sports 
 and a general meeting addressed by several speakers, 
 in which the employees take great pride. In case of 
 accidents from the machinery (so well guarded that 
 these are few) the employee receives full pay while 
 recovering. A physician's care is provided free by 
 the company, and there is a distribution of turkeys 
 at Christmas, one to each family represented. 
 
 The company has secured relief from labor troubles 
 by its profit-sharing scheme and its friendly disposi- 
 tion toward the employees, shown in so many ways ; it 
 has had no strikes or serious difficulties since 1887. * 
 " We believe that it would be impossible to foment 
 any such trouble among them now. On several oc- 
 casions some troublesome fellow has tried to produce 
 dissatisfaction. The men themselves have gone to 
 the foreman, with details of the attempt, and the 
 suggestion that the disturber be discharged." " The 
 expense of breaking in new men has also been almost 
 done away with ; " the average change in a year is not 
 more than a dozen persons, positions being desired 
 by the employees for friends, who are usually better 
 hands than the casual applicants. A system of pro- 
 motion encourages the ambitious and further tends to 
 stability. About 50 per cent, of the force received 
 the whole seventeen bonuses to January, 1896, and 
 about 90 per cent, received twelve. 
 
 The saving, of ..labor atJ[yorydale_hasJiefin_consider- 
 able. In 1894 the labpj cost _oj_jnanufacture_ (in- 
 cluding the~T% per cent, bonus) was? 68 per cent, of 
 what it was in 1886 ; wages were 12 per cent, higher. 
 A conservative estimate, allowing 28 per cent, of the 
 37 gained to improved methods of manufacture t
 
 316 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 a saving of 9 per cent., plus the increased wages, or 12 
 per cent, cheaper labor cost to be attributed to profit 
 sharing. Some of these improved methods, such as\ 
 those in soap-cutting machinery are due to the interest \ 
 of the workmen, who are concerned about the character I 
 of the goods made and the reputation of the company ,\ 
 With such workmen there is, of course, a saving in 
 oversight. The saving in material is also sure, though 
 difficult to determine exactly. Scraps and small pieces \ 
 of soap used to fall upon the floor and accumulate so W 
 that it had to be worked over every two or three weeks ; j 
 now, this is necessary only once in three or four ' 
 months. There is a " general air of tidiness and clean- 
 liness about the factories." The saving, under profit 
 sharing, to the company " is largely in excess of the 
 sum paid to wage-earners as profits ; " the plan has ex- 
 ceeded their expectations : " profit sharing," says one 
 member, " has proved to be good for both employer and 
 employee." The patience of the company, in educating 
 their employees up to appreciation ^xTTihe plan, has 
 had its just reward. The first two years brought no 
 equivalent returns for the bonus, but Procter- and 
 Gamble believed that the plan would be advantageous 
 from a money point of view ; and, with all tlipir Idnrl- 
 liness, which is manifest from this account, they .have 
 been justified in this belief. The company understand 
 the logic of profit sharing and have never supposed they 
 would have a claim on the workmen in case of losses 
 to which they contributed in no degree. The moral 
 benefits to the employees are very recognizable. Pro- 
 fit sharing at Ivorydale has been a school of thrift 
 and carefulness.
 
 FIVE CASES OF PROFIT SHARING 317 
 THE SOUTH METROPOLITAN GAS COMPANY. 
 
 In one respect the profit-sharing scheme of the 
 South Metropolitan Gas Company of London is 
 unique, for it has on its board of directors two work- 
 men shareholders elected by their fellows. The com- 
 pany has a capital of X7, 000, 000 ; its annual receipts 
 are about one tenth of this amount, and it employs 
 nearly 3,000 men ; it is said to supply some 88,000 
 workmen's houses with gas through metres worked 
 on the penny-in-the-slot system. The present man- 
 ager, Mr. George Livesey, and his father, Mr. Thomas 
 Livesey, who was his predecessor in office, have 
 labored consistently and persistently to improve the 
 condition of the employees. A quarter of a century 
 ago the company gave the men a week's holiday, an- 
 nually, with pay : a few years later this was doubled, 
 to employees of three years' standing. An aid fund 
 and a superannuation fund are due to Mr. T. Livesey's 
 initiative. Twelve shillings a week benefit and medi- 
 cal attendance are given in sickness for thirteen weeks : 
 in case of need, the term is extended another three 
 months. The disabled workmen receive pensions vary- 
 ing from ten to sixteen shillings a week, according to 
 length of service. Each employee must contribute 
 three pence a week to each of these funds, and the 
 company makes a heavy contribution. " The com- 
 pany was active in the abolition of Sunday day-labor 
 in gas works, and gave its men this exemption with- 
 out solicitation from them." The eight-hour day was 
 granted in 1889, with an increase of wages estimated 
 at twenty-five per cent. 
 
 The dividends of the company were determined by
 
 318 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 Parliament in 1876 on a sliding-scale basis. The 
 standard price of gas is taken as 3s. Qd. per thousand 
 feet ; and the standard dividend is four per cent. For 
 every reduction of one penny in the price of gas, the 
 company may increase its dividend one quarter of one 
 per cent. Mr. George Livesey wished to include the 
 workmen's wages in this scheme, but was not able to 
 carry out his plan. In 1886 a profit-sharing system 
 was adopted, to take in the officers and the foremen, 
 and in 1889 it was extended to the workmen. For 
 every penny gained in the reduction of the price of gas 
 below 2s. Sd. per thousand feet, a bonus of one per 
 cent, on wages and salaries was to be paid. Four per 
 cent, interest would be paid to workmen leaving their 
 bonus on deposit ; the scheme was dated back three 
 years, to the benefit of nearly all the men. "This 
 ' nest-egg ' was equal to eight per cent, on the year's 
 wages of those who had been with the company three 
 years. This sum was to remain at interest for three 
 or five years." The men were required to sign an 
 agreement to serve twelve months ; in order to pre- 
 vent their leaving together, the agreements were vari- 
 ously dated. 1 
 
 These favors to the men were won by Mr. Livesey 
 from the directors largely because of the formation of 
 the Gas Workers' Union, in 1889, under the inspira- 
 tion of the successful dock strike. The gas workers' 
 strike, December 13, 1889, to February 4, 1890, 
 though unsuccessful, was followed by threats which 
 caused Mr. Livesey to make non-membership in the 
 
 1 The Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act of 1875 punishes 
 with fine or imprisonment persons employed in gas works who break 
 a contract of service under certain circumstances.
 
 FIVE CASES OF PROFIT SHARING 319 
 
 Gas Workers' Union or the Coal Porters' Union a 
 condition of profit sharing. In 1892 Mr. Livesey 
 said before the Royal Labor Commission that member- 
 ship in the union by his men " was being winked at 
 as long as the members kept quiet." Mr. Livesey is 
 also the manager of the Crystal Palace Gas Com- 
 pany, which is under a sliding scale for dividends, 
 prices and .wages. " Almost the only difference be- 
 tween this plan and that of the South Metropolitan 
 Company is that no trades-union is in any way pro- 
 hibited by it." Mr. Livesey's opposition to the unions, 
 which is the ground of considerable distrust of his 
 plan on the part of many, thus seems to be much less 
 pronounced than has been imagined. 
 
 In 1889 and 1890 the bonus to the workmen was 
 5 per cent. ; then, with a rise in coal, the bonus fell 
 to 3 per cent. ; then it rose to 4 and 5 per cent. ; in 
 1895 it was 6 per cent., and in 1896 and 1897 it 
 was 7^ per cent. An annual bonus festival is held in 
 August. The company began a system in 1889 of 
 buying stock to be sold in small pieces to employees 
 and consumers ; in four years the employees had in- 
 vested over X4,000 in <5 shares, which the company 
 enabled them to procure at less than the market 
 price at the time of transfer, as the stock was rising. 
 
 In 1894 another step was taken toward copartner- 
 ship, as Mr. Livesey believes that "while simple 
 profit sharing is good as far as it goes, it does not go 
 very far. It creates an interest beyond their wages, 
 in the workers in the business by which they live, and 
 promotes a feeling of good-will between employers and 
 employed, but as to doing the latter permanent good I 
 am doubtful, unless means arc adopted to induce them
 
 320 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 to save their annual bonus." Accordingly, in 1894, 
 the directors offered to increase the annual bonus fifty 
 per cent, on condition that one half of it should be in- 
 vested in ordinary stock. In the next twelve months 
 eighty-five per cent, of the men accepted the offer, and 
 after a time all of them. The investments in stock 
 have risen from 5,000 in 1894, to 80,000 in 1899, 
 and there are also .30,000 on deposit. 
 
 The more than 2,800 workmen shareholders (the 
 other stockholders number 6,780), may be sharply 
 divided into two classes. The men who never have 
 saved anything and do not save voluntarily, number 
 about 1,500, 55 per cent, of the whole number. 
 They own simply the compulsory amount, which at the 
 close of 1898 averaged 6 of stock, valued at 8, 
 a total of 12,000. The other 1,300 men,- 
 45 per cent, of the whole are the thrifty ones, who 
 have made voluntary savings in addition to the com- 
 pulsory ; their average holding is about 50, the total 
 being 68,000. If one excludes the salaried officers 
 from the calculation, the average remains substan- 
 tially the same. 
 
 To the final step on his programme the work- 
 men directors Mr. Livesey found it very difficult to 
 win the assent of the board of directors, and at last 
 he made this change a condition of his remaining 
 with the company. An act of Parliament was pro- 
 cured to the effect that the workingmen must hold 
 40,000 of stock before three wage-earning work- 
 men directors could be chosen, and the act, as later 
 amended, made it necessary for the workman director 
 to have been seven years in service, and to be the 
 holder of 100 of stock. In 1898 the necessary
 
 FIVE CASES OF PROFIT SHARING 321 
 
 amount of stock had been acquired, and there were 
 forty-eight wage-earning employees qualified. Out of 
 the six " stations " of the company, one had no man 
 qualified ; at another only one of the two qualified would 
 stand as a candidate ; at another only one of six ; at 
 another none out of the seven qualified ; at another 
 only one out of fourteen. At Old Kent Road, the 
 principal station, there were nine candidates out of 
 nineteen qualified, and a preliminary election was 
 necessary to select one. One of the best men was 
 chosen. There were thus four candidates at the final 
 voting, on October 28, 1898, for the two places to be 
 filled ; the employees on the staff had decided to take 
 no action toward electing the director to whom they 
 were entitled of the three. Each voter had one vote 
 for every <10 of stock up to .100 ; then one vote 
 for every .25 up to 300 ; after that one vote for 
 every .50 up to 1,000, and no more. Two excel- 
 lent men were elected ; 1 they took their seats Novem- 
 ber 2, 1898, and they have since shown no sign of an 
 inclination to take a narrow view of their duties, but 
 have always had the interests of the whole company 
 before them. 
 
 " The workman director is an experiment, limited 
 at first to three years," but the nine years' experience 
 of the company with the profit-sharing committee, 
 half of whom have been the eighteen workmen elected 
 by the profit-sharing employees, is very encouraging 
 for success. This committee is large, one third retire 
 every year, and other questions than profit sharing 
 relating to the workmen are referred to it ; but " it 
 
 1 Workers were heard to say before the election that they did not 
 want on the Board as their representatives "any chattering workman. 1 '
 
 322 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 has worked most satisfactorily, without a hitch of any 
 kind." Individual grievances are usually settled be- 
 fore reaching the full committee, which deals with 
 general questions mainly, such as affect the sick 
 and burial, superannuation, and widows' and orphans' 
 funds, and concessions to all the workmen, such as 
 the supply of gas at cost (which was granted) and 
 holidays. " I have presided at every meeting," said 
 Mr. Livesey three years ago, " and we have never had 
 a division of opinion ; certainly, if I found the men 
 anything like unanimously held a particular view, it 
 would be accepted, unless it was quite impossible. 
 . . . Profit sharing has proved most satisfactory. 
 The men, generally, do their work cheerfully, and in 
 a happy, contented spirit, which alone is worth, in im- 
 proved working, all the profit sharing costs the com- 
 pany. Individually, many of the workmen show a 
 decided interest in the company by suggesting various 
 economies and improvements, and the number who 
 take this interest is growing. . . . The coal men who 
 fire the coals are more careful with their tools. . . . 
 In the retort house, if they see the coals spilt, they 
 say, ' That will not do ; that will go against our 
 profit sharing? . . . Unquestionably the system of 
 which the joint committee forms an essential part has 
 promoted harmony and good feeling between employ- 
 ers and employed. There has not been a single dis- 
 pute of any kind since the system was inaugurated in 
 1889, except the great strike of 1889. . . . As to 
 the idea of a strike, whenever the word has been 
 named, every man says, ' We shall never have another ; ' 
 they simply laugh at the idea. I state unhesitat- 
 ingly that the company is recouped the whole of the
 
 FI, ; CASES c. **. 323 
 
 amounts some ,40,000 paid on bonus since the 
 system was started. Of course, I do not say that all 
 the men are influenced as above stated in the direc- 
 tion of studying the company's interest ; but many 
 are, the numbers are growing, and the system is prov- 
 ing an effective means of educating the workman in 
 industrial economics." It is not strange that the 
 Duke of Devonshire, addressing the employees, at the 
 fifth annual profit-sharing festival, with their wives 
 and children, commended this instance of " the com- 
 bination of capital and labor," and hoped that others 
 would imitate the example set them by the South 
 Metropolitan Gas Company. 
 
 Mr. Livesey is firmly of the faith that copartnership 
 is " the direction which promises the most satisfactory- 
 results. I believe that what is wanted to secure in- 
 dustrial peace is partnership the more complete the 
 better partnership in profits, in capital, in respon- 
 sibility. It will take time and patience and earnest 
 work to bring it about, but the result will be worth 
 all that it costs." l 
 
 THE NELSON MANUFACTURING COMPANY AND 
 LECLAIRE, ILLINOIS. 
 
 The profit-sharing -enterprise begun by. Mr. N. 0. 
 Nelson, of St. Louis, Mo., in 1886, was fully de- 
 scribed in my "Profit Sharing" (1889, pp. 305-308). 
 Since 1889 the company has developed the scheme 
 considerably in the direction of productive coopera- 
 
 1 Some of the quotations in this account of the South Metropolitan 
 Gas Company are from a recent communication from Mr. Livesey ; 
 others are from the tenth chapter of Mr. Henry D. Lloyd's valuable 
 work, Labor Copartnership, from which I have taken numerous par- 
 ticulars.
 
 324 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 tion, and the success which has attended its efforts 
 places its system at the head of American instances of 
 participation, and entitles Mr. Nelson to mention in 
 connection with the honored names of Leclaire, La- 
 roche-Joubert, Boucicaut and Godin. He is a strong 
 believer in a natural and inevitable evolution of profit 
 sharing into cooperation in its fullest sense. A de- 
 scription, in some detail, of the manufacturing village 
 which the Nelson Company is building up, as a suburb 
 of Edwardsville, 111., eighteen miles northeast of St. 
 Louis, will, therefore, have interest for the students of 
 participation and cooperation alike. 
 
 Edwardsville is a " city " of some five thousand souls, 
 which one reaches from Chicago after a ride of seven 
 hours through the wonderful maize region of the fertile 
 State of Illinois. It has ample railroad accommoda- 
 tions from four lines for its coal mines, brick yards 
 and manufactories. Adjoining one of its stations, the 
 Nelson Company acquired, in 1890, one hundred and 
 twenty-five acres of farm land for the new industrial 
 village, to which it gave the name of the " father of 
 profit sharing." It now has in operation six factories 
 of brick, one story only in height, and ranging in size 
 from 50 x 60 feet to 80 x 160 feet. The principles 
 of safe construction against fire laid down by Mr. 
 Edward Atkinson, the noted publicist, have been fully 
 complied with. Well ventilated, spacious, communi- 
 cating easily with each other, all on one floor level, 
 heated by steam, lighted by electricity, and protected 
 by automatic sprinklers, these plain, unpretentious 
 buildings furnish the maximum of healthfulness, safety 
 and convenience. The plant comprises a boiler-house, 
 a cabinet factory, a planing mill, a brass factory,
 
 325 
 
 marble works, and bicycle and machinery shops. Here 
 the company manufactures the entire equipment of a 
 modern bathroom in marble and metal, and other 
 plumbers' supplies, wood mantels, various brass, iron 
 and lead fixtures and piping, the marble apparatus 
 for halls, vestibules and floors in houses, and, most 
 recently, a high grade bicycle, the " Leclaire." The 
 industries still carried on in St. Louis will gradually 
 be transferred to the new site, while the commercial 
 and strictly jobbing departments will remain in town. 
 The working force at Leclaire and in St. Louis 
 consists of some four hundred men, women and boys, 
 manual workers, clerks, typewriters, foremen and 
 managers. In both places the intelligence, alertness, 
 competence and contentedness of the employees are 
 conspicuous. All^ay_be_partners jn_ the profits of 
 the enterprise in which they are common workers., 
 
 The majority~cf~'fhe i&gr Jnmdrf4 ftTQ a}so stockhold- 
 ers, and draw a dividend ypft*fr tfr"p shares as well as 
 upon their year's wages. The usual bonus hasbeen 
 paidTentirely injitogir-gince 1890 ; whenever an em- 
 ployee leaves the company, his stock is redeemed at 
 par. Profit sharing has been in force since 1886, and 
 the ten years following made this showing: In 1886 
 the bonus to labor was ^per cent, on wages; in 1887, 
 10 per cent. ; in 1888, 8 per cent.; in 1889,J ; 0_per 
 cent.; in 1890, 10 per cent.; in 1891. 7 rar cent.; 
 in 1892, 4 per cent. ; in- 1893,C^^ng7j^j894, 5 
 per cent. ; in 1895, 5 per cent. ; in 1896, nothing. 1 
 
 1 One of the employees, to be chosen by the men, could examine 
 the closing of the books of the company at the end of the year ; as 
 the men never cared to avail themselves of this privilege, having 
 entire confidence in the accounting employees, the provision was 
 dropped after the first seven years.
 
 326 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 The average annual dividend of the employee was 
 thus 6.4 per cent, for the first ten years. Since 1892 
 double the rate has been given to wages that capital 
 receives (above 6 per cent, interest) from the net 
 profits. Ten per cent, of these profits is set aside for 
 a reserve fund. 
 
 'The company pays out the sum needed in cases of 
 sickness and disability, as each case arises, and charges 
 the amount to running expenses ; the allowance varies 
 from $5 to $1 a week during disability. For funeral 
 expenses $40 are allowed, if needed. The family of 
 a deceased employee receives aid to an extent not 
 exceeding two thirds of his wages, until self-support is 
 feasible. Up to July, 1896, some $10,000 had been 
 paid out for these various provident purposes. 
 
 About one hundred and ten acres of the company's 
 land are separated by a high Osage orange hedge from 
 the fifteen acres occupied by the factories. Entering 
 this rural reservation, we notice at once the excellent 
 cinder-roads, the large cultivated plot on the left, the 
 schoolhouse in front, and, beyond, the neat and com- 
 modious houses (some thirty in number) of the work- 
 men. The company does not wish to be a permanent 
 landlord, although it owns and rents some houses out 
 of the thirty now built. It will agree with the worker 
 on a plan of the desired house, and then erect it for 
 him, at a price equal to the usual cost of labor and 
 material, on easy terms of payment: the company 
 now prefers to have the employees build with the help 
 of building associations. The price for the land is 
 four dollars per front foot, including improvements. 
 In return for this payment, the company bears the 
 entire expense of supplying each house with water,
 
 FIVE CASES OF PROFIT SHARING 327 
 
 grading and paving the street, building and maintain- 
 ing the sidewalk and fencing, and setting out trees. 
 Electric light is furnished to each householder for 
 twenty-five cents per month for each light. The care 
 and lighting of the streets are an affair of the com- 
 pany. The purchaser of a house receives a deed and 
 gives a mortgage, on which he pays from twelve to 
 twenty dollars a month, until its full discharge. 
 There has been no instance of failure to pay these 
 installments. 1 The company employs a gardener (one 
 of the workmen) who cares for the streets and the 
 public grounds ; from the hothouse under his manage- 
 ment some thousands of plants are procured each 
 year for public and private uses. The grounds about 
 the schoolhouse and the dwellings attest a general love 
 of the beautiful ; flower-beds, trees and ornamental 
 shrubs abound. 2 
 
 A fundamental idea of the Nelson Company is the 
 union of industrial training with education from 
 books. It supports a school system under the charge 
 of Mr. E. N. Plank as principal, with two women 
 teachers in the kindergarten and primary departments. 
 The cultivation of the small-fruits and vegetable field 
 gives the children a knowledge of agriculture and hor- 
 ticulture. At the age of twelve each boy pupil in the 
 
 1 If an employee wishes to leave LeclaSre,orto dispose of his home 
 for any other reason, the company takes the house and pays hack all 
 that has been advanced on it, charging' rent for the time the dwelling 
 was occupied. A club-house accommodates those unmarried men 
 employed at Leclaire who are not otherwise provided for. 
 
 2 The plan of the founders of Leclaire is to unite the advantages of 
 a large manufacturing plant and city conveniences with the freedom 
 and economy of country life. All who wish can easily raise their own 
 vegetables and keep their own cow and poultry : all can eat their 
 three meals at home.
 
 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 school works one hour a day in the factories or on the 
 farm. As his years increase, his work hours also in- 
 crease, until at graduation, when he is about eighteen, 
 he will be working half time. He will then have 
 acquired a trade, and a full job at full pay will await 
 him. He would, in the mean time, have received pay 
 for the actual value of his work. The schoolhouse 
 contains an excellent free library of one thousand 
 books, one hundred of which are usually out at a 
 time. 1 Lectures are given two or three times a month 
 in the winter season, and these are varied by con- 
 certs and other entertainments. That musical talent 
 abounds in Leclaire is shown by the fact that an 
 admirable brass band of thirty regular members has 
 been formed from the employees. The leader is em- 
 ployed in the varnishing shop. The company has 
 given the band a fine uniform, and it will advance 
 money for an instrument, in case of need, to be repaid 
 by the player. 
 
 The cooperative store, conducted entirely by the 
 members (fifty in number in June, 1896), was located 
 in the lower story of a building (the band having 
 their quarters above) provided by the company. The 
 capital was in fifty-dollar shares, only one share to 
 each member being allowed, with the one vote attached 
 to it : the member could acquire his share by weekly 
 installments of fifty cents if he wished. The sound 
 business principles of the best cooperative stores of 
 
 1 In the schoolhouse a fine bust of Edme-Jean Leclaire is conspicu- 
 ous ; it was presented to the new village by the Maison Leclaire of 
 Paris, after the close of the Exposition at Chicago in 1893. On a 
 stand in another room is framed the address of congratulation sent by 
 the workmen of the Parisian house to their American compeers, and 
 signed by nine hundred of them.
 
 FIVE CASES OF PROFIT SHARING 329 
 
 England governed this Leclaire establishment. All 
 purchases were for cash only ; the usual retail price 
 was charged, and the net profit was returned to the 
 buyer as a percentage on his purchases. For some 
 years the store paid six per cent, interest on its cap- 
 ital, and an average dividend of fifteen per cent, on 
 purchases. The mistake was afterwards made of 
 enlarging unduly the scope of the business. This 
 plan resulting in loss, the members wisely returned to 
 the former limits and regularly received ten per cent. 
 on purchases. The store, Mr. Nelson writes me, was 
 afterwards discontinued, " mainly because we were so 
 close to Edwardsville, which was full of stores, and 
 there were not quite enough of us to make it interest- 
 ing." The adjoining coal mine sells bituminous coal 
 to the company for one dollar a car-load for slack 
 coal, its almost exclusive fuel ; employees pay 11.25 
 a ton. 
 
 While the Nelson Company exhibits in many direc- 
 tions the most friendly spirit toward its employees, it 
 carefully avoids paternalism and the consequent weak- 
 ening of the workman's independence and self-respect. 
 It makes no conditions as to length of service qualify- 
 ing a man to become a sharer in profits ; he can be- 
 long to a trade-union or not, at his pleasure ; he can 
 leave the concern when he likes, without loss. __The_ 
 only condition imposed upon fan 
 
 in the profits 13 that, if ^g nym-king full tima 
 
 pay, he shall save ten per cent, of his 
 
 vest Ihe sum in the stock of the company 
 
 live in Leolaiio, or not, as he wills : we hayejioted 
 
 the freedom hie enjoys if he chooses to live^ there, a 
 
 freedom in-striking contrast with the state of subordi-
 
 330 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 nation of a dweller in Pullman. There is no liquor 
 saloon in Leclaire, though one or two are, unfortu- 
 nately, too near at hand over the Edwardsville line ; 
 and thus far there has been no need of a police force. 
 The village is not subject to the authorities of 
 Edwardsville, but to those of the larger " township." 
 The library and the school are open to the residents 
 of Edwardsville, and outsiders are welcomed as house- 
 uilders. 
 
 The good feeling and good sense prevailing among 
 the employees of the Nelson Compariy7^3ter~years of 
 profit sharing had done their natural work of edu- 
 cation, were forcibly shown in the hard times of 1893. 
 In July oj; that year the management were obliged to 
 reduce wages one fourth. Reductions of the work- 
 man s income are common in times of commercial 
 distress. True to its principles, tKe .Nelson Com- 
 pany took the much more unusualjcourse_^f^ reducing 
 salaries and interest hi the same proportion as wages. 
 The one fourth thus deducted from wages, salaries 
 and interest was to be made _good out ofsubsequent 
 profits before any bonus should be paid. TCEe em- 
 ployees of the firm, seeing the obvious fairnessrand 
 the plain necessity of this arrangement, ratified.it 
 cordially. Such was the good fortune of the company 
 that it was soon able, only three months later, to re- 
 sume full pay, and at the end of the year the amount 
 deducted for the third quarter was made up to all the 
 parties concerned ; there was, of course, no bonus 
 to divide. This event may well be reckoned, as Mr. 
 Nelson says, "another victory for profit sharing." 
 
 Mr. Nelson, who now resides at Leclaire, has taken 
 a decisive step in that advance from profit sharing to
 
 FIVE CASES OF PROFIT SHARING 331 
 
 cooperative production which he believes logical and 
 desirable. One of the factories at Leclaire, the 
 cabinet-making shop, is now on the way to become the 
 sole property of the workers in it. On December 1, 
 1895, the company proposed that the employees in this 
 department, "the oldest at Leclaire, should become 
 the owners of the plant and working capital at its first 
 cost by contributing, at the start, one fourth of their 
 wages, when working full time, the proportion to 
 decrease at double the rate at which they should de- 
 crease the purchase price ; that they should pay the 
 company six per cent, interest on the investment, and 
 have all the profits ; that they should organize as a 
 cooperative concern as soon as one tenth of the pur- 
 chase price was paid off ; that the company should 
 have control, but without any charge for business 
 management, until they had paid off one half. The 
 company estimate that, at the end of the first year, 
 there would be a reduction from wages of about one 
 eighth and at the end of the second year of nothing ; 
 and that the whole sum would be paid in about six or 
 eight years." Some peculiar circumstances led to a 
 rejection by the men of this generous proposition, 
 and it was withdrawn. The objections made were to 
 the immediate loss in wages and to the idea of " going 
 alone." What the newspapers inaccurately termed a 
 " strike " occurred. " A good part of the force went 
 right along and never stopped ; but there was enough 
 mischief in some [new-comers, mostly] to create actual 
 trouble, which it was not well to risk. The proposal 
 was immediately called off, and the work went on in 
 the usual way." Not long afterwards, the men volun- 
 tarily requested the company to renew the proposal,
 
 332 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 somewhat modified ; it did so, and the proposal was 
 accepted by the workers in the cabinet factory, which 
 is now on the highroad to cooperative production, pure 
 and simple. 1 It is the intention of the company to 
 make a similar proposal to the men in the other 
 factories, in turn, whenever they manifest a desire to 
 fall in with it, without waiting for a number of years 
 to show the results reached by the cabinet workers. 
 The company considers the risks of failure to be very 
 small after the ten years' experience in profit sharing 
 which this factory had ; this has given the men a 
 larger self-reliance and a better knowledge of business 
 than are possessed by the ordinary workman. 
 
 As the first instance in America of a profit sharing 
 firm transforming itself gradually into a cooperative 
 productive establishment, the Leclaire works have a 
 new claim upon the interest and sympathy of all who 
 have observed the brilliant record of the Nelson Com- 
 pany for the last dozen years. 2 If successful in the 
 new venture, as they seem likely to be, they will, it is 
 to be hoped, find numerous imitators among large 
 
 1 The spirit of these workmen is shown by the fact that, on a visit 
 to Leclaire, in 1896, the writer found a force employed on night 
 work, in addition to the full day force, a step taken purely of their 
 own volition, as they now control all such matters. After trying a 
 day of nine hours for several years, the whole Nelson force went back 
 voluntarily to ten hours. The company believes that " the hourly 
 return for nine hours is greater than the hourly return for ten, but 
 that in the aggregate more work will be done in ten hours than in 
 nine." It is the intention to go back to nine hours and to reduce 
 these to eight, in time. 
 
 2 For further particulars the reader may consult Employer and 
 Employed for October, 1893 (" A Visit to Leclaire," by the noted 
 philanthropist, Edward Everett Hale), and January, 1894 (" Through 
 Profit Sharing to Cooperation," by Mr. Nelson) ; and The Forum 
 for March, 1895 (" Two Examples of Successful Profit Sharing," by 
 Professor F. W. Blackmar).
 
 FIVE CASES OF PROFIT SHARING 333 
 
 manufacturers who desire, naturally enough, to let 
 others do the difficult work of experimenting, but will 
 be ready to follow after an assured and confirmed 
 success.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 PEOFIT SHARING TO-DAY 
 
 IN the following pages I seek to present briefly 
 some of the more important particulars in the history 
 of the profit-sharing movement since 1889. 1 The 
 argument for such a modification of the common 
 wages system I have presented in full before and need 
 not repeat. The matter that here concerns us is the 
 record of the last ten years, and its bearing upon the 
 movement and the claims of its advocates. This 
 period has been, for the most part, and especially in 
 the United States of America, marked by a long busi- 
 ness depression. 
 
 For the larger part of the years 1889-1899, par- 
 ticularly from 1893 to 1897, the difficulty has been, 
 as many have said, not how to share profits, but how 
 to avoid serious losses. The question of dividing the 
 profits could not, therefore, be voted " urgent," and it 
 it has seemed, hi the eyes of men of business, to lack 
 actuality. The advocate of the system, indeed, might 
 pleasantly contrast the demand for propaganda laid 
 upon him by it in good times with the quiescence 
 that must then fall, in considerable degree at least, 
 upon other reformers, who perchance maintain that 
 
 1 I have embodied the substance of the information given in 189.3 
 in pp. 300-307 of Socialism and the American Spirit, so as to make the 
 present chapter complete in itself, as a supplement to the extended 
 treatment in Profit Sharing. The chief literature of the subject, 
 since 1889, will be found in the bibliography.
 
 PROFIT SHARING TO-DAY 335 
 
 society is going to ruin because of neglecting their 
 favo/ite A -maceas. In hard tim.^s they flourish, so to 
 p. >k, " Oie general n-i ^^ r>reri their 
 
 social doctrines, however wi. unwise, with fresh 
 
 zeal and courage. But with the c-.ampion of profit 
 sharing it is not so. In times when no. profits are 
 made he feels no call to belabor employers because 
 they do not divide their gains with the employees. 
 He does not care to sow his seed on the rock, as the 
 hymn-writer advises, quite contrary to the implication 
 of the parable of Jesus ! His counsel revives, how- 
 ever, hi the day when prosperity returns, as it is sure 
 to do after the longest depression. 
 
 It is not at all strange, on the contrary it is the 
 thing naturally to be expected, if numerous ventures 
 in profit sharing, just begun or not well established, 
 should come to an early end in the days of panic or the 
 years of slow and almost imperceptible recovery from 
 it. Profit sharing, evidently, is no guarantee against 
 commercial crises and hard times, however much 
 moral aid may be drawn from it at such times in fac- 
 tories where it has had a long and successful experi- 
 ence. We should be prepared for a considerable 
 falling off hi the number of American cases of profit 
 sharing, at least, a decline which the subsequent 
 prosperity of the last two or three years has not yet 
 offset. 
 
 In France there has been a very gradual increase 
 in the number of firms giving a share of the profits to 
 the workman since 1889. The latest figures give the 
 number of such cases as 109. Probably this should 
 be somewhat diminished by the omission of a number 
 of cases in which the system has lapsed, but nothing
 
 336 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 has been said about the change in print. 1 On the 
 other hand, not a few of the Societes Cooperatives de 
 Consommation are quite faithful to the cooperative 
 principle hi that they give a share in the profits to 
 their workers as well as to the shareholder and the 
 consumer. The four most noted profit-sharing houses 
 in France of long date the Maison Leclaire, the 
 Laroche-Joubert paper works at Angouleme, the 
 Godin foundries at Guise, and the Bon Marche at 
 Paris are, in different degrees, fitly styled cooper- 
 ative establishments. As they reached this position 
 by a different course from that usually followed by 
 cooperative productive houses, they apply the coopera- 
 tive principle under a somewhat different form. The 
 features of difference for instance, the larger mea- 
 sure of control given to the managing partners, 
 (who have been selected, in true cooperative fashion, 
 by the body of employes^) are such as to give these 
 French houses a coherence and efficiency not often 
 seen in houses that profess the cooperative faith. A 
 strong argument can be made for profit sharing as a 
 training school for complete cooperative production ; 
 the four establishments just named have shown how 
 desirable and how feasible it is as a transition method. 2 
 The Maison Leclaire at Paris continues on its way 
 with unabated success ; under the firm-name, Redouly 
 et Cie, the partners are M. Redouly (since 1872) and 
 MM. Valme and Beudin (since the death of M. Mar- 
 quot in 1890). With the choice of these two later 
 
 1 See the note on the French list in Appendix II. 
 
 2 See on this subject the instructive work by Ugo Rabbeno, Le 
 Societd, Cooperative di Produzione. Parte III., " La Partecipazione al 
 Profitto come Mezzo di Transizione," pp. 387-419. Milano, 1889.
 
 PROFIT SHARING TO-DAY 337 
 
 partners the capital of the house was doubled; it is 
 now 800,000 fr. A street in Paris has been named 
 after M. Leclaire, and his statue stands in the Square 
 des Epinettes near by. 
 
 The president of the board of managers of the 
 Papeterie Cooperative of Angouleme is now M. 
 Edgard Laroche-Joubert, the son of the founder. 
 Out of a capital of 4,570,000 fr. the workmen and 
 employes in service in 1896 held 938,000 fr., while 
 those passed out of service held 896,000 fr., a total of 
 1,834,000 fr. ; in the same year 633 depositors in the 
 savings fund had 228,691 fr. to their credit. 
 
 The business of the Godin foundries, now Colin 
 et Cie, at Guise, had so increased that there were, 
 in 189394, 1,014 participants (of the three grades) 
 against 793 in 1887. The business of the year was 
 4,014,000 fr., and the net profit 262,851 fr., about 
 three fourths of which went to the workmen. The 
 plant was valued at 11,235,663 fr. 
 
 The firm name of the Bon Marche is now Morin, 
 Fillot, Bicois et Cie. The 400 shares (divisible into 
 eight parts) of 50,000 francs each (less than one sixth 
 of their market value), were held in 1896 by some 
 500 employees, past and present, from the shop-boys up 
 to the managing partners. The numerous institutions 
 for the care and relief of the army of employees are 
 fitly styled " models " by a recent writer ; he applies 
 the same adjective to the whole establishment. 1 
 
 1 Le Mfaanisme de la Vie Moderne, par le Vicomte G. D'Avenel, 
 eh. i. 2 and 8. Paris, 1896. " After the example of the Bon 
 Marche"," he says elsewhere, " M. Jaluzot has conceived the praise- 
 worthy idea of transferring to his employees, gradually, the owner- 
 ship of Le Printemps [another department store] ; but, as the chances 
 of surplus value appear less than in the establishment on the Rue da
 
 338 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 The French Participation Society has suffered 
 heavy losses in recent years in the death of M. Albans 
 Chaix and M. le Comte de Chambrun, 1 and, most of 
 all, in the decease of M. Charles Robert, its accom- 
 plished and indefatigable president, on July 24, 1899. 
 M. Robert was the most distinguished advocate of 
 profit sharing in France ; he devoted great abilities 
 and a great character to the cause of cooperation in 
 all its forms. 
 
 On the Continent outside of France there are still 
 comparatively few cases of profit sharing in any one 
 country ; they are proportionately more numerous in 
 Switzerland than elsewhere. This little country pre- 
 sents fourteen instances ; Germany, forty-seven ; Aus- 
 tria-Hungary, five ; Belgium, six ; Holland, seven ; 
 Italy, eight ; and there are scattering examples in 
 Spain, Portugal, Scandinavia and Russia nine in 
 all. 2 The yearly contribution of the mine owners of 
 Belgium, which has been described in chapter vi., is, 
 like the practice of French collieries, a very considera- 
 ble instance of indirect profit sharing on a large scale. 
 All over those parts of the Continent, in fact, where 
 
 Bac, he has had to require each member of his force to purchase a 
 certain number of shares according to his grade, from twenty-five for 
 the chiefs of departments to one for simple clerks. These figures 
 being only the obligatory minima, there are now seventy-five em- 
 ployees who hold more than ten shares, and take part in the general 
 assembly of the stockholders " (ibid. p. 38). 
 
 1 The Comte de Chambrun instituted a prize competition in 1895 
 for the best essay OH profit sharing ; this resulted in the publication 
 of the four volumes by MM. Waxweiler, Vanlaer, Bureau and Merlin, 
 named in the bibliography in Appendix IV. 
 
 2 M. le Comte Auguste Ciezskowski of Posen practiced a scheme of 
 profit sharing in agriculture fifty-three years ago. Lord Wallscourt 
 and M. J. L. Legrand (Ban de la Roche) were two other pioneers of 
 the system. See the note at the end of Appendix II.
 
 PROFIT SHARING TO-DAY 339 
 
 patronal institutions abound, the general principle is 
 recognized by many employers that the enjoyment of 
 a portion of the profits properly falls to the work- 
 people. The form which the distribution takes is, as 
 we have seen, indirect and collective, in the support of 
 institutions for the whole force of a factory. While 
 the convinced advocate of profit sharing will natu- 
 rally welcome an increase in the number of firms 
 which give an annual bonus directly and explicitly to 
 the individual worker, he will recognize that this is a 
 forward step which many will hesitate to take for 
 various reasons ; and that the main matter is that 
 welfare-institutions of all kinds shall be multiplied 
 first, as the best preparation for later developments. 
 When profit sharing proper is reached^ these antece- 
 dent institutions should not be discontinued. They 
 may be sufficiently endowed so as to need but slight 
 annual contributions from the firm or the employees or 
 both. The conduct of them should be devolved upon 
 the workmen themselves so far as possible. The 
 kindly interest of the employer should never become 
 so " paternal "as to weaken the power of association 
 and self-help among his employees. 
 
 Profit sharing, as M. Maurice Vanlaer says, " is 
 one form of patronage [in the good sense of the word, 
 meaning the employer's active good- will] ; it is not 
 always the best. . . . Whenever the employer wishes 
 to create permanent institutions in his establishment, 
 he will act more wisely in levying upon general ex- 
 penses the sum needed for their support than in allot- 
 ing them a share of the profits, which may fail to 
 come." J The question that interests the lover of his 
 1 La Participation aux B6n6fices, p. 273. Paris, 1898.
 
 340 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 kind in this direction is, then, to find how many em- 
 ployers are adopting welfare-institutions in general, 
 rather than how many are dividing profits with their 
 workmen in a formal and explicit fashion. Profit 
 sharing proper may come, and it may well come, as a 
 later measure when the other institutions have been 
 solidly established, as at the great works of Naeyer et 
 Cie at Willebroeck and Grainheim in Belgium (with 
 branches at Prouvy, Nord, and Renteria in Spain). 
 Its 2,000 workmen manufacture boilers, ice machines, 
 paper, and pates a papier. For a long time the firm 
 provided for them many patronal institutions, includ- 
 ing remarkably easy provisions for obtaining homes of 
 their own, of which several hundred have thus been 
 acquired. In 1891 profit sharing was introduced, 
 without detriment to existing institutions. Workers 
 of five years' standing were to share twenty-five per 
 cent, of the net profits, the shares being graded ac- 
 cording to seniority. These sums are credited to 
 individual accounts, and at the end of ten years they 
 are paid, in shares or in cash, as the company may 
 decide. 
 
 A manufacturer, again, who has made his fortune, 
 may wish to continue his business simply for the bene- 
 fit of his workpeople. He can then do as M. Molijn, 
 a prosperous manufacturer of Rotterdam, has done. 
 He has established a corporation De Veluwe for the 
 manufacture of Japan varnish, dyes, and various me- 
 chanical and horticultural products at Nunspeet in 
 Gelderland, Holland. Wishing to give his employees 
 all the advantages of modern civilization, he has pro- 
 vided for wholesome dwellings, baths, food prepared 
 in a central kitchen and bakery, a steam laundry, and
 
 PROFIT SHARING TO-DAY 341 
 
 electric light; a club-house, aid in sickness, retiring 
 pensions, and other desirable institutions are also pro- 
 vided for, out of sixty per cent, of the profits, after 
 four cent, interest has been allowed to capital. The 
 remaining forty per cent, is paid out in shares of two 
 hundred francs, so that the employees will in time 
 become full proprietors. M. Molijn's system pays all 
 the workers, male and female, the same wages a 
 somewhat doubtful measure. 
 
 The Pia Azienda Tessile of Conao, Italy, is a 
 unique philanthropic institution for giving work to silk 
 weavers out of employment. Its donated capital draws no 
 interest. The workmen weave the silk at home, and are 
 paid wages slightly below those current in the labor market. 
 Each half year they further receive 50 per cent, of the pro- 
 fits ; a reserve fund gets 10 per cent., and the director 20 
 per cent. In 1872 the capital was 40,000 fr., and the 
 yearly business more than 150,000 fr. ; more than 100 
 workers received in wages 37,272 fr. 
 
 Of two instances of profit-sharing in Spain, one, the 
 Royal Tapestry Factory of Madrid, founded by Van- 
 dergotten in 1791, is probably still in operation ; the other, 
 the General Tobacco Company for the Philippines, 
 of Barcelona, has, very probably, succumbed to the fortunes 
 of war. In Portugal the tobacco industry furnishes the 
 one example of participation. The law of May 22, 1888, 
 abolished free competition in this manufacture and estab- 
 lished a government monopoly. The five or six thousand 
 workpeople employed in the business (about one half are 
 women) were among the most miserable of Portuguese 
 operatives. They numbered from a quarter to a third 
 more than enough to supply the market ; frequent stop- 
 pages of work and reductions of the piece-wages were the 
 natural result. The law of 1888 guaranteed steady employ- 
 ment for eight hours a day at the existing rate of wages ;
 
 842 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 relief in case of sickness and disability ; a retiring fund, 
 supported by an annual gift of twenty cantos de reis (about 
 $22,000), which secured a minimum allowance of 8 fr. 
 30 c. a week ; creches and schools in the workshops, sup- 
 ported by the State and the employees jointly ; and a share 
 in the profits. In the four factories at Lisbon and Oporto, 
 the entire force was to receive from the excess of profits 
 over $3,850,000, 5 per cent. ; of this sum 74 per cent, was 
 to go to the workpeople, 16 to the administrative force, and 
 10 to the directors. In 1891 the manufacture was conceded 
 to a society, which was bound by its contract to maintain 
 the bonus system ; after 5,150 contos de reis had been set 
 aside for fixed charges, 5 per cent, of the profits, above 
 4,900 contos, go to the wqrkpeople, and 1 per cent, to the 
 employes. Other stipulations are made in favor of the 
 wage-earners. The result of these arrangements has been 
 great harmony and comfort among them. 
 
 The latest figures concerning profit sharing in the 
 British Empire give ninety -four firms, employing 
 from 50,647 to 53,010 persons, according to the 
 season and variations of trade. Details were avail- 
 able concerning the size of the bonus paid in 1898 
 for seventy-five cases. Excluding seventeen cases, in 
 which no bonus was paid, that allotted in fifty-eight 
 cases was at the average rate of 11.8 per cent. 1 The 
 now considerable number of firms which have prac- 
 
 1 See the Labour Gazette for August, 1899. Mr. David F. Scbloss 
 has written the first " history of British profit sharing " in Part IV. 
 of his extremely valuable Report on Profit Sharing (Eyre and Spottis- 
 woode, 10d.) made to the British Board of Trade (Labour Depart- 
 ment), and dated March 31, 1894. This report devotes from half a 
 dozen lines to several pages to each instance. In the Labour Gazette 
 for each year since 1894, the statistics of British profit sharing have 
 been given, supplementing the Report. Mr. Schloss has named the 
 years 1865-67, 1872, 1886-88, and 1894 as showing a noteworthy 
 number of new cases of profit sharing, while in 1889-92 the large 
 number of seventy-nine new attempts were made.
 
 PROFIT SHARING TO-DAY 343 
 
 ticed profit sharing for years with good results are re- 
 inforced by the favorable opinions of economists like 
 Professors Alfred Marshall and J. S. Nicholson, of 
 statesmen like Gladstone and Mr. James Bryce, and 
 the active good-will of noblemen like the Marquis of 
 Ripon and Earl Grey. 
 
 The trial of profit sharing by an English firm for 
 the longest time has been made by Fox Brothers, 
 woolen manufacturers, Wellington, Somerset. They 
 had for some years given to their managers, foremen 
 and clerks a bonus based on profits and on value of 
 service, and in 1866 they added a deposit plan. Any 
 one of the workpeople making a deposit with the firm 
 receives interest varying from four and one half per 
 cent, as a minimum to ten per cent, as a maximum, 
 " in accordance with a certain fixed scale based on 
 profits." The whole number of employees is about 
 1,100, women being somewhat in the majority; the 
 depositors numbered, in 1894, 125 men and 24 women. 
 Mr. J. H. Fox, of the firm, read a paper before the 
 Social Science Association in 1881 giving a favorable 
 but not enthusiastic account of their experience, and 
 his opinion " has in no respect changed since then." 
 
 Messrs. Ross and Duncan, engineers and boiler- 
 makers, Glasgow, are the only firm that is on record 
 as having resumed profit sharing after once abandon- 
 ing it. The system was introduced in May, 1887 : 
 one bonus was distributed the next October, and an- 
 other a year later. As the workmen, according to 
 the head of the firm, took " no interest in the matter, 
 and, indeed, seemed to be looking upon it with suspi- 
 cion as disguised selfishness attempting to establish a 
 kind of spy system of some men on others," the firm
 
 344 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 discontinued the plan. But it was afterward resumed 
 with better results. A consultative committee of 
 masters and men holds monthly meetings. " The in- 
 terest and intelligence shown are often very gratify- 
 ing. . . . We are quite satisfied that our profit-sharing 
 attempts and our conferences with workmen have cre- 
 ated a better and more harmonious spirit throughout 
 our works." 
 
 The cooperative society at Huddersfield, which suc- 
 ceeded, under the same name, to Win. Thomson and 
 Sons, in 1886, has had ten years of general prosper- 
 ity l since it was described in " Profit Sharing between 
 Employer and Employee " (pp. 292-295). This last 
 year was one of loss though not large : the society was 
 unable to pay interest on share capital without draw- 
 ing on the reserve fund. The workers (on fixed 
 weekly wages forty-eight hours a week) are all part- 
 ners in the enterprise ; they offered to pay half this 
 interest from their own pockets, so that only one half 
 was taken from the reserve. The abolition of indi- 
 vidual piece-work has increased the cooperative spirit 
 greatly ; if the operatives had been " turned into the 
 street when there was no work, instead of a loss, there 
 would have been a profit ; " but a cooperative body, 
 of course, could not do this. An assurance and pen- 
 sion fund, for the relief of those incapacitated for 
 
 1 In 1896, for instance, after allowing for depreciation, and paying 
 617 interest on loan stock, the remaining profit of 2,340 gave 189 
 to the reserve fund, 363 to the assurance and pension fund, and 
 5 per cent, on share capital : the balance, 1,347, justified a bonus of 
 Is. Qd. in the pound on wages, and Is. in the pound on purchases 
 above 50 : a final balance of 54 was carried forward. The Whole- 
 sale Society is now sole agent for the concern with English coopera- 
 tive societies.
 
 PROFIT SHARING TO-DAY 345 
 
 work by illness or accident or old age, was established 
 in 1892 with 336 from the profits of the year; 
 three men are now receiving 10s. a week, and two 
 women 7s. a week. The fund was .1,415 19s. 2d. 
 on January 1, 1899. "I hold this new fund," writes 
 Mr. George Thomson, the head of the society, " to be 
 of even greater importance than profit sharing, be- 
 cause it would take a long time to accumulate from 
 profits a sufficient sum to realize an annuity even of 
 10s. per week." The motto of the Woodhouse mills is 
 " Truth in Industry ; " no cotton or shoddy is allowed 
 to be used. The workpeople (all men) have shown 
 great application, they have avoided waste, and they 
 have greatly diminished the cost of superintendence. 
 Their spirit is shown in the fact that one of the 
 weavers, " having invented a great improvement, pre- 
 sented it to the society." The bonus of the employee 
 is applied to the purchase of stock for him up to the 
 legal limit of 200. The experience of this Hudders- 
 field society is of great value, and it offers much en- 
 couragement to employers who may wish to turn their 
 establishments into cooperative societies through the 
 instrumentality of profit sharing and welfare-institu- 
 tions. The rules give the managers great power, but 
 this is modified by the existence of a consulting com- 
 mittee : the cooperative spirit has availed itself of the 
 strength of the vigorous employer. 
 
 The principles of profit sharing have made decided 
 progress in the English cooperative movement in the 
 last few years. According to Mr. Schloss (" Methods 
 of Industrial Remuneration," ch. xxiii.) in 1896 bo- 
 nuses to employees were paid to the amount of 
 22,525, by 229 cooperative stores. The Irish Dairy-
 
 346 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 ing Societies, fifty-six in number, include profit shar- 
 ing in their rules. Ninety-one productive societies in 
 England and Scotland pay a bonus. Cooperative pro- 
 duction has made a remarkable advance in the last 
 ten years in the United Kingdom, and the labor 
 copartnerships are faithful to the interests of the em- 
 ployee as a profit-maker. 1 
 
 In 1889 I gave a list in "Profit Sharing" of 
 twenty-four cases of American firms practicing the 
 system of a " determinate bonus " to labor, and an- 
 other of ten cases of the " indeterminate bonus." In 
 1899, six of the twenty-four cases continue in opera- 
 tion, and five out of the ten. To these eleven cases 
 in both species should be added twelve others of later 
 date, making twenty-three cases in 1899 against thirty- 
 four in 1889. 2 
 
 1 See, especially, Mr. H. D. Lloyd's highly interesting volume, 
 Labor Copartnership, founded on a visit to England in 1897. Mr. 
 Lloyd pays due honor to the admirable work of the Labour Associa- 
 tion of London. 
 
 2 See the table in Appendix II. The total for Europe and America 
 is 322 cases. Mr. D. F. Schloss, in his Methods of Industrial Remuner- 
 ation, third edition, says (p. 254, note) that " many of the cases men- 
 tioned by Mr. Gilman as examples of profit sharing will be seen not 
 to fall within the definition of that method adopted in these pages." 
 Mr. Schloss applies the term profit sharing to those cases only " in 
 which an employer agrees with his employees that they shall receive, 
 in partial remuneration of their labor, and in addition to their ordi- 
 nary wages, a share, fixed beforehand, in the profits of the undertak- 
 ing to which the profit-sharing scheme relates " (pp. 247, 248). The 
 note on p. 254 continues by naming, in parentheses, a number of firms 
 lying outside of this definition : but it here names five firms which are 
 included in the indeterminate bonus list, to which the next sentence 
 refers: "All Mr. Gilman's cases of Indeterminate Profit Sharing are 
 also (!) outside our definition." The severity with which Mr. Schloss 
 applies his definition appears in the statement, at the end of this note, 
 that " the Wardwell Needle Co. is improperly placed among the 
 ' Determinates.' " According to the account in Profit Sharing (p. 318),
 
 PROFIT SHARING TO-DAY 347 
 
 These figures indicate a remarkable mortality 
 among cases of profit sharing in the United States, 
 especially when one adds to the list six or seven other 
 cases at least, in which the plan was adopted and! 
 afterward abandoned between 1889 and 1899. 1 How 
 far these numerous apparent failures of the system to 
 sustain itself and bring forth good results, for ten 
 years or more, are due to circumstances, and how far 
 to defects in the system itself, will appear more clearly 
 in Appendix No. III., in which I have carefully ex- 
 amined Mr. Monroe's article and his conclusions; 
 these are based on a misleading use of mere enumer- 
 ation of cases, which should properly be weighed as 
 well as counted. As has been said, concerning the 
 general situation, it was to be expected in this coun- 
 
 this company agreed with its employees "to divide the profits of 
 business equally " which should appear to be a sufficiently " deter- 
 minate " proposition ! Mr. Schloss names Procter and Gamble and Ara 
 Cushman and Co. as cases not conforming to his definition ; but he fails 
 to see that " a share, fixed beforehand, in the profits of the undertak- 
 ing," is just as much such a share, and just as definite, if the basis of 
 division of the net profits is " the proportion of wages paid to business 
 done " (which was the agreement in these two cases) as if it were the 
 proportion of wages to capital. Since 1890 the Procter and Gamble 
 Company pay the same dividend on wages as on stock, thus removing 
 the last ground for Mr. Schloss' objection. His definition seems to 
 me too rigid for practical purposes. When Mr. J. W. Tufts, of Boston, 
 for instance, gives one per cent, on wages to his employees' mutual aid 
 society, and allows ten per cent, interest on deposits from the men, 
 this is practically profit sharing, though as the gift is collective in 
 the first particular, and takes the form of a premium on thrift in the 
 second, the case might be best styled one of ' ' employers' institutions." 
 I have expressed my agreement, however, with M. Vanlaer that profit 
 sharing proper is itself to be ranked under patronage. The ques- 
 tion is largely one of mere terminology. 
 
 1 Mr. Paul Monroe, in a valuable article on " Profit Sharing in the 
 United States " (The American Journal of Sociology for May, 1896), has 
 given the most detailed statement of recent American experience to 
 be found in print.
 
 348 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 try that a number of experiments in profit sharing 
 begun not long before the protracted siege of " hard 
 times " (1893-1897) should come to an end because 
 of inability to earn a bonus and consequent discour- 
 agement, while others begun after the crisis had fairly 
 set in should soon be dropped. Too many of the 
 experiments made show a painful lack of seriousness 
 in dealing with a grave matter ; in others the trail of 
 the amateur is but too visible. The unwisdom of 
 making an important modification of the wages system 
 with the expectation that in one or two years' time it 
 would, almost automatically, transform a difficult situ- 
 ation is obvious. One of the chief demands of such a 
 system is for a considerable length of time, requisite 
 for the cooperative education of all concerned, a 
 process for which three or four years, at the lowest, 
 are none too many. 
 
 When one reads, then, of American firms which 
 gravely state that they have " tried profit sharing and 
 found it a failure " after twelve months or even six 
 months only, he does not need to be a thick-and-thin 
 partisan of the system to ask if they consider it a mere 
 toy, and to inquire if they would respect such frivolity 
 in any other direction. That which here deserves 
 respect and careful study is the experience of those 
 American firms which have persevered through the 
 initial difficulties, and have not been dazzled by the 
 early victories of profit sharing. Some of these have 
 reached what seems like permanent success ; others, 
 equally persistent (like the Ara Cushman Company), 
 have found circumstances " too many " for them, and 
 have given up the effort, even if still believing in the 
 soundness of the principle. The employer who con-
 
 PROFIT SHARING TO-DAY 349 
 
 templates a trial of the plan will not disregard the 
 experience of any other capable and conscientious em- 
 ployer, but he will pay most heed to the record of 
 such firms as the five described in the last chapter. 1 
 
 Concerning three minor American instances, a few par- 
 ticulars may be of interest. The Columbus (Ohio) Gas 
 Company practiced for the ten years 1885-95 the method 
 of dividing equally with its men the saving made in the cost 
 of labor per unit of product ; if this, for example, were re- 
 duced 5 per cent, in any year, wages would be increased 2.5 
 per cent. A point having been reached at which further re- 
 duction was not possible, the company adopted, in 1895, the 
 plan of paying the employees the same semi-annual divi- 
 dend on wages as the stockholders receive. The company 
 may pay the dividend in stock (as it wishes to do) until 
 each employee earns at least three shares. More than half 
 of the seventy-five employees, qualified for participation by 
 one year of good service, sold their first stock dividend in 
 1895. The Columbus Traction Company has paid 
 its first dividend to its employees this year, one per cent. 
 on wages, the same as was paid to stockholders on their 
 shares. 
 
 The Ballard and Ballard Co., a large flour-milling 
 concern of Louisville, Ely., has gradually extended profit 
 
 1 The essential logic of profit sharing has not, of course, been dis- 
 proved by the abandonment of numerous trials of it in the United 
 States for various reasons in the last ten years. The argument, for 
 instance, based on the saving of what usually goes to waste is just as 
 sound now as when John Marshall of Leeds showed Robert Owen over 
 his mills. Mr. Marshall remarking, " If my people were to be careful 
 and avoid waste, they might save me 4,000 a year," Owen replied, 
 " Well, why don't you give them 2,000 a year to do it, and then you 
 yourself would be the richer by 2,000 a year." The question of 
 favorable or unfavorable circumstances surrounding a particular estab- 
 lishment is another matter. I may be allowed to refer the reader to 
 the closing chapter of Profit Sharing, and especially to the cautions 
 addressed to the employer on pp. 436-439.
 
 350 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 sharing in the last fifteen years in a manner that commends 
 itself on general principles. It first gave the superintend- 
 ent five per cent, of the net profits, in addition to salary. 
 A few years afterward it began to divide ten per cent, 
 among the salaried employees. " After certain changes had 
 taken place in our salaried force, a case presented itself 
 where a typewriter who had been with us only three months 
 was participating in the profits, whereas certain laborers 
 who had been with us fifteen years, and in fact ever since 
 we had been in business, were not participating, and this 
 struck us as unjust. We therefore determined to enlarge 
 the list of those who participated in this ten per cent, by 
 including such of our wage-earners as had been with us two 
 years : so that the list was very largely increased, and of 
 course the amount given to the salaried employees was di- 
 minished." A day-laborer in these mills begins at $1.25 
 per day (the usual rate in the city), and after two years he 
 receives $2 a day and a share in the profits. He must con- 
 tinue in the service until the Christmas day after the begin- 
 ning of the company's fiscal year on July 1. " We have 
 found that the laborer who gets $1.75 per day, as against 
 $1.50, is apt to consume that extra $1.50 a week in living 
 expenses, the corner grocery getting practically all of it ; 
 whereas, when he is given his money in a lump, frequently 
 amounting to as much as six or eight weeks' wages, he has 
 a sum which is a nest-egg and to which he can add. He 
 can pay off any accumulated doctors' bills, or misfortunes, 
 or he has enough to make a slight investment. This is, to 
 our mind, a much better way than giving a small increase 
 of wages from time to time. The plan has worked admira- 
 bly ; . . . after the lapse of some years ... we gave each 
 of five trusted employees an additional one per cent, of 
 our net profits," making a total of twenty-one per cent, 
 distributed. The company takes out insurance for its 
 workmen under the Workmen's Collective Policy, without 
 charge to them. It serves a lunch for the office force and 
 certain other employees, which, it finds, tends to fraternal
 
 PROFIT SHARING TO-DAY 351 
 
 feeling. The workman can leave his bonus on deposit with 
 the company, if he wishes, at five per cent, interest. 1 
 
 1 The Yale and Towne system of " gain sharing " has been given 
 up by that company. Mr. Alfred Dolge's fine industrial system of 
 " just distribution of earnings, " by means of a large variety of welfare- 
 institutions at Dolgeville, N. Y., came to an end in 1898 through his 
 failure in business.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE KEASONABLE WAY 
 
 IT can hardly be necessary, after detailing the in- 
 formation contained in the eight preceding chapters, 
 to enter upon a labored argument in justification of 
 the employers whose practices I have outlined. Occa- 
 sionally the opinion of one or another manufacturer, 
 who has tried these novel ways, has been quoted ; but 
 for the most part I have refrained from giving such 
 expressions, preferring to let the facts speak for them- 
 selves. 1 If the principles set forth as being " an 
 essential matter" in the industrial world have not 
 now commended themselves to the mind of one who 
 has weighed the facts herein recorded, argument from 
 general considerations would probably fail. If the 
 ideal first set forth for the employer as realizable has 
 not been shown to have been realized here and there 
 among men, the expositor has surely been at fault. 
 
 1 I have also refrained from discussing some points of which an 
 extended treatise on employers' institutions would need to take 
 notice. The question how far wages are high or low in establish- 
 ments having such institutions, relatively to establishments without 
 them, would need to be investigated minutely. It may safely be 
 taken for granted, however, that wages are at least as high in the 
 great majority of the establishments I have described as the average 
 outside. It is another interesting question at what point the ex- 
 penditure by the employer of a large collective dividend for his 
 workmen ceases to be more effective for their good, in the support of 
 institutions, than individual shares would be a question evidently 
 depending for its answer upon the character and intelligence of the 
 employees in each specific case.
 
 THE REASONABLE WAY 353 
 
 Discussions to prove the existence of the self-evident 
 and the value of the self -commending have little charm 
 in a busy world. 
 
 A dividend to labor, direct or indirect, has, in fact, 
 plainly proved itself one of Burke's " healing mea- 
 sures," and the proof of its reality and its desirability 
 may be held to have been given. The association for 
 the amelioration of the lot of employers which some 
 one has declared a necessity, might well give pre- 
 cedence to this question on its order of the day. The 
 employer who would proceed with animation but with 
 moderation on the line of practicable advance has 
 now before him the record of the experience of many 
 such men as himself, who have blazed the way for 
 him yes, have even made a highway in the social 
 wilderness for him. Realizing, from the purely finan- 
 cial standpoint, that the human equipment of a factory 
 is at least as important as the mechanical equipment, 
 these sagacious men have provided for its mainte- 
 nance at the highest point of efficiency. The employer 
 is " made of social earth " as well as his operatives ; 
 and welfare-institutions for their benefit, undertaken 
 merely from long-sighted prudence, can hardly fail to 
 bring him nearer as time goes by to a living sympathy 
 with these men and women of like passions with him- 
 self. An employer who concerns himself to house his 
 help well, and gives them the benefit of his capital, 
 used in buying land on a large scale, laying it out 
 with a view to health and beauty, and purchasing 
 building material for them at wholesale rates, may be 
 very unconscious that he is a social reformer. None 
 the less, though quite independent of legislators, and 
 even distrustful of " theorists," he is doing more to
 
 354 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 establish democracy on its necessary moral basis and 
 to bring in the Kingdom of God than the social en- 
 thusiast whose large projects meet a fatal enemy in 
 the facts of human nature. 
 
 In a notable chapter of his study of " Democracy 
 in America," Tocqueville showed " how an aristocracy 
 may be created by manufactures." Noticing the lack 
 of personal relation between the employer and those 
 whom he employs, this great observer of institutions 
 says : " The manufacturer asks nothing of the work- 
 man but his labor ; the workman expects nothing 
 from him but his wages. The one contracts no obli- 
 gation to protect, nor the other to defend, and they 
 are not permanently connected by either habit or 
 duty. The aristocracy created by business rarely 
 settles in the midst of the manufacturing population 
 which it directs. . . . An aristocracy thus consti- 
 tuted can have no great hold upon those whom it em- 
 ploys. . . . The territorial aristocracy of former ages 
 was either bound by law, or thought itself bound by 
 usage, to come to the relief of its servingmen, and to 
 succor their distresses. But the manufacturing aris- 
 tocracy of our age first impoverishes and debases the 
 men who serve it, and then abandons them to be sup- 
 ported by the charity of the public. This is a natural 
 consequence of what has been said before. Between 
 the workman and the master there are frequent re- 
 lations, but no real association." 
 
 In a certain sense it may be said that this whole 
 volume would serve as a comment on this passage 
 from Tocqueville. The facts of the industrial situa- 
 tion when he wrote indicated only too plainly such 
 tendencies as he deplored, but did not consider fatal.
 
 THE REASONABLE WAY 355 
 
 " I am of opinion, on the whole," he continued, " that 
 the manufacturing aristocracy which is growing up 
 under our eyes is one of the harshest which ever ex- 
 isted in the world ; but, at the same time, it is one of 
 the most confined and least dangerous. Nevertheless, 
 the friends of democracy should keep their eyes 
 anxiously fixed in this direction : for, if ever a per- 
 manent inequality of conditions and aristocracy again 
 penetrate into the world, it may be predicted that this 
 is the gate by which they will enter." 1 
 
 Tocqueville's warning was justified by such facts of 
 the oppression of the poor in the textile industries as 
 I have presented or alluded to, in Part I. of this 
 work. His optimism has been sustained by such facts 
 of an opposite order as show the increasing recogni- 
 tion of his moral responsibilities by the employer of 
 the last seventy years. Moral forces working upon 
 numerous manufacturers in Germany, France, Eng- 
 land and America have brought home to their con- 
 sciences the sacredness of their trust of which Labor 
 Commissioner Wright speaks. Beyond the compara- 
 tively few specifications here given of the more strik- 
 ing instances of employers' concern for their em- 
 ployees, there is a vast body of scattered evidence of 
 their liberality to the towns in which they live. Many 
 an industrial village in New England, for example, 
 gives plainest proof that the successful manufacturer 
 does not always keep his business relations with his 
 operatives and his profession of Christian morals 
 widely sundered ! That many more may be led to do 
 consciously and on a large scale what not a few are 
 
 1 Democracy in America, vol. il pp. 196, 197 (Century Company's 
 edition).
 
 356 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 to-day doing is the object which has inspired this 
 volume. 
 
 Welfare-institutions home building ; insurance 
 against accident, illness, old age, and death ; schools ; 
 libraries and lecture courses ; workmen's club-houses ; 
 premiums on wages ; employees' stockholding ; the 
 workman director ; gain sharing ; profit sharing ; 
 labor copartnership and other methods now rest on 
 the solid ground of manifold experience. They will 
 flourish and increase as the employers of labor on a 
 large scale view the whole range of their duties with a 
 keener eye. The change from a simple wage contract, 
 with scarcely a touch of human interest in it, will be 
 gradual, like all really fruitful and permanent social 
 reforms. " Father Time consecrates nothing that is 
 done without him." These institutions are not for a 
 day or a year : they have the lease of generations, and 
 their title to perpetuity is guaranteed by the social 
 conscience of civilized mankind. 
 
 The wages system, in one form or another, will long 
 endure, it is probable, among men ; but we may well 
 believe that its future will be more diversified than 
 its present. Education of hand and brain will gradu- 
 ally raise the level of intelligence among working 
 populations. Machinery, after the inevitable tem- 
 porary injury, will everywhere increase their comfort 
 and lighten their toil. Moral forces working upon 
 them will dissolve the specious rhetoric that opposes 
 the workman's acquirement of a home and the cheap 
 logic that represents the workman who accepts the 
 employer's sincere offers of friendly association as " a 
 deserter from the army of labor." The much-dreaded 
 trusts will probably hasten the day of industrial peace
 
 THE REASONABLE WAY 357 
 
 by a more scientific treatment of the "living ma- 
 chinery " they employ, in keeping with their economic 
 and scientific wisdom shown in the processes of manu- 
 facture and transportation. 
 
 Not the be-all and the end-all of social reform (for 
 man is an animal ever needing reformation), welfare- 
 institutions like those here depicted will doubtless 
 play a larger and larger part in the development of 
 industry. The study of them is easy and the imita- 
 tion of them not difficult for able men. 1 Their 
 gradual introduction will give all parties a better in- 
 tellectual perception of the real demands of modern 
 industry upon workers with head or hand. The 
 management of them by those who are chiefly to bene- 
 fit by them will be a school of good judgment and 
 fraternal feeling toward their employers and their 
 fellows as well. 2 Such a practical education, aided by 
 a scheme of popular instruction revised in the direc- 
 tion of manual training and economic guidance, will 
 do an irresistible work, convincing them that mankind 
 can steadily move toward a harmony in which all 
 human interests are reconciled. 
 
 I would not be understood as placing a final trust 
 in the mere machinery of such welfare-institutions as 
 have been described in this volume, " new combi- 
 nations grafted on the wages system," as M. E. 
 
 1 See Appendix I. on Some Dangers of Paternalism. 
 
 2 Such a management would not easily consent to forfeiture clauses, 
 as a rule : these clauses are much better omitted, even when the 
 sums forfeited by an employee leaving a factory go to the mutual aid 
 fund. So said the Profit Sharing Congress at Paris, in 1889, by a 
 unanimous vote, and M. Cheysson emphatically supports this view. 
 The experience of the Solvay Company (p. 2S7) is instructive. The 
 employer should avoid the suspicion, even, of desiring to confiscate 
 the workman's savings, under any circumstances.
 
 358 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 Levasseur might call them. Pension funds and acci- 
 dent insurance, for instance, are good things, but they 
 are not good enough to constitute in themselves a 
 security for industrial peace regardless of their source. 
 If they have sprung from a transient mood of gener- 
 osity in an employer whose usual temper is distrust 
 and dislike of his workingmen, they will accomplish 
 little in the way of establishing harmony. Good-will 
 in the employer, a steadfast desire to be the helper of 
 his employees, is the one trustworthy foundation. 1 
 " Not a patron but a friend" is the workman's need, 
 to paraphrase the excellent motto of Charity Organi- 
 zation. 
 
 When masters of industry, true " social author- 
 ities," as Le Play called them, are humanely disposed 
 toward their fellow-men who work for them, we have 
 the tap-root of industrial peace. Such a manufacturer 
 may have accident funds and special schools for his 
 works or not, for this is not material. The important 
 point is that he show his humanity in his important 
 office by relieving the injured and educating the young 
 in one or another way. Thousands of employers, un- 
 doubtedly, are to-day generously aiding men or women 
 injured in their mills beyond what any statute re- 
 quires, or helping to educate especially intelligent 
 children of workmen, but doing this in individual 
 cases, not systematically. Such a captain of industry, 
 who has a persistent good-will toward his employees 
 may, with -all his lack of rules and system, be on far 
 better terms with them than an employer of an inhu- 
 man spirit who has erected a formidable series of wel- 
 
 1 " Tant vaut 1'homme, tant vaut la formula," as M. Cheysson well 
 puts it : " The formula is worth only what the man is worth."
 
 THE REASONABLE WAY 359 
 
 fare-institutions for a guarantee simply of his own 
 prosperity. 
 
 Trust in machinery as a substitute for specific 
 kindliness is one of the besetting sins of social re- 
 formers. The best preventive of this tendency in an 
 employer is, doubtless, the good deed he does for any 
 one of his workmen out of pure good-will. He cannot 
 fail, any more than others, to become interested in 
 the man whom he has once helped in this spirit, and 
 each new instance of his own well-doing will confirm 
 such a spirit in him. When the employer feels the 
 necessity of systematizing his benevolence, to save 
 delay, he will wisely bear in mind the necessity of 
 refreshing the institution he creates, from time to 
 time, with a touch of personal interest. Welfare- 
 institutions are good, I repeat, but the individual 
 workingman is not himself an institution, and he is 
 not satisfied to be treated abstractly, as if he were a 
 formula. He cannot be moralized himself, he cannot 
 aid in moralizing the employer, unless some one in 
 authority treats him as a human person, of very indi- 
 vidual feelings all compact. 
 
 To close as we began, the education most needed 
 by modern employers is in deeper appreciation of the 
 value of moral forces in industry, 1 a finer sense of 
 
 1 The employer who sometimes inclines to envy the rigid discipline 
 of an army would do well to read the article on the Art of War in 
 the Encyclopaedia Britannica. "In all periods of war," it says, 
 " under all conditions of arms, the moral forces which affect armies 
 have been the great determining factors of victory and defeat." On 
 a " nice feeling of the moral pulse of armies . . . the skill of great 
 commanders has chiefly depended. In that respect there is nothing 
 new in the modern conditions of war. . . . The change consists in the 
 substitution of organization for drill ... a living organism must take 
 the place of a mechanical instrument.' ' Vol. xxiv. pp. 343, 344.
 
 360 A DIVIDEND TO LABOR 
 
 equity and a truly rational philanthropy. It is always 
 difficult for a class of men who have not themselves 
 originated the system, economic or political, under 
 which they live, to realize its defects, defects which 
 the testing hand of Time makes evident to the ju- 
 dicious and the disinterested. It is hard to bring home 
 to our own practice the fact that the progress which 
 we most need, as our proud material civilization 
 advances, is to strengthen its moral foundations. 
 Otherwise it cannot long endure the subtle assault of 
 corroding envy and undermining hate felt by the less 
 fortunate classes of our manifold society. As wealth 
 increases prodigiously, and the eager thoughts of 
 strong men are more and more occupied with the life 
 that now is, leaving unnoticed the " consolations " of 
 a religion occupying itself chiefly with a lif e to come, 
 there is a growing need of refreshing every accessible 
 source of moral inspiration, of knitting closer the 
 weakening bonds of human fellowship, and of estab- 
 lishing every institution solidly upon the eternal bed- 
 rock of justice and righteousness. In the great world 
 of labor this means that arrangements which have suited 
 other times with a less haunting sense of social duty 
 must be revised and adapted to the new light and the 
 profounder impulse of fraternity. If socialism were a 
 workable scheme, it would certainly have a full trial 
 in the next century in more than one country. But 
 it will not work, and better plans, more modest in 
 promise and more effective in result, will come to the 
 front. 
 
 Among such systems, more equitable and more 
 successful than the unmodified wages scheme, the 
 method of a dividend to labor commends itself more
 
 THE REASONABLE WAY 361 
 
 and more to far-sighted business sagacity, as well as to 
 enlightened philanthropy. In its various forms, direct 
 or indirect (we need not pin our faith to any single 
 form), no plan of carrying on industrial undertakings 
 pays more respect to the inevitable conditions of the 
 largest success. The high and necessary offices of 
 capital and skill are duly recognized; the authority 
 of the manager is properly respected, while the hand- 
 worker is not viewed simply as a machine, but is ele- 
 vated into a moral partnership that is effective and 
 ennobling. No method has yet been devised for ren- 
 dering the whole force of an industrial establishment 
 
 physical, mental, moral more powerful and pro- 
 ductive than this simple plan of making all the agents 
 
 capital, business talent, labor partners in the 
 profits. Where the banner of welfare-institutions is 
 firmly erected and persistently followed the jealousy 
 of Ephraim departs, and the enmity in Judah is at an 
 end. In the deep consciousness of a common life, the 
 full recognition of a common aim, and the just di- 
 vision of a common product, the industrial members 
 work together as one body, head and heart and 
 hand agreeing in one conspiracy of benefit. Great 
 even now is their reward who aspire and cooperate 
 toward such fraternity, inspired by an unfailing en- 
 thusiasm for humanity.
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 APPENDIX I 
 
 SOME DANGERS OF PATERNALISM 
 
 THE experience of the Blanzy mines, alluded to on pp. 129, 130, 
 showed the proprietors very forcibly the daggers that may accompany 
 extreme paternalism, howejex-jEejl^meant.^ The worst strikes at 
 Montceau-les-Mines (as at Le Creusot and some Belgian coal mines) 
 have arisen from difficulties concerning- the patronal institutions. 
 The Blanzy Company, as I have pointed out, learned the lesson in 
 time, that such in^tifotinnfijihjniTd, nnt nripplft thfr Hhprty of the work- 
 men, and that they should gradually be put into the bunds of the 
 employees, as these become more independent and better informed. 
 A strike to do away with welfare-institutions will seem strange 
 only to those who think of workingmen as a permanently subject 
 class. The Blanzy Company was not open to the full force of Henry 
 George's severe words, " The protection that certain employers give 
 their workmen is the same as that afforded by men to their brutes, 
 which they protect in order that they may make use of and devour 
 them." But M. G. de Molinari, the well-known economist, saw the 
 root of the trouble at Montceau and wrote of it in the " Journal des 
 Economistes " in November, 1882. His conclusion was thus stated : 
 
 " The defect of institutions, more or less philanthropic, that com- 
 panies or simple individual contractors establish in favor of their 
 workmen, is that these complicate their relations with them, and, con- 
 sequently, increase occasions for disagreement. They also, in fact, 
 "Y',^^3iminish the liberty of the workmen, wjhnjfind themselves bound to 
 the workshops or the mine, notwithstanding a higher rate of wages is 
 offered them elsewhere, by their payments towards the purchase of a 
 house, the obligatory participation in the pension bank, and the debts 
 that they have contracted at the provision stores. The result is a 
 state of subjection that does not fail to become insupportable when 
 the employer attempts, according to the example of the. juanager of 
 the company of Montceau-les-Mines, to prevent all manifestations 
 against his personal opinions. This condition of affairs, between the 
 company and its workmen, perfectly explains the success of the 
 ' mouvement collectiviste anarchiste ' of Montceau."
 
 APPENDIX 363 
 
 The company realized the great need of abandoning patriarchal- 
 ism. Its report to the Jury of the Social Economy Section of the 
 Exposition of 1889 treated the subject very sagaciously. I give the 
 substance of it : 
 
 " Employers' institutions, even while rendering the greatest service, 
 have not, perhaps, given results commensurate with the sacrifices 
 made by the company. One is generally apt to lightly appreciate 
 what has cost no trouble ; we accustom ourselves to consider favors 
 as rights. We readily believe that those who do us a kindness are 
 acting from self-interest. Worse yet ; when a sort of providence 
 supplies all his needs, without exacting from him any effort, the work- 
 man ceases to rely upon himself he loses his inclination for pru- 
 dence, for economy, because he no longer feels the necessity of them ; 
 his initiative is extinguished, his dignity diminishes, he is ripe for 
 socialism. 
 
 " These results, the consequences of patronage carried too far, began 
 to be felt at Montceau some years ago. At the same time, by a kind 
 of reaction natural enough, the spirit of association began to revive. 
 Cooperative bakeries, mutual aid societies, and trade-unions were 
 formed in the country. The new movement was, in fact, directed into 
 revolutionary socialistic channels, rather than philanthropic ones ; 
 but, when all is said, it existed, and it denoted a certain state of mind 
 with which it was prudent to reckon. The Blanzy Company compre- 
 hended the situation. While preserving its patronal institutions, all 
 of which had serious reasons for existence, at least until they were 
 replaced by something else, they resolved to utilize this movement 
 toward association, to encourage it, and to keep it in the field of the 
 possible. For some years they have followed an entirely new path, 
 and certainly the right one. Moreover, they are not alone in follow- 
 ing it. 
 
 ^^-" To excite initiative in the workman : to give him economic edu- 
 cation ; to habituate him to depend more upon himself and less upon 
 his employer ; to teach him to direct his own affairs ; this is prefer- 
 able to that species of tutelage under which we are led, by pure 
 benevolence indeed, to treat the workman as if he were incapable of 
 comprehending his own interests. The employer should not hesitate 
 to have recourse to association when it is possible. Under this sys- 
 tem, he is no longer solely responsible for the happiness of his work- 
 men. Being associated with him in his efforts, they share respon- 
 sibility with him, and even assume the greatest part of it. This, 
 moreover, does not prevent the employer's interesting himself as 
 much as he desires in the material and moral well-being of his work- 
 people and making all the sacrifices he may judge proper. But he 
 gives better ; what he gives is more appreciated, because, to his own 
 efforts, to his own sacrifices, are joined the efforts and sacrifices of 

 
 364 APPENDIX 
 
 those interested, who put in practice the old precept : ' Help yourself 
 and God will help you.' 
 
 "Many employers are hostile to workmen's associations, because 
 they fear them ; they see in them centres of disorder and evil spirit. 
 Strictly speaking, we might understand this view, if the movement 
 towards association could be arrested ; but the current is irresistible. 
 Something is wanted to distract the workman, a change from his 
 habitual work; he has a certain amount of intellectual activity to 
 dispose of ; he must dispose of it well or ill, and associations founded 
 with an economic, social or moral aim, or simply established to procure 
 for their members seemly recreation, are really the best aliment 
 that can be offered to such a craving ; they are, besides, the besF 
 derivative, the best safety-valve against popular passions. Well- 
 directed associations contribute, moreover, powerfully to consolidate 
 social peace, because they teach men to take account of themselves, 
 to know themselves, to appreciate themselves. They afford the 
 means of more readily unmasking intriguers, and useless noisy fel- 
 lows. 
 
 " Finally, there is the brute fact that dominates the whole situation ; 
 the current exists, the associations are establishing ; and, if we do not 
 have them with us, we have them against us. There is no room, 
 therefore, for hesitation. At Montceau we have only to congratulate 
 ourselves upon the new path on which we have entered. The initiative 
 of the workmen has surpassed all our hopes. Associations are multi- 
 plying, and we may believe that, some day, they will everywhere 
 replace employers' institutions, or at least, that these will be so 
 modified that the workmen's efforts will everywhere be associated 
 with those of the employer ; but such a change can only come about 
 slowly. Time consecrates nothing that is done without him." 
 
 The Socie'te' de la Vieille Montague, unlike the Blanzy mines, has 
 been free from strikes, while maintaining the great variety of welfare- 
 institutions described on pp. 171-173. Its pamphlet presented to the 
 Exposition of 1889 shows the reason : 
 
 "1. The best mode of remuneration for workmen is that which 
 interests them, not in the general advantages of the enterprise, but in 
 industrial results on which they can exercise a direct personal influ- 
 ence. 
 
 " 2. Wages, to be sufficient, must permit the workman not only to 
 live, but also to save ; that is to say, they must secure not only pre- 
 sent but future wants. 
 
 " 3. Even if receiving such wages, the workman will not save or 
 acquire property save under exceptional circumstances, if the em- 
 ployer affords him no opportunity, either by the establishment of 
 savings-banks or by advances made with a liberal prudence. 
 
 " 4. Even with these advantages, only a minority of skilled work-
 
 APPENDIX 365 
 
 men are able to profit by snch institutions. The majority require to 
 be protected against the results of sickness, infirmities, and old age 
 by employers' institutions, relief funds, provident societies, etc. 
 
 " 5. Two conditions, too often neglected, are absolutely necessary 
 for the proper working of these funds, to avoid their ruin. 
 
 " (a) The first consists in rendering an exact statement of their pre- 
 sent liability and especially of their future calls, and in establishing 
 their resources solidly with the necessary reserves. 
 
 " (6) The second consists in doing away with the two systems of 
 administration, either of the employer solely or the workman alone, 
 and in adoptfng a mixed system. 
 
 " Thus only can we interest the workmen in the proper management 
 while retaining the necessary control by the employer." 
 
 Dr. E. R. L. Gould's statement (Report, p. 328) alluded to on 
 p. 261, is to the effect that the Willimantic Linen Thread Company, 
 under its present management, " believes that the people do not wish 
 to be helped gratuitously." He then quotes the management con- 
 cerning Colonel Barrows' arrangements for lunch at a morning inter- 
 mission, for the women's dinner hour, and for magnifying glasses 
 given to the inspectors of thread all of which " were not received 
 with favor." I do not consider this ex parte testimony sufficient to 
 establish the truth of Dr. Gould's remark, that " there is undoubtedly 
 something in the American temperament, or, perhaps one had better 
 say, in the temperament of laborers working in Americaj which is 
 hostile to gratuitous help from employers." This unqualified posi- 
 tion is quite in contradiction to many facts given in this volume. 
 The manner of giving is very important.
 
 366 
 
 APPENDIX II 
 
 LIST OF PROFIT-SHARING FIRMS 1 
 FRANCE. 
 
 Date. 
 
 Name. 
 
 Business. 
 
 Bonus. 
 
 1811 
 
 Imprimerie Nationale, Paris ^. . . . 
 
 Printing 
 
 Col 
 
 1839 
 
 
 Textiles 
 
 Ind. 
 Def. 
 
 c 
 
 1842 
 1843 
 
 Maison Leclaire (Redouly et Cie), 
 Paris 
 Papeterie Cooperative, Angou- 
 
 Painters 
 
 C. P. 
 
 c. 
 
 1848 
 
 
 
 p 
 
 1848 
 
 Paul Dupont, Paris 
 
 Printer 
 
 p. 
 
 1848 
 
 Gaidan, Nimes 
 
 Banker 
 
 c. 
 
 184t| 
 
 Gaz du Mans, Le Mans 
 
 Gas company. 
 
 
 1850 
 
 Assurances Ge'ne'rales (Cie d'), 
 
 
 p. 
 
 1853 
 
 
 
 p 
 
 1854 
 
 L'Union, Paris 
 
 Insurance 
 
 p. 
 
 1854 
 
 J. Chagot et Cie, Blanzy " 
 
 Coal mines 
 
 Col. 
 
 1855 
 
 La Nationale, Paris 
 
 
 Ind. 
 P. 
 
 1855 
 
 
 
 P. 
 
 1865 
 
 Suez Canal Company, Paris 
 
 Transportation 
 
 C. P. 
 
 1868 
 
 Renard, Vinet et H uiiaud, Lyons ^ 
 
 Dyers 
 
 Ind. 
 
 1870 
 
 Socie'te' des Tissus de Laine des 
 
 Textiles 
 
 C. 
 C P. 
 
 1871 
 
 
 Distiller 
 
 Ind. 
 
 1871 
 
 
 Broker 
 
 Def. 
 P. 
 
 1871 
 
 Vernes et Cie, Paris ^" 
 
 
 P. 
 
 1871 
 
 1872 
 
 Abadie et Cie. Theil u 
 
 Paper 
 
 C. 
 
 c 
 
 1872 
 
 Barbas, Tassart et Balas, Paris ^ 
 
 Plumbers 
 
 C. P. 
 
 1879 
 
 Imnrimerie Chaix. Paris 13 . . . 
 
 Printers. . . 
 
 C. P. 
 
 1 In the fourth column C. denotes cash payment; P., investment in some kind 
 of provident fund ; Ind., indefinite percentage ; Def., deferred payment ; Col., 
 a collective bonus ; the plans thus indicated are sometimes combined. 
 
 2 Levied on general expenses. 3 Chief employees. 4 CoSperative plan. 
 6 Pensions ; committee. 8 Patronal. 7 Gratifications. 
 
 8 Patronal. 9 Patronal. 10 Patronal. 
 
 11 Shareholders. 12 Committee. 13 Committee.
 
 APPENDIX 
 FEANCE Continued. 
 
 367 
 
 Date. 
 
 Name. 
 
 Business. 
 
 Bonus. 
 
 W> 
 
 A. Godchaux et Cie, Paris 
 
 
 C. P. 
 
 187* 
 
 
 Wines 
 
 p. 
 
 187* 
 
 L' Aigle, Paris 
 
 Insurance 
 
 p. 
 
 187* 
 
 Le Soleil, Paris 
 
 
 p. 
 
 1872 
 1874 
 1874 
 
 Socie'te' des Mat. Col., St. Denis . . 
 A. Mame et Fils, Tours 
 G. Masson, Paris ~ 
 
 Chemical products . . 
 Printers 
 
 p. 
 
 C. P. 
 
 C P 
 
 1875 
 
 Comptoir d'Escompte, Rouen. . . . 
 
 Discount Bank 
 
 C. 
 
 1875 
 
 L'TJrbaine, Paris 
 
 
 P 
 
 1875 
 
 0. Fauquet, Oissel ' 
 
 
 Ind 
 
 1876 
 
 Morin, Tillot, Ricois et Cie, Au 
 Bon Marche 1 , Paris * 
 
 
 C. P. 
 Ind P 
 
 187R 
 
 L'AbeiJle, Paris 
 
 
 Ind P 
 
 1877 
 
 
 
 
 1877 
 
 Corapagnie Ge'ne'rale Transatlan- 
 tique, Paris ** 
 
 
 c 
 
 1877 
 
 Sautter, Lemonnier et Cie, Paris 7 
 
 Electricians 
 
 Ind. 
 
 1879 
 
 E. Buttner-Thierry, Paris 
 
 Lithographer 
 
 C. P. 
 C P. 
 
 1880 
 
 Blanchisserie de Thaon, Vosges. . 
 
 Bleachery 
 
 P. 
 
 1880 
 
 Caillard Freres, Havre 8 
 
 
 Ind P 
 
 1880 
 1880 
 
 Chateau Moutrose, Me'doc 9 
 Socie'te' du Finistere, Landerneau 
 
 Vineyard 
 
 C. P. 
 C P 
 
 1881 
 
 Caillette, Paris 
 
 
 c 
 
 1881 
 
 
 
 Ind P 
 
 1881 
 
 Piat, Paris n 
 
 
 Ind 
 
 188* 
 
 
 Lace 
 
 C. P. 
 Ind C 
 
 1882 
 
 Moutier, Paris 
 
 
 C P 
 
 188* 
 
 Mouillot, Marseilles *' 
 
 
 Ind C 
 
 1882 
 
 188* 
 
 Ch. Milde", Fils et Cie, Paris 
 Veuve Pommery, Reims 
 
 Electricians. 
 
 Ind P 
 
 188* 
 
 Cusenier, Paris 
 
 Distiller 
 
 
 1883 
 
 Compagnie de Fives-Lille, Fives. 
 
 
 P 
 
 1883 
 
 Usines de Mazieres ** 
 
 
 P 
 
 1884 
 
 G. Gounouilhou, Bordeaux 15 
 
 Printer 
 
 C. P. 
 
 1885 
 
 Baille-Lemaire, Paris 
 
 
 
 1885 
 1885 
 
 Lorabart, Paris 
 Mozet et Delalonde, Paris 16 
 
 Chocolate works .... 
 
 C. P. 
 C. P. 
 
 1885 
 
 Ph. Roux et Cie. (Tanerves). Paris. 
 
 Engineers . . 
 
 C. P. 
 
 1 Patronal 
 * Cooperation. 
 
 Percentage on business. 
 6 Cooperative. 
 
 8 Committee. 
 o Premiums. 
 
 7 Gratifications and patronal. 8 A percentage on wages. 9 No bonus divided. 
 
 10 Patronal. 
 
 13 Gratifications. 
 
 16 Committee. 
 
 Patronal. 
 14 Patronal. 
 
 12 Gratifications. 
 is Committee.
 
 368 
 
 APPENDIX 
 FRANCE Continued. 
 
 Date. 
 
 1885 
 
 1886 
 1886 
 1886 
 1887 
 1888 
 1889 
 1890 
 1890 
 1890 
 1890 
 1891 
 1892 
 1892 
 1892 
 
 1892 
 
 1892 
 1893 
 
 1893 
 
 1893 
 1893 
 
 1893 
 1893 
 1893 
 
 1894 
 1894 
 1894 
 1894 
 1894 
 1894 
 1894 
 1894 
 1894 
 
 1894 
 1894 
 
 Name. 
 
 Business. 
 
 Bonus. 
 
 
 Painter and decora- 
 tor 
 
 P. 
 C. P. 
 
 Ind. C 
 Ind. P. 
 P. 
 
 P. 
 
 Ind. P. 
 C. 
 
 C. 
 Ind. P. 
 
 Ind. 
 C. P. 
 
 Ind. P. 
 Ind. 
 C. P. 
 Ind. P. 
 Ind. P. 
 
 Ind. P. 
 Ind. C. 
 Ind. P. 
 C. 
 Ind. C. 
 Ind. 
 C. P. 
 
 C. 
 
 Ph. Mondial, Paris 
 
 
 Felix, Paris. . 
 
 Tailor. 
 Printer. 
 Roofers. 
 
 L. Briere, Rouen 
 
 Thuillier Freres, Paris 
 
 Bonniot-Pouget, Vallon, Ardeche 1 
 
 
 
 
 La Providence, Paris 
 
 Insurance. 
 Colliery. 
 
 Mines d'Aubigny-la-Ronce 
 
 
 Petillat Vichy 
 
 Foundry. 
 Carriage company. 
 Foundry 
 
 
 Miiller et Roger, Paris 8 
 
 
 Instruments of pre- 
 cision 
 
 Banque de depots et comptes- 
 courants, Paris 
 
 Banking 
 
 
 Printers 
 
 Socie'te' du Tubulaire Berlier, 
 
 Transportation. 
 
 
 
 Colliery. 
 
 Retailers. 
 Metal workers. 
 
 Magasins de la Ville de Londres, 
 
 
 
 Chemins de fer e'conomiques, 
 Paris 6 
 
 Transportation 
 
 
 
 Domaine des Gre'sy, Lalande 
 
 Farm 
 
 Foundry. 
 Tailor 
 
 Ducher, Paris " 
 
 Gillet et Fils, Lyons 9 
 
 Dyeing and coloring 
 
 
 
 
 
 Pates alimentaires . . 
 
 
 Raltier, St. Etienne 
 
 Groceries. 
 
 Gaudineau. La Fleche . . 
 
 1 Gratifications. 
 * Patronal. 
 i Patronal. 
 10 Patroual. 
 
 ! Patronal. 
 e Patronal. 
 8 Patronal. 
 11 Gratifications. 
 
 8 Patronal. 
 6 Patronal. 
 Gratifications.
 
 APPENDIX 
 FRANCE Continued. 
 
 369 
 
 Date. 
 
 Name 
 
 Business. 
 
 Bonus. 
 
 1894 
 
 Janvier, Pere, Fils et Cie, Le 
 Mans 
 
 
 
 1894 
 
 Soci4t4 le Nickel, Paris 
 
 
 c. 
 
 18Q4 
 
 Grands Moulins de Corbeil, Paris. 
 
 Millers 
 
 c. 
 
 1894 
 
 
 
 p 
 
 1894 
 
 
 
 p 
 
 1894 
 
 
 
 c 
 
 1894 
 
 Comp. Fonciere de France, Paris. 
 
 Bankers 
 
 C. P. 
 
 1894 
 
 Te'le'graphe de Paris a New York, 
 Paris 
 
 Telegraph. Co 
 
 c. 
 
 1894 
 1895 
 
 E. Aubert, Bapaume-les-Rouen. . 
 
 Cotton-mills 
 Farm 
 
 c. 
 
 C. P. 
 
 1895 
 
 Progres d'Eure-et-Loir, Chartres. 
 
 
 c. 
 
 1895 
 1895 
 
 Cerf et Cie, Versailles 
 
 Printers 
 
 p. 
 
 
 127 cooperative distributive stores 
 give a bonus to labor. 
 
 
 
 NOTE. The lists of profit-sharing houses published by the French 
 Participation Society, and in the " Almanac of French Cooperation " 
 are undoubtedly too inclusive, as cases of discontinuance of the system 
 are not noted with sufficient care. The above list follows, mainly 
 that of M. Vanlaer, given in his prize essay on Participation (Paris, 
 A. Rousseau, 1898). He marks nine cases given in the " Almanac " 
 as having "cesse 1 de fonctionner" (Paris and Orleans Railway ; MM. 
 Besselievre (1877), Caillard (1880), Gilon (1883), Lecceur et Cie (1885), 
 Comte de Lariboisiere (1886), Nayrolles (1887), Broquart (1890), and 
 Deberc (1892) ; the Come'die Franchise " figures wrongly on the list ; " 
 the Comptoir de I'lndnstrie liniere (1846) "has never operated;" 
 and concerning a number of the cases which he gives, his information 
 is marked " insufficient : " I have rectified two mistakes in this list. 
 In the foot-notes to the table above, " gratifications " and " patronal " 
 are M. Vanlaer's judgments as to the best designation to apply to 
 certain cases. Other cases given in the Almanac, but omitted by 
 M. Vanlaer (probably because profit sharing has been discontinued 
 in them), are the following : Gaget, Perignon et Cie (1872), Cazalet 
 (1887), Badin et Fils (1890), the Electrical Company (Place Clichy, 
 Paris, 1892), the Sevigne" Dairy (1894), Boissiere (1894), the Socie'te' 
 de Mouzai'a (Algeria, 1895), E. Pantz (1895), the estate Fonsorbes 
 (1895), Lefebvre (1895), the estate Verms (1895), the Boulonneries 
 de Bogny-Braux (1895), the General Telephone Company (1895), the 
 Paris Lighting and Cooking Gas Co. (1895), and the estate of Got, 
 Isle de Reunion (1895).
 
 370 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 GERMANY. 1 
 
 Date. 
 
 Name. 
 
 Business. 
 
 Bonus. 
 
 1847 
 
 Alsace. 
 
 Steinheil, Dieterlen and Co., Ro- 
 than 
 
 Cotton spinners 
 
 C P. 
 
 1872 
 
 Scheurer-Kestner, Thann 
 
 
 C P. 
 
 1874 
 
 Schenrer, Lauth and Co., Thann. 
 
 
 p. 
 
 1874 
 
 Schaeff er and Co. Pf astatt 
 
 Bleachers and dyers. 
 
 p. 
 
 1885 
 
 1 1 hi n et Moselle, Strasburg 
 
 
 p. 
 
 
 Socie'te' Anonyme d' Industrie Tex- 
 tile, ci-devant Dollfus-Mieg et 
 Cie, Miihlhausen ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1894 
 
 
 
 C P 
 
 1866 
 
 Bavaria. 
 
 Morgenstern, Forchheim 
 
 Tinfoil 
 
 C P 
 
 1873 
 
 Kiiiscrslautorii Foundry 
 
 
 C P 
 
 1875 
 
 
 
 
 1895 
 
 Reiniger, Gebbert and Schall, 
 Erlangen 
 
 Electricians. 
 
 
 1866 
 
 Hesse. 
 
 Louis of Hesse Railroad, Mainz. 
 
 
 C. 
 
 1847 
 
 Mecklenburg. 
 J. H. Von Thunen, Tellow 
 
 Farm 
 
 p. 
 
 1896 
 
 Meckleiiburg-Schwerin. 
 \y. Gehrcke, Schwerin 
 
 
 
 1854 
 
 Prussia. 
 
 J. Neumann, Posegnick 
 
 Farms 
 
 C P. 
 
 1869 
 
 Ilsede Foundry, Gross-Ilsede, Hil- 
 
 
 P 
 
 1870 
 
 
 
 Q. 
 
 1872 
 
 Siemens and llalske, Berlin 
 
 Electricians 
 
 C. 
 
 1872 
 
 
 
 c 
 
 1872 
 1873 
 1875 
 
 Braun and Bloem, Diisseldorf . . . . 
 Mendelssohn and Co., Berlin 
 Boden-Kredit-Aktien Bank, Berlin 
 
 Caps and cartridges. 
 Bankers. 
 
 C. 
 P 
 
 1874 
 1886 
 
 K. & T. Moller, Kupf erhammer 4 
 J. C. Schmidt, Erfurt 
 
 Foundry. 
 
 
 1888 
 
 H. Freese, Berlin . . 
 
 Venetian blinds. . 
 
 c. 
 
 1 In respect to other Continental countries than France, I have followed M. 
 Vanlaer's list with more freedom, as he is evidently less informed in this quar- 
 ter. In all probability a number of cases here named have lapsed with time : I 
 have not been able to take a satisfactory census. 
 
 2 Patronal. 3 Gratifications. 4 Same dividend on savings and capital.
 
 APPENDIX 
 GERMANY Continued. 
 
 371 
 
 Date. 
 
 Name. 
 
 Business. 
 
 Bonus. 
 
 1892 
 
 
 Federstahl 
 
 C. 
 
 1896 
 
 Limburger, Pfalzhill 
 M. Roesler, Rpdach i. Thiiringia . 
 
 Farm 
 
 Pottery. 
 
 c. 
 
 C. 
 
 
 
 
 c. 
 
 1890 
 
 
 Engineers 
 
 c. 
 
 1869 
 
 Saxony. 
 
 G Adler Buchholz 2 
 
 
 p. 
 
 1893 
 
 
 
 c. 
 
 1886 
 
 Saxon-Bohemian Steamboat Co., 
 
 
 C. P. 
 
 1894 
 
 Th. Ficker, Pischwitz 
 
 Leather board. 
 
 
 
 The Royal Statistical Bureaus, 
 Dresden. 
 The Saxon Linen Industry, Frei- 
 berg 8 . . . 
 
 
 c. 
 
 1897 
 
 Saxe- Weimar-Eisenach. 
 
 Carl Zeiss, Jena 
 
 Optical instruments. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 SWITZERLAND. 
 
 1867 
 1868 
 1869 
 1870 
 1871 
 1872 
 1873 
 
 1876 
 
 1878 
 1878 
 
 1880 
 1892 
 
 1896 
 
 Schoeller et Fils, Schaffhausen. . . 
 Chessex et Hoessly, Schaffhausen . 
 
 
 Textiles 
 
 
 Billon et Isaac, Geneva 
 
 
 Steinf els, Zurich * 
 
 
 Reishauer et Bluntschli, Zurich . . 
 Comp. gen. de Navigation sur le 
 lac Leman, Lausanne 
 
 Tools 
 
 Steamers 
 
 Tramways Suisses, Geneva 
 
 
 Schoetti et Cie, Fehraltorf . ..... 
 
 Matches 
 
 Fabrique d'Appareils Electriques, 
 Neuf chatel * 
 
 
 Mermod Freres, Sainte-Croix .... 
 Compagnie de 1'Industrie Elec- 
 trique, Geneva 
 
 
 Electricians. 
 Printers. 
 Parts of watches. 
 
 Wild Brothers, Zurich 
 
 Bulland, Geneva 
 
 Various cooperative stores. 
 
 P. 
 p. 
 
 c. 
 
 C. P. 
 
 c. 
 p. 
 
 c. 
 
 c. 
 
 C. P. 
 
 c. 
 p. 
 
 1 Same dividend on wages and capital. - Patronal. 
 
 3 Same dividend aa to stock. * Gratifications. * Gratifications.
 
 372 
 
 APPENDIX 
 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 
 
 Date. 
 
 Name. 
 
 Business. 
 
 Bonus. 
 
 1869 
 1881 
 
 1889 
 1896 
 
 Paper Works, Schlogmiihl * 
 
 Franco-Hungarian Insurance Co., 
 
 Budapest 
 
 Unio Catholica, Vienna 
 
 Kaolin Company, Karlsbad. 
 
 Paper 
 
 Insurance. 
 
 C. 
 
 C. P. 
 P. 
 
 BELGIUM. 
 
 1872 Lloyds Beige, Antwerp Insurance P. 
 
 1888 G. Boel, La Louviere Foundry C. 
 
 1891 De Naeyer and Co., Willebroeck. Machinists P. 
 
 Merlo-Charlier, Etterbeek Zinc worker. 
 
 1892 Maisou Tiberghien, Ledeberg-les- 
 
 Gand Dyers. 
 
 Vimenet Felts and hats. 
 
 HOLLAND. 
 
 1880 J. C. Van Marken, Delft Yeast and spirits. . . P. 
 
 1883 Stearic Candle Factory, Gouda P. 
 
 1887 Oil and Gelatine Works, Delft P. 
 
 1887 Stork Brothers, Hengelo Engineers P. 
 
 1888 De Gekroonde Valk, Amsterdam . Brewery. 
 1891 Van Marken Press, Delft 3 
 
 De Veluwe, Nunspeet, Gelder- 
 
 land 2 Varnishes P. 
 
 ITALY. 
 
 J. Pellas, Florence Printer 
 
 1873 Lanificio Rossi, Schio 4 Woolen-mills P. 
 
 1876jPeople's Bank, Padua P. 
 
 1885 1 F. Genevois and Son, Naples Soaps P. 
 
 1887 People's Bank, Milan 5 P. 
 
 Dyeing and Finishing Factory, 
 
 Como. 
 
 Pia Azienda Tessile, Como. 
 Guide Galbiata et Cie, Milan .... Crapes. 
 
 1 Gratifications. 2 Shares. 3 Cooperation. * Levy on expenses. 
 
 B Nearly all the People's Banks of Italy (154 in 1886, a number largely in- 
 creased since) give their employees a share in the profits.
 
 APPENDIX 
 SCANDINAVIA. 
 
 373 
 
 Date. 
 
 Name. 
 
 Business. 
 
 Bonus. 
 
 1870 
 
 H. Varingsaasen, Aadals Brug, 
 
 
 c. 
 
 1889 
 
 Wood-Pulp Factory, Alsfos, Nor- 
 
 
 c. 
 
 1890 
 
 Stroeman and Larson, Gothen- 
 burg, Sweden 
 Atlas Wagon Factory, Stockholm, 
 Sweden. 
 
 Saw-mill 
 
 c. 
 
 EUSSIA. 
 
 
 Russian Railways. 2 
 Morokovetz Factory, Kharkof. 
 
 
 
 SPAIN. 
 
 1891 
 
 Real Fabrica de Tapices Madrid ' 
 
 
 C. 
 
 18 C )4 
 
 M. Marcet, Tarrasa 
 
 Woolen-mill. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 PORTUGAL. 
 
 1888 
 
 Regie de la Fabrique des Tabacs. 
 
 State tobacco works 
 (now a private com- 
 pany). 
 
 
 NOTE. To the list of profit-sharing firms in Germany and Austria- 
 Hungary should be added the Aplerbeck Hiitte in Aplerbeck (1898) ; 
 the Porzellanfabrik in Kahla (1898) ; the Mechanische Baumwoll- 
 spinnerei und Weberei in Augsburg; the Aktienbrauerei Retten- 
 meyer, Stuttgart ; the Pfalzische Nahmaschinenfabrik vom Gebr. 
 Kayser, in Kaiserslautern ; the Holzstoff-und-Papierf abrik zu Schlema 
 b. Schneeberg ; and the Sachsische Leinenindustrie in Freiberg. To 
 the French list should be added Solvay et Cie (p. 153). 
 
 1 Gratifications. 
 * Gratifications. 
 
 System of collective wages.
 
 374 
 
 APPENDIX 
 BRITISH EMPIRE.* 
 
 Date. 
 
 Name. 
 
 Business. 
 
 Bonus. 
 
 1865 
 
 
 Drapers 
 
 C. 
 
 1866 
 
 Fox Brothers & Co., Wellington, 
 Somerset 
 
 
 c 
 
 1869 
 
 Fletcher & Son, Norwich 
 
 
 
 1869 
 
 United Cooperative Society, Glas- 
 
 
 
 1873 
 
 Agricultural and Horticultural 
 Association, London 
 
 Artificial manure, 
 
 C. P. 
 
 1876 
 
 Goodull & Siuldick, Leeds 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 c. 
 
 1876 
 
 Women's Printing Society, Lon- 
 
 
 c 
 
 1878 
 
 Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth 
 & Co., Newcastle-on-Tyne ^. . . . 
 
 Engineering and 
 
 c. 
 
 1878 
 
 Cassell & Co., London. 
 
 Printing, publishing 
 
 
 1880 
 
 \Villiam Jacks & Co., Glasgow. 
 
 and bookbinding . . 
 Iron merchants 
 
 p. 
 c. 
 
 1881 
 
 Birmingham Coffee House Com- 
 pany, Birmingham 
 
 
 c. 
 
 1881 
 
 B. & S. Massey, Openshaw, near 
 
 
 c 
 
 1882 
 
 
 
 c. 
 
 1883 
 1884 
 
 C. Fidler, Reading 
 A. De St. Dalmas & Co., Leices- 
 
 Seedsman 
 Manufacturing chem- 
 
 c. 
 
 c. 
 
 1884 
 
 Perrott & Perrott, London 
 
 Packers, clothwork- 
 
 
 
 
 ers 
 
 C. P. 
 
 1884 
 1885 
 
 Blundell, Spence & Co., Hull. . . . 
 The William Davies Company, 
 Toronto, Canada 
 
 Colors and paints. . . . 
 Pork packers 
 
 c. 
 c. 
 
 1886 
 
 J. 'W. Arrowsmith, Bristol 
 
 Printing and publish- 
 
 
 
 
 
 c. 
 
 1886 
 
 Burroughs, Wellcome & Co., Lon- 
 
 Manuf acturing chem- 
 ists 
 
 c. 
 
 1886 
 
 Earl Grey, Howick, Lesbury 
 
 Farming (Lear- 
 mouths Farm) 
 
 c. 
 
 * Taken, with additions, from Mr. D. F. Schloss' Methods of Industrial Remu- 
 neration, (third edition, 1898) ; compiled by Mr. Schloss, June 30, 1897, from his 
 Report on Profit Sharing, 1894, and the Labour Gazette for 1895-1897 : a few 
 firms are denoted by letters only. While abridging the addresses and details of the 
 business of the various firms, I have kept Mr. Schloss' nomenclature in the fourth 
 column, which differs somewhat from my own in the other lists. C. paid in cash ; 
 P. =: credited to Provident Fund ; S. = invested in shares in the undertaking ; C. P. 
 = partly paid in cash, partly credited to Provident Fund ; C. S. = partly paid in 
 cash, partly invested in shares in the undertaking ; P. S. = partly credited to Pro- 
 vident Fund, partly invested in shares in the undertaking. 
 
 2 Date of adoption by the Whitworth firm.
 
 APPENDIX 
 BRITISH EMPIRE continued. 
 
 375 
 
 Date. 
 
 Name. 
 
 Business. 
 
 Bonus. 
 
 1886 
 
 Wm. Thomson & Sons, Wood- 
 
 Woolens and wor- 
 
 P S 
 
 1887 
 
 John Boyd Ki micar, Kinloch, 
 
 
 c 
 
 1887 
 
 Lord Wantage, Lockinge, Wan- 
 
 
 c 
 
 1887 
 1888 
 
 Ross & Duncan, Govan, Glasgow. 
 S. & E Collier Reading 
 
 Engineering works . . 
 
 C. or 
 C. P., as 
 employ- 
 ees de- 
 cide. 
 
 C. 
 
 1888 
 
 Walker, Sons & Co., London, and 
 Colombo, Ceylon 
 
 Engineering works. . 
 
 C. P. 
 
 1888 
 
 Coventry Gas Fitting, Electrical, 
 and Engineering Company, Cov- 
 entry 
 
 
 C. P. 
 
 1888 
 
 Binns & Co., Derby 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 C P 
 
 1888 
 
 Thomas Bushill & Sons, Coven- 
 try 
 
 Manufacturing sta- 
 tioners 
 
 C. 
 
 1889 
 
 W^ Rowntree & Sons, Scarborough 
 
 Drapers 
 
 C. P. 
 
 1889 
 
 J. H. Ladyman & Co., King's 
 Lynn 
 
 
 c 
 
 1889 
 
 Sampson Low, Marstou & Co., 
 
 
 c 
 
 1889 
 
 Birmingham Dairy Co., Birming- 
 ham 
 
 
 c 
 
 1889 
 
 A. H. Taylor, Malton 
 
 
 c 
 
 1889 
 
 Western Tanning Company, Bris- 
 tol 
 
 
 c 
 
 1889 
 
 
 
 c 
 
 1889 
 
 Hele Paper Company, Cullomp- 
 ton, Devon 
 
 
 C. P 
 
 1889 
 
 Robinson Brothers, West Brom- 
 wich and Knottingley 
 
 Tar distilling 
 
 C. P. 
 
 1889 
 
 Avalon Leather Board Company, 
 
 
 c. 
 
 1889 
 
 A. B. (in Midlands) . . 
 
 
 c. 
 
 1889 
 
 W. D. & H. O Wills Bristol 
 
 
 c 
 
 1889 
 
 South Metropolitan Gas Company, 
 London 
 
 
 C.and 
 
 C. S. 
 
 1889 
 
 Christ, Thomas & Brothers, Bris- 
 tol 
 
 Soaps and candles. . . 
 
 c. 
 
 1890 
 
 Clarke, Nickolls & Coombs, Lon- 
 don 
 
 Confectionery 
 
 C. P. 
 
 1890 
 
 Robert Martin, West Hartlepool. 
 
 
 c 
 
 1890 
 
 Newman & Son, London 
 
 
 c. 
 
 1890 
 
 Thomas Hailiuir. Cheltenham. . . 
 
 Printiner . . 
 
 c.
 
 376 
 
 APPENDIX 
 BRITISH EMPIRE continued. 
 
 Date. 
 
 Name. 
 
 Business. 
 
 Bonus. 
 
 1890 
 
 C. D 
 
 
 C. 
 
 1890 
 
 Edward Jackson, Reading 
 
 Tailor 
 
 C. 
 
 1890 
 
 E. F 
 
 
 p. 
 
 1890 
 
 Willans & Robinson, Thames Dit- 
 
 
 C. 
 
 1890 
 
 New Zealand Farmers' Coopera- 
 tive Association of Canterbury, 
 Christchurch, New Zealand .... 
 
 Wool and grain mer- 
 chants, general 
 merchandise 
 
 C. 
 
 1890 
 
 Osborne & Young, London 
 
 Corn and flour 
 
 C. 
 
 1890 
 
 W. & J. Mackay & Co., Chatham 
 
 Printers 
 
 C. 
 
 1890 
 
 East Anglian Fruit Preserving 
 Company, King's Lynn 
 
 
 C. 
 
 1890 
 
 Marquis of Hertford, Ragley, 
 
 Farming (seven 
 
 C. 
 
 1890 
 
 H. D. and B. Headley, Ashford, 
 Kent 
 
 Printing 
 
 C. 
 
 1890 
 
 Idris & Co., London, N. W 
 
 Mineral waters ..... 
 
 C. P. 
 
 1890 
 1891 
 1895 
 
 William Terrell & Sons, Bristol.. 
 Hon. T. A. Brassey, Battle, Sus- 
 
 Wire and hemp rope 
 Farming (two farms). 
 
 C. 
 C.and 
 
 C. S. 
 
 1891 
 
 William Lawrence & Co., Not- 
 
 Cabinet-making 
 
 C. 
 
 1891 
 
 J. D. Cartwright & Co., Cape 
 Town South Africa 
 
 Provision merchants. 
 
 C. 
 
 1891 
 1891 
 
 Thomas Brakell, Liverpool 
 
 Printing 
 
 C. 
 
 c 
 
 1891 
 
 G H ' 
 
 WVjolen manufacture 
 
 C. 
 
 1891 
 
 T. S. Simms & Co., St. John, New 
 
 Brushes and brooms 
 
 C. P. 
 
 1891 
 
 Women's Work Association, Chel- 
 
 Embroidery, etc. 
 
 
 1892 
 
 
 Grocers 
 
 c. 
 
 1892 
 
 
 Printers 
 
 c. 
 
 1892 
 
 Coombs' " Eureka " Aerated Flour 
 
 
 c. 
 
 1892 
 
 J K 
 
 Manufacturers 
 
 c. 
 
 1892 
 
 L M 
 
 Supply and manuf ac- 
 
 
 
 
 
 c. 
 
 1892 
 
 
 
 c. 
 
 1892 
 
 Clement Dalley & Co., Kidder- 
 
 Corn merchants 
 
 c. 
 
 1893 
 
 Brownfield's Guild-Pottery Soci- 
 
 
 P. S. 
 
 1893 
 
 Brush Electrical Engineering 
 
 
 C. P. 
 
 1893 
 
 
 House painter 
 
 c. 
 
 1894 
 
 
 
 c. 
 
 1894 
 
 Guy's Hospital Trained Nurses' 
 
 
 p.
 
 APPENDIX 
 BRITISH EMPIRE continued. 
 
 377 
 
 Date. 
 
 Name. 
 
 Business. 
 
 Bonus. 
 
 1894 
 
 Crystal Palace District Gas Com- 
 
 
 c. s. 
 
 andC. 
 
 1894 
 
 N O 
 
 
 C. 
 
 1895 
 
 
 
 C. 
 
 1895 
 
 Butterwirth and Hunter, Liver- 
 
 Provision merchants 
 
 C. 
 
 1896 
 
 Kensington Cooperative Stores, 
 
 Dressmaking 
 
 p. 
 
 1896 
 
 J. T. and J. Taylor Batley 
 
 
 s. 
 
 1896 
 
 The Minor Industries Profit-shar- 
 ing 1 Association, Bridgetown, 
 Barbadoes, \V. I 
 
 Agriculture (sale and 
 
 C.and 
 Pro- 
 duce. 
 
 1896 
 1897 
 
 Pearson and Rutter, Liverpool. . . 
 Herbert Hutchinson, Haslemere, 
 Surrey 
 
 Provision merchants . 
 Architect and builder 
 
 C. 
 C. P. 
 
 1897 
 
 Richmond & Co., W^arrington . . . 
 
 Gas engineers 
 
 c. s. 
 
 1897 
 
 
 
 c. 
 
 1898 
 
 
 
 c. 
 
 1898 
 
 Meath Home Industries Associa- 
 tion, Randlestown, Nevan 
 
 
 c. 
 
 18W 
 
 John E. Nelson, Sunderland 
 
 Slater 
 
 c. 
 
 
 376 distributive and productive co- 
 operative societies. See p. 345. 
 
 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
 Date. 
 
 Name. 
 
 Business. 
 
 Bonus. 
 
 1878 
 
 Peace Dale (R. I.) Mfg. Co 
 
 W^oolens 
 
 C. 
 
 1872 
 
 1879 
 1881 
 
 The Riverside Press, Cambridge, 
 Mass. 1 
 Rand, McNally & Co., Chicago 2 . . 
 Century Company, New York . . 
 
 Publishers. 
 Publishers 
 
 C. 
 
 1882 
 
 Pillsbury Flour Mills, Minneapo- 
 lis 
 
 
 C. 
 
 1885 
 1886 
 
 1886 
 
 Columbus (Ohio) Gas Company 4 . 
 H. K. Porter & Co., Pittsburgh 
 N. 0. Nelson Mfg. Co 
 
 Light locomotives. 
 Brass goods 
 
 C. 
 
 1886 
 
 Rumford Chemical Works, Provi- 
 
 
 c. 
 
 1887 
 
 Rice and Griffin Mfg. Co., Worces- 
 ter. . . 
 
 Mouldinsrs . . 
 
 c. 
 
 1 Extra interest on savings. 
 * Dividend on part of stock. 
 
 2 Stock dividend to chief employees. 
 * Same dividend as to stockholder.
 
 378 APPENDIX 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMEEICA continued. 
 
 Date. 
 
 Name. 
 
 Business. 
 
 Bonus. 
 
 1887 
 
 Procter and Gamble Co., Cincin- 
 nati 
 
 
 c 
 
 1889 
 
 Bourne Mills, Fall River 
 
 Cottons 
 
 c 
 
 1890 
 
 P. N. Ivuss. San Francisco 
 
 Painter 
 
 C P 
 
 1890 
 
 Public Ledger, Philadelphia. 1 
 Solvay Process Co.. Syracuse, 
 N. Y 
 
 
 
 1892 
 1895 
 
 Ballard and Ballard Co., Louis- 
 ville, Ky 
 Acme Sucker Rod Co., Toledo, 0. 
 
 Flour-mills 
 
 c. 
 c 
 
 1897 
 
 Broadway Central Hotel, New 
 York. 2 
 The Hub Clothing Store, Chicago 
 
 
 c. 
 
 18P8 
 
 The Roycroft Press, East Aurora, 
 N. Y. 
 South Carolina Savings Bank, 
 Charleston. 
 
 Windmills 
 
 c. 
 
 1899 
 
 Columbus (Ohio) Traction Com- 
 pany. 8 
 
 
 
 1 Extra wages, etc. 2 Bonus to chief employees. 
 
 8 Same dividend as to stockholders. 
 
 NOTE. There are usually " reformers before the Reformation," 
 and discoverers of America before Columbus who would, in all proba- 
 bility, have remained as unknown even to the curious, as they have 
 certainly been strangers to fame, had it not been for their greater 
 and more courageous successors. When, moreover, the sole testimony 
 as to the reform or the discovery comes from the person himself and 
 cannot be authenticated now, his claims to distinction must be rated 
 very low. Thus Lord Wallscourt, a British nobleman, stated in 1846 
 that he had " tried the plan," on an Irish farm of one hundred acres, 
 "for seventeen years, and [I] have found it to answer much beyond 
 my hopes, inasmuch as it completely identifies the workmen with the 
 success of the farm, besides giving me full liberty to travel on the 
 Continent for a year at a time, and upon my return I have always 
 found that the farm had prospered more than when I was present." 
 The " plan " in question was " to reckon every workman as the in- 
 vestor of as much capital as will yield at five per cent, per annum the 
 sum paid to him in wages." Explanation of the noble lord's meaning, 
 and further details, such as the length of the experiment, and the 
 number of bonuses paid, are lacking. The plan, whatever it was,
 
 APPENDIX 379 
 
 apparently died with Lord Wallscourt, in 1849. When one considers 
 the meagreness of this testimony, and the laxity with which the term 
 " profit sharing " is used even now, fifty years later, by many persons, 
 it must seem sufficient to record these facts, leaving the laurels of M. 
 Leclaire as " the father of profit sharing " quite undisturbed. Lord 
 Wallscourt's statement was printed in a " Treatise on the Steam En- 
 gine," published in 1846 by the Artizans' Club, and edited by John 
 Bourne, but now inaccessible, apparently. Such good authorities as 
 Mr. W. Pare in his " Cooperative Agriculture " (p. 122) and Mr. E. T. 
 Craig in his " History of Ralahine " declare that Lord Wallscourt 
 " first conceived the idea of adopting profit sharing on paying a visit 
 to the Ralahine farm ; " this would fix the earliest date for his expe- 
 riment as 1831, or, more probably, 1832 showing an error of three 
 years in his own computation. Neither the Vandelaer experiment 
 (1831), nor the experiment made at Assington Hall, Suffolk, by Mr. 
 John Gurdon, had any profit sharing about it ; " in neither instance 
 were the laborers the employees of the land-owner ; the cooperative 
 association, to which, in each case, the land was let, cultivated it on 
 its own account" (Schloss). If Mr. Sedley Taylor could dwell on 
 Ralahine as an example of participation, in 1881 (in a paper quoted 
 in his " Profit Sharing," Essay V., Appendix), one may be pardoned for 
 skepticism as to Lord Wallscourt's plan being any more such an ex- 
 ample. It bears a suspicious resemblance to the trial of profit shar- 
 ing said to have been made by the distinguished American statesman, 
 Albert Gallatin, in his glass works at New Geneva, Penn., estab- 
 lished in 1794. The one authority here (Professor R. E. Thompson, 
 in his " Political Economy," 1882, p. 138) cannot recall the source 
 for his statement. A patriotic American might, nevertheless, be jus- 
 tified in claiming precedence for Gallatin over the Lord Wallscourt 
 whom Mr. Schloss declares to have adopted profit sharing many years 
 before Leclaire ("Report," p. 161). Both alleged instances should, 
 properly, be ruled out of court, as resting on insufficient evidence.
 
 APPENDIX III 
 
 CASES OF ABANDONMENT OF PROFIT SHAKING IN THE 
 UNITED STATES 
 
 IN " Profit Sharing between Employer and Employee," published in 
 March, 1889, 1 devoted some fifteen pages (345-360) of chapter viii. 
 on " Past Profit Sharing," to American instances of abandonment of 
 the scheme after a longer or shorter trial. The general table in 
 which these thirteen instances were included was entitled a table, not 
 of failures, but simply of " cases in which profit sharing has been 
 tried and is not now in force." In some of these cases, like that of 
 A. S. Cameron & Co., makers of steam-pumps, and Lewis H. Wil- 
 liams, builder, an entirely successful scheme was terminated by the 
 death of the employer ; " a New England factory " (p, 346) found the 
 results satisfactory so far as the employees were concerned, but, after 
 paying four dividends, no bonus was earned. In another case (the Bos- 
 ton " Herald," p. 360), circumstances were very unfavorable, and but 
 one bonus was at length paid before discontinuance. Norton Brothers, 
 of Chicago (p. 353) extended their system from a portion to all of 
 their two hundred and fifty employees for one year only. The New 
 England Granite Works (p. 353) did not hold to its plan for even one 
 year. The Lister Bros., of Newark (p. 352), divided one bonus and 
 had none the second year, and so discontinued the scheme. Troubles 
 with trade-unions, having no connection with profit sharing, brought 
 about strikes in the noted Brewster case (after two years), with the 
 Union Mining Company (after one year), and with Welshans and Mac- 
 Ewan (p. 357), plumbers (after one year). Another firm, the Sperry 
 Manufacturing Company (carriage hardware) , is said to have practiced 
 profit sharing for two years, 1886-87, but to have " realized no per- 
 ceptible benefit ; " all details as to bonus paid and methods pursued 
 are lacking. The " Massachusetts Mercantile Firm " (p. 359), which 
 " experimented with profit sharing " rather unsystematically for some 
 twenty years, "with several cessations of dividends," and the Bay 
 State Shoe and Leather Company (p. 359), which divided six bonuses 
 in the seven years beginning with 1867, are instances of far more 
 pith and moment. If time and patience and education are needed to 
 give profit sharing a reasonable and fair trial, it is plain that, inter- 
 esting as these facts of record are, but a small number of the cases, 
 thus brought together, simply under the common rubric " ceased to
 
 APPENDIX 381 
 
 be," have much enlightenment for us as respects the merits or de- 
 merits of this modification of the wages system. 
 
 If it would be illogical to set all these thirteen cases down as 
 instances of " failure," still more illogical in several respects is the 
 statistical method pursued by Mr. Paul Monroe in his paper in the 
 " American Journal of Sociology " (May, 1896). Under the proper 
 caption, " Cases in which Profit Sharing has been Abandoned," he 
 summarizes briefly the foregoing thirteen instances and adds twenty 
 cases more of a later date than 1889. Of these twenty instances I 
 mentioned fifteen in the chapter on American cases actually in opera- 
 tion when I wrote : one case (Keene Brothers, p. 317) I should, prob- 
 ably, have included in the table of past instances. Mr. Monroe states 
 that one or two divisions (of certificates payable after five years) were 
 made after 1885, the year in which the plan was adopted by Keene 
 Brothers, " but the personnel of the firm was changed and the plan 
 was abandoned. It had not prevented labor disturbances during the 
 years that the dividends were paid." Mr. Monroe's last instance is 
 the Toledo, Ann Arbor and North Michigan R. R. Company's scheme 
 of 1887, which I noted at the end of the chapter on American cases, 
 but did not include in the table of " cases in which profit sharing is 
 now in operation " (pp. 382 ff.). As this railway was in process of 
 construction in 1887, was not likely to pay any large dividends, and 
 has, in fact, paid none to this time, its inclusion in any list of cases of 
 " abandonment " is somewhat surprising. Its only importance is due 
 to its statement of the right of an employee to a dividend a " right " 
 very easily conceded under the circumstances. 
 
 A critical examination of Mr. Monroe's other new cases, eighteen in 
 number, shows that in four cases the results were satisfactory to the 
 employers, but profit sharing was abandoned because of a change in 
 the ownership of the business. These four instances were E. R. Hull 
 & Co., clothiers, of Cleveland, 0. (four bonuses paid in 1886-89) ; the 
 Wardwell Needle Company, of Lakeport, N. H., with the same length 
 of trial ; the Crump Label Company, of Montclair, N. J., which made 
 one distribution of twenty per cent, of the profits in 1887 ; and the 
 Woodstock (Norriton ?) Mills Company, Norristown, Pa., which paid 
 one bonus, at least, in January, 1888. Of Mr. Monroe's cases fourteen 
 then remain ; of these one was an instance of but one year's trial. 
 This was the Watertown (N. Y.) Steam Engine Company, which 
 paid a dividend in 1891, but did not continue the experiment though 
 " quite willing to believe " that the men would have been educated in 
 time to do much better than the majority did. Even shorter trials, 
 of six months' duration only, were made by the Malvern (Ark.) Lum- 
 ber Company (1894), and Heywood & Co., shirt manufacturers (1895). 
 In the former case " ninety-five per cent, of the labor employed is of 
 the lowest unskilled labor, chiefly colored. A very large proportion
 
 382 APPENDIX 
 
 could not read nor write, and this ignorance prevented any general 
 understanding of the plan. One dividend was paid, and the proposi- 
 tion, explained so thoroughly six months before, had to be discussed 
 all over again. The men thought they were being discharged and 
 paid off. These considerations [including ' lack of permanency '] led 
 to the abandonment of the plan, though the firm expected no results 
 until after the payment of at least one dividend. They attribute the 
 
 ilure to the character of the employees and the industry, not to any 
 defect in the system." Heywood & Co., employing chiefly women, 
 report that they secured good results for a few weeks only, by the 
 promise of a bonus ; " carelessness, inattention, idleness and irregu- 
 larity returned as of old." Another instance of impatience for results 
 is that of Siegel, Cooper & Co., of Chicago, who adopted a plan in 
 1892 modeled after the Bon Marche 1 , but soon abandoned it. The 
 Wright and Potter Printing Company, of Boston, Mass., tried for two 
 years a plan of dividing a fixed percentage of profits among the 
 deserving men of their force of one hundred and fifty ; results not 
 being satisfactory, the company now restricts the distribution to fore- 
 men and heads of departments. 
 
 If we fix, as we may well do, upon a term of three years as the 
 shortest period for which a trial of profit sharing should continue in 
 order to give any considerable instruction as to the strength or weak- 
 ness of the system, we have left in Mr. Monroe's list nine instances of 
 abandonment of profit sharing in 1889 or subsequently as important 
 to consider ; these are all cases mentioned by me as in operation. Of 
 these, when discontinued, five had continued for three years, one foj:- x 
 four (?), one for five, one for six, and one for seven years. The 
 Springfield (Mass.) Foundry Company (1887-89), after paying three 
 bonuses on wages amounting to two or three per cent., write :'Un_ 
 our business it was an injury rather than a benefit to us. We. could 
 not see any perceptible increase in the production of our men,^nor 
 interest in the care of their tools or material. On the contrary, our 
 employees began to think that they were the proper parties' to fix 
 wages and the prices at which we should sell the products. The 
 employees were also careful to take advantage of their membership in "~~ 
 the labor unions to enforce their demands. Since we have aban- 
 doned the system of profit sharing, these troubles do not exist," As 
 in this case the system was introduced at the instigation of Mr. E. W. 
 Seeger, the treasurer, a decided believer in the plan, whose comments 
 were of a very different tone in 1888, and Mr. Seeger died in 1889, 
 one naturally infers that the system was not after his death in the 
 hands of those who believed in it. 
 
 The Haines, Jones and Cadbury Company, of Philadelphia, Pa., 
 being hi the same business as the N. O. Nelson Company, naturally 
 adopted a similar system. The experience of the first two years,
 
 APPENDIX 383 
 
 1887-88, was reported aa " satisfactory to all concerned." After 
 three years' further trial, and dividing some $30,000 in all, the firm 
 restricted the division to twenty of the " chief men and women : " 
 this restricted profit sharing, Mr. Haines thinks, " is all right, but a 
 general profit sharing, while in theory just, is in practice simply 
 throwing money away." They are quite sure that tluur profits were 
 reduced by the system.! .._ 
 
 The Hoffman and Billings Company, of Milwaukee (Wis.), makers^" 
 of plumbers' supplies, report that profit sharing worked well for several 
 years, when there were profits to divide, " but when we happened to 
 have a poor year, and losses instead of gains at the end of the year, we 
 met sour faces all around among our men, and concluded that it was 
 ' too much of a jug-handle affair ' to be continued, so we dropped it. 
 Any company would, of course, have a right to expect some benefit 
 when dividing gains with employees. We found out after profit 
 sharing for about three years that ours was a mistaken idea, and con- 
 cluded to drop it." 
 
 The Globe Tobacco Company, of Detroit, Mich., practiced during^'' 
 1886-88 the unusual plan of handing over to the district board of the 
 Knights of Labor one per cent, of its gross receipts (about ten per 
 cent, on wages), for the benefit of its employees. A letter from the firm 
 reported, early in 1889 ("Profit Sharing," p. 323), that " everybody 
 concerned is satisfied with this unusual method." Mr. Monroe states 
 that the plan was discontinued, " as having no satisfactory results." 
 This conflict of testimony seems to throw doubt upon the propriety of 
 classing this case as one of " failure," as it is one and the same period 
 of three years which is judged so differently. 
 
 Mr. W. Eliot Fette, of Boston, the agent of a small gas company, 
 introduced the plan of paying the employees a percentage on the 
 stockholders' dividend in 1886. Two years later he saw " no reason 
 to regret the adoption of the plan or to give it up," but was about to 
 introduce it into two other companies of which he had the manage= 
 nient. Mr. Monroe reports, however, that the plan was given up not 
 only " because of failure of dividends in recent years," but also be- 
 cause of " lack of appreciation on the part of the men ; " probably 
 the first difficulty had much to do in producing the second. 
 
 Rogers, Peet & Co., clothing manufacturers, New York, adopted-*-^ 
 liberal system of participation in 1886 which gave a bonus even to 
 those who had done but a week's work. " Profit Sharing " (pp. 313- 
 314) gives the three dividends paid as over three per cent. each. 
 
 1 This case may be considered one where profit sharing still obtains even accord- 
 ing to Mr. Schloss, who makes no attempt " to draw a hard and fast line ... as to 
 the irreducible minimum proportion of the total number of employees who must 
 participate in order to constitute a case of profit sharing." Methods of Indus- 
 trial Remuneration, p. 247 n.
 
 384 APPENDIX 
 
 " Towards the close of the third year our cutters, who were the only 
 mechanics employed in the business, went on a strike over a rather 
 insignificant matter, to settle which we had to call in the authorities 
 of their trade-union. Our position was maintained by the arbitra- 
 tors, and the men went back to work, but we felt that our liberality 
 towards them was not appreciated, and the next year we discontinued 
 the profit-sharing arrangement. We have always felt that we made a 
 mistake in admitting all our employees to this participation on the 
 same basis ; whereas, had we limited the dividend shares to those who 
 had been in our service a term of years, the plan would have worked 
 better all round." 
 
 The Bucyrus Steam Shovel and Dredge Company, of South Milwau~ 
 kee, Wis. (formerly of Bucyrus, Ohio), paid a bonus of twenty-five per 
 cent, on its net profits for 1886, and in 1887 made it indefinite. Em- 
 ployees combining against the company were to forfeit their bonus. 
 After a few years the plan was abandoned " as having few advan- 
 tages ; " the experience of the first two years had been favorable. 
 
 The St. Louis (Mo.) Shovel Company also reported entire satisfac- 
 tion after two years' trial of a profit-sharing plan borrowed from the 
 N. 0. Nelson Company in 1887. They had had much trouble with 
 the men, resulting in numerous strikes. In 1896 they gave their 
 opinion that the system decreases the profits of the firm, and reported 
 their experience with a trade-union. " So long as labor unions 
 dominate labor, profit sharing cannot be a success nor prevent labor 
 troubles, even though employers conscientiously and liberally endeavor 
 to work under the system. We had conducted our business on this 
 plan for several years, paying dividends regularly, submitting books 
 to inspection of any committee the employees should so select, making 
 dividends every year with one exception, and on two or three occasions 
 where honesty to ourselves did not justify it. The union was estab- 
 lished in the shop during the Pullman troubles, and the men de- 
 manded that we be made a union shop, that they appoint the fore- 
 man, which we regard a necessary power to retain in the hands of the 
 management for obvious reasons. They demanded that union labels 
 be put upon our goods, to which merchants would seriously object, 
 and this when no existing trouble outside the works was evident. We 
 decided that we could not afford to have the business taken out of our 
 hands, although a minority of the employees only made the demand, 
 but they were backed by the labor organizations. Our works were 
 picketed by union men to prevent employment of other than union 
 men. We thereupon closed down for several weeks and discontinued 
 the profit-sharing system." 
 
 The Ara Cushman Company, of Auburn, Maine, manufacturing- 
 boots and shoes on a large scale, practiced profit sharing for six years 
 from March, 1886. Mr. Cushman, who rose from the workman's
 
 APPENDIX 385 
 
 bench, was thoroughly in earnest ; he understood the necessity for 
 patience and education, and set out intending to give the plan a long 
 trial. He pointed out to his employees, as occasion offered, the ways 
 in which they could make the system a success, and he seems in all 
 respects to have fulfilled his part of the contract with zeal and sincer- 
 ity. Unfortunately, the Knights of Labor were very active and pow- 
 erful from 1886 on, and did much in Auburn, as elsewhere, to foment 
 bad feeling between the employer and the employee. Mr. Cushman's 
 account of the reasons for abandoning his scheme, as given to Mr. 
 Monroe, is very instructive : (Mr. Monroe exaggerates greatly, how- 
 ever, in saying that the experience of this firm " may be taken as 
 typical of many others," if he means many other profit-sharing firms ; 
 while hostility to the plan of a more or less pronounced character has 
 been shown by trade-unions, it is not the fact that " many " profit- 
 sharing firms have been antagonized by the unions in this degree.) 
 Mr. Cushrnan says : 
 
 " When first presented, our proposition for profit sharing was re- 
 ceived by most of our employees with favor, by many of them with 
 enthusiasm, and for the first year or two many of them appeared to 
 try to make their work of such value to the company as would fairly 
 entitle them to a dividend in pursuance of our agreement and purpose. 
 A comparatively small number maintained their interest to the last 
 and witnessed the discontinuance of the scheme with much regret. 
 
 " Among the prominent causes of abandonment I will mention : 
 The inadequate ideas of most of the employees in regard to the ex- 
 acting demands of business, which led them to think that the profits 
 of business were larger and more easily earned than they are ; the 
 failure on the part of most of them to realize that success of the busi- 
 ness such as would assure them a dividend above fairly liberal wages 
 must depend on the individual efforts of all ; many of them could see 
 it to be the duty of the others to be faithful and diligent, but did not 
 give it a personal application. But altogether the most important 
 reason why we could not make our plan successful was the Apposition, 
 open or concealed, of the labor organizations under the control of 
 professional agitators and leaders. Their purpose was to make work- 
 ingmen believe that their interests were safer and would be better 
 subserved under the control of their organizations than in cooperation 
 with employers of labor ; that wages could be increased or main- 
 tained more certainly and to a greater extent by the arbitrary demands 
 of labor organizations than by any alliance with employers, with the 
 hope of a fair share of the profits. It was difficult, and became al- 
 most impossible, to adjust prices for work with our employees which 
 were satisfactory to them and possible for us to pay, the men being 
 constantly told, and many of them made to believe, that it was our 
 purpose to make prices fully as much lower than other manufacturers
 
 386 APPENDIX 
 
 as we would ever pay in dividends. The time consumed by the com- 
 mittee in adjusting prices and settling questions which were constantly 
 coming up came to be quite an annoyance as well as an expense ; the 
 men in most instances being so jealous of their supposed rights that 
 they resisted many necessary and reasonable requirements from the 
 company, while making many unreasonable and impossible claims for 
 themselves. Altogether we felt compelled, much to our disappoint- 
 ment and regret, to discontinue the plan. 
 
 " In conclusion I will venture to express the opinion, that before 
 any system of industrial partnership or profit sharing possible to 
 manufacturers, and hence practical and permanent, can be introduced, 
 there must be more, and to a very great extent radically different, 
 fundamental teaching on the part of labor leaders and so-called labor 
 and social reformers. As I read and observe, I think workingmen 
 hear much indiscriminate denunciation of the alleged selfishness, in- 
 justice and heartlessness of employers of labor, and but very little, if 
 indeed anything, in the way of admonition or advice to themselves to 
 do faithful, intelligent and efficient work, and in that way to com- 
 mand desirable positions and adequate pay. In the teaching of pro- 
 fessed friends of labor much needs to be done first to disabuse the 
 minds of workingmen of the prevalent idea that their employers are 
 necessarily either their enemies, or entirely disregard their interests, 
 and that everybody who has accumulated large wealth must have 
 done it dishonestly and to the detriment or impoverishment of some- 
 body else. When the ' New Day ' of the ' Industrial Millennium,' of 
 which reformers speak and write, is fully established, it will have 
 been brought about fully as much by the increased intelligence, indus- 
 try, faithfulness and economy of wage-earners as by the increased 
 liberality of wage-payers. If each would study more the common 
 interests of both, we should be nearer the dawn of better conditions." 
 
 From this careful review of Mr. Monroe's list of cases of abandon- 
 ment, one may see how misleading were the newspaper paragraphs 
 founded upon it to the effect that, in two cases out of three in the 
 United States, profit sharing has proved a failure. For this misap- 
 prehension Mr. Monroe was largely responsible, since in the " sum- 
 mary " at the end of his article, he says : " Of the fifty firms which 
 have adopted the system, twelve continue it, five have abandoned it 
 indefinitely, and thirty-three have abandoned it permanently. . . . 
 The third class vary, in length of trial, from a maximum of eight 
 years to a minimum of six months ; the majority having tried it -for a 
 period of from two to three years." As the maximum instance was 
 " a success in every respect," and the two or three instances of six 
 months' duration deserve no serious mention, Mr. Monroe's inferences 
 from his statistics must be pronounced more curious than important. 
 Despite his remarks that " in comparison with European experience,
 
 APPENDIX 387 
 
 one is struck with the brevity of the trial [in the third class of aban- 
 doned cases ? ] ; " and that " it is true, with any such question, that 
 one success will prove that it can be done with profit and any number 
 of failures not prove the contrary," I cannot regard his conclusions as 
 justified by his presentation of the facts, critically examined. For he 
 proceeds to say : " Yet it is as a general type, not an individual varia- 
 tion, that such a system has social significance. ... A further study 
 will justify two general conclusions : First, that such a system will 
 succeed only with a select few of employers, those with whom social 
 motives have an extraordinary influence and with a grade of skilled 
 or intelligent labor. Second, such a system is of some importance to 
 society from a statical point of view, but little, if any at all, from that 
 of social progress." 
 
 The first and the third of these three sentences betray an ambi- 
 tious, so-called " sociological " method of dealing largely with facts, 
 which is quite out of place in a careful, inductive study of social 
 phenomena. There is a degree of truth in the assertion made in the 
 second sentence, which should be changed, however, so as to read, 
 " will succeed best with a select few of employers." 
 
 Mr. Monroe also says : '' As to a fundamental principle, the large 
 majority are of the opinion that such a plan results in a financial loss 
 to the employer, he being recouped if at all in non-computable ways. 
 Those which continue the plan do so, not as a matter of philanthropy, 
 but as a matter of justice if not of business. These are about equally 
 divided in their opinion as to the direct financial benefit of the plan 
 to the firm." The value of the generalization in the first sentence 
 here is vitiated by the inclusion of so many cases in the article which 
 do not deserve consideration, if for no other reason because of the 
 brevity of the trial, the majority having tried the system ' ' for a 
 period of from two to three years." 
 
 The conclusion which it is actually safe and reasonable to draw 
 from American experience in profit sharing is that in numerous in- 
 stances the plans of the employers made no provision for a trial 
 of sufficient length to insure the education obviously needed. Va- 
 rious mistakes in detail and several external causes, not connected 
 with profit sharing and not always likely to be encountered, have 
 been responsible, largely, for several important failures in the com- 
 paratively small number of instances in which, after a wise, long and 
 patient trial, the system has been abandoned as impracticable. 
 
 Such a conclusion seems to be essentially unaffected by the devel- 
 opments of the three years since Mr. Monroe investigated the Ameri- 
 can field. Five of the cases reported in operation in 1896 must now 
 be subtracted. John Wanamaker seems to have been included 
 by mistake. The Scott and Holston Lumber Company, of Duluth, 
 Minn., paid five or six dividends between 1888 and 1894 ; C. G. Conn,
 
 388 APPENDIX 
 
 of Elkhart, Ind., four or five in his manufacture of band instruments 
 between 1891 and 1896 ; and the Bowdoin Paper Manufacturing Com- 
 pany, of Brunswick, Me., and the Cumberland Mills in the same in- 
 dustry (S. D. Warren & Co., of Boston), initiated profit-sharing plans 
 in 1890. The four firms just named were more or less affected by 
 hard times, and have not resumed the system. Five cases of " tem- 
 porary abandonment of profit sharing due to commercial depression," 
 given by Mr. Monroe in 1896, are not to be included now in any list of 
 profit-sharing firms, the Page Belting Company, Concord, N. H., 
 which has failed ; the Williamsport, Penn., Iron and Nail Company ; 
 Ginn & Co., publishers, Boston ; Pomeroy Brothers, chemists, New- 
 ark, N. J., all believers in the system ; and the Golden Pressed and 
 Fire Brick Company, of Denver, Colo., which paid one dividend in 
 1892. 
 
 My criticism of the positions assumed by Messrs. Monroe and Schloss 
 must not be taken to indicate lack of appreciation of their valuable 
 contributions to the literature of profit sharing. I have deemed it 
 desirable to make these criticisms here, in the absence of any printed 
 reply to the arguments of these gentlemen, and to point out defects 
 in their discussion. The argument for profit sharing should rest much 
 of its weight now upon the cases where the trial has been long and 
 the policy that of " Thorough." Where profit sharing thus applied 
 has failed to improve the workman's position essentially, I should be 
 one of the last to oppose the substitution for it of some other form 
 of welfare-institution : such a substitution would be evidence of the 
 good faith of the employer. The main matter, never to be sacrificed 
 to any theory, is the actual elevation of the lot of the employee.
 
 APPENDIX IV 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 THIS list includes the principal works on which the present volume 
 is based, but not all the reports and pamphlets issued by numerous 
 houses having welfare-institutions. The largest collection of this 
 material is probably to be found in the library of the Musee Social at 
 Paris. 
 
 Musterstatten Personlicher Fiirsorge von Arbeitgebern fur ihre 
 Geschaftsangehorigen von Dr. Jul. Post, Professor an der Tech- 
 nischen Hochschule in Hannover. Band I. : Die Kinder und die Ju- 
 gendlichen mit 44 Abbildungen. S. IX., 380. Berlin. Verlag von 
 Robert Oppenheim, 1889. Band II. : Die Erwachsenen Arbeiter. 
 Von Dr. Jul. Post, Geh. Reg.- und vortr. Rath im Ministerium f iir 
 Handel und Gewerbe in Berlin, und Dr. H. Albrecht in Gr.-Lichter- 
 felde. Mit 145 Abbildungen. S. VII. I. Theil. Patriarchalische 
 Beziehungen in der Grossindustrie ; S. 172 : II. Theil. Beschreibung 
 einzelner Musterstatten, S. 745. Berlin. Robert Oppenheim (Gus- 
 tav Schmidt), 1893. (The standard German treatise on the subject.) 
 
 Die Wohlfahrtseinrichtungen Berlins und seiner Vororte. Ein Aus- 
 kunftsbuch herausgegeben von der Auskunftsstelle der Deutschen 
 Gesellschaft fiir ethische Kultur. 2" Aufl. S. 427. Berlin, 1899. 
 
 Exposition Universelle Internationale de 1889 a Paris. Rapports 
 du Jury International. Economic Sociale. Section XIV. (Institu- 
 tions Patronales). Rapport de M. E\ Cheysson, Inspecteur Ge'ne'ral des 
 Ponts et Chausse'es, Ancien President de la Socie'te' d'Economie So- 
 ciale, Ancien Directeur du Crensot, p. viii. 166. Paris. Impri- 
 merie Nationale, 1892. (An excellent report, with appendixes concern- 
 ing eight leading instances.) 
 
 Report on the Social Economy Section of the Universal Interna- 
 tional Exhibition of 1889 at Paris. Prepared by Jules Helbronner, 
 Member of the Royal Labor Commission. Printed by order of Par- 
 liament, pp. Ixxxiii., 659. Ottawa. Printed by Brown Chamberlin, 
 Printer to the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty. (M. Helbronner's 
 report contains a great abundance of documentary matter and of 
 information based on the material exhibited in the Social Economy 
 Section, of which it gives a bibliography. I am especially indebted 
 to M. Helbronner for information (found in his Section XIV. " Em- 
 ployers' Institutions ") concerning those cases described in this volume 
 where the latest figures given are those of 1888 or 1889.)
 
 390 APPENDIX 
 
 Hubert Brice : Les Institutions Patronales. Leur Etat Actuel 
 Leur Avenir. Ouvrage recompense' par 1'Academie des sciences 
 morales et politiques, pp. vi. 340. Paris : Arthur Rousseau. 1894. 
 (The latest study of the subject in French.) 
 
 Hollandische Musterstatten Personlicher Fiirsorge von Arbeit- 
 gebern f iir ihre Geschaf tsangehb'rigen. Von J. C. Eringaard. Druck- 
 erei Van Marken, Delft. 1896. 
 
 Der Arbeiterschutz. Von K. Frankenstein. 
 
 Pflichten und Aufgaben der Arbeitgeber in der Arbeiterfrage. 
 Von Fr. Hitze. Koln, 1888. 
 
 La Participation aux Be'ne'fices, par timile Waxweiler, Chef de 
 Bureau a 1'Office du Travail de Belgique, pp. 320. L'Association 
 de I'Ouvrier aux Profits du Patron et la Participation aux Be'ne'fices, 
 par Paul Bureau, Prof esseur Adjoint a la Faculte" Libre de Droit de 
 Paris, pp. xix. 322. La Participation aux Be'ne'fices, tude the'orique 
 et pratique, par Maurice Vanlaer, Avocat au Barreau de Lille, 
 pp. viii. 310. Le Metayage et la Participation aux Be'ne'fices, par 
 Roger Merlin, Avocat, pp. xvi. 578. (These four volumes on profit 
 sharing are essays offered for the Comte de Chambrtin prize in 1896, 
 and published at his expense by Arthur Rousseau. Paris, 1898.) 
 
 Le Participationisme. Par A. Coutivel. Giard et Briere. Paris, 
 1898. 
 
 Le Code Ouvrier : Louis Andre 1 et Le"on Ginbourg. Chevalier-Ma- 
 rescq. Paris. 
 
 Lois Social es. Recueil des Textes de la Legislation Sociale de la 
 France. J. Chailley-Bert et A. Fontaine. Le"on Chailley. Paris, 
 1896. 
 
 Etude sur la Participation aux Be'ne'fices. Par M. Mascarel. A. 
 Burdin et Cie. Angers, 1894. 
 
 Exposition de 1889 : Rapports du Jury International Economic 
 Sociale. Section II., Rapport de M. Charles Robert. Imprimerie 
 Nationale. Paris, 1889. 
 
 Congres International de la Participation aux Be'ne'fices. Compte 
 Rendu. Librairie Chaix. Paris, 1890. 
 
 Guide Pratique pour 1' Application de la Participation aux B^n4- 
 fices. Par Albert Trombert, avec une Introduction par Charles Ro- 
 bert. Librairie Chaix. Paris, 1895. 
 
 La Participation aux Be'ne'fices et les Difficulte's pre"sentes. Par 
 M. Gibon. Guillaumin. Paris, 1892. (Critical.) 
 
 Le Me"canisme de la Vie Moderne. Par le Vicomte G. d'Avenel. 
 A. Colin. Paris, 1896. (Chapitre L, Les Magasins de Nouveaute's. 
 Le Bon Marche".) 
 
 Fabrikantengliick ! Ein Weg der dazu f iihren Kann. Von Hein- 
 rich Freese. S. 86. Eisenach. Verlag von M. Wilckens, 1899. 
 
 Die Gewinnbeteiligung. Von R. Einhauser. Separatabzug aus der
 
 APPENDIX 391 
 
 Zeitschrif t f iir die gesamte Staatswissenschaft. H. Laupp. Tubingen, 
 1898. (Extremely critical.) 
 
 Die Teilung des Geschaftsgewinns zwischen Unternehmern und 
 Angestellten. Von N. P. Oilman. Umgearbeitet und erganzt von 
 Leopold Katscher. S. XV., 352. Ed. Wartig. Leipzig, 1891. 
 
 La Participazione del Lavoratori ul Profitto dell' Impresa. Vin- 
 cenzo Carnanni. Rome. 
 
 La Dottrina del Salario. Adolfo Musco. Societa Anonima Co- 
 operativa Napoli, 1898. 
 
 Per la Pace fra Capitale e Lavoro. Achille Avogadro. Como. 
 
 La Participazione del Profitto. . Carlo Morpurgo. Sordo-NutL 
 Genoa. 
 
 Le Societa Cooperative di Produzione. Di Ugo Rabbeno. Fra- 
 telli Dumolard. Milano, 1889. 
 
 Methods of Industrial Remuneration. By David F. Schloss. 
 Third edition, revised and enlarged. Williams and Norgate, Lon- 
 don ; G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1898. 
 
 Report to the Board of Trade on Profit Sharing (by J. Lowry 
 Whittle), 1891. Report by Mr. D. F. Schloss on Profit Sharing, 1894. 
 The Annual Reports of the Labor Department of the Board of 
 Trade since 1894 contain tables relating to the status of profit shar- 
 ing. Eyre and Spottiswoode, London. 
 
 Profit-Sharing Precedents. By Henry G. Rawson. Stevens & 
 Sons. London, 1891. 
 
 The Distribution of the Produce. By James C. Smith. Kegan 
 Paul, Trench, Triibner & Co. London, 1892. 
 
 Profit Sharing and the Labour Question. By T. W. Bushill. Me- 
 thuen & Co. London, 1893. 
 
 Railways and their Employees. By O. D. Ashley, President of 
 the Wabash Railroad Co. The Railway Age and Northwesterner 
 Railroader. Chicago, 1895. 
 
 Labor Copartnership. By Henry D. Lloyd. Harper & Brothers. 
 New York, 1898. 
 
 Strikes and Social Problems. By J. Shield Nicholson. Ch. III. 
 A. & C. Black. London, 1896. 
 
 Report on Gain Sharing and Certain Other Systems of Bonus on 
 Production. By D. F. Schloss. 1895. 
 
 The Adjustment of Wages to Efficiency. Three Papers on Gain 
 Sharing, the Premium Plan, and a Piece-Rate System. By H. R. 
 Towne, F. A. Halsey, and F. W. Taylor. Macmillan Co. New York, 
 1896. 
 
 Socialism and the American Spirit. By N. P. Gilman (Ch. IX. 
 " Industrial Partnership "). Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Boston, 1893. 
 
 The Bulletins of the U. S. Department of Labor, Nos. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 
 contain an important series of chapters on " Industrial Communities "
 
 392 APPENDIX 
 
 by W. F. Willoughby, of the Department. Anzin, Blanzy, Essen, 
 the Familistere of Guise, the Mariemont and Bascoup Mines and the 
 Vieille Montagne Company are described in detail, with a few para- 
 graphs about Noisiel and Le Creusot. Bulletin No. 8 gives an account 
 of " Railway Relief Departments," by Emory R. Johnson ; No. 13, 
 one of " The Anthracite Mine Laborers" by G. O. Virtue ; in No. 17, 
 Mr. Johnson treats of " Brotherhood Relief and Insurance of Railway 
 Employes ; " and in No. 20 is a general survey of the " Condition of 
 Railway Labor in Europe," by W. E. Weyl. 
 
 " Der Arbeiterfreund " of Berlin, quarterly, and " Das Volkswohl " 
 of Dresden, the "Cooperative News" of Manchester, England, and 
 " Labour Copartnership " of London, and the quarterly " Bulletin " of 
 the French Participation Society give the news of welfare-institu- 
 tions and profit sharing, and articles on their various aspects. " Em- 
 ployer and Employed," a small quarterly periodical, was published in 
 1892-96 for the purpose of forming public opinion through the press 
 of the country, by the Association for the Promotion of Profit Shar- 
 ing (President, Carroll D. Wright ; Vice-president, N. O. Nelson ; 
 Secretary, N. P. Gilman). 
 
 Among magazine articles describing houses mentioned in this vol- 
 ume are the following : " A Spool of Thread " (Willimantic), " Scrib- 
 ner's Magazine," Sept., 1878 ; " An American Palace of Delight " 
 (Warner's Seaside Institute), "The American Magazine," March, 
 1888 ; " An Industrial Experiment at South Manchester," " Harper's 
 Magazine," Nov., 1872 ; " Pullman : A Social Study," " Harper's 
 Magazine," Feb., 1885; "Hopedale and Its Founder," "New Eng- 
 land Magazine," April, 1891. Saltaire is described in "Harper's 
 Magazine," voL xliv. p. 827 ; and the Krupp works in the issue for 
 March, 1886. 
 
 A considerable number of firms having welfare-institutions publish 
 annual reports or pamphlets describing them. Such are Fr. Krupp 
 (see the recent work by F. H. G. Miiller), D. Peters & Co., W. Spindler, 
 Villeroy and Boch, the Augsburg Carding and Spinning Mill, the 
 Harburg Rubber Comb Company, and C. Heyl, in Germany; the 
 Blanzy and Anzin Mines and Seydoux et Cie, in France ; the Vieille 
 Montagne and Mariemont and Bascoup Mines, in Belgium ; the Tang- 
 yes, Lever Brothers, Cassells and Hazell, Watson and Viney of Eng- 
 land ; and in this country the Pope Company, the American Watch 
 Company, the National Cash Register Company (see especially " A 
 New Era in Manufacturing ") and the H. J. Heinz Company. 
 
 For the more important works on profit sharing issued before 
 1889, see the Bibliography appended to " Profit Sharing between 
 Employer and Employee." For fuller bibliographies, see the works 
 of MM. P. Bureau and E. Waxweiler, named above, and M. Trom- 
 bert's " Guide Pratique."
 
 INDEX 
 
 ABRAND, F., 145. 
 
 Accident funds and insurance, 86, 107, 
 
 111, 115, 116, 124, 133, 134, 138-141, 
 
 144-148, 152-155, 157, 164. 
 Acme Sucker Rod Company, 234. 
 Adams House, 208. 
 Adams, Thomas, and Company, 190. 
 Advance department in Cash Register 
 
 works, 232. 
 Advances to workmen, 146, 149, 153 el 
 
 seq. 
 Aeltestencollegiums, see Workmen's 
 
 Councils. 
 
 Aged, Homes for the, 136, 142. 
 Agneta Park, 162, 164. 
 Allen, William, 55, 59. 
 American Waltham Watch Factory, 206, 
 
 265. 
 
 Ames, Oakes, 236, 237. 
 Aines, Oliver, and Sons, 25, 235. 
 Ames, Oliver, 2d, 235, 236. 
 Amsterdam, 168. 
 Anzin, mining company of, 130. 
 Apprentices, 74, 83, 86, 106, 113, 124, 
 
 144, 152, 167, 298etseq. 
 Arbeiterausschuss, see Workmen's 
 
 Councils. 
 
 Arbeiterstiftung, 72. 
 Arbeitervertretung and Arbeitervor- 
 
 stand, see Workmen's Councils. 
 Arbitration, compulsory, 21 ; state 
 
 boards of, 22 ; Mrs. Lowell on, 22 n. 
 Aristocracy, natural, in world of in- 
 dustry, 3. 
 Arlen, 92. 
 
 Art gallery at St. Johnsbury, 238. 
 Ashley, O. D., 201, n. 2. 
 Athenaeum, at Joliet, 211, 212. 
 Augsburg Carding and Spinning Mills, 
 
 87. 
 
 Avenel, Vicomte d', 337 n. 
 Ayer, J. C., Company, 293. 
 Aylesbury, 183: 
 
 Baccarat, Glass Works, 147. 
 
 Bailie, J. B.,27n., 298. 
 
 Baille-Lemaire, 296. 
 
 Bakeries, 101, .124, 128, 140, 150, 155 et 
 
 seq. 
 Baking Society, United Cooperative, 
 
 205. 
 
 Balgarnie, R., 189 n. 
 Ballard and Ballard Company, 349. 
 Ballou, Adin, 226, 228. 
 Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 24, 272. 
 Bank, First National, Chicago, 294 ; of 
 
 Montreal, 294; National City, New : 
 
 York, 295. I 
 
 Barrows, S. J., quoted, 254. 
 
 Barrows, W. E., 258-260. 
 
 Bartlett, J. C., 279. 
 
 Baths, 69, 78, 82, 87, 88, 92, 98, 101, 108, 
 110, 111, 113, 129, 134, 136, 142, 143, 
 149, 151, 152, 155, 156, 167 et seq. 
 
 Bascoup coal mines, 173. 
 
 Bausch and Lomb Optical Co., 293. 
 
 Beet-sugar factory, 168. 
 
 Belgian mining law, 171. 
 
 Belgian mutual insurance funds, 170. 
 
 Belle Sauvage Press, 180. 
 
 Benoist, F., et L. Berthiot, 156. 
 
 Bentham, Jeremy, 55. 
 
 Benton, Joel, 262. 
 
 Berndorf Theatre, 119. 
 
 Besseges, Mining Company, 134. 
 
 Bicycle factory, 222, 325. 
 
 Bicycles, on instalments, 101, 111. 
 
 Bicycle sheds or stables, 193, 233, 293. 
 
 Billiard-rooms, 87, 96, 108 et seq. 
 
 Birmingham, 191, 196. 
 
 Birth presents, 152, 169. 
 
 Blackmar, F. W., 310 n., 332 n. 
 
 Blanzy Co., 125 ; report on dangers of 
 paternalism, 362, 363. 
 
 Blin et Blin, 145. 
 
 Blincoe, Robert, 32. 
 
 Bochum Company for Mining and Cast 
 Steel Manufacture, 97. 
 
 Bonus Investment Society, 205. 
 
 Boots and shoes, 156. 
 
 Boulange, H., et Cie, 152. 
 
 Bourne, Jonathan, 305. 
 
 Bourne Mills, 28, 296, 304. 
 
 Bournville, 191, 192. 
 
 Braddock library, 216. 
 
 Brandts, F., 79. 
 
 Brass bands, 128, 134, 143, 151, 153, 165 
 et seq. 
 
 Breweries, 107, 168, 176. 
 
 Brice, H., 124. 
 
 Bridgeport, Conn., 262. 
 
 Brooklyn Bridge Railway, 281. 
 
 Brooklyn Rapid Transit Co., 281. 
 
 Brownell, F. A., 292. 
 
 Bryce, James, 343. 
 
 Bucyrus Steam Shovel Company, 384. 
 
 Bullock Electric Manufacturing Com- 
 pany, 291. 
 
 Bureau, Paul, 198 n. 
 
 Cadbury Brothers, 191. 
 
 Caisse Nationale des Retraites pour 
 
 la Vieillesse, 121, 123, 132, 151. 
 Caisse Syndicale d'Assurance Mutuelle 
 
 des Forges de France, 140. 
 Cambria Steel Company, 219.
 
 394 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Campello, Mass., 291. 
 
 Canal companies, 138, 159. 
 
 Car company, 239. 
 
 Carlsberg Breweries, 176. 
 
 Carlyle, Sirs., saying of, 2. 
 
 Carlyle, Thomas, 11. 
 
 Carnegie, Andrew, quoted, 215, 216, 218 
 
 and note. 
 
 Carnegie Steel Company, 22, 215. 
 Carnoustie, 189. 
 Cash Register Company, National, 228 ; 
 
 earlier lack of success, 233 ; 265. 
 Cassell and Company, 180. 
 Cateau, 141. 
 Cautionkasse, 114. 
 Chace, Geo. A., 305, 306 n. 
 Chagot, Jules, et Cie, 125. 
 Chaix, Albans, 338. 
 Chaix, Maison, 153. 
 Chambrun, Comte de, 338. 
 Champagne, Iron Works of, 138. 
 Character, Owen's Essays on the for- 
 mation of, 55, 58 ; institution for the 
 
 formation of, 56. 
 Charlottenburg, 108. 
 Chase, A. B., Company, 294. 
 Chemists, manufacturing, 293. 
 Chene'e, 171. 
 
 Cheney Brothers, 23, 254. 
 Cheysson, E., on three kinds of patron- 
 age, 118, 119, 357 11., 358 n. 
 Chicago, 111., 291, 292. 
 Chicago, Burlington and Quincy R. R., 
 
 24, 277. 
 
 Chicago City Railway, 22, 282. 
 Chicago Great Western Railway Co., 
 
 271. 
 
 Chicago Telephone Company, 268. 
 Children in English factories, 30, 32. 
 Chocolate and cocoa works, 150, 169, 
 
 191, 195. 
 
 Choisy-le-Roi, 152. 
 Chorlton Twist Company, 44. 
 Churches and chapels, 129, 132, 135, 155, 
 
 172 et seq. 
 
 Ciezskowski, Comte Auguste, 338 n. 
 Cincinnati, Ohio, 291, 292. 
 Cincinnati Milling Machine Co., 234. 
 Ciotat, La, 158. 
 City Bank, National, 295. 
 Clarendon Press, 188. 
 Cleveland, Ohio, 288. 
 Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, 220. 
 Clothes rooms and closets, 82, 112, 118. 
 Clothing for workpeople, 75, 110, 133, 
 
 149, 192. 
 Club-houses and club-rooms, 25, 74, 77, 
 
 87, 96, 108, 113, 114, 115, 151, 167 et 
 
 seq. 
 Coal mines, 89, 125, 130, 133, 134, 170, 
 
 173, 284-286. 
 Cockerill & Co., 171. 
 Coffee-kitchens, 100, 101, 111. 
 Colbert, 146. 
 Coleridge, S. T., 43. 
 Colin et Cie (formerly Godin), 337. 
 Colin, A., et Cie, 152. 
 Collective insurance, 122. 
 " Colonels " of industry, 118, 119. 
 
 Colonies, 67, 119. 
 
 Columbus (Ohio) Gas Company, 22, 349. 
 Columbus Traction Company, 349. 
 Common Property Society, 162. 
 Conciliation committees, 21, 173 et seq. 
 Connecticut: free libraries in factories 
 
 25. 
 Consommation, Socie'te's Cooperatives 
 
 de, 336. 
 Conspiracy and Protection of Property 
 
 Act, 318 n. 
 
 Convalescent homes, 184. 
 Cooke-Taylor, R. Whately : quoted or 
 
 referred to, 10 n., 32. 
 Cooperative production, 331, 336, 346. 
 Cooperative and cost stores, 68, 92, 96, 
 
 101, 105 n., Ill, 113, 124, 127, 131, 139, 
 
 143, 144, 150, 155, 157, 163, 167, 175 
 
 et seq. 
 
 Copartnership, Mr. G. Livesey on, 323. 
 Copenick, 85. 
 Corset makers, 262, 265. 
 Cotton-mills, 40, 42, 46, 85, 87, 92, 97, 
 
 115, 143-146, 191, 253, 304. 
 Courrieres, mining company of, 134. 
 Courtivron, 145. 
 
 Coxe Brothers and Company, 286. 
 Crane Company, 244. 
 Crane, Walter, 212, 217. 
 Crane, W. Murray, 246. 
 Crane, Zenas, 245. 
 
 Creches, 96, 142, 144, 149, 152 et seq. 
 Creusot, Le, 134. 
 Crockery makers, 152. 
 Crystal Palace Gas Company, 319. 
 Cumberland Mills, Me., 247. 
 Cushman, Ara, Co., 348, 384. 
 
 Dairying societies, Irish, 345. 
 
 Dale, David, commercial prominence, 
 44; cold reception of R. Owen, 46; 
 sells New Lanark mills, 46; friend- 
 ship for Owen, 46 ; kindhearted manu- 
 facturer, 47 ; discussions with Owen. 
 53. 
 
 Dale, Miss, meets R. Owen, 44 ; their 
 marriage, 46. 
 
 Dalton, John, friend of R. Owen, 43. 
 
 Dalton, Mass., 244, 247. 
 
 Dayton, Ohio, 228, 230; South Park, 
 231, 232, 234. 
 
 Deaconesses, 99. 
 
 Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, 
 285. 
 
 Delft Glue and Gelatine Works, 161. 
 
 Department stores, 291, 294, 337. 
 
 Devonshire, Duke of, 323. 
 
 Dining-halls, 74, 82, 87, 98, 101, 111, 117, 
 124, 143, 150 et seq. 
 
 Dispensaries, 126, 136 et seq. 
 
 Dividend to labor, an indirect, 27 ; a 
 direct, 28 ; at Blanzy, 125 ; 306, 312, 
 360. 
 
 Dividend to labor, same on savings as 
 to shareholders, 199 n. 
 
 Dobbehnan, Herr, 169. 
 
 Dock and warehouse company, 158. 
 
 Dolfus-Mieg et Cie, institutions, 115. 
 
 Dolge, Alfred, 24, 351 n.
 
 INDEX 
 
 395 
 
 Dollfus, P. Engel, 115. 
 
 Dollfus, Jean, 115, 117. 
 
 Dollfus, M., 156. 
 
 Dombirn, 97. 
 
 Draper Company, 226. 
 
 Drinks for workmen, 74, 75, 102, 106, 
 
 107, 118, 156, 172 et seq. 
 Drink water, Mr., of Manchester, 40, 
 
 41. 
 
 Ducher, H., 156. 
 Duyvis, Jacob, 169. 
 Dye works, 108. 
 
 Early Closing Associations, 203. 
 
 Earthenware and mosaic works, 83, 90. 
 
 Eastman Kodak Co., 291. 
 
 Easton, Penn., 220. 
 
 Easton, North, Mass., 235. 
 
 Economists and English manufacturers, 
 11. 
 
 Edison Electric Illuminating Co., 267. 
 
 Edwardsville, 111., 324 et seq. 
 
 Eight-hour day, 103. 
 
 Elberfeld, 75. 
 
 Electrical companies, 104, 267, 291. 
 
 Electric railways, 281, 282. 
 
 Elgin Watch Company, 211. 
 
 Elswick Works, 198. 
 
 Ely, R. T., 241 n., 242. 
 
 Employer, much exposed to philanthro- 
 pists, 1 ; as a practical philanthropist, 
 2; general rationality and justice, 3; 
 his function needs humanizing, 3 ; his 
 ideals, 4 ; his function, 4 ; and work- 
 man, 5 ; his need of ability and force 
 of character, 6 ; his responsibility, 6 ; 
 his morality a secondary matter, 7 ; 
 but very important, 8 ; restrained by 
 law and public opinion, 12 ; external 
 moralization, 13 ; function needs mor- 
 alizing, 13 ; his moral responsibility, 
 14 ; ideals presented to him, 15 ; per- 
 sonal alienation from employees, 15 ; 
 importance of good-will, 16 ; C. D. 
 Wright on his trust, 17 ; should help 
 solve labor problems, 18 ; and factory 
 legislation, 19 ; and trade - unions, 
 21 ; and arbitration, 21 ; interest in 
 thrift, 22; and workmen-sharehold- 
 ers, 22 ; and bonus for workers, 23 ; 
 benefit funds, life insurance, pension 
 plans, 24 ; his obligation to the com- 
 munity, 24 ; should begin institutions 
 early, 27 ; should live near employees, 
 27, 147 ; can do much to settle labor 
 problems, 29; American, and profit- 
 sharing, 348. 
 
 Ems, lead and silver works at, 101. 
 
 Engineers and machinists, 106, 136, 166, 
 169, 196, 198, 223, 226, 234, 343. 
 
 iSpargne, Societo d' Encouragement a 
 1', Miihlhausen, 117. 
 
 Eringaard, J. C., 165 n., 169. 
 
 Essen-on-Ruhr, 64 et seq., 73. 
 
 Evening schools, 124, 127 et seq. 
 
 Factory legislation, 9, 11 ; and model 
 employer, 19; in England, 34 ; Owens 
 twelve-hour bill, 51. 
 
 Factory organization at Cash Register 
 
 works, 228. 
 
 Factory system in England, 30, 62. 
 " Fair," The, 291. 
 Fairbanks, E. & T., & Co., 25, 238. 
 Fall River, Mass., 304. 
 Family council, 152. 
 Fanier, M., 156. 
 
 Farrand-Votey Organ Company, 294. 
 Fels & Co., 288. 
 Fette, W. Eliot, 383. 
 Ferris Brothers Company, 264. 
 Festivals, 114, 128, 139 et seq. 
 Fielden, John, quoted, 32 n. 
 Fire brigades, 85, 97, 129, 149 et seq. 
 Fire insurance, 96, 98, 116, 146, 164 et 
 
 seq. 
 
 Flint and Palmer, 38. 
 Flour mills, 349. 
 Flower shows, 191. 
 Folembray, 149. 
 
 Forges de France, Comite' des, 140. 
 Fox Brothers, 343. 
 France, welfare-institutions in, 63, 64 n., 
 
 121 et seq. 
 
 Freese, Heinrich, 102. 
 French State tobacco manufacture, 151. 
 Fry Brothers, 195. 
 Fuel supplied to workmen, 118, 127, 133 
 
 134, 156 et seq. 
 
 Games and sports, 108, 133 et seq. 
 Gardens, kitchen, 108, 147, 155, 178, 186 
 
 et seq. 
 
 Gas companies, 22, 156, 317, 319, 349. 
 Gas Workers' Union, 318, 319. 
 Gaskell, P., quoted or referred to, 10 n., 
 
 33. 
 
 Gastel Beet Sugar Factory, 168. 
 Germania Shipbuilding Company, 65. 
 Germany, welfare-institutions in, 63 ; 
 
 roll of honor of corporations in, 120. 
 Gibson, Alexander, 250. 
 Girls' Institute, 179. 
 Gladstone Hall, 179. 
 Glasgow, 205. 
 Glass works, 147, 149. 
 Globe Tobacco Company, 383. 
 Glue and gelatine works, 161. 
 Golden Rule Park and Hall, 235. 
 Gonner, Professor, 18. 
 Gouin Construction Company, 136. 
 Gould, E. R. L., quoted or referred to, 
 
 66 n., 67, 77 n., 151, 163 n., 248, 
 
 253 n., 260 n., 261. 
 Granges, Vosges, 146. 
 Graphic, The, and The Daily Graphic, 
 
 187. 
 
 Gratuities, 134. 
 Great Western Railway, 201. 
 Grey, Earl, 343. 
 Gun clubs, 143 et seq. 
 Gymnastics, 85, 87, 92, 95, 108, 110, 114, 
 
 115, 128, 139, 143, 155, 165 et seq. 
 
 Hackmen's Company, General, of Paris, 
 
 157. 
 Haines, Jones and Cadbury Company, 
 
 382.
 
 396 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Hale, Edward E., 332 n. 
 
 Halls and rooms for social purposes, 
 
 92, 93, 127, 128, 151, 165, 167 et seq. 
 Hammerle, F. M.,97. 
 
 Harburg Rubber Comb Company, 98. 
 
 Harfleur, 155. 
 
 Harmonie Lemaire, 303. 
 
 Hartford, Conn., 222. 
 
 Hazard, Rowland, 251, 252. 
 
 Hazard, R. G., 251, 252. 
 
 Hazell, Watson and Viney, 182. 
 
 Heinz, H. J., Company, 289. 
 
 Hengelo, 166. 
 
 Heyl Brothers, 108. 
 
 Heyl, C., 110. 
 
 Higginson, T. W., quoted, 250. 
 
 Hodder, Edwin, quoted, 190. 
 
 Hoffman and Billings Company, 383. 
 
 Holidays, full wages for, 168. 
 
 Homestead library, 217; athletic club, 
 218. 
 
 Hopedale, Mass., 226. 
 
 Horticulture, 85. 
 
 Hosiery, 190. 
 
 Hospitals, 70, 92, 126, 133, 134, 136, 137, 
 140, 142, 151, 155, 159 et seq. 
 
 Houses for workmen, 23, 49, 73, 75, 84, 
 87, 89, 90, 93, 96, 97, 98, 101, 106, 108, 
 112, 117, 119, 123, 124, 125, 131, 134, 
 135, 138, 139, 143, 144, 146, 147, 149, 
 150, 153, 155, 156, 158, 162, 166, 168, 
 171, 173 et seq. 
 
 Houten, C. J. van, and Son, 169. 
 
 Hovy, W., 168. 
 
 Howerth, I. W.,310n. 
 
 Howland Mills, 23, 253. 
 
 Hubin, F., 155. 
 
 Huddersfield, 344. 
 
 Hungarian State iron works, 175 ; rail- 
 ways, 176. 
 
 Button, William, in silk mill, 32. 
 
 Ideals, business, of the employer, 4 ; 
 
 moral, 14 ; should be realizable, 15 ; 
 
 Blanzy Company on, 129. 
 Illinois Central Railroad Co., 22, 269. 
 Illinois Steel Works Club, 25, 211. 
 Industrial schools, 73, 77, 82, 83, 89, 92, 
 
 93, 95, 97, 98, 108, 109, 110, 111, 114, 
 124, 127, 139, 148, 153, 155, 166, 174 
 et seq. 
 
 Industrial revolution, 30, 47. 
 
 Infant schools, 52, 56, 88, 92, 117, 127, 
 
 140, 142, 144, 146, 148, 152, 156 et seq. 
 Ingersoll-Sergeant Drill Company, 220. 
 Institutes, Aylesbury and Kirby Street, 
 
 186 ; Oxford, 188 ; Saltaire, 189. 
 Insurance of workmen in France, 121 ; 
 
 of miners in Belgium, 169. 
 Intermissions from work, 82, 231 et seq. 
 Iron works, 112, 138-140, 171, 175, 220, 
 
 337. 
 
 Ishpeming, 220, 221. 
 Ivorydale, 310. 
 
 Jaluzot, M., 337 n. 
 Janvier, Pere et Fils et Cie, 147. 
 Jersey City, N. J., 290. 
 Johnstown, Penn., 219. 
 
 Joliet, HI., 211. 
 
 Jones, 8. M., 234. 
 
 Jute Spinning and Weaving Factory, 94. 
 
 Kay-Shuttleworth, Sir J., on Man- 
 chester operatives, 32. 
 
 Kent, Duke of, 58. 
 
 Kindergartens, 77, 82, 87, 98, 111, 114, 
 166 et seq. 
 
 Kitchens, 59, 82, 92, 142. 
 
 Knapp, Stout and Co. Company, 249. 
 
 Kriebstein, 114. 
 
 Krupp, Fried., Essen works, 64; manu- 
 factures, 65 ; welfare-institutions, 66 ; 
 housing arrangements, 66 ; " colo- 
 nies," 67; stores, 68; sanitary con- 
 ditions, 68 ; baths, 69 ; sick fund, 69 ; 
 hospital, 70 ; pension fund, 70 ; life 
 insurance, 72; Arbeiterstiftung, 72; 
 schools, 73 ; industrial training, 73 ; 
 casino, 74 ; dining-halls, 74 ; savings 
 75. 
 
 Krupp, F. A., founds pension fund for 
 officials, 71 ; sick fund, 72 ; Arbeiter- 
 stiftung, 72 ; Essen memorial fund, 
 73 ; gift for technical education, 74. 
 
 Kubler and Niethammer, 114. 
 
 Lace making, 190. 
 
 Lafarge Lime Kilns, 155. 
 
 Laundries, free, 88, 112, 151 et seq. 
 
 Lawrence, Mass., 253. 
 
 Lead and silver works, 101. 
 
 Leather works, 110. 
 
 Leclaire, Edme-Jean, 328, 337. 
 
 Leclaire, 111., 23, 323. 
 
 Leclaire, Maison, 336, 337. 
 
 Lectures, 87, 112, 113, 115, 128, 151, 155 
 
 et seq. 
 
 Lederlin, A., 143. 
 Legrand, J. L., 338 n. 
 Lehigh Coal and Navigation Co., 285. 
 Lehigh and Wilkesbarre Coal Co., 285. 
 Lehigh Valley Coal Co., 285. 
 Lehigh Valley Railroad, 278. 
 Leipzig, 103. 
 Lemaire, A., 297, 298. 
 Lens Mining Co., 134. 
 Le Play, F., 358. 
 Levasseur, E., 225 n., 358. 
 Lever Brothers, Limited, 177. 
 Libraries for workpeople, 24, 73, 77, 82, 
 
 86, 89, 92, 96, 100, 101, 103, 107, 113, 
 
 114, 119, 133, 143, 144, 151, 152, 153, 
 
 164, 167 et seq. 
 
 Library fee, effect of, 225 n. 
 Lievin Mining Company, 134. 
 Life insurance, 71, 111, 116, 126 el seq. 
 Lillers, 156. 
 Lime-kiln, 155. 
 Lisbon, 342. 
 
 Literature of welfare-institutions, 120. 
 Livesey, George, 317. 
 Livesey, Thomas, 317. 
 Lloyd, Henry D., 205, 323 n., 346 n. 
 Loan funds, 106, 111 et seq. 
 Lock works at Neuilly, 153. 
 Lodging houses, 92, 97, 101, 144, 155 et 
 
 seq.
 
 INDEX 
 
 397 
 
 London, Bishop of, " the hand," 18 n. 
 
 London, Brighton and South Coast Rail- 
 way Co., 201. 
 
 London and Northwestern R. R. Co., 
 199. 
 
 Lorillard, P., Co., 290. 
 
 Louisville, Ky., 349. 
 
 Lowell " Offering," 207 ; corporations, 
 253, 293. 
 
 Lowell, J. R., on free libraries, 25. 
 
 Lower- Rhenish-Westphalian mines, 90. 
 
 Lumber firms, 249, 250. 
 
 Lunches, 191, 192 et seq. 
 
 Lung, Albert, 145. 
 
 Machinery, living, 300. 
 
 Machinery works, 224, 226. 
 
 Mallock, W. H., quoted or referred to, 
 3 n., 7. 
 
 Manchester, South, Conn., 254 ; schools, 
 257. 
 
 Manchester operative, daily life, 32 ; 
 physical condition, 33. 
 
 Mans, Le, 47. 
 
 Manufacturers and pauper children, 9; 
 greed and cruelty of English, 10. 
 
 Marcinelles and Couillet Co., 173. 
 
 Mariemont and Bascoup coal mines, 173. 
 
 Marienhiitte, 112. 
 
 Marken, J. C. van, 161 ; printing com- 
 pany, 162; on welfare-institutions, 
 165 n. 
 
 Marquette, 220. 
 
 Marriage of workmen, 84, 112. 
 
 Marriage presents, 152, 159. 
 
 Marseilles Dock and Warehouse Com- 
 pany, 158. 
 
 Marshall, Alfred, 343. 
 
 Marysville, N. B., 250. 
 
 Mason, Thomas, and Sons, 191. 
 
 Massachusetts, workmen's stock law, 
 22. 
 
 Maternity, assistance at, 117, 142, 149, 
 151 et seq. 
 
 McGuffog, James, 37. 
 
 Medical attendance, 92, 96, 107, 124, 126, 
 133, 136, 142, 146-149, 151, 152, 154, 
 156, 158, 159, 167, 174 el seq. 
 
 Menier, Chocolat, 150. 
 
 Menomonie, Wis., 249. 
 
 Merrimac Manufacturing Co., 253. 
 
 Mettlach, 90. 
 
 Midland R. R. Co., 199. 
 
 Military service, 86, 91, 114, 133, 145, 
 149, 155, 157 et seq. 
 
 Mining companies, 97. 
 
 Molijn, M., 340. 
 
 Molinari, G. de, on paternalism, 362. 
 
 Monitors, silent, at New Lanark, 51, 
 57 n. ; at Cash Register works, 230. 
 
 Monroe, Paul, 347 n. ; examination of 
 paper in " American Journal of Soci- 
 ology," 381. 
 
 Moutceau-les-Mines, 129, 133. 
 
 Montrambert Company, mining, 134. 
 
 Montreal, Bank of, 294. 
 
 Moralization of human relationships 
 slow, 8 ; but sure, 11 ; of employer, 
 131. 
 
 Morin, Fillot, Ricois et Cie (Bon 
 
 Mart-he), 337. 
 Morley, Samuel, 190. 
 Motives for welfare-institutions, 118, 
 
 119. 
 
 Moussey, 145. 
 Miihlhausen, 115, 116. 
 Mulhousienne, Soi-ieti', des Cites Ou- 
 
 vrieres, 117. 
 Miinchen-Gladbuch, 79. 
 Music at meals, 175. 
 Musical associations, 82, 84, 92, 97, 99, 
 
 111, 113, 114, 115, 128, 133, 143, 144, 
 
 148, 165, 174 et seq. 
 Mutual aid societies, 81, 124, 126, 131, 
 
 134, 136, 139, 143, 144, 148, 152, 153, 
 
 156, 157, 174 et seq. 
 
 Naeyer et Cie, 340. 
 
 Nelson, N. O., 21, 23, 28; Company, 323, 
 
 332 n. 
 
 Netherlands Oil Works, 161. 
 Neviges, 75. 
 Newark, N. J., 264. 
 New Bedford, Mass., 253. 
 Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 198. 
 New Lanark Company, 54. 
 New Lanark Mills and village, 34, 45- 
 
 50, 55, 56, 58-61. 
 
 New Lanark Twist Company, 46. 
 Newspapers, 187. 
 Newspapers, factory, 83, 165, 167, 168, 
 
 289, 293 ; free, 100, 112. 
 New York, N. Y., 267, 2G9. 
 New York Telephone Company, 269. 
 Nicholas, Grand Duke, 58. 
 Noisiel, 150. 
 
 North and East, Society of the, 138. 
 Northern Railway (France), 124. 
 Norwalk, Ohio, 294. 
 Nottingham, 190, 203. 
 Nunspeet, Holland, 340. 
 
 Ocean Mail Company, 157. 
 
 Oil works, 161. 
 
 Omaha, Nebraska, 294. 
 
 Omnibus Company, General, of Paris, 
 157. 
 
 Opera-glasses, 297. 
 
 Oporto, 342. 
 
 Optical goods, 293. 
 
 Organ makers, 294. 
 
 Organization of welfare-institutions, 
 128; by workmen, 130. 
 
 Orleans railway, 122, 124. 
 
 Oud-Gastel, 167. 
 
 Owen, Robert, quoted or referred to, 4, 
 11, 29 ; authorities for facts of his life, 
 34 n., 49 n., 59 n. ; born in 1771, 
 34 ; the dish of flummery, 34 ; educa- 
 tion, 35; passion for books, 35 ; busi- 
 ness life begins, 36 ; obtains situation 
 with Mr. McGuffog, 37 ; returns to 
 London, 38 ; goes to Manchester, 38 ; 
 partnership with Jones, 39; begins 
 the world on his own account, 40; 
 manager for Mr. Drinkwater, 40-44; 
 his creed, 36, 42; business ability, 43; 
 friends, 43 ; manager for Chorlton
 
 398 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Twist Co., 44 ; meets Miss Dale, 44 ; 
 first visit to New Lanark, 46 ; with 
 partners buys New Lanark Mills, 46 ; 
 marries Miss Dale, 46 ; reconstruction 
 of New Lanark, 47 el seq, ; action dur- 
 ing the embargo, 50 ; " silent moni- 
 tors," 51 ; bill for regulating hours of 
 work in mills and factories, 51 ; faith 
 in education, 52 ; change of partners, 
 53 ; dissolution of the new firm, 54 ; 
 partnership with W. Allen and others, 
 55; establishes first infant school in 
 Great Britain, 56 ; plans for the im- 
 provement of his work people, 57 ; 
 efforts for labor legislation, 58 ; hos- 
 pitality at New Lanark, 58 ; financial 
 success, 59 ; friction with W. Allen, 
 59 ; retirement from business, 60 ; 
 socialistic views, 60 ; failure of social- 
 istic experiments, 60 ; character as 
 an employer, 62. 
 Owen, Robert, the elder, 34. 
 
 Packard, S. E., and Sons, 291. 
 
 Paint and color manufacture, 288. 
 
 Painters and decorators, 336. 
 
 Paper-box makers, 291. 
 
 Paper-making, 114, 244, 247, 337. 
 
 Papeterie Cooperative, 337. 
 
 Parisian Gas Company, 156. 
 
 Paris, Lyons, and Mediterranean R. R. 
 System, 122. 
 
 Parks, 77, 82, 118 ei seq. 
 
 Participation Society, French, 338. 
 
 Paternalism, 63, 64, 128, 130, 177, 206, 
 329, 362. 
 
 Patriarchal employers, 79, 119. 
 
 Patronage, military, patriarchal, liberal, 
 118. 
 
 Patterson, J. H. and F. J., 228. 
 
 Paturle-Lupin, 141, 142. 
 
 Peace Dale Manufacturing Co., 251. 
 
 Pennsylvania Railroad, 24, 275 ; lines 
 west of Pittsburg, 277. 
 
 Pennsylvania Steel Company, 220. 
 
 Pension funds, French employees enjoy- 
 ing, 159. 
 
 Pension funds, 69-71, 79, 86, 91, 94, 
 99, 105, 105 n., 106, 111, 115, 117, 118, 
 121, 123, 126, 127, 132, 134, 136, 139, 
 141, 143-146, 149, 151-159, 164, 166, 
 168, 170, 172 et seq. 
 
 People's Palace, Carnoustie, 190. 
 
 Peters, D., and Co., 75. 
 
 Peugeot Freres, Les Fils de, 139. 
 
 Philadelphia, Penn., 287. 
 
 Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron 
 Company, 284. 
 
 Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, 277. 
 
 Photographic supplies, 291, 292. 
 
 Photographic Studio, Cooperative, 162. 
 
 Pia Aziemla Tessile, 341. 
 
 Pianoforte makers, 153, 294. 
 
 Pickles and preserves, 289. 
 
 Pidgeon, Daniel, quoted, 258. 
 
 Pinet, F., 15G. 
 
 Pittsburg, Penn., 289. 
 
 Plant -growing, prizes for, 191. 
 
 Plant system, 278. 
 
 Pleyel, Wolff & Co., 153. 
 
 Plumbers' goods, 323. 
 
 Poilly, Fitz-James et Brigade, Societe" 
 de, 149. 
 
 Pope Manufacturing Company, 222. 
 
 Port Sunlight, 177. 
 
 Portugal, tobacco industry, 341. 
 
 Post, J., 63, 111, 112. 
 
 Premiums, 80, 119, 141, 152, 156-158, 
 167 et seq. 
 
 Printers and publishers, 103, 152, 153, 
 1G2, 182, 292. 
 
 Procter, W. C., 310 n. 
 
 Procter and Gamble Company, 28, 310. 
 
 Profit sharing, 28, 29, 94, 103, 141, 144, 
 147, 153, 156, 160, 16S\178, 204, 205 n., 
 235, 249, 251, 296, 301, 302, 311, 315, 
 316, 318, 322, 334 el seq. ; and waste, 
 349 n. ; abandonment of, in United 
 States, 380 ; need of trial of some 
 length, 387. 
 
 Provident Funds, 102-107, 111, 116, 118, 
 134, 136, 137, 141, 144-147, 156, 158, 
 172, 173 et seq. 
 
 Prudence, La, 126, 128. 
 
 Prussian government, housing em- 
 ployees, 89. 
 
 Pullman, George M., 239, 242. 
 
 Pullman, 111., 239. 
 
 Pullman's Palace Car Company, 239, 243. 
 
 Rabbeno, Ugo, 33G n. 
 
 Railroads, relief funds, 24, 122-124,171, 
 
 176, 199-201, 269, 271, 272, 275, 277, 
 
 278, 280. 
 Railway Department of the T. M. C. A.. 
 
 280. 
 
 Reading-rooms, 89, 96, 112, 143 et seq. 
 Recreation, 99, 128, 153 et seq. 
 Redouly et Cie, 336. 
 Refectories, see Dining-halls. 
 Registers, autographic, 229, 
 Reineveld machine works, 169. 
 Rents to workmen, 76, 91, 97, 125, 131, 
 
 137, 150 et seq. 
 
 Remington Sholes Company, 292. 
 Restaurants, 101, 105 n., 107, 108, 147, 
 
 150, 157, 158, 167 et seq. 
 Rey, M., 171. 
 Ringhoffer, F., 106. 
 Ripon, Marquis of, 343. 
 Robbins, Mr., treasurer Waltham Watch 
 
 Co., 210, 211 ; on employer, 211. 
 Robert, Charles, 338. 
 Roche - la - Motiere - et - Firminy, mining 
 
 company of, 133. 
 Rochester, N. Y., 291, 292. 
 Roesicke.R., 107. 
 Roesler, Max, 83. 
 Rogers, Peet & Co., 383. 
 Ropewalk, 147. 
 Ross and Duncan, 343, 344. 
 Rossi Woolen Mills, 175. 
 Rouen, 146. 
 Rubber comb makers, 98. 
 
 Saarbuck mines, 89. 
 Sabbath-keeping, 38. 
 Safety Corps, 107 el seq.
 
 INDEX 
 
 399 
 
 Saint-Freres, Messrs., 146. 
 Saltaire, 188. 
 
 Sanborn, F. H., Company, 194. 
 Sargaut, W. L., quoted, 59 n. 
 Satterfield, Mr., of Manchester, 38, 39. 
 Saturday, half holiday, 201 n., 314 ; ex- 
 cursions, 181. 
 
 Sautter, Lemonnler et Cie, 156. 
 Saving, difficulty of, 271 n. 
 Savings, facilities for, 75, 78, 81, 84, 85, 
 93,94,96,98, 1O2, 110, 111, 115, 117, 
 129, 131, 135, 138, 139, 141, 143, 145, 
 146, 149, 151-1.">6, 164, 167, 172 et seq. 
 Scales makers, 238. 
 Schiffbeck, 94. 
 Schio, 175. 
 
 Schlierbach near Waehtersbach, 83. 
 Sclilittgen, Rittmeister, 112. 
 Schloss, D. F., 342 n., 345 n., 346 n. 
 Schueider & Co., Le Creusot, 134. 
 Schneider, E., 136. 
 
 Schools for workpeople, 73, 94, 90, 102, 
 
 111, 114, 127, 132, 134, 135, 138-140, 
 
 140, 142-146, 148, 149, 151, 152, 155, 
 
 165, 173 et seq. 
 
 Schultze-Gaevernitz, Dr. G. von, quoted, 
 
 10 n., 11. 
 Scottish Cooperative Wholesale Society, 
 
 204. 
 
 Seaside Institute, 262. 
 Self-help, 174. 
 Services for the dead, 148. 
 Services of worship, 190, 192, 195, 197. 
 Sewing-machines for workiug women, 
 
 92, 100 et seq. 
 Seydonx et Cie, 141. 
 Shaftesbury, Lord, 11. 
 Shareholders, employee, 269, 271 et seq. 
 Share investment societies, 182, 185. 
 Shawmut House, 208. 
 Sherwin-Williains Company, 288. 
 Shieldhall, near Glasgow, 204. 
 Shovel makers, 235. 
 
 Sick aid and funds, 69, 79, 86, 96, 98, 
 99, 107, 111, 116, 118, 124, 134, 135, 
 138, 139, 149, 151, 154, 155, 158, 164, 
 167, 168,171, 174 et seq. 
 Siegel-Cooper Co., 294. 
 Siemens establishments, 104. 
 Silk-mills, 254, 341. 
 Smieton, J., and Sons, 189. 
 Soap manufacturers, 178, 287, 310. 
 Socialism, 60, 62, 63 ; practical, 115 ; 
 
 Catholic, 168; 360. 
 Soda-ash, 153, 286. 
 Solvay et Cie, 153. 
 Solvay Process Company, 286. 
 South Metropolitan Gas Co., 317. 
 Sparrow's Point, 220. 
 Spear, Miss, 44, 45. 
 Spindler, W., 85. 
 
 Springfield Foundry Company, 382. 
 St. Dizier, Canal of, 138. 
 St. Johnsbury, Vt., 237. 
 St. Louis, 325 
 
 St. Louis Shovel Company, 384. 
 St. Remy-sur-Avre, 144. 
 8t-bility of workmen, 129, 136, 137, 142, 
 147, 149, 151, 173. 
 
 Starch works, 169. 
 
 Steamers, 156, 157. 
 
 Steelton, Penn., 220. 
 
 Steel works, 64, 97, 134, 211, 215-217, 
 '211, 219, 220. 
 
 Stillwell-Bierce and Smith- Vaile Com- 
 pany, 234. 
 
 Stirling, W. R., 211. 
 
 Stockholder, workman, 313. 
 
 Stork, Gebruder & Co., 166. 
 
 Stout, J. H., 250. 
 
 Strikes, 136, 137, 243. 
 
 Stumm, Baron von, 119. 
 
 Suez Canal Company, 159. 
 
 Suggestions from employees, 229, 293, 
 294. 
 
 Swinton, John, 208 n., 209. 
 
 Syracuse, N. Y., 286. 
 
 Tainter, Andrew, 249. 
 Tangyes, Limited, 196. 
 Tapestry Factory, Royal, 341. 
 Telephone companies, 268, 269. 
 Temperance institutions, 80, 84, 144, 
 
 197, 284. 
 
 Ten Brink, M. H., 92. 
 Ten-hour day, at New Lanark, 52. 
 Teubner, B. G., 103. 
 Thaon Blanchisserie et Teinturerie, 142. 
 Theatres, 87, 119, 175. 
 Thillot et Trougemont, 143. 
 Thomson, George, 21. 
 Thomson, Wm., and Sons, 344, 345. 
 Thread makers, 258. 
 Thrift, not a fetich, 183 ; fund, Graphic. 
 
 187. 
 Tissus de Laine des Vosges, Socie'te' 
 
 Anonyme de, 143. 
 Tobacco and cigar manufacture, 151, 
 
 169, 290, 341. 
 
 Tocqueville, A. de, quoted, 354. 
 Toledo, Ohio, 234. 
 Trade-unions and employers, 21 ; should 
 
 become incorporated bodies, 21 ; 180, 
 
 243 n., 329. 
 Transatlantique, Compagnie Ge'ne'rale, 
 
 158. 
 
 Traun, Dr. H., 98. 
 Traveling libraries, 128, 250. 
 Tufts, J. W., 347 n. 
 Typewriter factory, 292. 
 
 Unemployed, wages for the, 112. 
 Union Sportif, 127, 128. 
 United States Printing Co., 292. 
 
 Vacations, 86, 96, 99, 104, 107, 124. 
 
 Valentigny, 139. 
 
 Valk, De Gekroonde, 168. 
 
 Vanderbilt, Cornelius, '280. 
 
 Vanlaer, Maurice, quoted, 339. 
 
 Varangeville-Dombasle, 153. 
 
 Varnishes, 340. 
 
 Venetian blind factory, 102. 
 
 Vieille Montague, Socie'te' de la, 171 ; on 
 
 right administration of institutions, 
 
 364 
 
 Villeneuvette, 146. 
 Villeroy and Boch, 90.
 
 400 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Vineyard, 156. 
 Viviers, 155. 
 Vlekke, J. F., 168. 
 
 Waddington Sons Co., 144. 
 
 Waldschlosschen, 107. 
 
 Walker, Francis A., quoted or referred 
 to, 4, 7. 
 
 Wallscourt, Lord, 338 n. 
 
 Walter-Seitz, D., 146. 
 
 Waltham, Mass., 206. 
 
 Wandsbeck, 98. 
 
 War, moral forces in, 359 n. 
 
 Warner Brothers, 262, 266. 
 
 Warren, 8. D., & Co., 23, 247. 
 
 Watch factories, 206, 211. 
 
 Webb, Sydney and Beatrice, quoted, 
 201 n. 1. 
 
 Welfare-institutions, 26; in Germany, 
 63; cost of, at Blanzy, 125 ; at Anzin, 
 133 ; at Roche-la-Motiere-et-Finniny, 
 133; at Montrambert, 134; at Bes- 
 seges, 134 ; at Le Creusot, 136 ; at 
 Cateau, 142 ; at Baccarat, 149 et seq.; 
 justify expenditure, 151; and wages 
 352 n. 
 
 Wellington, saying of Duke of, 1. 
 
 Werft Conrad machine works, 169. 
 
 Whitin family, 223-225. 
 
 Whitinsville, 223. 
 
 Whitworth, Sir Joseph, 198 n. 
 
 Wholesale Society, 204. 
 
 Widows' and orphans' funds, 79, 99. 
 105, 106, 111, 166, 168, 169 et seq. 
 
 WiUimantic Thread Co., 23, 258. 
 
 Willink, T., 163. 
 
 Willoughby, W. F., quoted or referred 
 to, " Workingmen's Insurance," 121 
 n. 2, 122, 140, 151 n., 169 n., 170 n., 
 171, 280. 
 
 Women's work, 79, 127. 
 
 Woolen manufacturers, 75, 79, 141, 143, 
 146, 175, 188, 251, 343, 344. 
 
 Workman director, 320, 321. 
 
 Workman's needs, 116. 
 
 Workmen, living machinery, 4; imper- 
 fectly moralized, 13 ; shareholders, 
 22 ; as owners of homes, 23 ; as citi- 
 zens, 23, 24. 
 
 Workmen's Councils, 78, 81, 83, 91, 102, 
 104, 106, 112, 113, 165 et seq. 
 
 Worms, Germany, 110. 
 
 Worship, services of, 89. 
 
 Wright, Carroll D., quoted or referred 
 to, 17 n., 355. 
 
 Y. M. C. A., Railway Department of 
 
 the, 280. 
 
 Yale and Towne Company, 351 n. 
 Yeames, Rev. James, 204 n. 
 Yeast and spirit works, 161. 
 
 Zinc mines, 170. 
 Zolyom-Brezo, 175.
 
 SECOND EDITION 
 
 Socialism and the American Spirit 
 
 By NICHOLAS PAINE OILMAN 
 
 One of the best books ever written on the subject of socialism. The 
 author's philosophic breadth of view, scientific temper, and ample know- 
 ledge of the facts are attested by every chapter. The book is written in a 
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 University. 
 
 This is much the best thing which this author has written. It treats an 
 old theme in a thoroughly original way. The author analyzes socialism not 
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 This volume does a work most timely and necessary for American readers 
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 tail which Mr. Oilman has illustrated or recommended in this book. The 
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 The most remarkable point about this book is its readability. It easily 
 holds the reader's interest to the end. . . . Those who really understand the 
 American spirit, and know human nature thoroughly, will consider this vol- 
 ume as probably the most valuable contribution thus far made to the Amer- 
 ican phase of the subject. The Literary World, Boston. 
 
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 PROFIT SHARING 
 
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