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13Q
METHODS OF SOCIAL REFORM.
Pea00 bas reigned where there was strife. Steady, zealous
work has become the unbroken ruIe. Strikes are known only
by tradition. Rardly a day’s work has been lost; mutual
feelings of confidence and esteem between employers and
employed have been thoroughly established. These are facts
beyond donbt or denial. I have heard them from the lips of
one of the employers, and also from one of the men, and as
they have been published for some time and have never been
wntmdioted, we may receive them as certainly true. There
is also little doubt that the moral condition of the neighbourhood
is distinctly improved; there is less drunkenness, less
fighting, swearing, and gambling.
The pecuniary result may be briefly summed up, During
the four comploto years which have passod since the partnership
was constituted, the capitalists have received dividends
of 12, 13, 13:, and 13; per cent. Tho proprietors must have
felt that a vsry pleasant limit had been placed to their profits.
An average profit of 13 per cent. earned amid peace and goodwill,
compared with 5 per cent. earned out of contention and
riot, present advantages which even a RoyaI Commission
might be supposed to recognise. But it passes me to conceive
how seven gentlemen of great eminence, with a Lord
Chief Justice at their head, could so far overlook the facts
brought before them as to say that the Xessrs. Briggs volnntnrily
limited their profits to 10 per cent. At the same time
tho workmen received dividends equivalent to the excess
beyond 10 per cent., namely, 2, 3, 33, and 3; per cent., so
that the total nett profits of the business were 14, 16, 17, and
16; per cent., or more than three times what they had been in
previous years ! Many workmen have thus received dividends
of 25, the largest sums that they have probably ever received
at one time. These dividends were of course increased by any
accruing from shares held in the capital account of the bn&
ness, and one man has thus received altogether ;flO in a single
payment.
It may perhaps be mid that all these gratifying resalte are
due to the exceptional energy, good tact, and business-like
qaditiee of the proprietors. I have no doubt they do pos-