1893 - State Library Information Center

460 STATISTICS OF LABOR AND INDUSTRIES.Before proceeding further allow me to anticipate an objectionwhich is both plausible and, if a true objection, reasonable. Youwill notice that I bring into the current year the undivided profitof the preceding year instead of letting it stand and accumulateas in mercantile business. This is done purposely, as such areservation, while properly undisturbed in an ordinary business.,would seriously wrong all but the last series in a building associationif allowed to stand and accumulate. To return to theexample. Profit and loss when posted as explained above, andbalanced, shows a net gain for the year of $6,756.85. Beforedistributing this profit a careful estimate should be made of theassets and the probability of any lose occurring during the incomingyear ascertained. Sufficient for this should be deductedbefore distribution. "We will suppose that the examination suggestedshows that five per cent, of the profits would in all probabilitycover this contingency. This would leave $6,437.89 to bedivided among the members. To do this we only need the oldrule of three formula.As the total capital of the association is to the capital of aseries, so is the total profit to the profit of that series.Then the division of the profit belonging to any one series bythe number of shares in that series will give the value of ashare. In working out the problem time and trouble may besaved without any appreciable loss to any one by leaving out thecents. The full working would in the example I have cited beas follows;106,321 is to 12,155 as 6,487 is to profit of series.6,437106,321 j _$735^ ° (r profit for first series.73 ) 735,90$10.08 profit for each share.The gain for each seriea may be found either by working outeach one as above or by finding the fraction. Personally, I preferthe plan of working out each series independently, for thereason that a mistake in a calculation will then disclose itself.