coal trade bulletin - Clpdigital.org

24 THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN.
PROFIT SHARING AND
LABOR COPARTNERSHIP.
A report has been published by the British (Government
) Board of Trade on profit sharing and
labor copartnership abroad, writes Consul General
John L. Griffiths, London, England. In the prefatory
note there is a brief reference to the different
classes of business in various countries in which
there has been profit sharing or labor copartnership.
In the Ihiited Kingdom it is stated that
these methods of associating employees with the
undertakings in which they are engaged have
been largely confined to gas companies and "about
half of the gas produced by gas companies in the
LInited Kingdom is produced under profit-sharing
conditions."
Turning to France it is found that there are
only two profit-sharing gas companies, and that
profit sharing in that country prevails largely
among insurance companies and banks, "a group
that has only one representative in the United
Kingdom." Profit sharing is a feature, more or
less, of the mines and quarries, railways and
tramways, and metal, engineering, and shipbuilding
firs in France, while in England it is prominent
in the clothing, the food and tobacco, and
the chemical trades. The report continues:
In the United Kingdom a very large number of
schemes still provide for the payment of the
bonus simply in cash, while in the most recent
schemes, particularly those of the gas companies,
the plan of giving work people facilities for the
purchase of shares in the undertaking is largely
adopted. Neither of these systems has anything
like the same importance in France; payment in
cash, though not of course unknown in France, is
far less common than here, and has been somewhat
discountenanced by certain leading members
of the French Profit-Sharing Society; while the
system of encouraging employees to purchase
shares in the employer's undertaking is not very
general, ancl is regarded as exposing the work
people's profit-sharing bonuses to excessive risk.
The typical French system is that of capitalizing
the bonus, and, of the various methods by which
this can be effected, that which finds most favor
is the method of converting the accumulated
bonuses into a "patrimoine"; that is to say, a
capital sum sufficient to provide a pension for the
employee after his retirement, and also something
to leave to his widow and children after his death.
This was the system advocated by M. Alfred de
Courcy, one of the leading French advocates of
profit sharing and managing director of the General
Assurance Co. (Compagnie d'Assurances Generales)
for some years. M. de Courcy introduced
the system in his own company, and his example
was largely followed by other insurance com­
panies as well as in other businesses. It will of
course be understood that the funds for providing
the "patrimonie" are not in all cases exclusively
derived from the accumulated profit sharing
bonuses, but are sometimes supplemented, or even
provided as to the larger proportion, by deductions
from salaries, or by a charge on the general
expenditure account of the employing firm.
It appears in the report that profit sharing has
not been very successful in Germany, and that
there are only about 30 such schemes now in existence.
In 21 of these undertakings about 15,000
or 16,000 persons were employed (no statistics are
available as to the others), or about one-seventh
of the number who are working in the LTnited
Kingdom under profit-sharing conditions. In one
profit-sharing scheme which was introduced in
Germany in 1896 the profit-sharing bonus for the
17 years has averaged 7.9 per cent of the wages
and salaries paid. Although one of the profitsharing
schemes in Germany goes back 60 years
most of those now in existence are of quite recent
origin. It is stated in the report that the present
heads of the firm, which represents the oldest
profit-sharing scheme in Germany, do not attach
a very high value to it. Profit-sharing schemes in
Germany include "breweries, metal and engineering
works, a pottery and weaving factory, an insurance
company, a river steamboat company, a
fruit-preserving company, and two mercantile
firms."
There are only 8 or 10 profit-sharing schemes
now in existence in Switzerland, and "most of
these are in small undertakings." As far back,
however, as 1869, profit sharing was tried in
Switzerland in the Federal postal service, but was
abandoned in 1S73 "owing to an anticipated diminution
of profits and also to the excessive accounting
involved."
There is one profit-sharing scheme in Holland
in which the capital never varies, "the stock of
the original shareholders being gradually transferred
to the employees working for the company,
and from them, as they retire, to their successors."
Announcement is made of the change of the
name of Meyersdale Coal Co., to the Stauffer-
Quemahoning Coal Co., and its offices have been
moved from Meyersdale, Pa., to Listie, Pa. The
change is made because the mines are located in
the Quemahoning field of Somerset county, Pa.,
and the company is desirous of having its name
and location coupled with the field from which
the product is mined. The officers of the company
are: President, Jacob L. Kendall; vice
president, John M. Stauffer; secretary, James S.
Braddock; treasurer, Eugene T. Norton.