404 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



in the previous year, they would be allowed a commission on the 

 excess. The commission averaged two and a half per cent. The 

 employees at once increased their efforts to sell; and when the 

 first distribution was made, last July, it was found that several 

 of the girls had drawn nearly one hundred dollars as their share 

 of the profits for six months. 



The Bodwell Granite Quarry, in Maine, adopted the profit- 

 sharing system in the year 1885. As a result, the output of the 

 works has increased, and the employees are sober, contented, 

 and industrious. The arrangement is this : Ten per cent of the 

 profits is laid aside every year. The remaining profits are divided 

 equally between the employer, the men, and a contingent fund. 

 When the latter reaches more than one per cent of the loss in any 

 one year, the surplus of the fund is divided equally between the 

 employers and the men. It is not probable that there could be 

 losses larger than the contingent fund, unless the business were 

 very poorly managed, or unless a financial crisis came over the 

 whole country. 



The largest manufacturer of felt shoes in the United States, 

 after experiment with several forms of profit-sharing, has recently 

 formulated rules and regulations for the just distribution of the 

 net earnings among his employees. There are to be three classes 

 for this distribution : first, pension ; second, life insurance ; third, 

 endowment. The share of the net earnings to be set aside every 

 year shall be calculated upon the positive results of the records of 

 the actual work done by the employees. Against this distribution 

 account the amounts paid for life insurance, under the provisions 

 of the insurance law, and the amount necessary to maintain the 

 pension fund are to be considered fixed charges. As soon as the 

 workman is made a partner in the business, so that a loss to his 

 employer is a loss to him, it will make him more careful of his 

 time. He will see that his fellow- workman performs his duty, and 

 that there is no waste by any one. Such an arrangement is profit- 

 able to the employer in the end, because every man in his employ 

 will have some incentive to work. The employer thus guarantees 

 extra pay to the employed. 



But can any one guarantee to the employer that every year will 

 be a profitable one ? And if there are losses, who shall make them 

 up ? Shall the employers make them up by themselves, or shall 

 the men, having once been taken into a partnership upon the 

 profits, still continue that partnership by making up their share 

 of the losses ? There are many employed men who are the own- 

 ers, or the partial owners, of their homes. They would gladly 

 enter into an arrangement for the division of the profits, but they 

 would hesitate to mortgage their homes as security for their pro- 

 portion of the losses in a bad year. Other employees could offer 



