SAMUEL CABOT. 



551 



layers of asbestos or felting, and proved especially well adapted for 

 these purposes, thus furnishing a use for a very cheap and hitherto 

 worthless material. 



Not every experiment was a success, however ; as with all inventors, 

 his path was strewn with failures, for it was not enough to make a 

 process work, but it must also pay. Thus, for instance, he invented a 

 set of stains on a creosote basis for interior use in houses, but, although 

 admirable from the technical and artistic standpoints, the demand for 

 them was so small that it was not worth while to manufacture them. 



At the time of his death his principal products were shingle-stains, 

 lampblack, deadening-felt, sulpho-naphthol, benzol, naphtha, brick pre- 

 servative, sheep dip, mortar colors, black varnish, and coal-tar pitch. I 

 give this list to show how far he had departed from his original plan of 

 establishing a varied manufacture of fine chemicals, as it seems to me 

 a remarkable proof of his sagacity that he was able to select products 

 for which there was a demand, instead of wasting his energies on lines 

 of work for which the country was not prepared. 



One of his most interesting achievements was the successful estab- 

 lishment of a system of profit-sharing with the operatives of his fac- 

 tory. I am fortunately able to give an account of it in his own words, 

 taken from an address on the subject delivered a few years ago before 

 the American Social Science Association. 



"At a very early period in my business experience it appeared to 

 me that the rewards ordinarily offered to the wage-earner were not 

 such as to stimulate him to the best exertion nor foster in him the best 

 and kindest feelings toward his employer. 



" Even to-day is it not true that in the great majority of cases the 

 wage-earner's only stimulus is the desire to hold his job 1 In fact, is 

 not the fear of discharge the only incentive to exertion in a large ma- 

 jority of cases 1 



" Feeling as I did, and still do, that men can always be led more 

 successfully than they can be driven, that Hope as leader and captain 

 can accomplish more than Fear as tyrant and slave-driver, I set myself 

 — ignorantly and crudely to be sure, but earnestly — to try to do bet- 

 ter things. My method has grown to be essentially as follows : 



" Every man who enters my employ is given the current rate of 

 wages for similar work. If he desires also to participate in the profit- 

 sharing, he is required to sign a paper in which he promises to do his 

 work as quickly and carefully as possible, remembering that the greater 

 the yield the larger the profits, and to give me sixty days' notice before 

 leaving me. 



" On my part, I promise to divide, at the expiration of each six 



