342 



FRENCH EXHIBITION. 



and now occupy superior positions as engineers. 

 The funds of the provident or benefit society 

 are raised by a contribution of 2 per cent, of 

 the wages of each person employed. In case 

 of illness, the expense of medical treatment is 

 defrayed from this fund, and one-third of the 

 usual wages is allowed to each workman dur- 

 ing continued inability to work. These funds 

 also serve for the payment of pensions to widows 

 and orphans of workmen killed by accident at 

 the works. The funds of the benefit society 

 are well managed, and there is a balance car- 

 ried to the reserve every year. The present 

 expenditure is nearly 8,000 per annum ; still 

 there is an accumulated reserve capital of about 

 12,000. The amount deposited by about 

 five hundred workmen in the savings bank in 

 1866 amounted to 10,000. The number of 

 crimes amongst the inhabitants of Creusot is 

 less than one-half of the average percentage in 

 France. Creusot, with 23,000 inhabitants, has 

 no justice of the peace, no lawyer, and no po- 

 liceman. There is hardly any other place in 

 the world which presents a similar example of 

 a large industrial population existing together 

 under conditions of material and moral welfare 

 so favorable as those of Creusot. 



M. Krupp's works, at Essen, are equal to 

 Creusot in their extent and number of work- 

 men, but in a totally different geographical 

 position, and with workmen of a different na- 

 tionality. Payment by piece-work is the gen- 

 eral rule, and the rates of wages are about 

 the same as, or slightly lower than, those in 

 France. The works are situated in a town of 

 considerable size, and the workmen find, there- 

 fore, greater facilities for the education of their 

 children than the inhabitants of a simple col- 

 ony of laborers, however large that colony 

 may be. The schools in Prussia are extremely 

 well managed, and afford ample facilities for 

 giving the elements of education. The infor- 

 mation-given by M. Krupp on the management 

 and results of the benefit society created by 

 him for his workmen is very complete and 

 instructive. Each workman pays toward the 

 relief fund an amount varying from 2 to 3 

 per cent, of his wages. This amount is de- 

 ducted by the firm from the payments and en- 

 tered to the credit of the fund. To this the 

 firm adds a sum equal to one-half of all the 

 contributions, or about 1J and 1 per cent, on 

 all the wages paid at the works. The funds 

 of this society are therefore maintained by a 

 tax of about 4 per cent, on the^ total earnings 

 of the workmen. "With this contribution the 

 workmen secure to themselves the following 

 advantages : In case of illness, each workman 

 receives from 40 to 50 per cent, of his usual 

 wages, and under exceptional difficulties as, 

 for instance, during an epidemic still larger 

 amounts are paid to the sufferers. After 20 

 years' service in the establishment, each work- 

 man has a claim to an annual pension out of 

 these funds, amounting to one-half of the 

 amount of wages earned by him during the 



last year ; after 35 years of service, each 

 workman receives his full pay as a pension for 

 life. The whole expense of administration and 

 management of these funds, of keeping ac- 

 counts, and disposing of the accumulated sums 

 in an appropriate manner, is borne by the firm. 

 In case of death by accident when at work, or 

 in case of a permanent incapability for work 

 in consequence of such an accident, there are 

 pensions allowed to the widows and orphans of 

 the deceased, or to the injured workmen, which, 

 according to the circumstances of the case, are 

 fixed from two-thirds to the entire amount of 

 previous earnings. The balance-sheet of this 

 society for the last ten years shows a regularly 

 increasing surplus at the close of every year. 

 In the year 1865 the total payments amounted 

 to 56,360 thalers (about 8,500), and a balance 

 of 11,910 thalers remained as a surplus to be 

 added to the reserve funds. M. Krupp has 

 also established a cooperative store for his 

 workmen, which is managed by a committee 

 of which he is himself a member, and which 

 has succeeded in supplying those who have 

 joined the cooperation with cheaper and better 

 provisions than can be obtained from the 

 tradesmen in the town of Essen. There have 

 also been some model lodging-houses for single 

 workmen, and a considerable number of cot- 

 tages for families, built by M. Krupp for the 

 use of his employes. The rents are much 

 lower in these houses than in the town all 

 round, and the houses and lodgings are much 

 more comfortable and healthy than could be 

 otherwise obtained by the workmen. During 

 the recent cholera epidemic, to which in the 

 town of Essen 2 per cent, of the inhabitants 

 fell victims, the mortality amongst M. Krupp's 

 workmen and their families was only 0.68 per 

 cent., and in his model lodging-house not a 

 single death by cholera occurred amongst its 

 650 inhabitants. At the close of each year, 

 when the balance-sheet is drawn up, a sum 

 proportionate to the profits of the concern is 

 divided amongst all workmen in the establish- 

 ment as a bonus. The proportionate share is 

 in accordance with the amount of earnings 

 drawn by each during the whole year, but it 

 must be considered a gratuity given the em- 

 ployes, since they have no legal claim to de- 

 mand, and no power to control, the amount of 

 their participation in the profits of the concern. 

 The lesson given by the competitors for the 

 new prize at the Exhibition, viz., that, to estab- 

 lish harmony between masters and men, the 

 masters must take the first steps, must make 

 the interests of their laborers their own, and, 

 by proving themselves the friends of their 

 workmen, gain their confidence and attach- 

 ment. Make education cheap, and the benefits 

 which will devolve indirectly upon the masters 

 by their assisting in raising the standard of 

 intelligence amongst their workmen will in 

 time prove fully as great and ample a reward 

 for present expenditure and care as has been 

 the case in France and in Germany. 



