PROFIT-SHARING 



PROGRESSION 



437 



and give away 50,000 than gain 25,000 and keep 

 the whole for myself.' 



The Co-operative Paper Works, Angouleme, 

 founded by M. Laroche-Joubert, adopted a system 

 of profit sharing in entire independence of Leclaire. 

 The dividend is payable in casn ; provision is made 

 for the admission of workmen shareholders, and by 

 1890 one- fourth of the shares were in their hands. 

 The workmen have no part in the management. 

 In the years 1879-88 the sum distributed over.and 

 above wages was 44,880. 



In Messrs Godin's iron-foundry, Guise, employing 

 about J600 hands, the workmen's share of profits 

 accumulates towards the purchase of .shares in the 

 firm. The first method adopted was that of the 

 IHIIHIS ; then the system of benefit societies ; and 

 for many years payments in cash. In 1880 the 

 sum paid in interest on workmen's capital was 

 9200, and in wages 75,000 ; the number of work- 

 men participating was 550 ; in 1889 the number 

 was 961. M. (lodin said that 'ever since the 

 system was established the workmen are interested 

 in improving the output ; they are quick at point- 

 ing out sources of loss and defect, and they exert 

 themselves to make new suggestions.' Mr Lowry 

 Whittle, in liis report to the Board of Trade, says 

 that out of a squalid, ignorant peasantry M. Godin 

 has produced an industrial community with the 

 discipline of a regiment and the commercial alert- 

 ness of the market-place. Since 1881 M. Piat, of 

 the iron-foundries at Paris and Soissons, has dis- 

 tributed a portion of net profits. In M. de 

 Courcy's plan 5 per cent, of the profits are set 

 aside ever)' year to form a fund upon which every 

 employe, after twelve months' service, has a claim 

 in the proportion of his year's salary to the total 

 amount of profits set aside. 



But those who have tested any system of profit- 

 sharing declare that it requires much time and 

 ]>ains to produce substantial results ; and a diffi- 

 culty in working the system is that profit-sharers 

 are not unfrequently unwilling to share the losses 

 of the concern. In France there was founded in 

 1878 a society for facilitating the practical study 

 of the different kinds of profit-sharing, which 

 issues a quarterly Bulletin de la Participation 

 aiix Benefices. Both on the Continent and in 

 America there have been experiments made in 

 co-operative farming, fishing, market-gardening, 

 and co-operative workshops. Alfred Dolge, of 

 Dolgeville, New York state, a Saxon by birth, the 

 largest manufacturer of felt shoes and piano felt, 

 &c. , in the United States, has in operation a 

 system of what he calls earning (not profit) sharing 

 amongst his employes, which originated in the 

 conviction that in the creation of wealth certain 

 of the employes contribute a larger share than is 

 represented by their wages, and are entitled to 

 something more than the wages proper. These 

 real earnings can be determined by book-keeping, 

 irrespective of any market- rate of wages. He 

 claims that it is the selfish interest of every 

 employer, as a means of actual ultimate gain, to 

 find out what the earnings of each of his workmen 

 are. The main features of the Dolge scheme are : 

 a pension scheme, insurance endowment, and 

 various Ixjnevolences. ( 1 ) Under the pension 

 scheme a workman over 21 years of age, and under 

 50, after ten years' service, in case of partial or 

 total inability to work; is entitled to a pension at 

 the rate of 50 per cent, of wages earned during 

 the year preceding ; rising to 100 per cent, after 

 twenty-five years' service. The pension fund is 

 paid from yearly contributions set aside by the 

 firm on behalf of each workman, and in 1891 it 

 was reported that it would soon be self-support- 

 ing. (2) Fifteen years of service entitles to three 

 insurance policies of $1000 each : 75 policies of a 



value of |138,000 were existing in 1891. Over 

 $20,000 had been paid in premiums by the firm. 

 (3) The endowment money is the sum credited eacli 

 year on account of more work done than has been 

 paid for in wages ; the endowment account begins 

 after five years' service, and is payable at the age 

 of 60 or at death. Mr Dolge, for the benefit of his 

 work-people, has given a park of 400 acres, assisted 

 in building houses, maintains a club-house and free 

 library, and pays $5000 a year to the school society. 

 Strikes and labour disputes are reported as un- 

 known at his factories. 



In Great Britain any system of profit-sharing is 

 not of such long standing as in France. The 

 system adopted at the Whitwood Collieries of 

 Messrs Briggs, Yorkshire, lasted beneficially from 

 1864 to 1875, when it ceased on account of the par- 

 ticipation of the workmen in a strike against reduc- 

 tion of wages. During that time 34,000 had been 

 distributed in percentage on wages. This percent- 

 age was paid when the net profits exceeded 10 per 

 cent, on the capital embarked, one-half going to 

 the work-people in proportion to earnings. Pro- 

 vision was also made for the work-people securing 

 shares when the concern became a limited liability 

 company. 



The method of profit-sharing employed by many 

 British linns may be gathered from the first rule 

 which is generally adopted. ' From and after the 

 1st of September 18 the surplus (if any) of the 

 clear profits of the business, beyond such definite 

 sum as is for the time being reserved to the firm 

 for their own benefit, shall be divided into two 

 equal parts; one thereof to be distributed (not of 

 legal right, but gratuitously) as a bonus to the 

 employes in the manner defined by these rules, 

 and the other to be retained by the firm.' 



See Leroy-Beaulieu, Repartition den Richcsses (1881); 

 Hart's Maison Leclaire (1883); Taylor's Profit-sharing 

 ( 1884 ) ; Wright's Pro_tit-iharina( Boston, 1886 ) ; Bohmert's 

 Participations aux Sfnfficet ( 1888 ) ; Oilman's Profit-shar- 

 ing ( 1889), which contains a full bihliography ; Bushill's 

 Profit-sharing Srhrme, with list of British profit-sharing 

 firms; Die tferechte Verteilung des Gesckaftvertrays 

 (1891); Raw'son's Profit-sharing Precedents (189i); 

 Articles by Schloss in Contemporary Review for 1890 ; The 

 Just Distribution of Earnings, an account of Dolge'g 

 scheme ( 1890 ) ; the report to the Board of Trade by J. 

 Lowry Whittle (1891) ; Bushill's Profit-sharing and the 

 Labour Question ( 1892) ; and the articles CO-OPERATION, 

 SOCIALISM. 



Prognostications. See ALMANAC, and 

 METEOROLOGY, Vol. VII. p. 155. 

 Programme lliisic. See Music, Vol. VII. 



p. 360. 



Progreso, the port of Merida, in Yucatan, 

 from which it is 25 miles N. by two lines of rail- 

 way. It stands on an open bay, exposed to every 

 wind, and is one of the worst harbours in the 

 world ; but it has a very large export trade in 

 heniquen (Sisal hemp). 



Progression, in Arithmetic, is the succession, 

 according to some fixed law, of one number after 

 another. A series of numbers so succeeding one 

 another is said to be ' in progression.' Progression 

 may be of various kinds, but the three forms of 

 most frequent occurrence are Arithmetical Pro- 

 gression (q.v. ), Geometrical Progression (q.v. ), 

 and Harmnnical Progression. If the terms of an 

 arithmetical progression be inverted they form a 

 series in harmonica! progression ; thus, 1, 2, 3, 4, 

 5, 6, &c. is an arithmetical progression; and 1, ^, 

 4i i. ii A, & c - ' 8 * harmonica! progression. This 

 series is principally important in connection with 

 the theory of music, in determining the length of 

 the strings of instruments. See HARMONICS. 



Progression, MUSICAL. The regular succes- 

 sion of chords or the movement of the parts of a 



