Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/816

 796 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

individualists hold that profit-sharing is a necessary element in any such form of cooperation, but only one of two. In this last is found the difference between this form of profit-sharing and profit-sharing as ordinarily considered.

It is impossible to give an accurate and comprehensive account of the experience of this form of profit-sharing in the past. The number of such enterprises is unknown, as is also the length of the experience and the results As previously stated, all those started under the patronage of the Christian Socialists were of this type, and nearly all have ceased to exist. Nearly all the Scottish enterprises were of this plan, but there is no record of the number of failures. Many of the "work- ing class limited" associations adopted this plan, but none at present practice it." Of the seventy-six Oldham cotton mills of this type, Mr. Schloss mentions two that have adopted and later abandoned the plan.^ Mr. Jones 3 argues from the experi- ence of these societies the insufficiency of profit-sharing. In these "working class limiteds" the interest on capital averages only 4j^ per cent., while wages are above the normal, having been increased more than 40 per cent, during the last twenty years. Hence the trades unions and the workmen in general feel that such societies are superior to profit-sharing, for under all profit-sharing schemes the interest and the dividends on cap- ital are far higher, while frequently wages are not up to the normal rate.

In 1897 there were reported 1,845 distributive cooperative societies, or stores. Comparatively few of these give a bonus to labor. The Cooperative Union has made every effort to obtain information upon this point, but with no great success. The inquiry made in 1890 embraced 1,418 societies. The replies were not very numerous, while " about sixty societies state that they share profits with their employes, but to what extent and in what manner it is almost impossible to determine. Many societies, however, state that their employes get the same amount

' Benjamin Jones, Co-operative Production, chap. 28. ' D. F. Schloss, Report on Profit Sharing, p. 14. 3 Co-operative Production, p. 789.