WHAT  IS  MEANT  BY  LABOUR  CO-PARTNERSHIP.

9

receive,  in  partial  remuneration  of  tlieir  labour,  and  in  addition
to  their  wages,  a  share,  fixed  beforehand,  in  the  profits  realised  by
the  undertaking  to  which  the  profit-sharing  scheme  relates.

What  is  meant  by  “  Labour  Co-partnership.”
The  sense  in  which  the  term  “Labour  Oo-partnersliip"  is
employed  may  be  explained  by  quoting  the  words  recently  used
by  some  distinguished  advocates  of  the  system.  In  a  Memorandum ­
  on  “  Co-partnership  and  Labour  Unrest,”  issued  in  October,
1911,*  it  is  stated  that:  —
“  The  Co-partnership  of  Labour  with  Capital  is  capable  of  many
modifications  according  to  the  needs  of  varying  industries,  and  in
some  one  of  them  it  is  applicable  to  almost  every  industry  where
labour  is  employed.  In  its  simplest  form,  taking  the  case  of  a  man
employed  by  a  great  Limited  Liability  Company,  it  involves:  —
1.  That  the  worker  should  receive,  in  addition  to  the  standard
wages  of  the  trade,  some  share  in  the  final  profit  of  the
business,  or  the  economy  of  production.
2.  That  the  worker  should  accumulate  his  share  of  profit,  or
part  thereof,  in  the  capital  of  the  business  employing
him,  thus  gaining  the  ordinary  rights  and  responsibilities ­
  of  a  shareholder.”
Profit-sharing  and  Labour  Co-partnership  exist  in  two  fairly
distinct  forms,  these  methods  being  applied,  on  the  one  hand,  in
Co-operative  Societies  (associations  mainly  or  entirely  composed  of
and  managed  by  workmen,  or  in  the  case  of  Agricultural
Societies,  by  small  farmers),  and,  on  the  other  hand,  in  ordinary
non-co-operative  businesses.  It  will  be  convenient  to  treat  of
these  two  different  kinds  of  industrial  organisations  in  separate
parts  of  this  Report.  Profit-sharing  in  private  firms  and  companies ­
  is  dealt  with  first,  as  this  is  probably  the  aspect  which  has
received  most  general  attention.

c  This  Memorandum  was  signed  by  Lord  Courtney  of  Penwith,  the  Right
Hon.  Thomas  Burt,  M.P.,  the  Right  Hon.  C.  Fenwick,  M.P.,  the  late
J.  M.  Ludlow,  C.B.,  Sir  W.  H.  Lever,  Bart.,  Sir  B.  C.  Browne,  Dr.  Alfred
Marshall,-and  Messrs.  W.  IT.  Hadow,  T.  C.  Taylor,  M.P.,  George  Thomson,
Corbet  Woodall,  Chas.  Carpenter,  and  E.  O.  Greening  ;  also,  on  behalf  of  the
Executive  of  the  Labour  Co-partnership  Association,  by  Mr.  Amos  Mann,  its
President,  Mr.  Aneurin  Williams,  then  Hon.  Treasurer,  and  Mr.  Henry  Vivian,
then  Hon.  Secretary  of  the  Association.