3

For  one  reason  or  another  a  large  number  of  failures  seem
to  have  occurred  in  the  various  attempts  which  have  been  made
to  give  the  workers  a  direct  share  of  profits.  In  more  than  half
the  cases  of  abandoned  schemes  the  cause  of  abandonment  seems,
however,  to  be  traceable  not  to  any  inherent  fault  in  the  scheme  as
such,  but  to  the  falling  off  of  business  and  to  the  fact  that  there  were
no  profits  to  share.  This  form  of  weakness  is  less  likely  to  affect
undertakings  which  are  more  or  less  of  the  nature  of  monopolies.
Gas  companies  account  for  33  out  of  the  133  profit-sharing
schemes  now  known  to  be  in  existence;  but  it  would  probably  be
unsafe  to  deduce  from  their  experience  any  general  principles
applicable  to  commercial  undertakings  of  an  ordinary  character.
Doubtless  the  success  or  failure  of  profit-sharing  depends
largely  on  the  type  of  scheme  introduced,  on  its  applicability  to
the  particular  business  of  the  employer,  and  on  the  spirit  in
which  it  is  worked  by  the  two  parties  to  the  agreement.  To  what
extent  it  may  be  possible  for  profit-sharing  and  co-partnership
arrangements  to  become  general  throughout  British  industry,  and
what  influence  the  adoption  of  such  systems  would  be  likely  to
exert  in  promoting'  industrial  peace,  are  questions  which  are  of
very  great  moment,  but  which  it  would  certainly  be  improper  to
attempt  to  answer  in  a  Report  like  the  present,  intended,  not  to
formulate  opinions,  but  only  to  supply  the  facts  and  materials  upon
which  a  judgment  may  be  formed.
A  section  of  the  Report  deals  briefly  with  Profit-sharing  and
Labour  Co-partnership  in  co-operative  societies.  This  section
presents  some  special  features  arising  out  of  the  fact  that  here
there  is  no  separate  employing  class,  and  the  capital  is  provided
by  the  members  of  these  workmen’s  societies.  In  the  retail  distributive ­
  societies,  or  “  co-operative  stores,”  195,  or  about  one  in
seven  of  the  whole  “Store”  group,  have  profit-sharing  schemes
for  the  workers  employed.  The  number  of  profit-sharing  workers
in  these  societies  was  upwards  of  17,000  in  the  year  1910;  and
the  bonus  divided  amounted  to  about  4£  per  cent,  on  the  wages
of  the  workers  participating.  In  addition,  one  of  the  co-operative ­
  wholesale  societies,  and  three  of  the  consumers’  productive
societies,  had  profit-sharing  schemes,  with  about  7,600  and  1,300
participating  workers,  respectively,  in  the  year  1910.
Another  group  of  co-operative  societies  are  the  Productive
Associations  of  Workers,  that  is  to  say,  societies  formed  and
managed  primarily  in  the  interests  of  the  workers  employed,  and
not  of  the  consumers.  In  view  of  this  feature  of  their  constitution, ­
  it  is  not  surprising  to  find  that  40  of  them,  or  nearly  half
of  the  total  number,  allotted  a  share  in  their  profits  to  their
workers  in  1910,  either  as  bonus  on  wages  or  as  contributions  to
provident  funds,  or  both.  Moreover,  a  large  proportion  (36^  per
cent,  in  19.10)  of  the  committee-men  who  manage  such  societies
are  themselves  workers.
In  conclusion,  I  desire,  to  point  out  that,  although  an  endeavour
has  been  made  to  make  the  particulars  contained  in  this  Report
with  regard  to  Profit-sharing  and  Co-partnership  in  private
4  2

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