E
Profit Sharing Plan
By Charles Sehl.
Since the Federal Indus
trial Relations Committee
has been at work, the ie'ev
that the differences between j
Capita! and Labor can be
largely overcome by having
the employers of labor adopt
the "Profit Sharing Plan”
reached ft3 height. Not
mme by those 'good people j
__-__.j
.i.
who are members of “Wei.
fare Organizations,” but by
men like Dante! Guggenheim
of the American Smelting
and R ‘fining Company, and
Geo. W- Perkins of the Inter
national Haryest er Co.
Why such otherwise prac
tical men should expect in
teligent working rhen to fol.
1
low them into such a dream j
is difficult for'one i&' under
stand.
There are, of course, ma
ny details in their scheme,
1 ut the principle ones arc
these. If you make the em
ploye sort of feel that he is
a stockholder in the compa
ny Tie will be more faithful,
_n_
It is estimated that mere are
from 100,000 to 110,009 working
peopie unemployed at the pre
sent moment in Chicago alone.
Thera are probably 300,009 or
more unemployed in the state
of Illinois, 'them are probably
not less than 4,'000,000 unerr.
ployed in the United States.
It is a social anc! persona! tra
gedy. It is a tremendous human
and social waste. Such a problem
growing more and more acute
h
each year, is a menace to socie
shall it be’ met? How
can we relieve the unemployed
'■ first of ail, society must find
1 all the jobs there are for so ma
ny of the unemployed as can.
take them. And that means aj
vast improvement over our sys
tem of employment bureaus.
Private bureaus are utterly inad
equate. Often they are but one
more means of s'qiueeziug the
< last penny out of the already
crushed and despairing working
man, a curse help is need
id.
Even municipal and state em
ployment bureaus are often quite
♦ inadequate. What we need is a
unified system of federal employ
ment bureau, properly co-ordina
ted with municipal and state bu
reau* into one System covering
the whole city state and nation.
In this way v, e shall finally re
? duco unemployment to the lowest
I
! possible minimum.
But secondly, after every job
! has found its man' and every man
has found his job, there still re
i
I mains a a vast army of the un
I employed.Under capitalism there
are never enough job3 for all the
men, There is always in eVery
nation a vest reserve army of
t'-e unemployed.
Hence the necessity of “mat
ing” work for the unemployed,
of creating jobs. The city should
at periods of depression'and un
employment, run all possible
public works, so as to absorb
the unemployed. More streets
should be cleaned, repai.el
and paved; more puplic schools
should be erected, whatever pub
lie buildings are needed should
be hurried forward. There are
streets to be laid out, improve
ments to be made; the city can
extend its water Works, gas and
electric light plants. It should he
cjuire and extend street car lines
and other public utilities. And
the city should buy tracts of land
and begin the buildii g ofhouscs
for the pepplej to'be Vented at'
cost, AH these things, properly
pushed, would give work to tl.-e
unemployed and at the same
1 time make needed and valuable
| improvements in tne city life.
To enable the cities 'to carry
out such public works, the fede-j
ral government should loan mo-.
nay to the municipalities, coun-J
ties and states, at some very low j
rate of interest, to he secured by ^
local bonds and to be repaid in e
qual installments over a period
of, say, twenty years. This
would mable every city,-county
and state to take care of its Own
unemployed. It would relieve a
world of distress. ‘ And at the
same time it would add to th3‘
common wealth
But the problem of the unem
ployed cannot be finally disposed
of until the capitalist system is
destroyed. Unemployment of a
large proportion of the workers
is an essentia’, inevitable and un
escapable feature of capitalism.
Capitalism, nowhere, and at no
time, employ s’all the workers
steadily. It does not and it can
not,' • .
It cannot, for the simple rea
son tjiat ii’nder capitalism, the!
workers are exploited. *Thts 6k*
ploitation reduces their purchis
ing pb'WiSr. Retice'S kUVftluffc &ccum j
ulates'whicTicahnotbe disposed j
of at a profit, because the1- Work
ers have nothing with which to
buy. Hence, over production.
since his share of the profit.
Will be' 9ct*rmiiied1'Miy tfe;
gross profits of the company, j
■Their share of the1 profits;
will also be regulated accor-!
ding to the length of ser
viiSj Likcreal stockholders,
they will be called into the
meetings with the directors
and told all about the trou
- ---—
Hence, the stoppage pf produc
tion; more men!- thrown out bf
work, and the further aggravation
df unemployment.
And so on, capitalism rune its
i . . . , ■ , - .
I vicious circ e ana leaves in its
1 trail the human wreckage and
social waste of its millions of un
employed,
Socialism eliminates the profit
system. The resources of nature
and the public utilities are all in
the hands of the government.
Public credit backed by public
wealth is a'so at its command
with these in hand, all the indus
tries may be set in motion and
kfipt in motion. No profit will be
heeded or sought any more than
there is today in the pbstal de
liartmdnt hr the public schools.
Production will then proceed on
the basis of the needs of the peo
pie and not on the basis of pri
vate profit or exploitation.
Being no exploitation there
white no so-called “overproduc
tion. ”'The workfers wilt be able
to buy out of the market what
their labor puts into the market.
Production and consumption will
be balanced There will be no
clogging of the machienry of in
dustry by the surplus stolen from i
labor, ana therefore no periodi
cal stoppage of production. And
therefore no ■'petiods of'" acute
unemployment. ‘
Soeisilistft1 solves the problem
Advertisers,
of thSkuAefii ployed*^ 1 ‘
uiia trials of their com*
patty; '* * *:l >' •• ...
i At‘these meetings the wor
kas ;VliJ be fold that while
th® intarests of Labor and
Capital may not be identical
f tha point «f distribution
yaey are af least identical
fn the-«Phere of production;
because some labor leaders
have said so, and conse
quently thte more interest
you take in your work the
better it will be for “our^
company,"
Labor organizations are af
right they say and we need tin rrr
but by allowing the worker to
“have a voice and a share of the
profits” the class vmr will lie
converted to a pink-tea.
If the Bankers and Captains
of Industries cf the United States'
would allow themselves to he
such Utopians in the manage
ment of their great enterprises"
as they are on this question of
‘'profit sharing. ’’Germany wou’ri
have had all our “fc: dgn mar’
kets” long ago.
Suppose the proht shariny
plan were adopted in a few large
corporations, I say a few because
[ don’t suppose anyone will im«
sgine that it could bo adapted a!!
ever any one country at the
same time, and supp. ue that the
faithfulness of the employees of
i given industry enabled ‘"theii
company” to best tbeir compete
ors, what would be the effect.
Some industries would go to
.he wall and their employes out
>f a job. With the increased effl
:iency pf the workers in the suc
cessful company, it would meat.
,hat only a part of those worker?
if the"defeated industries couifl
find work. And only those who
were in a position to move to the
town'where the Work had gone.
No matter what "kind of a
scheme is adopted it will certain
|y not create new markets.
(T» be continued next week