stockholders. In this we will probably fail. More than half of the employés sold their first stock dividend. But one has yet been paid. We provide our men with a large hall, lighted and heated, billard and pool tables, a card room, a reading room with scientific books, magazines and papers.
The N. O. Nelson Manufacturing Company, of St. Louis, Mo., Mound City, Ill., and Le Claire, Ill., is the most noted and one of the most successful instances of profit sharing in this country. This firm, established in 1871, manufactures plumber's goods, steam engines, pumps, etc. In 1886 this plan of profit sharing was adopted. Capital is allowed the commercial rate of interest, 10 per cent, of the profits is set aside for a reserve fund, 10 per cent, for a provident fund, and the remainder is divided equally between wages and capital. The reserve fund was created to meet the losses of bad years and equalize dividends when profits were small, the provident fund to take care of the sick, the disabled and the families of deceased laborers. After five years the manner of division was changed so as to yield 2 per cent, dividends on wages for every 1 per cent, on capital, and in place of a fixed per cent, for the special funds whatever was necessary for these purposes was to be paid out of gross profits. In the beginning dividends were payable in cash or in the stock of the company, at the option of the employe. As about three-fourths of the first four dividends were invested in stock, the rule was changed so as to make all dividends payable in the stock of the company. Stock is always redeemed at par whenever the holder leaves the employ of the company. In 1894, a rule was adopted permitting participation in dividends only to those who, working full time and getting full pay, saved 10 per cent, of their wages and invested the savings in the stock of the company. This is not only to enable the employe to save rather than to consume his dividends, and to place upon him the responsibility for this, but to constitute the enterprise a real cooperative undertaking. The bonus averaged about 9 per cent, on wages for the first seven years. In 1893, owing to the business depression, there was no dividend. Rather there promised
