PROFIT-SHARING AND COOPERA TION 799
After providing for depreciation, for 5 per cent, interest on cap- ital, certain per cent, for reserve, and perhaps for propaganda, education, philanthropic works, etc., the remaining profits are divided thus : to workers 40 per cent., to customers 20 percent., 12 per cent, to officers and committeemen, 10 per cent, to provi- dent fund, 10 per cent, to share capital, 5 per cent, to educational fund, 3 per cent, to special service fund. Yet these details vary without limit, some of the above funds being altogether wanting in many cases.
Since the real purpose here is to discover the application of a principle, and not to give an exhaustive account of its opera- tion, further consideration of this phase of the subject is hardly possible. In no country has the subject received the attention that it has in Great Britain ; cooperation in any form being much more of a rarity, at least as a modification of "capitalistic pro- duction." Even in France there were reported only 202 produc- tive cooperative societies for 1897. Not only is this true, but the information concerning their experience is much more frag- mentary upon the point under consideration.' The only reason for considering this phase of the subject is that in Great Britain producers' cooperation has been developed by insisting on the profit-sharing principle, and that the great development of cooperation, especially that of consumers, does not affect the problem of wages save through profit-sharing. This is not true elsewhere. Any wider investigation of cooperation would lead to the consideration of the agricultural syndicates, popular banks, and other forms of cooperative credit common on the con- tinent and, in one or two special forms, in Great Britain and the
■ The results of an investigation concerning similar societies in France were pub- lished in 1897, the data being for the year 1895. There were then 172 such societies, 165 of them furnishing data for the report. These 165 societies had 9,129 members, had capital amounting to 8,904,000 francs, did a business of 32,220,000 francs, and realized profits to the sum of 1,832,000 francs. The profits of those societies realizing all but about 300,000 francs of the total profits were divided as follows : 154,290 francs to reserve funds ; 912,000 francs to interest and dividends on capital ; 68,760 francs to management ; 218,170 francs to laborers belonging to the associations; 158,430 francs to laborers not members; and 50,000 francs to provident funds. In 1896 these societies had increased in number to 202. (Arthur Fontaine, Les associations ouvriires de production, Paris, 1897.)
