The Guise Familistere

Attempts il profit sharing with employés are boing made here and there in large industrial establishments, with a view to ascertaining how far this plan would go towards settling the question of capital and labor. At Guise, in Franco, in 1SCO, was founded the Familistere, a proflt sharing factory. It was an establishment for the manufacture of heating apparatus. At its head was M. Godin, who wrought out the plan of iton thesocialistic model of Fourier. About the same time entbusiasts in America sought earnestly to put Fourier's theories into practice. The millennium was to descend on earth bodily through living together in associations holding property in common and perforrning labor share and share alike. Hawthorne, Horace Greeley, Charles A. Dana and Father Hecker were some of the poweriul intellectualities fascinated by Fourier's shining schemes. Fifty communities were formed, one place and another, in the United States. Every one of them failed. Father Hecker, however, profited sufficiently by his experience to turn Roman Catholic, which he was not in the beginning, and found the great and influential order of Paulist Fathers in the church. The one establishment that made a distinguished success financially was the profit sharing factory at Guise. The plan is this: Weekly wages is fixed at a sum which will enable a workingman to live and maintain his family decently. The workmen receive higher wages than in similar establishments elsewhere and the hours of labor are shorter. When a man is ill he is supported by the sick fund; when too oíd to work he is pensiohed. At the end of the year 6 per cent. on the capital invested is deducted from the profits. Certain other amounts are deducted for four funds - education, sick, poor and pensions. What is left is called "llenefits," and it Í3 distributed among the employés. One-quarter goes to the manager and heads of depai-tments, three-quarters to the workingmen. M. Godin has been at the head of the enterprise during the nearly forty years of its existence. He says the scheme has paid handsomely from the financial point of view. His salary as manager is a very large one, but the factory pays that and all expenses, and yields a good profit. A great saving is effected in the waste and wear and tear of tools and machinery by the profit sharing method. When workmen know it will add directly to their profits to take care of things and be economical, they will do this.