Black and White Part 20

One of the most beautiful models that I know of in modern history is furnished by the town to which reference has already been made--the town of Mulhouse, where, after some thirty years, the spirit of brotherliness has so entered into the relations.h.i.+ps of capital and labor that a firm would be disreputable which there attempted to carry on business as business is ordinarily done here. All the manufacturers plan out, organize, and carry on what to most of us would seem impossible schemes for the amelioration and uplifting of the condition of their working people. No one wonders that, as he walks through the town which his large hearted philanthropy imbued with this fine spirit, the workingmen salute the originator of these schemes as "Father Peter."

In addition to this personal, human relations.h.i.+p, capital might and should, in all justice and humanity, identify the pecuniary interests of labor with its own interests. What is known as industrial partners.h.i.+p is simply a solution of this branch of the problem. The principle is simply that of giving labor a pecuniary interest in the profits of the establishment _pro rata_ with his own wages. A _bonus_ is set on frugality and industry and conscientiousness of work by making the hands small partners in the concern. * * *