A CO-OPERATIVE SUCCESS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), 15 February 1883, Page 3

A CO-OPERATIVE SUCCESS.

JFcw matters of more interest iit a social sense have been brought before the public of late years than the details of the system of profit-sharing established with .such remarkable success in France by Lcclaire, the ]iead of a --Teat Parisian firm of house painters and decorators. 1 have no doubt, (says a wiiter in an English Magazine) the hnn was made specially great by the manner in which its leader won to himself the zealous service of the men in his employ. He proposed to them a system whereby every person "working with the firm should have an annual share of its profits, and admitted their delegates also to a share in the management of the accounts. Most of his men ridiculed the proposal; but when at the end of the first year they received an unexpected average sum of £10 each, the doubters and mockers were changed to zealous converts and hearty co-operators. lie gained for his work the best workmen, for Ids customers the most reliable work, for his firm the best character, and for himself ii. well-merited and universal respect and gratitude. Leclaire, from the age of ten years to seventeen, worked in the fields, and presumably laid by a little sum, for he then went to Paris and apprenticed himself to a house painter. At 20 years of age he set up for himself, with a capital of £40, which he has saved (k-t my readers note how this thrifty lad and thrifty man made a small capital for himself, while thousands with as good opportunities wasted their means and tailed of success) ; two years Liter he was able to take a contract for a certain job fur £800. And this thrifty man had a heart to spend well too. To get good work done he gave his men five francs a- day instead of four, but only employed the best workers ; and he made his fortune. After lo years' work he made Ids men partners in his business, and, in one particular case, proved the great truth so few can learn to grasp —that labor and capital are father and child, not bitter foes. The moral eifect, as well as the rtrnancKil effect, of tliis ammircincnt was most remarkable. A certain elected number of the men were made members of committee of management (or conciliation, as it is called), and exercised a control over their own body, from which objectionable members could in due form be expelled. Out of DOO persons employed, there were in the eighteen mouths ended July 31, 1880, six cases of misconduct. Of the guilty ones, two were expelled, one suspended f< >v eighteen months, one for fifteen, and one for five day*, and the sixth received a warning. There had been no case of drunkenness for ■several years. The returns of the firm in 1880 were £100,000.