CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 286, 6 May 1914, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

PKOFIT-SHARTNG. Mr. Theodore C. Taylor, M.P., head of the firm of J. T. and G. Taylor, Ltd., woollen manufacturers, of Ba.tley, at the annual meeting of the concern, said that since the scheme of profit-sharing was introduced twenty-two years ago. an average dividend of 10 per cent, on capital had been paid, and over £130,000 allotted to the workers in bonus shares, dividend and interest. All the time the •tandard rate of wages for the district had been paid by the firm. Mr Taylor also announced that for the past year a cash dividend of 10 per centum on shares would be paid, and a bonus (given in the shape of fully-paid shares) of 5 per cent, on wages would be allowed. ])oul)le bonus, viz., 10 per cent., would be given to all employees of not less than twenty-one years of age who had been v,\lh the company at least five years and owned shares equal to half a year's wages. By way of illustration Mr. Taylor pointed out that an employee entitled to' double bonus, owning fifty £1 shares, and whose wages for last year amounted to £7O, would receive l't per cent, cash dividend on his fiftv shares—that was t~> —and 10 per cent. bimws (in the shape of shares) on his wattes. £7o—that was £7—s^ total value of £li. equal to au addition to his last year's

wages of ia 7d per week. Mr. Taylor commended, profit-sharing to the consideration of other firms, and characterised as a foul slandor the suggestion, sometimes made, that profit-sharing firms first "took out of the workpeople" what they afterwards paid in bonus.

THE LIFE BLOOD OF BUSINESS. Mr. Thomas Barratt, whose death was announced recently, was truly described as the father of modern advertising. Wnen he became connected with the firm of Pears more than thirty years ago no manufacturer or salesman had thought of winning trade by means of aggressive advertising and very few people had ever heard of Pear's soap, His colleagues stood aghast when Mr. Barratt proposed to spend many thouands of pounds a year in order to attract public attention to his firm's goods. But he had "a way with him', and he ffas allowed to test his theories. He lied whole columns and pages of the newspapers with his advertisements where his rivals had been content to buy modest inches, and he scattered his posters and hoardings all over the United Kingdom. He employed famous artists to paint him pictures which oould be used to illustrate the virtues of his wares, and he dinned into the cars of a nation such catch-phrases as, "Good morning! Have you used Pears' soap?" His rivals fondly imagined he was hastening his firm to bankrupfey, but they soon realised there was the sanest method in the madness of his prodigal expenditure. Mr. Barratt lived to see advertising become the very life blood of business.

MARGARINE FOR BUTTBR. In France and Denmark there is practically no attempt to sell oleomargarine as butter, because in both of these countries it is strictly forbidden to color margarine yellow in imitation of butter. France, birthplace of the margarine industry, controls and regulates its manufacture by the most rigid laws of any country in, Europe. They not only prohibit the coloring, but require all manufacturers and dealers to display large signs stating that margarine is there manufactured or sold, as the case may be. Butter must not be manufactured or sold on the premises with margarine. Most of the European countries have laws prohibiting the sale of margarine in the same store where butter is sold, but in most cases this is considered unnecessarily extreme. The manufacturers of margarine claim that there would be very little demand for margarine if it were sold to the public in its natural color, white, but Denmark has proved that this fear is groundless. Though the coloring of margarine is forbidden, the per capita consumption 13 greater in Denmark than in any •th.er country in the world. The population is 8,775,000 and the amount of margarine consumed last year in Denmark was 2,000,0001b, and all of this was white or uncolored margarine.