from it in the way of dividends; for the road has never earned a dividend. As this has been the experience of all Michigan roads, except one, for many years, it is no reflection upon the road or the system adopted. The system is important, not from the evidence it can give either pro or con, but from the principle upon which it is founded. It is the only American profit sharing enterprise, so far as the writer has knowledge, which openly avows the right of an employé to a share in the enterprise as a fundamental principle. The ordinary plan simply recognizes the right of the employé to a juster share in the product of his labor, with no guarantee as to the future except as the employer may determine. It is true that Mr. Nelson and others have avowed this principle in their efforts for employés, and that Mr. Pomeroy and others have admitted the justness of the principle. But certain provisions in the system adopted by the Ann Arbor road recognize the principle of incorporeal property, as Professor H. C. Adams[1] has termed it, "the right of the workman to his work and to a share in the industry which his endeavor has helped to produce." From this point of view, two provisions of this system are worthy of presentation:
"Rule Third: Every officer and employé, who shall have been in the service of the Company continuously for twenty (20) years or more and voluntarily retires from its service with an honorable discharge, shall be entitled to receive, and have delivered to him, a certificate of the full capital paid up stock of the company, which shall equal in amount at its par value, the total sum paid him as wages for the last year he was in the service of the Company.
"Rule Fourth: If any officer or employé of the Company aforesaid, shall be so disabled, while in the line of active duty, as to be unable to resume his place for a period of six months or more, he shall be entitled to receive a certificate of the full paid up capital stock of the Company, which shall equal in amount, at its par value, the gross sum paid him for the year immediately preceding his said disability. And if any officer or employé shall lose his life while in line of active duty, his wife, if he has one, or if not, his legal representative, shall be entitled to receive a certificate of the full paid up capital stock of the Company which shall equal in amount at its par value, five (5) times the gross sum paid him for the year next preceding his death. Provided, however, that this rule shall not apply where a claim for damages is made in the courts."
- ↑ See address before the Congress on Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration; held at Chicago in November 1894, and other writings of Professor Adams.
