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hardly be displeased with it. The conveniences of the com- pany, its general equipment and its facilities for transporta- tion of raw material and product, are perhaps unequaled in the same kind of business anywhere else in the world. The most improved machinery, special devices for saving time and labor, a complete system of telephones connecting the various build- ings, and the general arrangement of the whole plant give it remarkable advantages in industrial economy. Beside tracks of its own, and locomotives for switching purposes, the com- pany has direct connection with three railway lines. It manu- factures its own boxes for shipping, and utilizes much of that which in a smaller establishment would be waste product.
Notwithstanding the completeness of the plant, the condi- tions for success in profit-sharing are not altogether favorable. The nature of the industry in which the company is engaged, and the character of the labor employed, are not the most desirable for such an experiment. Profit-sharing can be eco- nomically successful only where there is opportunity for such improvement in the efficiency of labor as to enhance the profits. "It is least effective," we are told, " in industries where mech- anism is the principal agency, where interest on capital fixed in machinery is the chief element of cost price, and where the workmen assembled in large factories, can be easily and effectively superintended." 1 These, however, are the conditions at Ivory- dale. The labor employed is of the most ordinary unskilled kind, a kind not quick to see and appreciate the benefits of the system. The opportunities for the enlargement of product by increased efficiency of labor are not so great as in some other industries, and wages form a comparatively small item in cost of production. The fact, therefore, that profit-sharing has suc- ceeded in Ivorydale beyond expectation has all the more weight.
The original plan of allowing the workmen to participate in the profits was begun in April 1887, the motive of the company being both economic and philanthropic. During the year 1886, when the Knights of Labor were beginning to assume such
'SEDLEY TAYLOR, Profit-Sharing between Capital and Labor, p. 18.
