In 1864,
the extensive business of John Crossley and Sons, with all its mills,
machinery, plant, warehouses and stock-in-trade--at Halifax,
Kidderminster, Manchester, and London,--was converted into a joint-stock
company. The company was formed with the primary design of receiving the
co-operation of all parties associated with the business, and with the
object of securing a spirit of harmony and the material well-being and
profit of the workpeople, clerks, managers, and others interested in the
concern. In order to enable the workpeople to join in the business, a
large sum of money was lent to them for the purpose of taking up
returned shares in the company; and the workpeople took them up to a
large extent. A preference was always given to the managers and
operatives; and the amount of shares applied for by them was invariably
allotted in full.
The results of this system have proved entirely satisfactory; the
directors reporting that "the active energies of all parties necessary
to ensure success have been fully enlisted. They claim originality, in
their method of securing the direct interest of the _employes_, and they
rejoice in being able to report that the system has more than realized
their highest expectations."[1] At the present time, the _employes_ hold
shares in the company, of the value of about thirty thousand pounds; and
the deposit bank, founded for the use of the workpeople exclusively,
contains money-savings amounting to more than sixteen thousand pounds!
And thus the vow of Martha Crossley, that the poor should taste of the
prosperity of John Crossley and Sons, has been amply and nobly
fulfilled!
[Footnote 1: Reports of the Paris Universal Exhibition, 1867, vol.
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