Labor: Sharing the Profits

Perhaps the first U.S. businessman to share his company's profits with workers—at his Pennsylvania glass plant in 1797—was Albert Gallatin, the Secretary of the Treasury under Jefferson.

Gallatin really started something. To day more than 50,000 U.S. companies have profit-sharing plans, and profit sharing is one of the fastest-spreading ideas in U.S. labor relations, often embraced by men who find themselves on opposite sides of the bargaining table.

Last week the managers of American Motors transferred $9,200,000 from the company's fiscal 1963 earnings into gifts of stock for the workers and contributions to their welfare fund. At the same time, United...