The plan, as finally worked out and put into operation, was designed to accomplish three main objects: first, to interest employees in the Steel Corporation as a whole and not merely in the operations of the subsidiary for which they worked; second, to give them an incentive to do everything possible to reduce expenses and correspondingly increase profits; third, to offer them an inducement to stay with the Corporation and identify themselves with it.
It is with the first, or stock subscription part of the plan, that the public is most familiar. The benefits of this are extended to all employees of the Corporation who desire to take advantage of it. It is simply an effort to increase their interest in the Corporation and at the same time encourage thrift by enabling them to purchase stock at an attractive price and to pay for it in small instalments, with the additional incentive of a bonus for holding for a certain time the stock purchased. Usually the offering price has been a point or two below the market, but in 1920, for the first time, the subscription price was set slightly above it.
In effect the stock subscription plan makes for a capital-labor partnership. It benefits both the worker and the employing company. It, in a small way, makes the worker a capitalist himself and enables him to see something of both sides of the case in capital and labor disputes. This plan, and others more or less similar adopted by other companies, have done more to bring into accord the relations between capital and labor than thousands of sermons and theses by theoretical reformers. It is a hard-headed, practical solution of the great problem.
The late George W. Perkins has generally been credited with the conception and perfection of this plan. And unquestionably he had much to do with it, and took a leading part in its consummation. He always took a keen interest in anything that tended to better the conditions surrounding the worker or to reduce the friction that, unfortunately, exists between capital and labor. But, as a matter of fact, the plan was largely Judge Gary’s, as was brought out in the testimony in the Steel dissolution suit, and—to quote Perkins himself:
“Two men have been my especial inspiration—one of them Judge Gary, the actual operating developer of corporation progressiveness as we have it at its best; but he has a positive passion for doing good things and big things behind the screen of somebody else’s personality; and credit that belongs to him—tremendous credit—lands elsewhere. Over and over he has made me protest against his insistence that I or another should accept applause for accomplishment directly belonging to himself; for instance, in employees pensions and profit sharing.”
In its application the stock subscription plan has been an unqualified success. Particularly in recent years employees of all classes from common labor to executives have shown eagerness to avail themselves of its terms to acquire a personal financial interest in the big Corporation. Subscriptions for years have far exceeded the amounts of stock offered and all over-subscriptions have been honored. The figures of the annual subscriptions to stock under the plan speak for themselves:
| YEAR | PREFERRED SHARES TAKEN | PRICE | COMMON SHARES TAKEN | PRICE | NO. OF EMPLOYEES SUBSCRIBING |
| 1921 | —— | —— | 255,308 | $81.00 | 81,710 |
| 1920 | —— | —— | 161,298 | 106.00 | 63,324 |
| 1919 | —— | —— | 155,098 | 92.00 | 59,792 |
| 1918 | —— | —— | 93,488 | 92.00 | 41,991 |
| 1917 | —— | —— | 66,519 | 107.00 | 38,326 |
| 1916 | —— | —— | 49,538 | 85.00 | 24,631 |
| 1915 | No offering | ||||
| 1914 | 42,687 | 105.00 | 47,346 | 57.00 | 45,928 |
| 1913 | 34,418 | 109.00 | 25,583 | 66.00 | 35,687 |
| 1912 | 30,613 | 110.00 | 30,528 | 65.00 | 36,575 |
| 1911 | 19,324 | 114.00 | 29,072 | 70.00 | 26,305 |
| 1910 | 24,679 | 124.00 | —— | —— | 17,381 |
| 1909 | 17,953 | 110.00 | 15,380 | 50.00 | 19,116 |
| 1908 | 30,398 | 87.50 | —— | —— | 24,527 |
| 1907 | 27,150 | 102.00 | —— | —— | 14,163 |
| 1906 | 24,001 | 100.00 | —— | —— | 12,192 |
| 1905 | 18,180 | 87.50 | —— | —— | 8,494 |
| 1904 | 31,644 | 55.00 | —— | —— | 9,912 |
| 1903 | 47,551 | 82.50 | —— | —— | 26,399 |
Note: Above figures differ slightly from those given in annual reports, a few employees having failed each year to go through with their subscriptions.
Besides being given as much as three years to pay for stock purchased employees who hold their stock receive an annual bonus for five years. At first, when only preferred stock was issued, the bonus was $5.00 a year. Later, when the common stock began to have a real investment value, this, too, was offered with an annual bonus of $3.50. But in recent years the investment value of the common stock still further increasing, and it having become impossible to purchase any considerable amount of preferred stock at a reasonable price, only the junior security has been offered employees and the bonus on the common has been raised to $5.00 a year.
Latest figures show that there are now more than 66,000 employees and their families interested in the plan, that is, that number are either paying for stock or, having paid, are drawing their annual bonuses. As it is likely that there are still more employees not now on these lists but owning stock bought more than five years ago it seems fairly safe to assume that the number of employees who, as stockholders, have an interest as part owners in the great organization that they work for is not less than 70,000.