The business organization is more simple and compact than any business organization which I know of, conducting a business of equal magnitude. There are theoretically six partners. Actually at present three of those partners are seniors who do very little in the actual drudgery of the busi ness. Theoretically we have one partner in charge of finance, one partner in charge of the business—that is the business of buying and selling—making contracts, managing the office (the thousand-and-one things necessary for the conduct of any business), one partner in charge of design ing, who is the chief engineer, and one partner in charge of the works, who is the general superintendent, or the general manager. We have not any of those titles. As a matter of fact, there are no such offices. We are all partners on an equality, and we handle the business in each department simply on the basis of an agreement that shall be the busi ness organization. As a firm we hold meetings (according to our co-partnership articles every week, but actually when ever we find it necessary to do so) at which all matters of br.oad business policy are discussed—matters of establishing new works, putting up new shops, or making large expendi tures for tools. We agree upon such questions in firm meeting. We also agree on large policies in regard to mak ing sales, rearrangements of expense, etc., but each of these four partners is absolute autocrat of the branch of the busi ness he represents, because he knows all the time what the attitude of his partners is toward these inatters. He does not have to consult them to decide whether it is necessary to make a contract or not. The thousand-and-one questions which are coining up daily in the administration of the busi ness are settled instantly by the partner to whose province they belong, and if it is necessary to consult or get the opin ion of one of the other partners, it can be done in an instant.
That is a great contrast to the corporate form of organiza tion, in which the board of directors is supreme; in which things have to be put before the board of directors by the president, and in which the secretary, treasurer and general manager each has his little province, and they are all apt to be more or less jealous of each other, because I do not know of any place where the jealousies are apt to be keener than they are in business corporations where the intrigue for promotion is apt to be very great.
H. Some disadvantages of the partnership.—Tho Mr. Carnegie and Mr. Johnson praised their part nerships they bad finally to give way before the de mands of their growing businesses and the capital re quirements, to the more stable form of corporate or g,anization. The fact is, because partnerships are so easily dissolved, and because the legal complications of dissolution are serious, that it is quite impossible for the partnership to borrow on long-term credit. The capital that partners can borrow is therefore lim ited and the terms are usually expensive, i.e., the rate of interest is generally high. _Moreover, the need for harmonious action is so great that unless the mem bers can be persuaded, as in the case of the Baldwin concern, to agree to conciliatory and deferential action, it is likely that the enterprise will resemble the image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, made of "iron mixed with miry clay" that would "not cleave one to another."