3841 Profit Sharing by employers, the dividend to labor is de- clared at stated periods, but in the form of stock in the company. In a study made by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (1926-27), it appeared that out of 87 firms in United States, Canada and England which had had experience with profit sharing, 15 had discontinued it and 72 had survived dull periods. Most executives who replied to the questionnaire found the system satisfactory as tending to stabilize the working forces, prevent strikes and eliminate waste. The chief arguments brought forward against the system by employers, besides its failure to secure increased efficiency, are that competitive conditions usually preclude the long continuance of any profit in excess of a fair return on capital, and that it is unjust for labor to share in the profits when it does-not share in the loss or risk of the busi- ness. Profit sharing is not favored by leaders of organized labor for these reasons: The workers have no voice in the management; they cannot check the accuracy of profit re- ports; it is an unstable factor in industrial life, subject to change at employers' whims; to modification or abolition with change of management, death of employer, or dissolu- tion of the business. Above all, it is de- signed to keep wages down, arrest the mili- tancy of the workers, and halt the advance of trade unionism. Modern profit sharing may be said to have originated in France about the middle of the igth century. The greatest success in England has been en- countered in the gas business, where only one out of 34 plans put into operation failed. Profit sharing in the United States is a comparatively late development. In 1867 the Bay State Shoe and Leather Company of Worcester, Mass., began the division of 25 per cent, of the net profits to its employees, continuing until 1873, when a strike for higher wages caused its abandonment. In 1923 there were 100 profit sharing concerns, but since the depression from 1929 many firms were compelled to abandon the scheme. The U. S. Steel Corporation adopted its plan of profit sharing in 1903. Only the higher class employees—those upon whose faithful performance of duties the successful operation of the works depends—are allowed to participate. The plan of the Ford Motor Works was introduced in 1914, and involves the distribution to over 25,000 employees of one-half the estimated net annual profits to be added to the usual wages in the form of Progressive a bonus. See Boxrs; CO-HPEKATION : OLD- AGE PENSIONS; INSURANCE, INDUSTRIAL. Programme Music comprises that clas£ of musical composition which depends for its effect upon the literary scheme or programme on which it is based. While pure or absolute music develops organically from the inherent qualities of musical expression, programme music requires the accompaniment of the 'book'—e.g., the Don Quixote of Richard Strauss. The term is also applied to compo- sitions of concert-hall scope, as distinguished from music dramas and operas. Progreso, seaport town, Mexico, the prin- cipal port of entry and centre of distribu- tion for the state of Yucatan; 25 m. n. of Merida; p. 5,000. Progression, in mathematics. See Series. Progression, in music, is applied to the changes from note to note in melody; to the succession of chords in harmony; and to the motion of parts in compositions of a contra- puntal nature. See COUNTERPOINT; HAR- MON. Progressive Party, an American political party formed in 1912 to secure direct popu- lar control of elections and legislation in the States and nation; to bring within Federal jurisdiction problems too difficult to be dealt with by individual States, to establish a strong national regulation of interstate cor- porations, and, broadly speaking, a larger measure of social and industrial justice. The Progressive Party had its immediate origin in tie Republican National Conven- tion held in Chicago June 18-23, 1912, in a controversy between the adherents of for- mer President Theodore Roosevelt and of President William H. Taft, candidates for the Presidential nomination. In the Convention, the decision of the National Committee in seating a large number of contested delegates resulted in the exclusion of many Roosevelt supporters, and Taft was renominated by a vote of 561 to 107—344 delegates signifying their disapproval of the action of the Com- mittee by refusing to vote. On June 22, 1912, a number of the Roose- velt delegates held an independent meeting in Chicago, and laid the foundation for the formation of the Progressive Party. On August 5, the first National Progressive Con- vention met in Chicago, in response to a call issued by 63 well-known men from 40 States. Theodore Roosevelt of New York was nominated for President, and Governor Hiram Johnson of California for Vice-Presi-