The Columbia Conserve Company was an internationally respected experiment in workplace democracy and employee ownership that lasted from 1917 to 1943. The company canned soups and other food products from 1903 to 1953. William Powers Hapgood, president of the company, initiated three main innovations in workplace democracy in 1917:

1. A workers’ council that made decisions on policy and operational matters (selection of supervisors, hours worked, salaries, etc.).The council handled discipline and hiring and firing decisions.Council meetings, which were open to all employees, were held weekly and included open discussions and votes.

2. Profit sharing plan

3. Stock purchase plan, which allowed employees to control a majority interest in the company by 1930.

Columbia employees were guaranteed an annual salary and received free health care, educational benefits, pensions, and paid vacations.  No employees were laid off during the Depression of the 1930s, though employees did vote themselves pay cuts to weather the economic hard times.

The company sought to use their unique organizational structure to bolster sales.  At one point, the following message was placed on the Columbia tomato soup label along with information on how consumers could receive a free pamphlet about the company:
"No wonder we make such fine soups, catsup, tomato juice, and other products.  We, the workers, own the business.  We are proud that we have succeeded, and succeeded because we have done better work because we cared.  Not one of us haas been dicharged on account of hard times.  For there is no unemployment.  There are 52 pay envelopes a year, old age pensions, expert care in sickness and in health, three weeks vacation with full pay.  Why should we not make good products?
"If you think this plan should spread, and if you find this product better because it is make by cooks who care, please tell your friends about it."

Robert Bussel, “’Business Without a Boss’: The Columbia Conserve Company and Worker’s Control, 1917-1943.” Business History Review 71, no. 3 (autumn 1997): 417-443.

Robert Bussel, From Harvard to the Ranks of Labor: Powers Hapgood and the American Working Class, (University Park, Pennsylvania, 1999). [Especially chapter 7.]

Columbia Conserve Company papers. Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.

Encyclopedia of Indianapolis, p. 460.

William P. Hapgood, The Columbia Conserve Company: An Experiment in Workers’ Ownership and Management, (Indianapolis, 1933).

Kim McQuaid, “Industry and the Co-Operative Commonwealth:William P. Hapgood and the Columbia Conserve Company.” Labor History 17, no. 4 (fall 1976), 510-529.

Russell E. Vance, Jr. “An Unsuccessful Experiment in Workers Management and Ownership: The Columbia Conserve Company.” Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University, 1956.