This organization may take any one of several forms. The simplest form of organization is represented by the individual employer, the man who borrows capital (or provides it from his own savings), purchases the raw materials, and hires labor to be applied to it. He is an organizer of the productive process. This system of single employers was nearly universal in the earlier stages of industry and trade. Next comes the partnership. Two or more men assume the task of bringing natural resources, capital, and labor together. The partners divide the work and jointly assume all responsibilities of loss. Finally, and most common in large-scale production nowadays, there is the joint stock company or business corporation in which many persons participate. Each contributes to the organization and takes a proportionate share of the risk.[14] The nature and work of these corporations are explained in a later chapter. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: THRIFT AND PROSPERITY. By Frederick Dielman. _Copyright by Frederick Dielman. From a Copley Print, copyright by Curtis & Cameron, Boston. Reproduced by permission._ ] THRIFT AND PROSPERITY By Frederick Dielman From a mosaic picture in the Albany Savings Bank, Albany, N.Y. A mosaic is a decoration formed out of small pieces of natural stone or enamel, of various colors, set in cement. This decoration measures fourteen feet by seven and one-half, the figures being somewhat larger than life size. Under a fruit tree in a landscape suggesting grain fields and meadows, is a group of figures. The central and principal figure, the mistress of a household with her distaff and spindle, typifies industry and good management; behind her on either side among the hollyhocks are beehives—the conventional emblems of industry and saving. In the foreground on the left, a woman with a sheaf of wheat at her feet and a sickle in her hand turns toward the keeper of the flocks and herds. At the right, a kneeling maiden lays a basket of fruit near the sheaf of wheat, while a stalwart man, adze in hand, bares his arm for work. All these figures symbolize the different branches of agriculture. The children and the young animals typify the way in which each young generation is nourished by the industry and thrift of its elders. The whole impression of this picture is one of industry, prosperity, thrift, and—by reason of these three—happiness. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Sidenote: The nature of profits.]