Louis Bamberger to Distribute $1,000,000 Among Employees

More than $1,000,000 will be distributed by Louis Bamberger among employees of L. Bamberger & Company, department store, it was announced yesterday, when Mr. Bamberger declared he will retire on September 15 from active directorship of the firm he founded thirty-six years ago.

The employees to profit by Mr. Bamberger’s generosity are those who will have completed fifteen or more years’ service on December 31, 1929. At least two hundred will share in the distribution, some of the older ones receiving sums amounting to more than $10,000. They will be allowed to choose between cash and a pension paying a fixed monthly amount.

There is no uniform pension system in effect in L. Bamberger & Company, and in the past provision has been made to meet each individual retirement, with no rule in effect to cover either age or years of service. Partly to meet this situation, Mr. Bamberger decided to distribute the $1,000,000.

Although giving up the active management of the store, Mr. Bamberger will maintain a connection as president of the board of directors.

Mr. Bamberger is seventy-four years old, and has been in the department store business sixty years. In 1893 he and his two brothers-in-law, Louis M. Frank and Felix Fuld, both now dead, founded L. Bamberger & Co.

J. Harry Selz, president of Selz, Schwab & Co., Chicago shoe manufacturers, died Sunday night at his summer home in Glenco. He was 65 years old. The late Mr. Selz was director of the Continental Illinois Bank and Trust Company and a member of the Union League, the Mid-day, the Standard and the Lake Shore Country Clubs. He is survived by his widow, Mrs. Bertha Austrain Selz, two sons, Austin and Frank S., and two brothers, Emanuel F. and A. K. Selz.