The Reform of the Boards of Directors

On several occasions in recent times, L'Œuvre has had the opportunity to point out to its readers the "actions" of the administrators of our railway networks, either concerning the resistance they have put up to the government regarding the reinstatement of railway workers, or concerning certain large payments that were allegedly made to Mr. Billiet's electoral fund.
These "actions", which are not, moreover, specific to the railway companies, this kind of reactionary policy that the boards of directors of almost all our large companies conduct more or less openly, can only be explained if we think of the way in which the said boards are generally composed.
The boards of directors have been called "the old people's asylum". Let us at least say: "the refuge of a few old people who are lucky". It is there, in fact, that a small group of fossils are lavishly maintained, demonetized politicians, crippled diplomats, out-of-date generals, whose names can be found at the head of all the major banking, industrial and commercial enterprises. These fossils, always the same, thus dominate our entire national economy and naturally make their outdated methods, their hatred of initiative and their retrograde tastes reign there.

Would you like an example?
Look at the board of directors of one of our main railway companies, the Compagnie d'Orléans. Who is it chaired by?
By a certain Mr. Charles Vergé.
Charles Vergé! This name, does it not? does not mean much to you. And it does not seem that the one who bears it has ever done anything that would make him illustrious. One must believe, however, that the merit of Mr. Vergé is greater than his fame. For we must assume that he has an extraordinary activity and a capacity for work that is at all costs, judging by the number and diversity of the tasks, almost all of them of the first order, that he has taken on.
Consider that he does not only have to preside over the destinies of a Company as considerable as the Orleans Company. He must also devote his attention, as vice-president, to the Suez Maritime Canal Company, which is also not a matter of minor importance, and, still in the same capacity, to the Syndicate of Railways of Morocco and the Syndicate of Railways of the Paris Belt.
On the other hand, he could not be disinterested in the Auxiliary Maritime Transport Company, nor in the General Company of Maritime Fishing and Fish Supply, nor in the Hydro-Electric Union, since he is their president. Finally, he must find, between the meetings of so many councils, leisure and intelligence to ensure, as an administrator, the smooth running of the Société Anonyme de l'Annuaire de commerce Didol-Bottin, the Compagnie d'Assurances contre l'Incendie "La Nationale" and two other Insurance Companies, also called "La Nationale", dealing, one with life insurance, the other with insurance and reinsurance of various risks.
In total, eleven boards of directors, with four presidencies and three vice-presidencies.
How can we expect this old man to be able to support, without being overwhelmed, the management of such a large number of such important and varied affairs?

Let us rest assured, he is not overwhelmed by it. Everyone knows that, in these councils, the administrators, including the presidents, only come to doze and collect their directors' fees and attendance fees. Mr. Vergé's main occupation is doubtless to collect the two million, or almost, that his eleven councils must represent annually for him.
Two million per year, for doing nothing! The place is good. And one can understand that the privileged who find themselves ambushed there use to block access to newcomers "the last remains of a dying ardor." One can also understand that, administered in this way, our great Societies show themselves to be so routine and so lamentably inferior to the role they should play in the economic life of the country. What one cannot understand is that the country accommodates itself to it and that at this critical hour when the economic war demands, even more than the other, enterprising and bold leaders, that is to say young ones, it lets itself be led, or rather hindered, by this lazy and glutted gerontocracy. Civil servants are forbidden from holding multiple offices: shouldn't directors of public limited companies be forbidden from sitting on more than three or four boards? But three or four boards is still too many for a senile mind. The most essential reform is to set the same age limit for the directors of our large companies - 65, for example - as is imposed on the commanders of our armies or other heads of public services.
An octogenarian planted", says the good La Fontaine.
Let them plant, if they feel like it, but,