The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-05-20
FEES or CORPORATION DIRECTORS
Ten to Twenty-Five Dollars for Each
BOARD Meeting.


From the New York Evening Post
One of the leading corporation lawyers
In New York, man whose income from
his legal practice cannot be less than
$4,000 a year, arrived at his office the
other afternoon, for the fifst time that
day. All the. other members of the firm
and most fAhe. clerks awaTensready gone
for the day, but in his private Office
sat man who had been patiently await
ing his arrival for two hours
Well" said the counsellor, after his
visitor had departed. that man detained
me only ten minutes, and yet before he
left he handed me 800 bill for the
legal advice had given to him in regard
10 his responsibility in a certain stock
transaction. / have been busy every hour
since ten o'clock this morning and yet
till this client paid me this fee l had
not made $50 all day. ] have been at
directore meetsngs-four of them-and
the total Of my fees for attendance is
just $40 Twenty dollars of this came
from an insurance company $40 from
national bank, and $40 more from
telephone company, in all Of which / am
a director. The fourth meeting was Of
a manufacturing corporation, which so
far pays nothing either to its directors
or stockholders
Don't you find 1t a rather losing
business, this attending trustee and d.
rector meetings."
In a way, yes, and, yet in other ways
no. You see man in the professional as
we'll as the business world must keep
himself before men. and being on d.
rectories of large banks, trust companies,
and industrial corporations is one of the
best advertisements man can have. 1t
stamps him as success and nothing, you
know succeeds like success. How many
concerns am l a director in? Eleven,
think, but then several of these are
more or less inactive and do not take
up much Of my time.
But eleven Is nothing, as compared
with some of the leading financiers In
this city. Senator Depews name appears
as director or trustee officer in seventy
six corporations, mostly railroads. banks,
and trust companies. and the list of them
takes full page and a half in the
Directory OF Directors. Next to him, in
point Of activity as director, comes
William X. Vanderbilt, with forty-eight
corporations appearing after his name.
Edward ID. Adams is also In considerable
demand. having forty-three companies,
mostly railway, to keep track OF; James
Stillman forty-one. George j. Gould
thirty-six, Fred. w. Vanderbilt thirty
FIVE, President Galloway of the New
York Central thirty-six. d. o. Mills
thirty three, Frederick P. Olcott twenty
two, August Belmont thirty-two, j.
Pierpont Morgan thirty-one, William
Rockefeller twenty-five, and a dozen others
who have more than fifteen concerns
after their names.
"As to the fees for attendance at these
directors meetings, they vary from IS
to $25, banks, the larger ones paying
$40 in gold to every member present.
though some very rich ones go beyond
this AS these meetings are weekly some
times sem-weekIy, and the boards con-
sist of from ten to twenty members, you
see 1t is something of an item in bank
expenses. The fee is generally paid in
gold, and 1t is something of a custom
among directors who are married to turn
over the gold pieces so received to their
wives for pin-money.' Thus IL comes
about that these busy men are always
reminded before leaving home OF their
bank engagements for the day"
But when all is said about the pecuniary
sacrifice a busy and successful man
must make in becoming bank director,
there are few If any. fiduciary positions
so much desired The story is told of a
Wall Street broker who was recently
elected director of a big downtown
bank. and who had TO buy ten shares
of stock at 500 a share in order TO
qualify himself for the place. The bank
itself 1t not a divdend-payer, but this
operator saw an opportunity to strength
en- himself materially in the financial
world through his connection with, this
bank so he considered the $1,000 as money
wis