surprise to us, on the occasion of the last session,
to have our president take such exceptions to the suggestions which we
advanced in good faith. We tried to make it clear to him that we all
recognized and appreciated the extraordinary services which he has
rendered to the Consolidated Companies, yet we cannot admit that he
possesses all the wisdom, or that his policies are the only ones which
can be considered. He made it quite evident to us at that time that our
judgment was desired only to the extent that it coincided with his own.
He has seemed to overlook the fact that the Consolidated Companies is
not a private corporation, but rather one in which several of the
Directors are even more heavily interested, in a financial way, than he
is himself.

"There is no question in the minds of any of us that the services of
our president are still absolutely essential to the success of the
corporation, and we have no wish or intention of having him separate
himself from it; but we have become aware, through the unprecedented
position which has been taken, that if those interests which we
represent are to be safeguarded, immediate action must be taken to
convince him that the Consolidated Companies is not his personal
property, that the Executive Committee are not mere puppets, and that
even the president of a great and successful corporation is, after all,
an employee of that corporation, and subject to its control. The
gentlemen who have the honor to serve on the Executive Committee resent
the imputation made by him that this code of business morals, which he
has originated, is necessarily the only moral code, or that he himself
possesses the right or the power to establish the standard by which to
measure them as individuals or as officials.

"My colleagues have asked me to state the situation at this length in
order that our president may understand that our present attitude is
inspired not by any personal antagonism, but rather by what appears to
us to be a necessary and simple business precaution. What the Board of
Directors propose now is to rescind the resolution, passed upon our
president's insistence at the last meeting, which gave him unlimited
power in the conduct of the corporation, to divide the responsibilities
in such a way that the fortunes of the Consolidated Companies will no
longer remain dependent upon the life or services of any one officer,
and to insist that the employees of the corporation be used