Business & Finance: Little Red Book

Out last week was the 1933 edition of the fat, red little Directory of Directors in the City of New York—handy who’s who of corporate management. Though it included only directors with Manhattan addresses, 40,000 are listed in the new edition, a slight decrease from last year. Observed the publishers: “In their search for economy a number of corporations have reduced the size of their boards of directors.”

Some 7,000 new directors made the Directory last year, an increase of 15% over the usual number of neophytes. This was attributed to the “strenuous times” in which younger men were pushed ahead to ease the burden of oldsters. Leading the list of men with diversified interests was, as usual, Banker Charles Hayden with 82 directorships. Albert Henry Wiggin and Matthew Chauncey Brush tied with 47. Alfred Emanuel Smith listed seven. Leading those who sit at boardroom tables of subsidiaries and affiliates within one complex industrial empire was Albert John County, vice president in charge of finance and corporate relations of the Pennsylvania R.R. with 121—down five from last year. Close behind was Henry Latham Doherty of Cities Service Co. with 114. Third, with 110, was Oilman Doherty’s alter ego and legal prime minister, William Alton (“Pete”) Jones, tall, trim executive chairman of Henry L. Doherty & Co., who last fortnight was playing handsome host to distinguished guests at Mr. Doherty’s newly acquired hotel properties in Miami.