A. P. Herbert Quotes
This high official, all allow, is grossly overpaid; there wasn't any Board, and now there isn't any Trade.
Herbert, A. P. "The President of the Board of Trade." Tinker, Tailor: A Child's Guide to the Professions. Methuen & Co., 1922, p. 56.
The huge salaries paid to CEO’s in the early 21st century became a major political issue during the George W. Bush administration in the wake of the Corporate scandals like Enron and the failure of the Government to prevent these frauds. The tax deductibility of the huge salaries also attracted political attention at a time when Bush policies had created the largest deficits in the history of the world.
Corporations were not common at the time. The corporations of the day like large corporations today had directors and managers who were not the principle owners. There was deep suspicion that these professional managers would not watch over the money of the corporation with the same degree of vigilance as would the owner manager. The same problem exists today when the economic vested interest of the managers and the shareholders do not always coincide. Various bonus schemes have been created to ameliorate the problem, but as the meltdown of 2008 and the Great Recession demonstrated, many managers would make ruinous decisions for the corporation as they could get large bonuses. “Copartnery” is an older English term for “partnership.”
Sir Alan Patrick Herbert CH, usually known as A. P. Herbert or simply A. P. H., was an English humorist, novelist, playwright and law reform activist, and an Independent Member of Parliament for Oxford University from 1935 until 1950, when university constituencies were abolished. Born in Ashtead, Surrey, Herbert attended Winchester College and New College, Oxford, graduating with a starred first in Jurisprudence in 1914. He joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve as an ordinary seaman in World War I, later serving as an officer with the Royal Naval Division. He fought in Gallipoli and on the Western Front, becoming battalion adjutant in 1917, before injury excluded him from the front line. After the war, he published The Secret Battle and joined the staff of Punch in 1924. He also wrote librettos for musicals. Elected as Independent MP for Oxford University in the 1935 general election, Herbert campaigned for private member's rights, piloted the Matrimonial Causes Act 1937 through Parliament, opposed the Entertainments Duty, and campaigned against the Oxford Group. He joined the River Emergency Service in 1938 and served in World War II as a petty officer in the Royal Naval Auxiliary Patrol. He captained his river boat, the Water Gipsy, on the River Thames. In 1943, he joined a parliamentary commission to investigate the future of the Dominion of Newfoundland.
