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Auguste Detoeuf, Conscience of French Industry: 1926–47

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

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“A true businessman does not waste time writing reflections about business.” Fortunately Auguste Detoeuf disregarded his own self-mocking advice. Throughout his life this thoughtful industrialist articulated the debates and dilemmas of an entire generation of businessmen, especially of other enlightened corporation managers who, like himself, were faced with the problems of industrial modernization and labor relations. The business milieu generally, preoccupied with its own affairs and not inclined to reveal them, provides but few glimpses into the minds and sensibilities which compose it. Detoeuf broke the silence; moreover, his shrewd analyses, unique moral perspective, and wide experience made him a remarkable historical witness to a time of troubles and fundamental change. He provided a rich record of the passage of French employers from the vogue of Americanization in the 1920's, through the crise de conscience provoked by the depression, the Popular Front, and Nazi aggression, up to the new resolve of the Liberation era.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1975

References

page 149 note 1 Detoeuf, Propos de Barenton, O. L., confiseur, ancien élève de l'Ecole Polytechnique, new ed. (1960), p. 184.Google Scholar A summary of Detoeuf's views in the 1930's is Blain, Michel, “Un Aspect des idées patronales dans l'entre-deux guerres: A. Detoeuf et les ‘Nouveaux Cahiers”’ (unpublished mémoire de maîtrise. Université de Paris-X, Nanterre, 1973).Google Scholar General studies of the mentality of French business in the period 1914–50 are: Lévy-Leboyer, Maurice, “Le Patronat français a-t-il été malthusien?”, in: Le Mouvement Social, No 88 (1974), pp. 349;CrossRefGoogle ScholarEhrmann, Henry W., Organized Business in France (Princeton, 1957);Google ScholarLambert, Jean, Le Patron (Tournai, 1969);Google ScholarHatzfeld, Henri, Du Paupérisme à la sécurité sociale (1971);Google ScholarBoudet, J. et al. , Le Monde des affaires en France de 1830 à nos jours (1952);Google ScholarKuisel, Richard F., Ernest Mercier: French Technocrat (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1967);Google ScholarFridenson, Patrick, “L'Idéologie des grands constructeurs dans l'entre-deux-guerres”, in: Le Mouvement Social, No 81 (1972), pp. 5168;CrossRefGoogle ScholarLandes, Davis S., “French Business and the Businessman”, in: Modern France, ed. by Earle, Edward Mead (Princeton, 1951), pp. 334–53;Google ScholarPunelle, Patrick, “Etude d'une mentalité patronale: le ‘Nord Industriel’ de 1930 à 1935”, in: Revue du Nord, LI (1969), pp. 641–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar All places of publication, unless otherwise noted, are Paris.

page 150 note 1 Letter to Simone Weil (1938), in Detoeuf, Pages retrouvées (1956), p. 95. Interviews with Detoeuf's friends, Guillaume de Tarde and Henry Davezac, provided biographical material.

page 150 note 2 Detoeuf's reflections on the Polytechnique appear in Pages retrouvées, pp. 46–58; Propos, pp. 139–40, 193–201, et passim. He describes a personal influence on his career in his study Le Port de Cherbourg: communication faite à l'Académie de marine, le 24 Janvier 1947 (n.d.), pp. 31–32.

page 151 note 1 Pages retrouvées, p. 97.

page 151 note 2 Nouveaux Cahiers, No 33 (November 1, 1938), p. 2.

page 152 note 1 He actively participated in the Comité Franco-Allemand d'Information et de Documentation, which tried in the late 1920's to reconcile French and German industrial interests.

page 152 note 2 Observations sur l'Amérique: conférence faite par Detoeuf, M. […] à l'Union des Industries Métallurgiques et Minières, juillet 1926 (Vannes, n.d.).Google Scholar

page 152 note 3 Ibid., pp. 17–18.

page 152 note 4 Ibid., p. 33.

page 153 note 1 Ibid., pp. 36–37.

page 153 note 2 The Société Générale de Constructions Electriques et Mécaniques was the full title of Als-thom. It had been created by a merger with the Société' Alsacienne de Constructions Mécaniques. See Boudet, Le Monde des affaires, pp. 152–53.

page 154 note 1 Kuisel, Mercier, pp. 45–88.

page 154 note 2 La Réorganisation industrielle [Les Cahiers du Redressement français, No 7].

page 154 note 3 Detoeuf denied that concentration would harm the rural artisan. He predicted, to the contrary, that mechanical power supplied by rural electrification added to the French artisan's “unequaled flexibility” and ability to “make-do” (débrouillage) would promote an “artisanal renaissance”. Only medium-sized firms, he argued, would disappear (ibid., p. 32).

page 154 note 4 Ibid., p. 55.

page 155 note 1 Ibid., pp. 34–44.

page 155 note 2 Ibid., p. 1.

page 155 note 3 For Detoeuf and CEGOS see: Detoeuf and Rolf Nordling, La Comparaison des prix de revient, facteur de progrès? (1956); Detoeuf et al., Les Techniques statistiques appliquées à la direction des entreprises et des groupements professionnels (1942); Bulletin bi-mensuel de la CGPF.

page 155 note 4 Revue générale de l'électricité, LVI (1947), 3233B.Google Scholar

page 156 note 1 Ibid., XXXVIII (1935), 82U.

page 156 note 2 Conférences organisées par la Sté. des Anciens Elèves et Elèves de l'Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques [La Coopération Internationale] (1933), pp. 357.Google Scholar

page 156 note 3 Ibid., p. 43.

page 157 note 1 They were members of X-Crise, a study group devoted to finding new ways to combat the depression. Most were graduates of the Polytechnique. See Desaunay, Guy, “X-Crise, Contribution a l'étude des idéologies économiques d'un groupe de polytechniciens durant la grande crise économique, 1931–1939” (unpublished thesis, Université de Paris, 1965).Google Scholar Detoeuf's lecture is “La Fin du libéralisme”, in: Bulletin du Centre Polytechnique d'Etudes Economiques, Nos 31–32 (1936), pp. 3751.Google Scholar The quotation is on p. 37.

page 157 note 2 “La Fin du libéralisme”, pp. 43–44.

page 158 note 1 Quotations in this paragraph from ibid., pp. 50–51.

page 159 note 1 Letter in Weil, Simone, La Condition ouvrière (1951), pp. 181–84.Google Scholar

page 159 note 2 Letter in Pages retrouvées, p. 96.

page 159 note 3 The founders of this group in 1934 besides Detoeuf were: Jacques Barnaud (directeur-général of Worms et Cie.); Henry Davezac (an official of the SGCE); M. Isambert (industrialist); and Guillaume de Tarde (director of the Cie. des Chemins de Fer de l'Est). The sources for the group's founding are: interviews with Davezac, Henry and Tarde;, Guillaume deNouveaux Cahiers, No 1 (03 15, 1937), pp. 24;Google Scholar No 6 (June 1, 1937), p. 2; No 11 (October 1,1937), pp. 27ndash;6; No 20 (March 1, 1938), pp. 13–18. Hereafter the Nouveaux Cahiers will be cited as NC.

page 160 note 1 NC, No 1, p. 2.

page 160 note 2 NC, No 20, pp. 15–16.

page 160 note 3 Pierce, Roy, Contemporary French Political Thought (New York, 1966), pp. 128–29.Google Scholar

page 160 note 4 NC, No 1, pp. 4–6; No 3 (April 15, 1937), pp. 2–5; No 4 (May 1, 1937), pp. 2–5; No 8 (July 1, 1937), pp. 2–5.

page 161 note 1 Quotes in this paragraph from NC, No 8, pp. 4–5.

page 161 note 2 No 13 (November 1, 1937), pp. 9–13.

page 161 note 3 Letter to Detoeuf, in Weil, La Condition ouvrière, pp. 188–90.

page 161 note 4 Letter to Weil, in NC, No 16 (December 15, 1937), p. 6.

page 162 note 1 See below, pp. 164f. For corporativist doctrine see p. 171 and note 2.

page 163 note 1 Detoeuf recognized that employers, like workers, could not ignore politics altogether, but he thought that they could and should conduct their political activities as private citizens rather than as members of a union. Thus employers' associations should not subsidize political parties as they had in the past nor should trade unions interrupt work for political demonstrations. Construction du syndicalisme (1938), pp. 48–50.

page 163 note 2 Ibid., pp. 59, 62.

page 163 note 3 La Tribune des fonctionnaires, October 15, 1938.

page 164 note 1 NC, No 24 (May 1, 1938), pp. 5–6.

page 164 note 2 Ibid., pp. 2–3.

page 164 note 3 Ibid., p. 5.

page 164 note 4 NC, No 39 (February 15, 1939), pp. 13–18. Detoeuf's response also appears here.

page 165 note 1 Propos, p. 68. There is an illuminating comparative sketch of a typical German, British, French and American industrialist of the 1930's (pp. 62–69). Of the more entertaining maxims is: “There are three ways to ruin oneself according to the great Rothschild: gambling, women, and engineers. The first two are more pleasant, but the latter is more certain” (pp. 124–125).

page 166 note 1 Statuts du Comité Central de 1'Organisation Professionnelle (1939); “Compte rendu de l'Assemblée générate du Comite Central de l'Organisation Professionnelle, 18 Janvier 1939”, in: Bulletin bi-mensuel du CCOP, No 53 (February 25, 1939).

page 166 note 2 NC, No 26 (June 1, 1938), pp. 1–4.

page 166 note 3 For Pontigny see Detoeuf's preface to Planus, Paul, Patrons et ouvriers en Suède (1938), and NC, No 29 (07 15, 1938), pp. 24.Google Scholar

page 167 note 1 Planus, Patrons, p. 15.

page 167 note 2 Ehrmann, Henry W., French Labor from Popular Front to Liberation (New York, 1947), p. 201.Google Scholar

page 167 note 3 La Révolution prolétarienne, July 25, 1938.

page 167 note 4 Le Temps, June 27, 1938.

page 167 note 5 La Tribune des fonctionnaires, June 11, 1938.

page 168 note 1 NC, No 14 (November 15, 1937), pp. 3–4.

page 168 note 2 Ibid., p. 4.

page 168 note 3 NC, No 22 (April 1, 1938), pp. 1–3.

page 169 note 1 NC, No 33 (November 1, 1938), p. 2.

page 169 note 2 Ibid., p. 4.

page 169 note 3 NC, No 35 (December 1, 1938), p. 2.

page 169 note 4 NC, No 38 (February 1, 1939), p. 1.

page 169 note 5 NC, No 42 (April 1, 1939), p. 1.

page 169 note 6 NC, No 52 (December 1, 1939), pp. 18–21.

page 170 note 1 Quotations from letter to his brother (July 1941), in Pages retrouvées, pp. 68–72.

page 170 note 2 He demonstrated his ethical fastidiousness by resigning as manager at Thomson-Houston, because he believed it might compromise his public responsibilities. Few other CO officials were so scrupulous (Jean-Guy Mérigot, Essai sur les Comités d'organisation professionnelle (1943), p. 303).Google Scholar For his experience with the CO see Detoeuf, , Passé, présent, avenir de l'organisation professionnelle (1946), pp. 1821.Google Scholar

page 171 note 1 The Commission du Plan Comptable (Detoeuf, Exposé sur le plan comptable, Centre d'Information Interprofessionnel, réunion du 30 juillet 1941 (n.d.)). Detoeuf also continued as president of CEGOS, which studied problems of labor relations and industrial statistics; the Vichy government regarded this commission seriously (Detoeuf et al., Les Techniques statistiques).

page 171 note 2 Detoeuf, , “Réflexions sur le vieux corporatisme français”, in: L'Organisation de la production industrielle [Collection Droit Social, XII] (1941), pp. 511.Google Scholar Corporativist doctrine is explained by Maurice Bouvier-Ajam, La Doctrine corporative, 4th ed. (1943); Elbow, Matthew H., French Corporative Theory, 1789–1948 (New York, 1953).Google Scholar

page 171 note 3 Ehrmann, Business, pp. 58–100, et passim; Kuisel, Richard F., “Technocrats and Public Economic Policy: From the Third to the Fourth Republic”, in: Journal of European Economic History, No 4 (1973), pp. 5399.Google Scholar

page 172 note 1 His views on post-war reconstruction appear in “Le Problème du travail français”, in: Revue de Paris, 09 1945, pp. 2538;Google ScholarFigaro, Le, especially April to 11 1945.Google Scholar

page 172 note 2 He praised as “audacious but necessary” the government's creation of Comités d'Entreprise for all large plants – these committees were to promote industrial democracy and help overcome class antagonism by giving workers some share in managing company affairs (Le Figaro, May 15, 1945). On the committees' fate see Ehrmann, Business, pp. 446ff.

page 172 note 3 Le Figaro, October 25, 1945.

page 173 note 1 Ibid., December 7, 1946. Also ibid., January 28, 1947.

page 173 note 2 Ibid., June 4 and July 3, 1946.

page 173 note 3 Lecture appeared ibid., February 1, 1946.

page 173 note 4 Detoeuf, Passé.