The entity celebrates the 150th anniversary of the birth of Francesc Moragas
to Preserve the essence. It is one of the top of the Foundation of the Bank La Caixa that has striven to recover for the public the figure of its founder, Francesc Moragas, when met 150 years of his birth in Barcelona. That is why, this Monday, began the events with an exhibition in its Central Services in Barcelona, under the title the man behind The soul, along with a reading of theatrical text that the writer Josep Pla wrote about Moragas, and a conference on the founder of the entity performed by Isidro Fainé, president of the Foundation of the Bank La Caixa.
The goal is to highlight the legacy de Moragas not only from the creation in 1904 of the Box of old-Age Pensions and Savings, but even before when he toured the whole of Catalonia and part of the rest of Spain on a bicycle, one of his passions. In 1902, from the consequences of a general strike in which the working class demanded improvements in working conditions and the repression of the left dead and wounded, when a part of the business, with Moragas to the head, made a public appeal to raise money for the families of the victims.
With the surplus of that money was born two years after the pension fund. According to Fainé Moragas had time to mature the idea, but the strike pushed the bill. In one of his writings, the founder of The Caixa remarked, “for those who do not stop at the surface of things and would like to deepen the consideration of the causes and in the investigation of the effects, in the social question throbbing desire for harmony, wishes of peace and hopes for justice that have to end up by determining a step of progress.” His intention was to stimulate savings, to dignify old age, to eradicate the disease and provide a better future for the working classes and the needy.
“The figure of Francesc Moragas has been the capital for both The Caixa and the country. He was a man of action, but also, and above all a man of reflection, of strong convictions. It moved without making any noise and with caution, but it was daring in the projects and in the know do, because their ideas were being translated into concrete facts,” he said Fainé. In addition, he explained that the entity has been transformed in this century, “while retaining its essence, its values, its organizational culture, and, of course, its commitment with the society, with its people, with its culture, its education and its science”.
Fainé also emphasized that the leadership of Moragas was defined to be “an entrepreneur with a social sense, a great innovator and a negotiator tenacious; and he had a great ambition, in the sense of a very solid faith in their projects.” “He was able to imagine, conceive and create a large corporation, combining solvency, profitability and social commitment,” indicated the president of the Bank Foundation who reviewed the trajectory of the entity up to the present, with its commitment for the projects related with the science and “research in cardiovascular disease, infectious, respiratory and neurodegenerative disorders, and cancer.”
In this regard, he recalled that since its creation until 193 the entity had “unprecedented growth” and that the Moragas linked “economic success and social impact”. “These two concepts are united, and The Caixa has never forgotten. This double dimension is particular also in a strong growth of social facilities, in parallel to the increase in financial, equally impressive”, said Fainé. In addition, he explained that the founder of the institution was ahead of his time “with the promotion of policies that today would dub of equality” as it creates the Institute of the Working Woman who offers training and protection, and in the twenties, it sets up a powerful Social Work around people with disabilities.
Until 1935, opened a hundred offices all over Catalonia and in the Balearic islands, Madrid and Andorra. The proposals of saving and foresight go mainstream, and The Caixa grows steadily, reaching, at the beginning of the thirties, 60% of the savings in Catalan and 25% of the whole of the Spanish. “We will make a box of large volume. Keep calm. As you will see it right away,” said Moragas and Josep Pla. Fainé emphasized in his lecture that “you can’t be an entrepreneur if you are not optimistic and have faith in what you believe that you can make a reality.” With this spirit he pointed out the way of directing the entity by its founder with a deep respect for its employees as well as reinventing the more modern concept of charity going on for the philanthropy.
Moragas died at age 66, on march 27, 1935, in a room of the Clinic of Surgery of the Institute of Santa Madrona, that he himself had inaugurated. The acts of the anniversary will be rounded off with the publication of the volume Francesc Moragas. The longing altruistic, which summarizes the many facets of your personality and a new biography of Moragas, to charge of Francesc Cabana.
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