New-York tribune., 1900-12-12
BRADY's EXCUSE RlDDLED.
PLENTY OF POWER TO ENFORCE BUILD
ING LAWS.
TENEMENT HOUSE COMMISSION EXPOSES
HIM AND SURPRISES HEALTH
OFFICIALS ALSO

OFFICIALS ALSO
AT yesterdays session Of the Tenement House
Commission there was developed most positive
and convincing refutation OF testimony given
by Buildings Commissioner Brady on the day
before; and one or two surprises were dealt out
to the Health Board which will require consid-
erabe industry to explain away For instance
Sanitary Superintendent Roberts having testi-
fed that there were no rear tenement houses left
in the city which were unfit for human occupa-
tion was confronted with list Of 277 such tene-
ment houses discovered in a systematic search
by the Commissions experts and OF these 173
were classed as too hOpelessy bad to be made
habttable by any process OF reconstruction. Dr.
Roberts at first somewhat hOty asserted that
the list could not be trustworthy He then modi-
fed his original statement little by saying that
he did not positively know Of a single tenement
house OF that kind. and did net think there were
more than forty of them in the city He prom
ised personally to investigate each house on the
Commissions list forthwith.
When Dr. Roberts had testified that the law
| compelling landlords to light the halls Of tene-
ment houses by night was generally complied
with. and that cellars were not being unlawfully
occupied stores without permits from the
Health Board. the Commissioners quoted to him
the report of their inspectors. showing that the
law as to cellars is being largely evaded, and that
the tenement house in which the halls are lighted
at night is brilliant exception to the general
rule which now prevails. DR.. Roberts said il
would require force of three hundred or four
hundred inspectors to examine all the tenement
houses once month, and the Department had
now only sixty-one. besides ninety-three sanitary
policemen.
PLENTY OF LAW OFFICERS
| 1t was Eugene Otterbourg. Assistant Corpora
| ton Counsel. who showed the limsiness Of
Buildings Commissioner Brady's testimony given
/ on Monday, when he tried to throw upon the
/ city's law officers the blame for that peculiar
/ condition of affairs existing. under which
| builders go ahead erecting. completing renting
and even selling tenement houses, the plans for
which have never been formally approved by
the Buildings Commissioner Brady said his in
spectors had reported about eleven thousand vio-
lations of the law by builders last year but that
comparatively few Of them had reached the
| courts because the city's law officers we're not
numerous enough to attend to so many viola
| tions. When Mr.. Otterbourg took the stand
/ yesterday he testified that he was one OF six
attorneys assigned to attend wholly to violations
| of the building laws He had received exactly
/ 1O,454 complaints of violations from Commits
sioner Brady last year. and Of these SO42 had
been disposed Of or withdrawn by Mr. Brady
before they could come to trial He recommend
ed that the law should be changed so that cases
/ should not be sent him until MI Brady had
thoroughly determined to prosecute them. so
that his time might not be consumed with use
less details.
Mr.. Otterbourg further testified that only 362
OF the remaining 2412 cases had reached the
| stage of a hearing in municipal courts. and only
1G2 had been sent to courts of record Penalties
had been collected from offenders against the
building laws in only four cases, although the
city had expended many thousands of dollars
| in getting judgments. The witness said it was
the avowed policy of the Department not TO
/ collect these penalties. Brady had suggested to
| the Commission the day before that these
penalties should be made Iarger-he thought
$3.50 each would be about right. A builder who
was listening to the testimony said with a wink
| to Tribune reporter. you can guess can't
you. why Brady wants the penalties increased
although the policy of his Department is not to
collect them for the city treasury Ask the
reporter something difficult" said another.
BRADYS SHIFTING TACTICS
Paul D. Cravath, who conducted the examina-
| ton of witnesses for the Commission. next
brought to Nr. OtterbOurg's attention the testi-
| mony Of Mr.. Brady that the reason why he did
not exercise his power Of procuring injunctions
against builders who persisted in putting up
structures before the Department had approved
| the plans was because the law force was en-
| proportion of such cases. Mr.. OtterbOurg smiled
and said. The shifting of official RESPONSE bility
| is quite science but can only say that 1 am
| pow erIess to bring injunction proceedings
| less Mr. Brady requests me so to do. and also
supplies the evidence"
| Q-HOw many injunction suits have brought
in the last year against builders violating the
| quTements for light and ventilation of tenement
/ hOuses2 A--TWO.
1 Q-HOw many such cases did Mr.. Brady request
! you bring? A.-TwO
| Odd you have any difficulty in obtaining these
| two njunctiOns? A-NOne at all
/ elf requested to do by Mr.. Brady. could
| pare the papers and obtain from the courts ten
| such iniunctiOns each month? A.-Yes. and twen-
| ty a month. Ii the presented only the ordi-
/ nary difficulties
FRANK MOSES COMMENT
| OF the 333 newly erected tenement houses
examined by the committees experts recently.
31S found TO contain violations of the law.
| II Brady had tried TO procure as many injunc-
| tiOns as the limited force OF which he complains
| could have handled at least 200 if not 24O
| could have been halted until the builders COM
| piled with the law. Frank Moss said yesterday:
| THAT Tammany gang in the Building Depart
ment is not only allowing much scandalOusIy
| bad building to be done, but they doing il