New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1908-10-01
| PUT S. SCHWARTS OUT
LICENSE CHIEF ON STAND.
Tells Commissioners of accounts
about PedIers' President.

An Investigation of the Bureau of Licenses was
hesup Yesterday by Commissioners Gallagher ana
Mitchell in the Mayors reception room III ule -.
Hall John P. Corrigan, the suspenued ehel u
the bureaus in the five boroughs was on li'e SIAM
TWeuty-nine patrolmer and three sereeAhle' ne
said v.7, detailed to the license squad, ana the
policemen frequently held confscated licenses over
night Licenses, he said, were cohrsoaIeu WV"
found in the possession of a pedler othef -l'n INC
ono 70 whom il was originally issued. FORFEITED
l;censes are flied in a drawer. When satisfactory
explanations made licenses are FetuLneu' ~
record being kept of them
Considerable interest was aroused during the ex-
animation of Mr.. Corrigan when 1t was Drought
out that licenses for pushcarts ana street status
had been issued recently notwithstanding the fact
that the Mayor had ordered them stopped several
years ago. Mr. Corrigan said that they hau oeeh
issued because of special orders, some OF Whlch
came from the Mayors secretary, John h. y brieh'
his brother. Frank O'Brien and the assistant sec
rotary, William Willis He said that licenses We're
issued occasionally by verbal orders rom '"e
Mayor himself
Asked If there was record kept of the reason Tor
Issuing licenses Mr. Corrgan said that the STUDS
were usually Endorsed by his own order. He was
asked what check he had in the operation OF the
bureau prevent such licenses as were forfeited
and put in drawer being taken out and sold IN
discriminatory, and lie replied that he had every
confidence in his subordinates. He said that he
had other record of licenses forfeited.
In reply TO the suggestion that they might be
taken out of the drawer by a sneak thief and sold
he said that the licenses could not be renewed with
the production of citizenship papers Commits
soner Mitchell commented that. under the circum-
stances 1t would be possible for ten or twelve
thousand persons to do business under renewed and
other licenses.
1t brought out that numerical index book
showing when and to whom licenses had been ISIS
ued had disappeared in August. Licenses for a
common show he said, referred to the
Building and Fire departments before being passed
upon by the License Bureau, and the Fire Depart
ment In nearly every required that the appli-
cant secure the approval of the Department Of Wa
ter Supply Gas and Electricity.
Mr.. Corrigan said that he had not acted in
cordance with the recommendation OF the Com
missioners of Accounts last year with regard to
substituting book records for the card index sys-
tenn used in his department, because there
was sufficient room for the work
the books. Commissioner Mitchell suggested that
licenses had been issued TO persons whose applica-
ton had been disapproved by the Buildings De-
partment that certain licenses had been bought
and sold in places outside the license bureau. Mr.
Corrigan said that he had never heard OF such
business, and that he had heard OF licenses
being sold in his bureau for higher than legal
rates.
The witness said ne had ordered Sgmund
Schwartz the head Of the pushcart pedlers'
citation, of his office because Schwartz had pro-
posed that the chief of the Bureau Of Licenses
should walk through the streets of the East Side
with him to make impression upon the peo-
pie that would be favorable to Schwartz. An adj
iournment taken at this point To-day MI
DAmato, the deputy chief of the bureau, viii be
called to the stand, and Mr. Corrigan will be re-
called to tell of workings Of the bureau