New-York tribune., 1910-07-28
WANT THEIR $1,000 BACK
Secretary of Building Co. Can't
Pay Members While in Jail.
is CHARGED WITH FORGERY
CIoakmakers Bemoan Folly of
Hiring Radius, Even at SO
Cents a Month.

Gents a Month.
Benedict Radius. of No. z12 East Broad
way. until two weebs ago secretary of the
Independent City Building Company. al
No, 130 Essex street, was committed tc
jail without bail yesterday in Mount Holly,
n. J., On a charge of forging the signature
OF A. A. Anderson, of Mount Holly. to a
mortgage for N,100 on some property al
Prosperity Park, Chatsworth, n. J. A sec
ond charge was made against him OF
forging the signature Of Watson T Sooy,
formerly County Clerk of Burlington Coun-
ty, to a legal document. and the hearing
was continued to tomorrow morning.
Radius wired to this city for an attorney
to come to Jersey and defend him, while
his former associates on the board Of di-
rectors OF the Independent City Building
Company bewailed their fate in the arrest
of the former secretary.
Nathan Richman, one Of the directors,
said that RADIUS had got away with about
5000 belonging to the company, and they
did not see how they were going to get it
back If Radius was lodged in jail
One Thousand Alleged Foreeries.
The affair, to the minds of the directors,
hinged on a payment of so cents a month
to Radius for the last two years. They dis
covered the alleged forgeries, covering
deeds for more than one thousand lots at
Prosperity Park two weeks ago, and the
amazing legal minds of the striking cloak
makers composing the building company
used the 50 cents a month SO effectively
as club over RADIUS that he agreed 70
return 5000 according to the directors
The initial payment Of S13 should have been
made last Tuesday TO settle q bill Of Jo-
seph r Imhof, q lumber dealer at Ham
monton, n. J.
Radius took the train for Harmonton
early on Tuesday morning TO pay 1mhon' S
bill. and Jacob Bellies, director Of the
company, went along to see that the re-
ceipt was made in proper form. When the
directors who stayed at home heard yester-
day of the arrest of RADIUS, they thought
that Inlhof had become peev1sh over the
shaving OF his account. and they wanted
to know how Bellies had Jared But when
they understood that it was the alleged
forgeries that had made the trouble, R1ch-
man and Michael Mark. who looks like
Count Tolstoy. with two front teeth miss
ing, cola borated on an explanation OF the
doings of RADIUS and the Independent City
Building Company,
It seems that about four years ago g.
small group of East Side cloakmakers fg-
ured out plan to establish a Jewish col
ony in New Jersey, the general scheme
being to buy considerable acreage cheap
ly and sell il on an average OF four times
the purchase price to other Jews who were
not in on the original plan So they Or
ganized the Prosperity Park Realty Com
pany and bought three hundred acres OF
land from the Chatsworth Realty Com
pany. at ChatsWorth, fifteen miles from
Lakewood. The price was $1,000. ana the
final payment was made three months ago
The land was divided UP into four thou
sand lots, and was to be sold at an average
price Of SIS a lot.
Pay princely Salary.
Two years ago the cloakmakers decided
to rurn the proper financial trick and have
a shake-up and reorganization 1t was
then that the Independent City Building
Company was organized and took over the
holdings of the Prosperity company. TWO
hundred stockholders IN the old company
composing the new concern II was then
also that the legal wizards Of the cloak
making industry ran in the 80 cents a
month on Radius.
Radius had been the secretary of the
original company, and remained IN the
same place with the new concern In
der the old company he had drawn a sal
ary Of SIS week, but when the 1nde-
pendent company was organized he said
that he would give his time TO 1t for moth
ing and attend to some private business
on the side According to Richman and
Mark, this display of generosity on Radus's
part was SO unusual as TO arouse the
keenest suspicion.
They studied the situation and decided
that if RADIUS. worked for nothing he could
not be held responsible for his financial
management of the company. Hence. they
gave him a salary of so cents month and
made their money safe
But RADIUS. the directors say, still had
shade on his associates. He kept the
stockholders of the company quarrelling
among themselves so fiercely that they
never had time to look at the books, but
according to his verbal reports, he took
in Just enough money from the sale OF
lots so that he never was more than two
months behind on the rent Of the offices.
Two weeks ago. Isador Sitkof. the pres
ident of the company. being out on the
cloekmakers' strike, decided that he would
go down to Mount Holly himself and have
a deed recorded for the sale of one of the
lots When he came back he told an arnaz
ing tale of the sale of more than one
thousand lots and deeds on record bearing
what nurported to be the signatures of the
officers of the company.
Richman said yesterday:
I'VE held a meeting between US, and
after we had recognized the books RADIUS
was to pay us back our money. 1t was
$4,000 But now he has been arrested
Please, if you can help us"--
The eIouuence Of the outspread hands
supplied more than words