The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1916-06-24
GOTHAM POLICE I.
TAP UNION WIRES
Public Investigation Shows Prac-
tice to Be Common All Over
New York.
TELEPHONE COMPANY
D. SUPPLIES TAP LIST
Police ten Go Ahead Without
Even Consulting Officials of
Phone Company.

NEW YORK, June 24.-The work.
ers of New York have been given a
chance to peep behind the scenes and
find out just how impartial is the po-
lice department in it's handling of
strikes. To be certain, there never
was any doubt that the sympathies
of officialdom were on the side of the
employers, but undeniable confirma-
ton of this has been obtained in a
strange manner.
Subject of Investigation.
The "tapping' of telephone wires
by the police has been the subject of
investigation for some time by the
legislative committee headed by Sen
ator George F. Thompson. Labor had
little interest in the disclosures, how
ever, except as they afforded new
proof Of the power Of the house of
Morgan, until Peter J. Brady, secret
ary of the Allied Printing Trades
council, made the charge that the
wires OF number of labor unions
had been trapped" by the police,
and the information gained in this
manner turned over to employers and
to private detective agencies
One specific case was told of a
garment .worker-one Of the thou
sands now on strike-who called up
union headquarters to say that his
family was in want.
Within a few hours his former en-
ployer heard Of this telephone mes
sage, and hurried a basket of food
to his home, and followed it up by
sending his automobile to take the
family out riding. In every case of
this kind the effort has been made to
influence a strikers wife to persuad de
her husband to go back to work-but
the bosses have had very little suc-
cess at this.
Later Brady followed up his first
charger with a letter that he read at
a hearing Of the Thompson commit
tee! Besides Brady's signature, the
letter also bore those of Hugh Frayne,
general -ocganizer = OF the. .Amerfcan
Federation OF Labor: James p Hoi4
land, president Of the New York Fed
GRAFTON Of Labor; John Sullivan, in
ternational officer United Brewery
workers.; e. T. James, Brotherhood
Of Painters; Ernest Bohm, secretary
Central Federated union. and Henry
Wagman, United Garment workers.
The letter contained Brady's for
mer charges with some hot shot for
the police officials who worked in
cooperation with the 'noral lepers''
in private detective agencies.
He demanded that the police de-
partment be required to make public
the information that led it to believe
that the labor unions whose wires had
been tapped were concerned in the
commission Of any crime, and he de-
manded, furthermore, that the whole
list of tapped wires be made public
to expose the methods pursued by
the police and show that no wires of
detective agencies nor Of employers
had been tapped"
Gets Copy of s'Wires.''
This brought forth much wrangling
with Senator Thompson and Frank
Moss, the committees counsel, but in
the end it was decided to give Brady
copy Of the union wires that had
been tampered with, and to let him
and committee of labor leaders look
through the whole list of tapped
wires. upon his promise that he would
not publish it. He was told that the
investigation he demanded was not
within the scope of the Thompson
committee, and that he should go to
District Attorney Swami with his
complaint. This Brady will do within
a few days, and some fireworks are
promised then, for labor will insist on
seeing. the matter through to the end.
One more thing remains to be told.
The list Of TAPS" that the Thomp-
son committee has, was furnished by
the telephone company and contains
only small percentage of the num-
bers Of telephones that have been
tampered with.