New-York tribune., 1920-12-13
Builders Eager
For Restoration
OF Competition
Many Contractors Tell Lock-
wood Committee They
Will Welcome Disruption
of Agreement With Labor
Predict Drop in Prices
Brindell Council and Associ-
alton of Employers Said
To Be i'm Illegal Combine

O be In lllcSal NOmD1ne
Breaking up Of the working agree
ments between the Building Trades
Council and the Building Trades En-
ployers' Association, whose relations
are alleged to have boosted the cost Of
building in New York to such an ex-
tent that the construction Of new
homes has become Improbable, is to
be sought soon by the Lockwood COM
mittee.
The employers organization is made
up Of fifty-two different groups of en-
ployers in the building trades. The
council, of which Robert P. Brindell,
now under several indictments on
charges of extortion, is the head, en-
braces all unions in the building in
dustry except structural steel workers,
bricklayers, plastcrers and painters.
Contractors Want Break
1t was learned yesterday that Samuel
Untermyer. chief counsel for the Lock
wood committee in its investigation Of
the housing situation, has received as
surances from prominent contractors
that they would be glad to sever rela-
tions with the two organizations and to
continue building operations on COM
petitive basis. Some of the contractors
are said to have reported that the
council and the association jointly have
been grinding them as between two
mill stones" Once freed of the alleged
combine, they assert, the price of many
lines of building would drop 40 to 80
per cent and great impetus would be
given to the construction Of new
| homes, which is now virtually at q
standstill
Members of the committee said yes
terday that they already are in posi-
ton to break up the alleged combine,
but that before this is done more prose-
cutions will be sought on the ground
that these will tend to create a more
wholesome condition in the industry.
Mr.. Untermyer has said that the work
ing agreements in which the building
industry is embroiled "are equal to a
onspiracy."
Evidence in the hands Of the commit
tee is said to show that agreements
between the Building Trades Council
and the Building Trades Employers
Association provide that. employers will
use only members of the council and
that, in turn, the council will furnish
workers only to the members of the
association, and that the result is that
all employers are forced into the asso-
citation in order to obtain men to work
for them.
AS typical Of many other branches of
the building trades, 1t was pointed out
that in the marble branch of the indus
try the council agreed to hire men at
the rate Of So day, while the asso-
citation charged $29. The same thing
is alleged to have existed in the case
of excavators, whose work was sold
at rate 40 to 90 per cent higher than
the pay given the men. In addition, 10
per cent was added for supervision.
Price of Labor Boosted
The committees findings are alleged
20 show that builders generally pay
about 50 per cent more for labor than
the workers get. The council, it is
charged. dominates the employers as
sociation completely, and members OF
the association, with an added profit
"pass the buck tn the builders" with
the explanation that TO construction
can be completed unless the unions are
given what they demand.
) By eliminating the various processes
by which costs are boosted, the commit
, tee holds, the prospects will be made
! brighter for supplying the city will
, some of the 100000 new homes O
| which it stands in need. Some mem
bers Of the committee have expressed
surprise that Samuel Gompers, presi
dent of the American Federation of La
, bor. and other labor leaders have per
! mtted the existence Of system b,
which the labor Of the individual work
: crs has been traded in by those "high
er up"
1t is expected that the committee
when it resumes its hearings at tn
City Hall tomorrow, will take u
questions dealing with the structura
steel workers.
A summary of the work thus far &C
, complished by the committee, as give
8 out yesterday, is:
The indictment of fftyfve ind
viduals, including Robert P. Brindel
president of the Building Trades Coun
{ Gil (indicted FIVE times on charges o
e Peter Stadtmuller, Brindelrs lieuter
ant; sixteen members of the Employln
= Metallic and Furring Lathers' Associa
q ton; thirty-one members of the Ne'
" York Cut Stone Contractors Associa
It ton; John A. Philbrick. Joseph Penn
). and Wright D. Goss, indicted for fai
ing to answer questions; Georg
t. Backer, builder, indicted and tried o
e perjury charge and in whose cas-
T. jury disagreed, and William H. ChaI
man, Of the Plumbers Union. charge
B." with extortion.
e The cancellation of the contracts O
2 the county courthouse as the result {
+ the exposure of John T. Hettrick
- Code OF Practice whose member
al matched bids
le Two Combines Dissolved
ID The dissolving of two combination
~ the Masons' Supply Bureau of Brool
" lyn and the New York Cut Stone Coz
ie tractors Association.
oi "A decrease in the prices of brio
p cement, limestone and other buildir
ls materials since the inception of the il
~ vestgation.
u. Proof of irregularity in contrac
W :" for work on new public schools.
-. ~ Proof that Mayor Hylan was fool
j." into recommending limestone for u
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