Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-10-25
WOES OF BABYLON

A STRANGE and various people are the
a Manhattanesc. Naively these folk in
sist that their turbulent island is the nerve
center of the universe. the true fountain of
national strength and the source of every
great inspiration and all great initiative.
New York produces the biggest buildings,
the biggest Tins and the biggest fortunes.
1t produces the biggest scandals, too.
Whatever is most terrible in music shows,
in song, in politics, in subways, in finance
and in sociological theory is pretty sure to
make first appearance somewhere near
Broadway. So it is not strange to find that
the most grievouS of oil complications vet
disclosed within the eternal triangle repre-
sented by labor, capital and the public have
been brought to light at the investigation
ordered by the New York State Legislature
in an effort to break up gambling and graft
ing rings that have almost paralyzed the
building industry in Manhattan and else
where.
1t is not often that Mayor Hylan hits so
close to the truth as he did when he lifted
his voice in lamentation at the end of a
recent session of the legislative committee.
The building trust, the coal trust. the milk
trust and the other trusts cried he bit
terly, have built a wall about New York
as great as the Great Wall Of China :" The
mayor forgot the walters trust, the hat
check trust, the ice trust. the theatre ticket
trust and all the other big and little COM
bines that make life hectic aud uncertain and
expensive for his people.
The case of Brindell president Of the
Building Trades Council of the Federation
\ of Labor, who is charged with having prof
tied by a contractors combine organized to
keep building costs up and to eliminate
.. 4.
probably without parallel in the country
Here is a man who is said to have exacted
humping fees from building contractors with
the threat to call his men 'off the job"
The legislative commission was told that big
plumbing contractors. with the assistance of
n lawyer, established a clearing house and
''code of practice" by which work and
contracts were parceled out under system
founded on fake bids. Competition was
eliminated. Contractors who refused to join
| the ring were threatened with ruin-and
| with strikes.
L. Mr. Hylan and Samuel Untermyer say
| that the surface of the scandal has only been
| touched. Yet the abuses that have left thou
sands of families homeless and other thou
sands crowded together in inadequate quarters
has been tolerated for years in community
| that has developed whole literature of songs
| and legend to advertise and celebrate its
cleverness and complete sophiStication Is
Babylon dcluded, after all? Was o. Henry
! telling the cold truth when he said that you
| have to journey far from the sage brush to
| the big cities to find the true hick?
| 1t is as commentary on social rather
| than economic processes that the revelations
| in New York challenge attention. II half
| that is being told is true. a lawyer and a
| trades union leader fooled the city, fooled
! organized labor, fooled the contractors and
| made it unsafe for Investors to put money
| into real estate improvements And Mr.
| Cntermyer believes that most of the build
| ing trades and almost all new construction
| work as well as some of the producers and
| distributors of building materials were in &.
| volved somehow in the general scheme of
| exploitation. In consequence of all this, the
| janitor has become one of the largest and
| most imposing figures in the life of present.
| day New York He has inherited the i'm
| perial mood. From him the Manhattanese
| hide their children lest they be ordered out
| into the cold world. His power is terrible
| and his sway is complete.
| Hylan beat his forehead and ordered that
all public work which might by any chance
| be involved in the general scheme of graft
| be stopped at once. The inquiry into the
operations of the combined building and
| labor trust has only begun. 1t will be pressed
from now on and it is certain to hurt or.
ganized labor. There have been other in E.
stances of labor leaders who were crooked
both ways, but they have been few, and no
official of the federation ever had to face
charges as serious as those now aimed at
Brundell, of New York. Gompers and his
associates cannot let the present inquiry
proceed without making an effort to get at
the truth as it affects their subordinates,
and to determine whether other Brindells,
false to the unions and to the public and to
business organizations alike, are functioning
elsewhere in the country with the authority
Of their national organization.