Norwich bulletin., 1920-11-10
Airing New York
 Building Scandal
President of Building Trades
 Council, BrindelL, Expected Half of 1 Per Cent. on Con tracts Totalling s, ,25O, 900.

New York, Nov. s.-Robert P Brindell, president of the Building Trades Council. who is alleged to have received pay- ments for calling off building strikes. '.ex- pected ione-half of one per cent" on city pier construction contracts totalling sS.- 2o0,000, testimony in Commissioner of Accounts Hirshfield's inquiry into rami- neations of the trust" revealed today
 Howard H. Sherwin vice president and general manager of Terry and Tench Company. contractors for Staten Island piers, declared that of this one-half of one per cent. $16s250, Brfndell actually had been paid S7,500.
 In letter to Samuel Untermeyer, spe- clal counsel for the joint legislative com mittee Investigating the alleged trust, MT. Hirshfield forwarded copies of testimony of MT. Sherwin and Frederick Tench. his associate, taken byAa deputy of the com missioner's office, tending. to show that operations of the building combine" ex- tended to contracts for work for New York city.
 MT. Sherwin testified it was his "un- derstanding" that Brindell expected a half of one per cent. of the total contract figure: He. said he personally paid ,Brin- dell $5,000 last May, and that Brin- dell put the money in his pocket md gave Sherwin a cigar. A secon- F y- ment of $2,500 was made to Brinul.. a month ago, Sherwin added.
 Sherwin explained that following the award of the pier contracts to his firm he called on Brindell to talk things over" He said Terry and Tench Com pany felt it had assumed a heavy enter prise, and that he desired to conciliate all concerned.N as labor wall1out would have been an embarrassment ?
 Following this meeting, Sher&'in said | he understood that Brindells expected one half of one per cent. He said his firm had not taken such fee into considera- tion in calculating it's bid and never be. ire had paid labor leaders to prevent strikes. However, he regarded such a payment would be more ins the nature oi | a .'retainer's fee" than a bribe. He add ed that in justice to Brindell he wanted tt say that the latter had proved useful 1T ] adjusting labor disputes.
 MT. Untermeyer tonight addressed 1 letter to John T. Hettrick, at Seabright | N J. counsel for the Master Plumbers Association of New York and operator O
 a ''code of practice by which 400 'code' members contracted for jobs," inviting him to resume the witness stand nex
 Thursday before the joint legislativ ] committee.
 l An afternoon paper contains the an nouncement that you are now sojourn | ing at your country home in New Jersey 1 beyond the reach of subpoena from tn committee, and that you deny that yol
 are evading the process of the cmmittee, l the letter said.
 T beg to remind you the fact tha
 your testimony is uneompleted and tha
 you are still under su /jena. Notwith standing this fact, and that repeated call were made for you at the hearing aztd a your office, we were told that you hay not recently visited your office and "f7r unbale to find any way of communi 1 I l with you. We should be pleased, HOW 1 ever, to take your reported statement a 1 it's face value and to have. you appea
 and continue your testimony at the neX meeting of the committee on Thursda,
 next at two o'clock in the afternon."