Norwich bulletin., 1920-11-20

Testimony that the cement trade of the entire country is under the aboslute con trol of a national association and that there is "a very rockbound agreement in the granite And marble induscfy w-/ given by Hugh White; vice president of the George A Fuller Construction Conn pany, one of the largest concerns of it's kind doing business throughout the United States.
 He expressed the hope that he might soon see ''coInpetition'' in building ma terials, trades and labor MT. Inter meyer added he wanted to release labor from "the thralldom of blackmail"
 Proceedings of the day also brought forth evidence that a policeman Stephen Birmingham, was granted six months leave from the police department while he worked under Brindell in the "com- pens4tion bureau" of the building trades council.
 It also was revealed that after the court house site had been excavated, the
 street cleaning department had been al lowed to dump ashes there, and that the city was paying approximately s20O,000 | to \can it up agin.
 Colusion in bidding among contractors and dealers in brick, cement, sand. mar ble and other building materials was in- timated during MT Whites testimony. A mass of estimates 'unvarying in amounts" and with even the wording "ah- solutely uniform submitted to the Fuller 1 Company in various I-@terials was of- | fered in evidence
 | The cement mems national association
 has divided the country into districts. he l testified. Manufacturers will not sell to dealers outside the sphere assigned them.
 Similarly. dealers will not deal with con | tractors Ieyond their designated terri j, tory.
 | George Atwell demolition contractor,
 also testified to nationwide contrtl of
 the cement business.
 1 Both witnesses cited recent price re-
 auctions. Mir Atwell declared bricks
 dropped from $50 thousand to half
 that amount while MT. White also 1 spoke of their decline.
 | A saving of sS7oo0 was made by the
 Fuller Construction Company in two
 months. White testified, by getting lower 1 than expected estimates on $7o0, 900
 worth of work. He added that the | company's unit labor costs in the last two or three weeks show more pro- ductivity for the men than before the vestigation started and I have had the same statement made to be in reference to the sub-contractors by their repre- l sentatives D
 l As an example of reduced material costs he cited an estimate he had until i four or five weeks ago on a certain lime
 stone job for s52,0o0. Ten days ago, he
 said. the contract was closed for ap- :; proximately s3S.100.
 | How were you able to get a second l bid?''. asked his inquisitor. You know i that under, the code of practice-you
 know what that rule was" 1 'Yes," replied MT. White, "often when
 we or any other contractor had request ed bids on certain lines no one else could come in after those first bids were re- ceived. We couldn't get into open com petition and obtain any other bids: we
 had to restrict ourselves to the original bidders.
 l That has been disrupted?'' | Yes I think 1t has, I Atwell swore to paying more than Il S17.0o0 tribute to Brindel and declared he had never gone to the throne, with. out being sent for. He knew of five ex. ipensive and luxurious automobiles owned by Brindell ; in the city and understooG he had other machines in the country Brindell invited him 10 his home ir .l one of the cars recently, but the build ing ''kings" chauffeur in taking hin back toward his own abode let him of al Ia subway station.
 + The inquiry will be resumed next Tues