New-York tribune., 1921-03-18
Meyer Denies
Pier Charges;
Assails Critics
Acting Dock Commissioner
Terms Steinberg ssPolit-
ical Whipper-Snapper'';
Offers Access to Files
Mildly Scores Miller
Chilvers Said to Have I'm
earthed $12,5OO Fee Pay
ment to Tammany Youth

Henry A. Meyer, Acting Dock Com
missioner in the absence of Murray
Hubert, yesterday issued statement
ii which he heatedly denied tbs
sssfees against the Dock Department
made by Governor Miller and Assem-
blynaan Joseph Steinberg in connection
with the port and terminal develop
ment bill. The Deputy Commissioner
referred to Assemblyman Steinberg as
q political whipper-snapper" and criti-
ciSed the Governor more mildly.
.Mr. Steinberg dare not make his
charges against the Dock Department
st . time and place where he can be
made to prove them," said Mr.. Meyer.
His is the cheap trick of political
whipper-snapper. He knows he cannot
be accountable for anything he says on
the floor of the Assembly. Mr.. Stein
berg or any one else who wants to can
70 through the files of the Dock De-
partment at any time to see for him-
self just what terms and conditions
are prescribed in the leasing of piers.
aThe public of New. York does not
know that Mr.. Miller did not appear at
the legislative committee hearing on
the pert treaty-that he made his
charges against the city administration
and the Dock Department in state
ment which he slipped to the news
paper men before the hearing took
place. Nor does the public know that
By orders of some unseen power the
legislative committee allowed only
forty-fve minutes to state the case
against the port treaty, a document so
infamous in its proposal that even the
tractien bill appears virtuous in com
parison.
Cites Large Local Projects
"Mr Miller charged that the city au-
thori.ies were delinquent in attending
to port matters and sowing port
problems. OF course, man from
Syracuse should not be presumed to
know anything of the s18,OO0,00 dock
Development now under way on Staten
Island nor of the 1.500 900 reconstruc-
ton work now going on along the
Manhattan East River waterfront, nor
Of the $5,0000O0 North River improve
ments nor of the S4,000000 work on the
Brooklyn Waterfront.
Il might ask Mr.. Miller with all pro-
priety if he wrote the statement charg-
ing the city administration with incom-
potency and ineficiency. If he did write
1T MS nina must De Twin OF that OF
Julius Henry Cohen, paid employee of
the Port Commission, whose statement
before the legislative comm ttee bore q
most curious resemblance to the Gov
s ernor's
For aer Governor Charles S. Whit
man, in charge of the grand jury in
curry into corruption charges against
the Hylan admin stration, merely smiled
when Comm ssioner Meyers statement
was called to his attention. William
Chilvers, Mr.. Whitmans aid, who has
leen conducting the Dock Department
Investigation, also refused to make any
Ecemment.
! 1t as Known, however, r, that Mr.. Chill
vers has made considerable progress
In his investigation. He has estab-
lshed the fact. it is said, that youth
with strong Tammany affiliations, had
been paid a comm ssion" of sl2,500
for the use of his influence in obtain
ing the lease of city pier for a
steam company now in the process
Of liquidation by the United States
Shipping Board.
further development, The Trib-
une is Informed, is that the investi-
gators have discovered that certain
favorite sons of Tammany have
leased piers for 500 day and sub
iet them at $3.50 day. A third de-
Veiopment is the mystery surrounding
e1o,o00 entry upon the books of the
steamship company which paid the
generous commission" to the Tam
many youth. The man responsible for
sne entry has disappeared.