The New York herald., 1921-12-03
HYLAN URGES SWAMI
TO ACT INI.R,T.CASE
Mayor Also Directs Counsel
for City to See if 1t Can
Get Redress.
100000, 900 INVOLVED
Transit Officials Pleased to
See Executive IndOrse
Inquiry Results.
CRAIG FOR PROSECUTION
Stock Market Victims, 1t Is
Said. Can Sue Directors.
for Losses They Met.

Mayor Hylan and Comptroller Craig
both issued statements yesterday
urging that evidence of frenzied
finance revealed by the Transit Com
mission in it's examination of Inter
borough affairs should be taken up
vigorously by the District Attorneys
Office"
The Mayor also asserted that he
would direct John P. O'Brien, Corpo-
ration Counsel, to study the record of
the commissions inquiry in the hope
that the city may obtain some meas
ure of legal redress. Mayor Hylan's
statement said:
II think the Transit Commission
ought to submit its evidence to the
District Attorney, so that he can pre-
sent 1t to the Grand Jury. It should
be taken UP vigorously by the District
Attorneys Office to the end that the
rights of the honest investing public
be protected in the future.
II will ask the Corporation Counsel
TO peruse the minutes Of the transit
hearings with a view to ascertaining
IL there is not some way that the city
of New York can obtain legal redress
for the loss of returns on it's invest
ment of almost $500, 900, 900 in the SUBJ
ways.
1T seems to me that the high handed
and frenzied manipulation of the Inter-
borough directors has tended to delay
an dpostpone> the day that the city could
realize some return upon its subway
properties"
Craig Favors Prosecution.
Comptroller Craig said
''rhe directors of the Interborough
ought to be treated according to law.
There should be no distinction or dis
elimination in their favor. The District
Attorney should examine the facts and
if a crime has been committed those re-
sponsible should be prosecuted. Further
more. il the investors who have been
victims of the directors market manip-
nlations are alert to their own interests
they will see that their losses are made
good by the directors whose illegal ac-
tions were responsible for the losses"
Though members of the Transit Com
mission appointed by Gov. Miller re-
fused to comment officially upon the
statements of the Mayor and the Comp
troller. they permitted it to be known
that they welcome heartily and unre-
servedly the sympathetic cooperation of
the Mayor and of any other members of
the municipal administration in the con-
structive task to which the commits
sioners have addressed their efforts. IT
Is not the business of the Transit Com
mission to send the evidence to a prose-
cutting officer. Testimony taken in these
examinations, however. has all the bind
ing force of evidence ELECTED in a court
Of law, and the official record Cf pro-
ceedings is quite as available to the
1istrict Attorney as to the Corporation
Counsel, who receives daily a copy OF
the stenographic minutes.
This latest utterance of the Mayor
provoked nothing but friendly and ap
preciative comment in the headquarters
OF the Transit Commission. Among per-
rons outside of that building who have
followed the tortuous course OF transit
affairs closely there were many how
ever. who hailed these deliverances from
the Mayor and Comptroller as indicating
al interesting shift of attitude on the
part of the city administration.
Inquiry RidicuIed at start.
II was recalled that when this in
ouiry opened Mr.. Kohler. representing
the Corporation Counsel, protested
against IL In the name Of the city, act
ing under the written Instructions of
the Mayor, who lost no opportunity to
fidicule the State Commission as an
unconstitutional body.
IL was remembered that even more
recently Mayor HyIan issued state
ments from the City Hall belittlng the
Transit Commissioners investigations
end averriug that nothing was being
revealed except old stuff which had
been brought to light In the inquiry
conducted for the Board OF Estimate
and Apportionment last year by the
then Corporation Counsel (now Su-
preme Court Justice) Burr. Virtually
nil the documentary material from
which Mr.. McAneny, Mr.. Shearn and
their associates now are dragging into
the light Interborough corporate data
was available in 1920. and 1t was not
until February, 1921, that Corporation
Counsel OBrien, who meantime had
succeeded Mr.. Burr, made his report to
the Board of Estimate, which had au-
fhorized the investigation on December
30 1919. nearly two years ago.
II what the Transit Commission has
been revealing of late Is all old stuff.
critics of the city administration said,
they NOT unnaturally wonder why steps
which the Mayor suggests now we're not
taken then II certain questionable
transactions had been pushed to a con.
cfusion in 1920 to determine whether or
not they were of a criminal nature,
they would not then have been barred,
es they now are barred by the statute
OF limitations IT. its application to al
legged misdemeanors.
AS the case stands at present the
nsriod for the institution of Grand Jury
proceedings has passed. lawyers as
serted yesterday, unless some more
serious situations should be exposed as
the inquiry progresses. This limitation.
OF course does not act as a bar against
lltigants in civil actions.