New-York tribune., 1921-05-11
City Hospital
Is Victim of
Housing Ring
fcon,Iuued from page ons)

copted tA!s bid of S663,o0o for the
completion of work that was to have
been done for $2i9000 under the
original S557,000 contract"
Little came out respecting the f74th
street Construction Company except
that its president was 1gnatz Roth
who signed the new contract with the
city. II developed here, however, that
Winternitz had entered claim for a
half share in the 17dth Street contract
and an agreement WAS referred to in
which Wlnternitz was to estimate and
supply the labor and sub-contractors
lot the lfath street company and have
the contract assigned over to him. The
profits Of the new deal were estimated
by Winternita to be a minimum of
100000, of which he was to obtain so
per cent.
According to the records or file in
the Controllers Office and submitted
yesterday in evidence, the 174th Street
Company on December 2, 1920, repudi-
ated it's verbal agreement with Winter
nit2 and barred him from all connec-
tion with the work. Winternitz filed
his claim for half share under this
agreement with the Roth Company,
with the Comptroller's Office on jan
uary 20, of this year.
new company to put over the deal with
Roth, which he had named the Bert
win Construction Company, of which
he was president and the only salaried
officer, getting $75 week. He said
he made his verbal agreement with
Roth on September Is, 1920, only
twelve days before the Roth firm was
awarded the S663.O00 contract to finish
tho hospital.
Capitalized at $4,000
He said he was introduced to Roth
by the formers brother-in-law, Her
man Setlow, on September 15, and that
was the first time he met him. AS to
the organization of his new company
he said it was capitalized at $4,000,
none of the stock of which he held.
The men who contributed the money
and were members of the Bertwin firm
said Winternitz, are Frank Merger,
Gustave Feldman, bookkeeper for the
Sprague Electric Company, and Charles
Hiavaky, head of the Central Radiator
Company, Seventy third Street and
Third Avenue.
count for the company at the Chat
ham and phenix Bank and signed all
the checks for the firm. He knew that
the $4,000 capitalization came from the
three men mentioned, but couldn't say
how much each contributed or tell
much of the circumstances under which
he got the money.
Work on the hospital by the Roth
firm is still progressing, they having
been paid $133,297 by the city SO far
on the $663,000 contract.
Who Roth is, why the city was will
ing to pay such an exorbitant price
for the unfinished job and what hand
Winternitz played will probably be dis
closed at this mornings session of the
committee.
Ex-Commander Elliot C. Brown, a
civil engineer, who had charge of
building q naval barracks at Fort
Washington Park, in Brooklyn, to house
5000 men in 1917, told how the bids for
the plumbing work were uniformly high.
The bids submitted were: Wells & New
ton, $4,000; Cornell Company, $57, 1000;
John M. Knight, $4,000, and Hemlin &
Smith, $A8.29O.
Commander Brown said the figures
amazed him, as he had estimated the
cost at only about $4,000 at the most
The contractors were all members of
the Hettrick plumbing combine, several
OF whom are now serving Jail sentences
for coercion and conspiracy. Herbert
Smith, Of Hemlin & Smith, is in the
penitentiary with Hettrick
Brown testified that on his advice
the bids wers ignored and the work
let out to George H. Greasy on a cost