New-York tribune., 1921-01-21
Bl.inden Named
In Eleven Cases
AS Bribe-Taker
Contractors Testify Labor
81 Gar Got Sums Ranging
From $500 to So, 900 in
Cash on Various Jobs
5ay He Spurned Checks
Money Paid Either to Pre-
went Strikes or to End
Existing Ones, They Assert

Exipdell, president Of the Building
Trades Council, is alleged to have COL
Hated bribes for calling off strikes on
obstruction work were related by wit
nesses at Brindell's trial on charges Of
e3tertion before Justice John v. Nc
A4pg yesterday in the criminal branch
of she Supreme Court.
The sums which, witnesses testified,
Brindell collected in cash and put into
hfs own pocket ranged from $500 to
$4,000. The testimony was that con-
trastors paid the money at Brindell's
once, at IL st. Marks Place, to induce
the labor leader to prevent threatened
atrikes, or to order workmen to return
10 work on Jobs where strikes had been
s.llssd.
Alleged Brfbes Enumerated
J6bs on which Brindell collected
bribes and the amounts paid him, ac
cording to the testimony. were house
wrscking or excavation work for Office
buildings at these places:
Stock Exchange Annex, Broad and
Wall streets, $2,500; northeast corner
Forty-second Street and Madison Ave-
npe $4,000; the old Hotel Manhattan,
$4,000; Twenty-third Street, near Mad
ison Avenue, $500; Sixty-slxth Street
and Madison Avenue, $3.50; Washing
ton. near West Street, $500; Gotham
National Bank Building, Fifty-ninth
Street, near Columbus Circle. $46s;
Garment Center Realty Company build
ing, Thirty-eighth Street and Seventh
Avenue, 5000; Forty Street and
Seventh Avenue, 5000, and building
IL Brooklyn, $3.50.
Albert A. Volk, an excavating con-
tractor, and Louis j. Cohen, a house
wrecker, questioned by Samuel Inter
myar, counsel for the prosecution, tes-
sifed that Brindell told volk to inform
the officials Of the Gotham National
Bank to put .s25,000 in q hole in the ex-
eAvation work so that the building
Sould be erected without any delay by
strikes.
ssThey charged that Brindell COM
palled volk to pay $25 initiation fee
tor each workman on a certain lob to
join the Brindell council and that the
wcrkmen were not to be told that they
had Joined.
Brindell, riding around the city in
an automobile with Volk, explained
chat he had collected $4,000 on various
9ehs under construction, it was testi-
Brindell told contractors to inform
kim show much there was in it for
him" before making bids on Jobs, the
witnesses said, and added that on GER
tfan jobs Brindell collected 25 cents a
day for each workman employed.
Typical Instances Cited
Typical Of the instances related by
Volk was this:
When work on the Stock Exchange
annex was under way short time
Brindell appeared and asked me how
M1ch was getting for it. told him
4as,O00. He said: You are fool You
cculd have gotten much more than
that ] replied that I might be a fool.
but that he told me not to count him
ia on it, 50 l made my bid low. He be-
came angry and wanted to know how
much there was in it for him.
my firm offered him $4,000. He
9neered at that, saying DO. you think
am a piker? He went away. The
next day went to see him at his sug-
gestion. said $4,000 would be as
much as could pay. He finally agreed
TO take it. telephoned to our cashier
and had the money sent down to where
I was at BrindelPs Office, in St. Marks
Place.
I'VE were in room alone when I
tArded him the money in bills. He put
4ekin his pocket hurriedly. Then 1
asked him to count it. He then took
il out and looked it over quickly. He
sid, You're getting OFF pretty easy
ttit time l told him there would be
other jobs and he would get money on
them"
Volk will be cross-examined by Mar
tin w. Littleton, counsel for the de-
fendant, when the trial is resumed this
morning.
The largest amount which Cohen
said he paid to Brindell was $4,000 for
An~O. r." to wreck the interior of the
old Hotel Manhattan.