New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-07-12
New Tan1nanv
Snag Hampers
Graft Inquiry
Donohue and Bloch Abandon
Plan TO Stop Committee
Hearing Testimony in Pri-
vate for Fresh Obstacle
Attack Wallstein Again
Meyer Will Investigate
Burial of Soldier Dead
in Hunt for City Fraud

The Iammany minority on the joint
legislative graft investigating COM
mittee yesterday abandoned its much
heralded plan to prevent the committee
from taking testimony at private hear
ings.
The minority members, Assemblymeu
Charles D. Donohue and Maurice Bloch,
announced last week that they would
instruct witnesses not to answer cues
lions except in public.
When inquiry was made at the head
quarters of the committee last night
as to the success Of the Donohue-
bloch plan at the hearing yesterday
Senator Schuyler M. Meyer, chairman
OF the committee, replied:
Nothing of the kind was ATTEMPTED.
Why, Assemblyman Donohue presided
over one of the private hearings"
Why the plan was abandoned the
minority members did not say, but they
announced that they had a fresh idea
tor making trouble which they had
passed on to Mayor Hylan's CORPORA
ton Counsel, John P. O'Brien.
I'VE have just been informed" said
Assemblymen Donohue and Bloch in 4
JOINT statement, that Leonard M.
Wallstein and Samuel Berger, associate
counsel to the committee, have been
holding hearings in their private
Offices.
This seems to be an attempt to
evade the mandate of the Appellate
Division directing that all hearings
shall be in public
I'VE shall forward our information
to Corporation Counsel O'Bren with
request that he institute contempt
M. Meyer and against the associate
ger"
Mr.. Berger could not be reached last
night, but Mr.. Wallstein made this
comment:
This tank of contempt proceedings
is pure bosh. There is nc truth in the
story that l have been holding any
hearings lately, for | have been out
Of town since June 30, when the Appel
late Division handed down it's decision
t. which Assemblymen Donohue and
Bloch refer. | did not return to town
till to-day Further, there is nothing
in the decision forbidding the holding
of private hearings. The only thing
the court decided was that a witness
who refused to testify at them could
not be punished for contempt"
IGSLCTQdy Tie mayor
of Accounts, David Hirshfeld. issued
another one of his attacks on the COM
mittee. This time it was because the
graft Investigators subpenaed an I'M
dertaker, William Skahill, of 1858 West
Fifteenth Street. Skahill also was
called upon to produce all his books
and papers in connection with the
burial of American soldiers who died
Oh French battlefelds, together with
all insurance papers of the soldier
dead, Cancelled checks, etc.
Senator Meyer, who ignored the
Hirshfeld attack, said that information
had been brought to the committee re-
garding the burial of soldier dead which
he believed should be investigated and
that if it were not matter affecting
the city governmental local Health
Department issues burial permissible
would turn over his findings to the
Federal authorities.
Senator Meyer made formal an
ncuncement yesterday that the public
hearings, which had been postponed
from time to time to to-day, would not
begin this week. He said that he would
not fix any date and that the committee
was engaged on larger work than the
public imagined. He said that if the
committee were engaged on graft hunt
ing alone it could start right in.
Said Chairman Meyer:
There is some Impotence on the
part of the public because the COM
mittee has not yet felt it advisable to
begin open hearings. The committee
is an instrument of the public and its
policies are shaped with an eye to the
publics best interests. 1t does not
propose to expose the results of its
work until it is convinced that it can
accomplish the ends for which it was
arpointed: the reorganization of the
city government. If the committee
were bent upon graft hunting alone it
could begin hearings tomorrow, but
it's task is much greater than that.
LET me call attention to the fact
that we have been working only about
six weeks. We are not studying the
administration of a small town. Ours
is city of nearly SIX millions. It's
government spends annually more than
twice as much as the government of
the whole State of New York, more
than many large foreign countries
spend. Several departments have an
nual expenditures exceeding the entire