The Connecticut labor news., 1921-06-17
UNTERMEYER PLAYS MONOPOLIES WHICH
 CONTROL BUILDING
Famous Attorney Denounces Courts for Failure to Imprison
 Known Profteers.

New York, June 17.-",l have been
 unable to discover single article that enters into building construction that is not the subject of combination ,and 1 have every reason to believe that
 this is true of at least one-half of all
 the vast industries of the United States outside the building trades" The foregoing statement was made by Samuel Untermeyer, one of the
 most distinguished of American law yers, acting as counsel for the Lock- wood committee appointed by tl1e | New York Legislature to investigate the illegal practices of building con tractors in New York City.
 Under the leadership of Untermey CT, this committee has for months been Investigating the building situa- ton and 1t has uncovered a mass Of information concerning criminal praC tices.
 Tender Treatment of Criminals. Building contractors and dealers in
 building supplies have been proven to be parties to illegal combinations In
 few instances it has been discovered that these Conspirators have bribed members of trades unions to betray their associates and the public. A number of prosecutions have result
 ed. When a dishonest trades union
 ist has been convicted he has been sentenced to the penitentlary, but contractors and material dealers have been permitted to pay nominal hneS and in some instances have been given jail sentences.
 Untermeyer has become so disgust ed with the conduct of the courts that he has decided to suspend the work of the Lockwood committee so far as the building situation is concerned and to appeal to the national Congress for the enactment of legislation which will put an end to the illegal com pines and will compel the courts to send the malefactors to prison. The investigation has shown that these combines have robbed the pub lie of tens of millions of dollars and have added immesaurably to the seri- Ousncss of Americas housing prob lem. Nevertheless, the total fines i'm posed on all the business men and
 corporations that have come into court and confessed their part in the conspiracy is less than $Ioo,ooo. On one day nine corporations and 10 business men pleaded guilty to be- ing members of the various building combines, The fines assessed against these 10 criminals tOtaled only $25,- 900. Many of the guilty ones had "cleaned up" more than that on one deal.
 Untermeyer Denounces Combines. When Untermeyer heard of this de-
 cision he issued the statement quoted above He said there was plenty of evidence for criminal prosecutions against the New York Building Trades Employers Association.
 It is pity that this cancer upon
 the building trades cannot be treat
 ed like an ordinary gambling den or liquor still, and be raided and broken
 up by the police," said Untermeyer.
 "I am not an alarmist," he con tinued, "and l have unbounded con- fidcnce in the soundness of our insti-
 tutions, but my great fear is that the
 country either does not sufficiently realize, or has become Callous to the perils that turk in the social unrest
 that is being accentuated by the greed and piracy of these combinations that infest the land from end to end.
 "They are all powerful. It is still possible to reach the little fellows,
 but the biggest and most dangerous
 of them apparently are already above and beyond the law as it now stands"