New-York tribune., 1922-09-10
Supreme Court Justice
Orders Supervisors TO
Turn Over All Moneys
Collected to the City
Parasite System
Gets Death Blow
Wholesale designations
Expected; Salaries Not
Provided for Employees
BY NJ. Jay Racusin

va Jay ANaS492St
The pushcart peddlers of the city
won their first important victory yes
terday in the struggle against obnox-
ions conditions said to prevail in the
street markets.
In decision of Supreme Court JUS
tice James c. Cropsey. in Brooklyn, an
injunction was granted forbidding mar
ket supervisors or other employees of
the Department of Markets from re-
tanning the weekly fees collected from
peddlers for their own salaries or that
of their assistants, 1t requires that all
these moneys be turned over. II the city
treasury,
lnasmuch as no other provision has
been made for the payment of these
employees they are expected to desert
their wageless jobs tomorrow. This,
of course, will result in the complete
collapse of the supervisory system so
bitterly complained of by the peddlers
and the subject of an investigation by
the District Attorneys office of Brook
lyn.
While the ruling refers only to the
situation in Brooklyn. Solomon Suffrin.
counsel for the Manhattan venders, an
nounced that it opened the way for
similar action in this borough. He said
ne would take the necessary steps as
soon as he had studied the Justices
opinion.
Wipes Out CRATER
1t will weed out the grating polit
lcal henchmen who have been hanging
about the necks of the poor peddler
for years" said Mr. Sutfrin, "and de-
cides once and for all that the city's
streets cant be given over to the en-
richment of favored private indivd-
uals. 1t is a great and vital victory"
In the course of his opinion Justice
Gropsey said that it was absolutely
illegal to pay the supervisors or other
employees out Of the fees collected,
that "the lawlessness displayed in this
matter has not been exceeded since the
days of Tweed" and that "it is not
surprising that some people are anx-
ious to have the present system con
tinue."
at might be pleasing to some" he
remarks. mot to be required to pay
this money into the city treasury, but
to use it in the cost of supervision
But the statute which authorized the
collection of these fees was intended to
be q source of public profit and not of
private plunder."
District Attorney Ruston, it was
learned last night, is giving special
attention to that part of the decision
in which Judge Cropsey points out
that the charter provides that all sums
received as fees from anv source shall
be PAID over weekly, without deduc-
tions by the officers or department re-
c,eiving them. to the Chamberlain, and
that "any officer of the city or person
employed in its service who shall will
fully violate this provision, or who
knowingly permits other persons to do
so, is guilty of crime
No Salaries Provided
The action for the injunction was
brought by Charles E. levy as counsel
for Morris Singer, peddler, of 1877
Moore Street, Brooklyn, Singer set
forth that the Superintendent of Mar
kets had told him there was no. appro-
priation from which to pay the super
VlSOrS ana 'tnaJ the latter were per-
mitted to retain the fees collected from
peddlers in payment for their salaries.
Il should be said here that the Civil
Service Commission is preparing lists
of applicants for supervisory jobs in
accordance with the law, but the Board
of Estimate and Apportionnlent has
so far failed to appropriate the money
for the salaries of these men, leaving
the matter practically up in the air.
Commissioner of Accounts Hirsh-
field commented: "We know that if
they do not get any gay the super
visors, assistants and laborers will not
work. The result will be that there
will be resumption of the practice
of collecting from the peddlers for the
police and others who are supposed to
give the Eeddlers protection. If these
collections are made prices will again
jump up, and the public will have to
pay for this bit of political trickery,''
Justice Cropsey's decision reads in
part:
Upon the papers presented in this
case it is admitted that the adnlinistra-
ton of the Department of Public Mar
kets under the present city administra-
tion has been, so far as the matters com
planned of are concerned, lawless. The
statute authorizes the commissioner of
that department to issue permits to
pushcart peddlers to stand on certain
public streets and to charge therefore a
fee not exceeding 81 week for each
vehicle Claws 1929, Chap. $3.50, The
.conf'aded page seyanl