Evening star., 1932-08-07
HUGE RACKETEERINC TOLL
EXACTED FROM CLEANERS
Murder and Violence Used to Get Tribute
Before Gangs We're Routed
by Law.
BY DENIS TILDEN LYNCH.

particular racket is of Chicago origin
and has gained foothold in other
cities, but only in three did it attain
an impressive financial stature. These
communities were Detroit, New York
and its place of birth.
In the late Spring of this year New
York had its first glimpse of the magni-
tude of the industry and its racketeer-
ing possibilities. Then it was revealed
that there were 10000 little taller shops
in the city serving as feeders to the
big cleaning and dyeing plants. which
90 a gross business of $4,000 900 in
good years.
Coincident with this revelation came
the astonishing intelligence that Thomas
N Farley, Tammany leader of the
fourteenth Assembly district and for
mer sheriff of New York County. had
been appointed czar of the industry at
$4,000 a year. This was his first con-
nection with the cleaning and dyeing
business. Hitherto. political leaders
had been content to be the power be-
hind the throne. Farley said the size
of his salary had been exaggerated, but
did not name the sum.
Collections Were Large.
The salary of the car and other ex-
penses were to be paid by collecting a
51a per cent tax on the gross business
of the big plants and Sc monthly from
each little tailor shop.
At this rate. the 10000 little tailors
would pay $2,160.000 a year and the
big plants S715,000.
The followers of Farley were members
Of the Metropolitan Cleaners g. Dyers'
Association. An opposing group, which
had embraced 80 per cent of the in
dustry a few weeks before Farley was
appointed, was known as the Cleaners
and DyerS' Board of Trade.
The Tammany leader was hardly
seated on the throne when Jacob PAN
ken, who had served on the Municipal
Court bench, counsel for the opposition.
charged that the Metropolitan was
under the domination of racketeers
He said his clients had evolved a plan
to eliminate the racketeer when the
forces of which the Tammany leader
was the head crippled them. Panken
explained that 80 per cent of the
master cleaners and dyers of the city
and representatives Of the workers, in
cluding an official of the United He
brew Trades, a section of the American
Federation of Labor, had entered into
an agreement to crush the racketeer
when a few who had not signed the
compact began using devious means to
weaken his group, and succeeded.
Charges Are Denounced.
Aaron Sapiro, counsel for the Metro
politan, denounced the charges of Pan
ken as silly, and countered by accusing
the rival organization of being a price
flying Coniro y,1a
with the acquisition of the Tammany
leader, for he said: Hes just the man
for the job. He's got the knack of
handling men. He can get groups as
well as individuals to go along with
him
And the Tammany leader answered
Panken'S charges by saying he would
not stand for racketeering; that the
'big employers" he worked for could
not be called racketeers. After explain
ing that his group would deal with two
unions, he said: They're both A. F. of
L. unions, so, of course, there wouldn't
be any racketeering in them"
The implication that there has been
A F. Of L. unions indicated a faulty
memory and belied the record. Farley
had forgotten the racketS in the build
ing trades, which still flourish through
out the land He had also forgotten
the little affair which temporarily inter-
rupted his first campaign for Office
This was in 1915, when he was a sue
cessful candidate for alderman in the
Yorkville district.
There was an indictment in this af-
fair; and it was charged that on Mon
day October 25, 1915, Farley, then
business agent of the Elevator Con-
StructorS' Union. and eight other men
had accompanied Andrew Eagan. bust
ness agent of the Cement Workers
Union, to a building under construction
at IL Bond street. Brooklyn, and that
he and Eagan threatened to call a
strike if they were not given $500; and
that on the following Wednesday Eagan
went to the Office of William B. Shaw
representing the erectors of the build
ing, and that he accepted 5000 in
marked bills and was thereafter arrest
ed by detectives who listened through
a photograph to the conversation. in
which Farley's name was mentioned
Farley was arrested two nights later
after he finished campaign speech.
Farley Charge Dismissed.
Eagan pleaded guilty to the charge
but County Judge Roy dismissed the in
dictment against Farley because the
evidence presented against him created
a reasonable doubt in the mind of the
court.
The charge on which Farley was
freed and to which Eagan pleaded
guilty is typical form of extortion ir
the building trades racket. The unions
of which Eagan and Farley were lead
ers were affiliated with the A F. OF l.
Farley remained silent during the
exchange of charges and counterchargeS
between the Panken and 6apiro camps
But his friends predicted ne would re-
sign because he objected t. conditions
he discovered after he was made die
tator. Farley did resign. He explained
he had not been informed by his EN-
ployers of the method of assessing anc
collecting dues and that he was not II
sympathy with the system.
Farley was now accorded high prais'
in quarters where he had been criti
cized for accepting the job. His friend
voiced their sympathy, for they hat
hoped he could perform real civic serV
ice in his post OF dictator, and FarIe.
had had more than the usual run o
misfortune and disappointment in tn
preceding eight or nine months. Hi
i'll luck began while he was q WitneS
before the Joint Legislative COmmitte
Investigating the city Samuel Sea
bury. counsel for the committee, re
called a gambling raid by the polio
on Farlsy's club house-the regula
Tammany organizaoion headquarters c
the fourteenth assembly diStrict-a fe'
years earlier.
Raids in HyIan Regime.
There was a brief time during tn
Hylan administration and in the flr'
months of the Walker adminStratlo
when the police raided district .clu
houses. Democratic and Republican
where professional gamblers had lease
the upper floors, barricaded them wit
the convsn.:JEiai iron or ice box" doc
of gaming places, and admitted gan
blers only after they had been exam
ined through a peephole. Gamblir
dens still exist in many Of these point
cal headquarters, and wherever tht
flourish, it is safe to wager that II
dietrint lander either backs a handboC