The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-04-28

D
by Bennett & Co.
Juggling School Sites
On January 10, 1927. the Triangl,
Realty Company purchased a trac
of land in the city On April 7
1927, the school sites committee
with Bennett as a member, highly
recommended the purchase of thii
site ending the recommendation
with the words, %. 1t recommend
that provision be made for ar
/ elementary school in the vicinity o.
37th and Oak Streets" the location
of the site Bennett purchased. Or
June 7, 1927, the school board a,
revealed by its records, voted tt
accept the proposition Of a certain
George Mackinson to sell Block 8
Parkway Manor subdivision, for the
sum of $4,000. On August 10, the
records of the register of deeds
shows the school site was decided by
the Triangle Realty Company tt
Alvin w. Birnschein for $4,000. Or
August 10, the very same day, the
site was decided by Birnschein to the
City of Milwaukee for $4,000
Records on file with the state tax
commission at Madison indicate
that the City Of Milwaukee paid
S10,632.54 more for the site than
was originally paid for it by the
Triangle Realty Company, these
records showing that;
The cost was .,.......s 9,367.46
Amount received by the
Triangle Realty Co. &C.,. 100000
Amount paid for the site
by the school board 60. 100000
Needless to say, no school has
been built on the sites as yet &C
quired by the school board and in
the above case, instead of resi-
Dental district developing around
the site as predicted by Bennett,
an extensive industrial district has
sprung up and new switchyards
built by the Milwaukee Road. AS
in every other case where an in
vestigation has taken place in Mil
waukee, the deals were completely
whitewashed.
THEN there is the Liberty State
Bank case in which the Socialists
were in graft up to their ears. The
city Liberty Bond transactions in
volved $39O00,000 which passed
through the phantom corporation
called Bankers Securities Co, of
which Louis Weiner, then assistant
district attorney, was director. This
was organized in 1926. I. j. Rosen-
berg was president of the Liberty
State Bank and John I. Drew was
city treasurer. These bonds were
sold to the city by Rosenberg, who
purchased them from the Continent
tai Bank of Chicago.
1t was the pal ticular job of the
City Controller, Kotecki and his
deputy, Wendt, to know all about
these transactions-bu they con-
veniently claimed they knew nothing
about them and when the ques-
tioning was getting a little hotter
Kotecki committed suicide in the
Milwaukee City Hall and at the
same time tried to kill Wendt, his
deputy, who has now stepped into
Kotecki's shoes.
Drew owned 200 shares of stock
in the Liberty State Bank and
nothing was ever discovered to in
dictate that this was paid for. During
the period of these transactions
Drew deposited to his personal bank
account S326,1 1875. His income was
estimated at $4,000 a year and his
net worth in 1881 has been es-
timated by auditors as being
$209,192 Pretty good income for a
treasurer in a socialist administra-
ton! Rosenberg and Drew en-
bezzled 100000 on these bond deals.
nne-2?
S. P. Officials in Banking
The Liberty bank was a fairy
godmother to politicians and the
Socialist Party in particular. One
loan was made to the Social-Demo-
cratic publishing company of SIS, 000.
In the list of endorSers we find
George Hampel, Socialist assembly,
man; Louis Arnold, Socialist tax
commissioner; Al Benson, former
Socialist sheriff; Joseph Padway,
former Socialist judge and Rosen-
bergs attorney; Peter Steinkellner,
Socialist fire department chief;
Henry G. Hellerman, former secre-
tary to Mayor Hoan, and August
Strehlow, Socialist alderman Mayor
Hoan is head of the Board of Es-
innate and therefore endorsed
note signed by William Quick, as
sistant city attorney, for $3.50
drawn on. the bank. Other So
cialists who endorsed the note and
listed on the official records are
William Coleman, alderman; Fred
Heath, supervisor; Max Raskin,
city attorney; Otto Hauser, Hoan's
secretary. To this extent the City
Hall Tammany gang seem in
terested in loans but when it came
to investigating the crash of the
bank and loss of small investors
money-they didn't know any
thing about it.
In separate article we will deal
with the recent sensational House
of Correction graft and the So
cialist Party which is similar TO
the Welfare Board exposure.
In the face of all the graft,
most of which is not included
above, Milwaukee County Grand
Jury on May 7, 1929 mote pre-
ceding dates above issued the
following beautiful whitewash of
the Socialist administration:
"The people of the city and
the county of Milwaukee have
just cause to be proud of their
city and county government as
it exists today and of the men
who have charge of the man
agement of governmental affairs.
1t is doubtful if anywhere