The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-04-22
LABOR LEADER IS
 TARGET OF DEWEY
George Scalise President of One Union Charged
 With ExtOrtiOn
-NEA Radiophoto
BY EARLE B. STEELE

United Press Staff Correspondent)
 New York, April 22-(UP)-Dis- trict Attorney Thomas E. Dewey faced the prospect today of prose- cutting George Scalise, head of the So-called "charwomen's union, on charges of $1OO,0O0 extortion, while waging his Republican presidell ,ial campaign.
 Scalise, the 44-year-old interna- tional president of the building service employees international un- nion, was freed on $40,000 bond, half supplied in cash ard half pledged by his union, a few hours after he had been seized in white silk pajamas, by Deweys detectives in a $9 hotel room at 3 a. m. Sun day.
 He protested that he was the ob- ject of political persecution and his lawyer, John Handel, argued at the arraignment before Judge Jacob Gould Schumann, Jr, that the ar- rest was Dewey political plot. Murray I. Gurfein, Dewey's as- sistant told the judge that if the charWo-!len were as fond of Scalise as Handel implied, no one would dare try to make political capital out of him. Q
 Is "PegIerized''
 Scalise said he was being "peg- ,lerized." The reference to Vast brook Pegler, columnist on the New York World-Telegram and other newspapers, who revealed recently that Scalise had served a four-year federal penitentiary term for white slavery ill his youth; that he lived in 27-room mansion with an ad- joining seven-car garage in Con- necticut; that he earned $25, 1000 a year and expenses from the union without ever having been voted in- to office by the union membership.
 As a second offender, he would face a mandatory prison term of IS to 30 years if convicted.
 Dewey was in San Francisco on campaign trip at the time of the arrest but it was learned he had ordered that convicted ex-pander- CT" picked, up. The charge against Scalise ard two co-defendants was that they conSpired to extort money by force and fear" from 20 hotels and Il firms doing cleaning work in business offices. Their system was said to have been to demand a un- ion contract from one of the firms, or if it had contract, to demand a large wage increase with the threat to unionize the firms en- ployes or to picket, it, and then to drop the demands on payment of money. The firms were said to have been forced to pay $1,000 to $5,00O to avoid trouble.
 Is An Undertaken
 Scalise, who does a sideline bus mess as an undertaken, claims TO- 900 members for his union, 30,00O of them in New York. He joined the union in 1892, became its eastern representative in 1884, fifth vice president ir 1885, and president two years later by vote Of the executive committee upon the death of Pres ident Jerry Moran.
 When found at the Hotel he had two travelling bags packed and train ticket for Chicago in his pocket but he denied Gurfein's charge that he planned to flee the jurisdiction of New York courts. He said he was going to Chicago for a meeting (. the unions executive comimttee, which he later post poned. ...,.>
 Named with Scalise were Izzy Schwartz, head of the unions To- cal 32A, which has about 5000 chambermaids, porters and other building cleaners as members, and his brother, Louis Schwartz, head of local 32J which has about 4,OOO chamberlaids and porters. They were indicted on eXtortion charges Feb. 28 and are free on $6,O0O bond.