A New Tammany Scandal; Queens Busses
Rosner, Henry J.
A New Tammany Scandal; Queens Busses Two Franchises Planned by Walker Regime Would \et Operators 112% Profit Annually By Henry J. Rosner qpHE New York City ariminisJL tntion is selling out...
...Not to fight then would be stupidity...
...Mayor Swoboda Gives •Vacation for Socialism* (By S tUm Leader CvRSSsaaSsaO RACINE.—Mayor William J. Swoboda has placed an order, for literature with the state office of the Socialist Party...
...In the first place, there is the economy of large scale operation...
...The plaintiff charges that the TwinBoro Corporation had originally contracted with him to build the Farrington avenue garage and that it had subsequently broken the contract The twelfth count in the complaint states that "pending the preparation of the plant the defendant herein through the president and treasurer entered into negotiations with one Joseph Rauachwerger, president of the North Shore Bus Company, who contemplated leasing the said gar...
...If a bus operator is able to obtain a franchise, he needs relatively small capital to go into business...
...It hss operated only one bus line in Queens...
...From this pledge to an organized effort within the farm organizations to defeat for office the- mon outspoken critics of the Farm Board and the Hoover administration, on the ground- that one must not quarrel with his generous banker, was but a step...
...It is impossible to frame a program that is adapted to all cities and states throughout the country...
...The Hoover proposals, even if they are adopted without change, do not solve the ecoonmic problems of the German people...
...TT• Tnu> ^rtthZlt¦?i*?VMtJLtait Special "Hunger Edition Of New Leader To Appear In Three Weeks T THREE WEEKS remain before the special HUNGER EDITION of The New Leader begins to roll off the presses...
...that the Pones Dsfl In such good odwaan had settled that d Then wasnt asm in the murder—fcdfl der...
...They will compare his readiness to coming to the aid of the subsidized steamship companies when they could not pay what they owed the Treasury, with his failure to relieve them of impossible obligations this year...
...Knowledge of his trip has gone ahead of him, aad he has been asked to speak informally several places on the way...
...John Simpson of Oklahoma, president of the National Farmers' Union, is credited with having made a careful study of the distribution of loans to farm cooperatives, by representatives of the Farm Board, and to have discovered political strings attached to the loans...
...An explanation should be forthcoming from Mr...
...Assuming that Mr...
...The trade of governing has been monopolised by ^^mea^^gycant mud the most rascally mdivtd"Hoover Tries To Bowbte Cross The Farmers - • i ; i it J By Laurence Todd WASHINGTON...
...The selection of the Jamaica Bus Company is even more mysterious...
...Such a revolt would probably be reflected in a huge gain in the Socialist vote and a considerable leftward swing in the Progressive Republican group...
...Its large territory is still largely unscratched...
...American Socialists are coming to realize that the United States is not isolated from the rest of the world...
...JyJ porsrily of •jjjn weeping salt t***a1 of the victhas sjars * in The wocklag nw A that genthUBsnSJBJ influence sn**SSB structure of "9J An elee?onSll vernber fc» *^ggjH either rtfUfM' Jk past—or p0> jMA magnitude, toJJJJ *¦ ists to that in sheeTW litical rackets...
...Drivers receive approximately 65 cents an hour...
...VICE - PRESIDENT CURTIS and Sen...
...J There is a difsssj the cases of th* MB Bank of Unites M enough badly adSjS City Trust QsassnJ by Mr...
...Under a proper profit sharing arrangement such as we have suggested above the city would benefit from such economy...
...A. Joseph Hoffman, transportation engineer and consultant to many bus companies, and who is, therefore, in an excellent position to know the facts...
...It may be argued that it is deserving of s monopoly on the South shore because it is willing to motorize its three street car lines, thereby giving up a permanent franchise...
...It has the merit of being something for immediate consideration as scon as a conference is called...
...Has your local taken action yet...
...Yet here is Matthew Wofl in the name of the Gvic Federation appointing Weyerhauser of the lumber trust on a committee of one hundred to fight Comrmmimn...
...Destitute farmers will talk about Hoover, but not favorably...
...Let's be sure we are moving towards Socialism, not middle class "liberalism...
...This would leave them 2 cents per hue mile under the financial set-up presented above which could go to labor...
...The material is taken from the press services of three international Labor and Socialist organizations, from Labor and Socialist publications, and supplemented by reports that appear in the daily press...
...Obviously, such an important public service as bus transportation involving the use of the public streets ought to be performed by the city itself...
...He who controls your bread controls your ballot —Daniel Webster...
...Oliver Wendell Holmes...
...Higher labor standards should be made mandatory in the franchise contract The city has never shown the slightest interest in improving working conditions for bus employees...
...Curtis and Watson had to Intervene, if the Republican party as a whole was not to be branded by the farmers as their enemy...
...Any place in the nation on the farm, in the cities where thousands of unemployed walk the stie ids, in the coal "1<*l{*1g regions where men and women are giving battle for economic justice, in the homes of workers distributors of the HUNGER EDITION will find a ready audience...
...That is ridiculously small...
...They merely postpone further bleeding of the German masses for a year, giving them a breathing spell...
...We seek free labor and fight wage slavery...
...A 5 per cent increase in prices is much more likely...
...Its resources are still illimitable...
...Said with the insight of an Exalted Ruler...
...The most it should reasonably expect is a franchise for its three trolley routes...
...In the second place, municipal operation can, be effected much more readily if the city only has one operator to deal with...
...The Board of Transportation, and that means the Chairman of the Board, John H. Delaney, the Mayor's pet have recommended 5 per cent of gross revenues* We have seen how outrageously small that rats of return is...
...Curtis and Watson are out asking the Farm Board to prevent this political upheaval...
...Here are blanks for organizations, and for individuals...
...The Mayor has a reputation for looking after his friends...
...The Gould millions accrirnriBtcri by the same method in that age are represented in Mrs...
...They reapedthe fruits of the pioneers' sacrifices and hardships, accumulated millions, while the sons and grandsons of those pioneers are now in want of elementary physical needs...
...Park A. Rowley, vice president of the Bank of Manhattan, Is secretary of the Jamaica Bus Company...
...The favored companies stand to take 112 per cent in profits...
...until such time as it will be needed by the expansion of Its activities through the receipt of the franchise...
...When they do that they will be the exalted rulers of the nation and masters of their own lives...
...see The great thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving...
...Of jfM By VSJamfJa TWO trtrdsjS J cental "era' *j One of then tesBL.1 tion...
...Within a week after the call was issued requests were being received by the national office, for suggestions and this program is the answer to these requests...
...The trail was ssjH and then was cassSJ tience over the ftS didn't seem te htfl sight...
...The courage that carried our frontiers across the Appalachians, over the prairies, ever westward, will bring us out of this depression, . . . Tomorrow we will laugh at the fears of today...
...Peter J. Beady, Tammany noble and 'labor'' man* is also on the roll of honor...
...Since the average bus in Queens travels about ten miles an hour it would make possible a 20cent increase per hour in wages to bus drivers without In the least disturbing the estimates made above...
...That is particularly true in view of the tremendous profits at present...
...The first question to be proposed by a rational being ia not what is profitable, but what is right...
...Except a struggle forced upon the workers to avert servitude...
...In its seventh bus report it failed completely to make a cost analysis of the type outlined above dearly, the Board of Estimate cannot act intelligently in determining a fair rate of compensation to the city unless it has some notion of the anticipated profits to be derived from bus operation...
...Watson, G. O. P. floor leader to the Senate, went over the head of President Hoover, July 6, by appealing to the Federal Farm Board to give te the distressed farmers a definite promise that the 250.000,000 bushels of ths 1980 crop now held by the Grain Stabilization Corporation at government expense win be kept off the market until the 3931 crop Is disposed of...
...Shepard...
...Any franchise granted should contain a clause giving the city the right to terminate the franchise at win through purchase of the company's equipment at actual investment le.s depreciation...
...SJJ zeal with wte*«m3_ er of Tsnuasaysj^j wife's 1A5.0O9 frSSj ter the doses SMJ sailed into the Sf3fl Singers...
...e e One possible reason wby the White House is not willing to break with the Farm Board is that the Board has been used during the past year to do a great, deal of Hoover politics...
...Queens Busses Two Franchises Planned by Walker Regime Would \et Operators 112% Profit Annually By Henry J. Rosner qpHE New York City ariminisJL tntion is selling out the pu blic interest again—this time to Queens bun operators...
...If these "labor" men were to put in one-half of the time and energy they give to this crusade to the real job that faces them they would earn the gratitude of the starvelings who look to them now in vain...
...His Grand Exaltedness assures us that "The genius of our citizenship still lives" and that "our country is still safe...
...A -Labor* Crusade "w^aTE need not stress the terrible privations which workers and farmers face in this period of the collapse of capitalism to point out the moral of what is said below...
...The response from Socialist party branches and from individual Socialists has justified the venture already...
...It is in need of a Socialist sexton to bury it to the cemetery of history...
...Do not neglect it...
...But there is another consolation...
...Hunger ought to be considered a crime—Anatole France...
...According to l sports, this garage ia being held for the North Shore Bus Co...
...Now there is comfort and assurance for every man in the breadline and every farmer receiving his bowl of soup...
...The Nevin-Queens Bus Corporation, which has been operating buses in Brooklyn and Queens for over six years, has made a much better proposition to the city...
...We might as well expect immunity from the effects of a complete collapse of agriculture in the West followed by wild risings as to expect the Atlantic to protect us from war in Europe...
...Some of the loans wen not needed, but wen urged upon cooperatives' officers and wen then used as an effective though silent threat against too loud protest To the extent that Hoover politics was attempted kln this crude fashion—the mon crude because the funds lent were voted by Congress for a wholly different purpose—the effort will prove a boomerang...
...Socialists cannot accept this position...
...Exalted Ideas \ NOTHER solution of the industrial panic is at hand and it comes from no less a personage than the retiring Grand Exalted Ruler of the Elks...
...Why consideration is given Tammany for the propoatd franchises is difficult to earplaln Some light may be shed unco the reason for granting the franchises to the North Shore Bus Company If the twtn-Boro Corporation, a real estate corporation controlled by the Halleran family, the most Important member of which is John J. Halleran, Commissioner of Public Works in the Queens Borough administration, will disclose what rental it is to receive for a large garage located at Farrington and 35th avenues, Flushing, which has been empty for several months...
...The Socialist Party will be represented at all public bearings on this question and will vigorously fight for the rights of the public and of labor...
...An operating expense of 22 cents a mile is conservative and 3 cents higher than the 19 cents estimate of Mr...
...We seek peace and order and combat the «mHer of people, the class war, and social anarchy.—William Iiehkaecht • • • Those mountain climbers in the Himalayas who ascended to ths clouds know hew it feels te be an American politician who had boasted of the virtues of the capitalist system of production...
...If there is a collapse in Germany chaos will follow and the United States will be involved as well as other nations...
...Therefore, to do our utmost to awaken the working class to action in its own behalf as well as to prepare for any world emergency that may impose tremendous responsibilities upon us is a solemn duty facing Socialists...
...Marcoi satS en deserve th* jsS SJ won, the City TnstJJ cials deserve far fSJ Chief, Mr...
...Kresel esfSJ things rather sssSJ Tammany Hen, sSJ was an official a m United States...
...Careful analysis shows they would receive a net profit of $1430,594 in a single year...
...Not only is Weyerhaujer s master of something like a padrone system in his lumber camps and mills, but he also obtained his enormous holdings in a manner characteristic of the pirate age nine decades ago...
...the othwtfH Three offfeaitlBJ United State* sJl Stein, accused j| Vivian Gordon, -**a everybody whs «3 case knew he wsS Then is ssmS —but the date hi In fact, it is pc3 the people who TtBBU try the officii...
...The one thing now needed above all others is the education of the people, especially the working class...
...We shall make it as objective as possible consistent with a Socialist and working class movement and we are sure that it will be a sen-ice to our readers...
...The whole capitalist world is in a bad way, with Germany as a center of a grave European situation...
...Chairman Stone of the Farm Board had publicly declared that his scheme of selling 5,000,000 bushels a month of the stored grain—but only when It would not break the market—was to accord with Hoover's views...
...B ruled our iaU tasSS"aw...
...We must understand the changing world of capitalism...
...It has applied to the State Legislature for such power which has been denied...
...Hoffman's figures are 100 per cent correct the 3 cents should be able to take care of a 15 per cent increase in the price level...
...That wattol years ago...
...There is now on file in the Federal Court of the Eastern District a complaint by James J. O'Brien, a contractor, against the Twin-Boro Corporation...
...A Program of Action OUR readers will find on the first page of this issue a suggested program of action for cJtiesTand states in accord with the decision of the National Executive Grjmmittee of the Socialist Parry...
...A New Leader Feature "DEGINNING with this issue of The New *T Leader a new department begins on page 3 which it believes is of special educational value to its readers...
...They must be reached with the right kind of literature...
...Should price conditions change to such an extent as to render impossible an increase in wages on a 22-cent operating expense, the raise could come out of profits with ease...
...A program and action were never more urgent than now...
...The union scale is at least 20 cents higher...
...It does not know what has happened or where it is going...
...Twenty-eight cents a bushel did not pay more than half the cost of growing and harvesting this grain, and yet that was all that the farmers could get They were met at the grain elevators by collection agents for the farm implement firms, who demanded .that the money be handed over immediately to satisfy the farmers' debts...
...Curtis and Watson remember these movements, and as professional standpat politicians they know that 28-cent wheat may produce a big crop of political radicals to the farm belt in 1932...
...Delaney...
...Indications point to The New Leader printing the largest edition in its history...
...see Whether the Hoover program for Germany is accepted or not Europe still rests upon a volcano...
...sad I hereabouts has cays, I Vivian ChSha still that all that fe eag { about it...
...Communism has certainly injured the trade unions wherever it obtained a foothold but one can oppose it without becoming fools...
...Order your supply of the HUNGER EDITION at once...
...Not in many years have the workers been so receptive to the message of Socialism...
...The people in Queens favor continuance of the status quo...
...We can never see the right clearly and fully but by msktng ft our first concern.—William Ellery Charming...
...Farmen wen in despair, since the little money they received was not even sufficient to buy food and clothing for their families for the coming winter...
...If war again returns to Europe because of German collapse, imperialist intrigue, or Fascist movements the United States is certain to be drawn in...
...We only pause to recall that the courage that inspired pioneers to clear the continent in their march westward was followed by successful gamblers, thieves and adventurers, often in alliance with the law...
...H The City Tr-fflJJJJ have been exs*|HJ| 1928, by mennsssfl that noble TssssssSj Frank H. Warder, and lamentably fcSj for reasons now oflj bank examiners seen chief to lay oft $9 Three months ksn M. Ferrari died, ed lapsed...
...If there is one duty that faces responsible labor men in this country, it is to give their entire attention to this problem and inspire the whole labor army with the duty of bringing some relief before sheer madness drives mem into hysterical actions...
...J United States art J to have a trial atfl plundered ths JfUn City Trust costpass The body Ot'lyJ Gordon was SsjS she offered to tSn about framing h||M sibly Vivian wsssffl cent herself, ancient and hist-ai know many Hit^a of us would tsmfl some of them osaafl for example, WaSB Ing framed by fSJ Vice Squad, AaTg things...
...age when completed for a term of years...
...Unified borough-wide operation by a single operator is to be much preferred to parceling out the routes...
...The city ought to make a determined battle for this right Pending favorable action by the Legislature it ought to demand a much larger share of the profits...
...At the present time the city lacks power, Under its charter, to own and operate buses...
...That's all...
...One of the most amazing features in the entire situation ia the incompetence, which may be deliberate with which the N. Y. C. Board of Transportation has advised the Board of Estimate of this problem...
...Another consideration should be kept in mind...
...Accompany each order with remittance to cover the cost...
...The bus manufacturer will sell him buses with a $2,500 down payment and a four-year credit on the remaining $7,500 of the purchase price plus 6 -per cent interest The two Queens companies propose to invest $1,008,000...
...The polio* kffkfl solved the cam sal I proved naashw te 1 trial was tan...
...Labor employed on existing bus routes is very poorly paid considering the profits to owners...
...He is reported to be a crony of Mayor Walker...
...This would net the city an additional $535,000 yearly—an increase of 200 per cent over what the city will obtain under the present policy...
...we should understand the grave problems which European workers face, the measureless hardships they endure, how they are trying to meet these problems and the opinions and trends that appear in the movement as it unfolds...
...In each locality and state the program should be modified or expanded according to local conditions and the labor code established in each city and state...
...Justice requires that these drivers receive a minimum of 85 cents an hour...
...e • e • We seek Justice and fight injustice...
...If It bursts this will effect us here and this situation imposes an additional obligation upon American Socialists to do their utmost to carry out the program of the National Executive Committee...
...Eugene V. Debs...
...Ferrari tfj of depositors witsSj tentlon of nturatojSJ There is...
...The HUNGER EDITION will present an opportunity to give them this message in striking pictures, and in effective articles and news stories...
...H*™*^ in marked contraeM tion in the cast sfsB There were ss board of the OBJ exposing Tammany Hall »WfJ Instead, the stoS was made UP *JJ Tammany HaH t*a Then is ne 1 are no tncndsatSsMl Steuer nor Mr...
...These conditions wen being reported to the big politicians in every state in the grain belt with predictions that worse would follow...
...Ncrother publication in this country will bring to its readers this survey from week to week...
...What is now needed is the courage of these sons and grandsons to organize for the abolition of capitalism that has reduced them to a jobless existence and beggary...
...For example, it is reported that millions of dollars of federal funds, lent out to more or leas defunct cooperative organisations of farmen and livestock growers, carried with them a signed promise from the heads of these cooperatives that they would support the policies of the Hoover administration as well as those of the Farm Board...
...Machinery should be set up to supervise investment, so that the time of recapture litigation will be avoided and the city will not be cased upon to pay an excessive price...
...We emphasize the fact that it is suggestive and councils of workers' organizations should accept it as such...
...Already there had come word of a price of 28 cents a bushel, paid to farmers for good wheat at country elevators to Colorado...
...It is extremely doubtful whether there will be such a great increase in prices for many, many yean to come, if ever...
...He is about to leave for a two weeks' vacation to Larabee, Iowa, and he is going to pass out leaflets on the way...
...This 3 cents difference allows for anticipated increases in the price level over the prevailing low level, as well as higher wages for bus employes...
...see I want to develop the instinct which will make a man say No to war without knowing the facta, which indeed he can never know however much he may try.—Arthur Ponsonby...
...We need not agree to think alike, but all alike to think.—Charles Francis Potter...
...The city operates public utilities only when they lose-money...
...It offers to pay the city, in addition to the 5 per cent gross of the revenues, one-half of the net profits annually derived from the operation of these routes after a 6 per cent return had been paid on the capital stock...
...Hoover had not challenged this statement...
...iO000BMr...
...It has never made a vigorous fight however...
...e • The capitalist system Is a system for capital although as a system it cannot be capitalized now before intelligent workers...
...The tremendous profits which would be eliminated under public ownership could be passed on to labor by an increase in wsges or to the rider by a lower fare or improved service...
...Secretary of Labor Doak identifies' the Hoover Administration with this crusade as honorary vice-president With the anti-union Weyerhauser in this coalition we have a situation that could not occur in the labor movement of any other nation...
...This is just another illustration of government under capitalism serving private business...
...But there are a number of Socialist branches and many members of the Socialist party who are still to be heard from...
...i • • • World capitalism is like the man who has just awakened from a prolonged souse...
...They must be taught the necessity of supporting the Socialist press, the only press they can rely upon to tell the truth and fight their battles...
...W A NUTSHELL Ths time has come to reorganise, rebuild, and renew our labor press, and give it greater power than it ever had before to fight the battles of the workers against the crushing and corrupting power of capitalist imperialism which now rules with ruthless sway and strides in iron-shod boots over the prostrate liberties of the people.—Eugene V. Debs...
...Curtis and Watson knew, when they made this gesture, that no action taken by the Farm Board would make a difference* of more than a few cents to ths price of wheat this year...
...It is tied in a network of relationships with all other peoples...
...Let us be thankful for that It might have happened but it didn't, take it from His Grand Exalted Highness...
...Ferrari SSSflJ It was ia no ssafl banking builssn Ml If Mr...
...Some twenty-five routes are now being run by ten operators' They believe that these companies should be given franchises to operate their respective routes...
...When the PSlifl announced that nam "solved" it *e*e*sSI to a lot of peoplnJB lent his grinning Mm occasion, and teasSj ney, the Cop, at fSJ snapped their ka*sJJ out was passed nw...
...A public hearing will be held July 10, Both companies propse to pay the city 5 per cent of gross revenues...
...A 20-cent increase per hour would cost $260,000 per annum, which would leave an annual profit of $870,000 on an investment of $1,008,000...
...This new feature is a digest of events in the Labor, Socialist, and Communist movement all over the world...
...What will happen after the year is up no one can forecast...
...Some of these bankrupt, halfstarved farmers will get into politics again, as they got into politics in the Nonpartisan League in the Northwest some 15 years ago, and as their fathers went into the Farmers' Alliance and Populist Party and Socialist Party movements between 1890 and 1912...
...The Board of Estimate in secret session June 17 voted to divide Queens into two bus areas, thus awarding the franchise for the north ssde to the North Shore Bus Company, aad for the south side to the Jamaica Bus Company...
...Witness the city taking over the ferry boats when they were no longer profitable because' of the competition of free public bridges...
...And—u BjB said—you can't ka| the neck of a *ss|9 A lot of people sga if this wasn't jsjH stein case, to bt tB then dropped...
...OutssbsS was tried for perssm to influence his BR Superintendent ot SJ man has bees trsaS dieted for that stjj Two years after SJ collapsed the ssflj States closed felj three of its offifSH but not on* sassfiSJ of the City TlsfiMj been indicted...
...Since Queens is the fastest growing borough in New York City, it is probable that the additional expense will be taken care of in this way...
...That assumes that an increase in population will not take care of this added expease...
...The industrial panic did not destroy our industrial resources or contract our territory to one-half or one-fourth its size...
...The working class and especially Socialists should be as much informed of what is happening abroad as what is happening at home...
...Everything en I rooney said so said that it was sgnats] work . . . -Trillinsb tun of Flash fl Crowley...
Vol. 13 • July 1931 • No. 2
