Pierage

Second to none is the Port of New York, whose city-owned piers are leased to shipping lines from the four corners of the earth. As in many another municipal transaction, Tammany Hall manages to get a crooked finger into dock-leasing. Last week New Yorkers learned why travelers must go all the way to the Army base pier at the foot of 58th Street, Brooklyn, to sail on the fastest transatlantic vessels in the world--the North German Lloyd's Bremen and Europa* Strapping big Heinrich Schuengel, who is for N. G. L. what humorous little Sir Thomas Ashley Sparks is for Cunard-- resident U. S. director--had a chance to air his grievance before Counsel Samuel Seabury's legislative committee on municipal scandals. Smaller Lloyd liners use Pier No. 42, North River. For nine years, said Director Schuengel, the line tried to get larger accommodations in Manhattan for its big new ship. An early offerer of his good offices was Mayor Walker's German-American friend, David Maier, who used to be a brothel-keeper until he was sent to Sing Sing for trying to tamper with a witness in a legislative investigation (TiME, Sept. 14). Ex-Convict Maier procured $500 from N. G. L. to give to a sheriff who was politically influential among the city's transplanted Teutons. Then Maier said he needed another $2,500 to swing the Lloyd's pier lease. The Bremen and the Europa were abuilding. The line, "desperate" for a big North River dock, was forced to play Tammany's game, so Herr Schuengel addressed a plea to George Washington Olvany, leader of Tammany Hall. Why? "I tried all means and every purpose at my disposal to get a pier and, therefore, I thought that in addressing such a letter to the leader of Tammany Hall ... it would bring matters along. . . . Having the understanding that the city officials are members of Tammany Hall, I thought he might ventilate the question at the club." But ventilating was not enough. In 1930 William H. Hickin, president of the National Democratic Club, agreed to press the line's application for Pier No. 32, North River, in consideration of a $50,000 "legal fee." N. G. L. consented. The lease was finally granted. But because the pier is not yet completed the Europa and Bremen still dock in Brooklyn. Counsel for the line submitted a memorandum written in 1926 to his superiors: "Mr. Hickin telephoned and I could not regard either his words or manner of speaking as satisfactory. He said that ... he had been to the commissioner's office and also 'uptown' [14th Street] twice. Mr. Hickin insisted he had been told 'uptown' that 'everything was O. K.' " By "uptown" and "14th Street" the N. G. L. lawyer said he meant Tammany Hall, whose null was then on 14th Street between Third Avenue and Irving Place. He further declared that he considered N. G. L. comparatively lucky, that he had feared "a further squeeze" of $250,000. He added that North German Lloyd berthed her ships all over the world but "never has to hire lawyers or incur special expenses [i. e. graft] for pier leases in any city but New York." On the stand, Ex-Convict Maier, who got accommodations for Mayor Walker on the Bremen last summer and accompanied him to Europe (TIME, Sept. 7), testified that he had requested the pier lease as his reward for 30 years faithful political service, that he did not make a nickel out of the deal. His intercession, he tried to make Counsel Seabury believe, was only in the interest of international goodwill. Lawyer Hickin refused to waive immunity, would not tell to what Tammany man he passed on $45.000 shortly after N. G. L. paid his fee. Provoked at Investigator Seabury's failure to "pin anything on the higher-ups" in Tammany, the New York Daily News, saucy tabloid, declared: "Stop spraying everybody with skunk juice and bag us a lion."

*Last week onetime Lloyd liners Kronprinzessin Cecilie (Mount Vernon) and Kaiser Wilhelm II (Monticello), inactive ever since they were seized by the U. S. and used for troop ships during the War, were offered for sale by the U. S. Shipping Board as scrap. Famed was the escape from British destroyers of the Kronprinzessin Cecilie, freighted with $10,000,000 gold, into the neutral waters of Bar Harbor, Maine on Aug. 4, 1014.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.