BIG GRAFT SCANDAL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 5, 5 December 1931, Page 7

BIG GRAFT SCANDAL.

CORRUPTION IN NEW YORK

A staggering picture has been revealed of the municipal greed and graft of New York that makes the raiding by Tweed and Croker some years ago seem amateurish. Two thousand five hundred witnesses have been examined by Mr S. Seabury, the official investigator, and the result shows that “no city ever approached the corruptions of New York.”

Mr Seabury has found that Tammany politicians exact a toll of many millions of dollars yearly from the citizens and official bureaus. Nine Democratic leaders have amassed bank accounts totalling £2,000,000 in the last six years. The Muhicipal Relief Fund has yielded thousands in graft, and 12 recent suicides have been traced in some form or other to the shame and exposure caused to the victims of the grafters. A lawyer and former Tramway leader has banked profits of over £1,000,000 since 1925, but lie refused to offer any explanation, on tho ground that “fees were sacred.” Another man was found to have £400,000 in his bank account, and a sheriff said that he made his £120,000 in a livery stable business. “Made it on the market” and “an uncle who died somewhere in Australia and left it” were the explanations given r or two accounts of £30,000 each. Two magistrates have been removed from office and five have resigned, while four police captains have been sentenced to five years in Sing Sing.