INVESTIGATION OF SO-CALLED "RACKETS" THURSDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1933 UNITED STATES SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE TO INVESTIGATE RACKETEERING, New York City. The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 2 p.m., Senator Royal S. Copeland (chairman), presiding. Present: Senator Royal S. Copeland, Col. F. S. Hutchinson, chief of investigation; Robert Daru, special counsel. The CHAIRMAN. If all of the witnesses will come forward a little bit, it will help. Mr. DARU. Senator Copeland, I want to call as the first witness before the committee, Mr. George J. Atwell. The CHAIRMAN. Very well. This is a special meeting of the committee called to consider one or two items, and as Mr. Daru has suggested, we will first hear from Mr. Atwell. STATEMENT OF GEORGE J. ATWELL The CHAIRMAN. Proceed in your own way, Mr. Atwell. Mr. ATWELL. I am president of the George J. Atwell Foundation Corporation. Mr. DARU. What is your address, Mr. Atwell? Mr. ATWELL. 30 Rockefeller Place. And 136 East Fifty-seventh Street. Mr. DARU. Will you proceed, Mr. Atwell? Mr. ATWELL. I just prepared a statement for the committee. Mr. ATWELL. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the Senate committee, I am happy to know that as a result of the complaint which I made to this committee you are now investigating the racket known as the "kick-back" racket, by which laborers and mechanics are forced to give back, or "kick-back" as it is called, part of the wages lawfully earned by them and which they have received for their work. The CHAIRMAN. Does that mean, Mr. Atwell, that if I were to hire out to you for $10 a day, that there would be a private arrangement by which I would return a certain amount of that? Mr. ATWELL. That is what I have been fighting against, but that is the arrangement. The CHAIRMAN. Very well. Mr. ATWELL. We hire men at the prevailing rate of wages for this district as set up by the Building Trades Council. We make a list of the wages that we pay, and we post it on the shanty of the paymaster's office telling the men that they are to receive in their envelops that amount of money-$1.83 for steam shovel runner, and so on down the line. -34-VOL. I, PT. 5- -1 789 |