Al Smith's Friend's Firm
When William Marcy Tweed bossed Tammany Hall and New York City, political livelihoods were made by out-&-out peculation. Boss Charles Francis Murphy brought the city contract racket to its juiciest fruition. But fashions in municipal graft change. Nowadays Tammany feeds largely on the real estate and building businesses. How it is done was clearly illustrated last week by Inquisitor Samuel Seabury to the eight-month-old Republican-controlled Legislative investigation of New York City's administration.
In 1924 Alfred Emanuel Smith wanted to wash behind Tammany's ears, make it presentable so that it would not embarrass him when he took it before a National Democratic Convention to secure for himself the presidential nomination. George Washington Olvany, a judge of General, Sessions Court, was the man Mr. Smith deemed of sufficiently good repute to lead the "New Tammany" into national potency and esteem. Having served five years as the Hall's leader, while Mr. Smith twice failed to become President, Judge Olvany resigned two years ago (TIME, March 25, 1929), succumbing to ill health and general anti-Smith sentiment in the organization.
Judge Olvany's law firm-Olvany, Eisner & Donnelly-during the years that its senior member couched in the big leather chair at the Tammany Wigwam, was particularly successful in pleading cases before the Board of Standards & Appeals. The Board rules on building and zoning laws.
Last week Inquisitor Seabury put Builder Fred F. French on the stand. Mr. French, Brooklyn-born, was once a Princeton student, then successively a cow hand, stoker, timekeeper when the Hippodrome Theatre was erected. He is responsible for the Tudor City residential de-velopment on Manhattan's East Side. When he wanted to erect a Fifth Avenue office building of dimensions which needed an "interpretation" from the Board of Standards & Appeals in 1926, Builder French was guided to the Olvany firm.
Inquisitor-You have told us that you believed the firm had influence?
Builder-I knew they had influence. Everybody knew it. ...
Inquisitor-Did you think that to any extent it was due to the presence of Judge Olvany in the firm?
Builder-I suppose so.
Inquisitor-I ask you whether you will be good enough to say to the committee whether or not the fact that you believe they did have influence was a circumstance that led you to select them. (Bickering from one of the committee's Democratic members.)
Builder-I won't answer it.
Bit by bit, recalcitrant Builder French, bald as a cueball, told how he gave $35,000 to a third party. The third party, John Neville Boyle,* who did the actual pleading before the Board in Builder French's case, said he gave $25,000 of it in cash to Partner Donnelly of the Olvany firm. Builder French's plea was granted. On the stand Partner Donnelly explained that it was an old custom of the Olvany firm to accept contingent fees in cash because "it has been known about this town that names of prominent gentlemen have been exploited." Patient questioning by Inquisitor Seabury revealed that during the time the Olvany firm was seeing that the Board's "interpretations" suited clients, it banked more than $5,000,000. In each case Olvany, Eisner & Donnelly gave a few thousands to lesser legal lights actually to represent the client before the Board.
Was there any comprehensive record of fees earned by the firm? Inquisitor Seabury wanted to know. No. Those had been destroyed two years ago, maybe the year before, because "we were short of space," and because the firm had been "reorganized." "Reorganization," the Inquisitor found, consisted of admitting two more partners to the lucrative business. At last Judge Olvany took the stand. He admitted having consulted often with the Board's chairman but only "as a good Samaritan.''
* Not to be confused with Horse Doctor William Francis Doyle whose reluctance to explain his super-successful pleadings before the Board took him to jail last summer (TIME, Aug. 17).
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