The question of peddling on the beaches of Coney Island, long a problem to the resort’s business men, graduated today from its limited circle, of merchant-peddler-policeman to include the Mayor of the City of New York, the Police Commissioner and the Commissioner of Accounts.
This became evident yesterday when Acting Borough President Charles H. Ward of Brooklyn, charged that a “prominent Democratic politician” was behind the operations of unlicensed Coney Island peddlers. Preparations, he said, were being made to forward evidence of the man’s operations to Commissioner of Accounts Paul Blanshard.
In addition to Ward’s complaint, parents of the youths of sixteen and seventeen, who make up a large portion of the small army of peddlers, and several magistrates, have been finding fault with the manner in which the police enforce the law against peddling at public beaches.
Arrests have been made this summer at the rate of 200 a week. The campaign was launched after business men complained that peddlers, with the advantage of no overhead such as rent, taxes or license fees, were cutting into their profits. As the result of the complaint, arrests of peddlers have become one of the chief occupations of Coney Island police.
MALBIN TAKES A HAND
The problem has become more complex since last Saturday when Magistrate David L. Malbin, who presides from time to time in Coney Island Court, was walking on the boardwalk with a friend. Near West Twelfth street he observed the common practice of a policeman arresting a peddler.
The magistrate followed as he saw the patrolman and his prisoner disappear beneath the boardwalk. Some distance underneath, in a small room which he described as a “damp, dark coop,” he found fourteen other boys under police guard.
Questioning the boys, the magistrate learned that some had been there as long as three hours. The patrolman on duty, however, said none had been there more than forty-five minutes, and explained that the delay was caused by the difficulty in getting a patrol wagon.
“Don’t you know that all prisoners must be taken to the station house at once?” he asked. He then ordered the policeman to see that this was done.
PATROL WAGONS TOO BUSY
Arriving at the Coney Island police station the magistrate found thirteen other peddlers waiting. He inquired of Police Captain Bauer why the boys had been held beneath the boardwalk. Captain Bauer said that more than 100 peddlers had been arrested at the resort during the day, and patrol wagons had been busy taking them to cells in four neighboring station houses, after the local one had been filled.
The captain said he thought it was cooler beneath the boardwalk than in the sun.
The following day Magistrate Malbin announced from the bench of the Coney Island Court that he would tell Mayor LaGuardia of the “un-American, barbaric spectacle” he witnessed Saturday. He then suspended sentence on 103 peddlers, most of them boys.
“There is nothing I can do to ### your social conditions,” he ###em. “I know times are hard, ###ill the law demands that you ###t peddle at Coney Island. The ###ce have orders to arrest you, ### Which means that in all probabilities your wares melt during your stay in jail until you are bailed out.
“However, I am not in favor of putting you in coops. The stockade period of 200 years ago with its racks and pillories is past.”
The magistrate also questioned alleged discrimination against Coney Island peddlers.
“I don’t know why bail is fixed at $100 in these cases when in other precincts for peddling offenses the amount is set at $20,” he said.
Magistrate Jeanette G. Brill, who on Monday followed Magistrate Malbin as presiding magistrate in Coney Island Court, joined him in denouncing police treatment of peddlers.
Selecting fifteen of the eighty-six peddlers who appeared before her, she had them dictate to a court stenographer their stories of ill treatment by the police. She said these statements would be forwarded to Police Commissioner O’Ryan. All the men said they were not fed and several complained they had not been permitted to telephone their relatives.
“Why did you arrest these boys?” Magistrate Brill asked the arresting officers. “Why don’t you serve them with summonses?”
She was informed that none of the men could identify themselves, but when some showed her chauffeur’s licenses and Health Department food handler’s licenses, the patrolmen admitted he had been ordered by his superiors to make arrests.
ARRESTS “UN-AMERICAN”
“This seems so un-American,” the magistrate remarked. “You boys are locked up with hardened criminals when all you have been doing is trying to make a livelihood. The law prohibits peddling but it should be noticed in a manner which does not injure or abuse those arrested.
“It is all right for the Coney Island Chamber of Commerce and Borough President Ingersoll to fight peddling at Coney Island. They have three meals a day; most of the peddlers don’t.”
Chief Inspector Edward A. Bracken, in charge of Brooklyn police, was the official to whom parents and Mrs. Rae Josephs, president of the Ocean Front Democratic Club of Brighton Beach, directed their ire. Accompanied by a large delegation, Mrs. Josephs visited the inspector and charged that those responsible for beach peddling were the jobbers who provide the merchandise which the boys offer for sale.
The Coney Island Chamber of Commerce plans to support “to the limit” the drive against unlicensed peddlers. George F. Kister, as president of the organization, said:
“Captain Bauer is doing a difficult and disagreeable job in an efficient and humane manner. As individuals and as members of the Chamber of Commerce we intend to back him to the limit.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
