Through the efforts of mediators appointed by Mayor LaGuardia, a long and vexing controversy between wholesale and retail dealers in salt-water and fresh-water fish was amicably settled yesterday with the announcement at City Hall that all factions have agreed to arbitration and appointment of a joint committee to regulate the industry.
So gratified was the Mayor with the outcome that he made it an occasion of precedent and conferred certificates of municipal merit upon the mediators, Major Benjamin Namm, who acted as peacemaker for the fresh-water fish merchants, and Colonel Gustave Porges, who represented the salt-water dealers.
“I hereby certify you for distinguished and exceptional public service,” the citation reads.
Signers of the agreement were Fred Lansberg, August Strauss and R. J. Cornelius for the wholesalers, and Daniel Chester, Sol Wolpow, Louis Waltman, Vincent Buonocure and J. B. Sussman for the retailers.
Recently a large number of retailers shut up shop in protest against what they charged were exorbitant prices demanded by the wholesalers. Other complaints were that the wholesalers sold to peddlers without licenses and refused to allow the retailers reasonable credit.
A thirty-day truce was negotiated on October 18.
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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.
