Special to the J.D.B.
Evidence obtained by wire-tapping was presented yesterday at the trial of Aaron Sapiro. organizer of the Chicago Laundry Owners Association, and seventeen other persons accused of racketeering.
Morris I. Kaplan, attorney for the Cleaners and Dyers Institute, and Alderman Oscar Nelson, two of the defendants, aided in the organization of the Laundry Owners Association, it was revealed.
Assistant Prosecutor Thomas D. Healy explained during the proceedings that at the time the Laundry Owners Association was organized it was thought that Sapiro would serve to supplant Dr. Benjamin M. Squires, dictator of the Cleaners and Dyers Institute, as czar.
Clarence L. Converse, a federal investigator, testifying concerning the wire-tapping, said that he heard a conversation which centered about the calling of a strike at the Ravenswood laundry. Later witnesses, Mr. Healy said, would testify that the strike was called in order to force the owner to become amember of the Chicago Laundry Association.
Edward R. Litsinger, political leader and former chief justice, and Harry Olson, municipal court attorney, who were attornerys for a group of independent laundry owners, advised their clients not to sign Sapiro’s trade association agreements, pronouncing the contracts illegal, it was revealed.
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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.
