Sees “transparent Subterfuge” in Lake Placid Club’s Plan for Easement; to Press Charge

A reply to the statement of Dr. Melvil Dewey, founder of the Lake Placid Club and a member of the commission named by Governor Roosevelt to supervise preparations for the State Olympic Games, was made on Sunday by David Mosessohn, editor of the Jewish Tribune, whose national council has sent Governor Roosevelt a protest against the awarding by the State of New York of a contract for a bobsled run to be built on property of the Lake Placid Club at a cost of $60,000. The protest was made on the ground that the Lake Placid Club has always barred Jews from membership.

Dr. Dewey had declared that the club had been willing to deed the land for the bobsled run to the State, but since under a Court of Appeals ruling the use of the land for the Winter Olympic Games of 1932 would have been forbidden, the club gave an easement to the state. In his reply Mr. Mosessohn says:

“Obviously, the easement plan is a transparent subterfuge. There is little or no likelihood that the State of New York will be further concerned with the bobsled run after the Olympic games, and the club authorities know full well that this sham easement will unquestionably lapse. This means that the Lake Placid Club will have the advantage for years to come of an elaborate bobsled run built for it through the use of State funds and serving as an enduring enhancement of the club’s properties.”

Mark Eisner of the law firm of Olvany, Eisner and Donnelly will represent the national council of the Jewish Tribune before state authorities and at budget hearings before Governor Roosevelt “to prevent an improper use of State funds and to seek recovery of such funds as may have already been expended without legal warrant” in connection with the preparations for the Olympic games at Lake Placid in 1932.