Chapter 146 Rhetoric

Wow!

As Luciano was speaking, the spectators around the Polo Stadium suddenly burst into cheers. It was the Yankees' legendary star Babe Ruth who hit a home run in the game.

"nice shot!"

Turning his head to look at the situation at the baseball field, Luciano took a puff of his cigar, with a smile on his drooping eyes, and turned to nod at the bodyguard behind him.

Then, a few minutes later.

The home run baseball that Babe Ruth hit out of the park appeared in Luciano's hands.

"Tell Mr. Rupert for me that I would like to invite Babe Ruth to dinner and have him sign a baseball."

After playing with the baseball in his hand, Luciano handed it to the bodyguard behind him and explained at the same time.

Rupert is the current owner of the Yankees and is also one of the famous people Luciano has come into contact with. The two even had a good drink at the same cocktail party.

After dealing with the small matter in front of him, Luciano turned his head and focused his eyes on Colin in front of him again.

Opposite him, Colin looked at him with the same calm expression.

The ability he upgraded during this period gave him the confidence to escape from most dangerous situations, including the current meeting with Luciano.

Looking at Colin's calm expression, Luciano couldn't help but raise his drooping eyes. He sat back to his original position and said slowly: "Frankly speaking, Mr. Colin Luper, I didn't intend to use it."

Such an 'offensive' way to invite you over."

"I have always been very supportive of newspapers like The Courier that dare to reveal the truth about society. It is precisely because of your existence that New York City will become a better place and reduce corruption and poor security problems."

Considering the true identity of Luciano, the person who said these words, Colin felt that the scene before him was inexplicably ironic.

A man known as the 'Father of Modern Organized Crime in the United States' discussed the security of New York in front of him.

This may also be Luciano's brilliance. Who would have thought that the real identity behind this middle-aged man in front of him, who goes to and from high society and is well-dressed, is the godfather of crime in New York City.

"It's just that there may be some misunderstandings..."

Expressing a positive attitude towards Colin's previous exposure of the mayor's bribery scandal in the Courier, Luciano changed the subject with obvious regret in his tone: "Perhaps, Mr. Colin Looper

You exposed the scandal of the mayor of New York out of your duty as a media, but obviously there are some ulterior motives behind this, or political parties have taken advantage of this and turned it into a means of attacking each other to eliminate dissidents.

…”

After a short period of preparation, Luciano finally revealed the purpose of his trip.

No, you are wrong. I never report news because of some illusory sense of justice.

"you mean?"

Colin replied silently in his heart, but on the surface Colin still made a puzzled expression and asked.

"Tammany Hall..."

Taking a puff from the cigar in his hand, Luciano slowly said a name that was not unfamiliar to Colin.

“Tammany Hall has always been committed to improving the city of New York, and has achieved considerable results, including the Manhattan Bridge and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which were completed under the strong leadership of the association. In addition to the construction of New York, Tammany Hall

The Munich Association has not forgotten its investment in charity. During the Great Depression, the association spared no effort to help those unemployed or poor orphans. Through relief, it has helped more than tens of thousands of people in distress and survived the Great Depression.

The hardest days of the depression."

The Tammany Hall mentioned by Luciano seems to be a charitable organization that actively promotes the construction of the New York City government and is dedicated to relieving the poor.

However, from LaGuardia, Colin got a completely different situation than what he said.

Although Tammany Hall had made great achievements in New York City government, Luciano intentionally or unintentionally ignored the fact that the Tammany Hall itself used various methods such as contracting government contracts, inflating costs, and collecting kickbacks to make money crazily.

Not to mention the distance, let’s take LaGuardia’s example of the Manhattan Bridge.

After Tammany Hall took over the construction, construction started in 1909 and was not completed until 1923, which took a total of 14 years. During this period, the association spent $60,000 to bribe the New York Congress and demanded more than half of the bridge company.

of private equity.

Because only private shareholders had voting rights on the company's board of directors, Tammany Hall controlled the project and its costs, no matter how much money the governments of New York and Brooklyn invested.

Another famous example of Tammany Hall is the New York Courthouse approved for construction in 1858. Its budget soared from the initial $250,000 to $1 million the next year. After it was completed in 1914

The Budget and Appropriations Committee estimates that the total cost is between 11 million and 12 million US dollars, which is almost double the cost of the United States' purchase of Alaska from Russia during the same period.

Although it is impossible to accurately calculate how much money was made, we can get a glimpse of it from the figures on several well-documented bills: a mason's two days' wages was 133,187 U.S. dollars. If converted, in later generations, it would be almost 200 U.S. dollars.

There is not much carpentry work in the court building, but the project paid a "carpenter" a month's labor of 360,751 US dollars, which is a full 5 million US dollars.

And these are just the tip of the Tammany Hall iceberg.

"... Groups like Tammany Hall have been labeled as political opponents by the Republican Party because of their connections with the New York City Government, and they even used the content of Mr. Colin Looper's reports to slander the association.

"

It is not clear that Colin knew much more about Tammany Hall than he imagined.

In front of the Polo Stadium auditorium, Luciano said with an expression of indignation.

"If the facts are really what you said, Mr. Luciano, then it was indeed my negligence."

Seeing Luciano's performance, Colin nodded and said with a serious face.

"But as far as I know, Tammany Hall has always been controversial, especially since the New York Times reported many years ago that the president and his associates had massively embezzled evidence of public funds."

"As you said, Mr. Colin Looper, Tammany Hall does have a bad past. The previous chairman, Tweed, led the association in the wrong direction because of his own greed. However, everything has already happened.

It’s a thing of the past. Since the Tweed incident, Tammany Hall has launched reform actions within the Hall and strives to reverse the wrong image of the past.”
Chapter completed!