1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Untermyer, Samuel

UNTERMYER, SAMUEL (1858–), American lawyer, was born at Lynchburg, Va., March 2 1858. He was educated at the College of the City of New York and at the Columbia Law School (LL.B. 1876). He was admitted to the bar in 1879 and practised thereafter in New York City. Between that time and the end of 1921 he was counsel in many celebrated cases covering almost every phase of corporate, civil, criminal and international law. As counsel for H. Clay Pierce he prevented the Standard Oil Co., after its dissolution in 1910, from dominating the Waters-Pierce Co. In the same year he effected the merger of the Utah Copper Co. with the Boston Consolidated and the Nevada Consolidated Co.’s involving more than $100,000,000. In 1912, as counsel to the Kaliwerke Aschersleben and the Disconte Gesellschaft in the controversy arising out of the control of the potash industry by the German Government, he assisted in bringing about a settlement. In 1903 he undertook the first judicial exposure of “high finance” in connexion with the failure of the U.S. Shipbuilding Co., organized only a year before as a consolidation of the larger shipbuilding companies in America including that subsequently known as the Bethlehem Steel Co. As a result of the sensational exposures connected with that company a reorganization was effected under the name of the Bethlehem Steel Co., in which Mr. Untermyer became a large shareholder. After this he conducted a number of similar exposures. In 1911 he delivered an address, entitled, “Is There a Money Trust?” which led the following year to an investigation in which he appeared as counsel, by the Committee on Banking and Currency of the Federal House of Representatives. This so-called Pujo Money Trust Investigation resulted in the passage of a mass of remedial legislation. Mr. Untermyer for years agitated before Congress and state Legislatures such measures as the compulsory regulation of stock exchanges. He for many years conducted agitations and wrote magazine articles dealing with reforms in the criminal laws, the regulation of trusts and combinations and other economic subjects. He was counsel for many reorganization committees, including those of the Seaboard Air Line, the Rock Island railway, the Central Fuel Oil Co., and the Southern Iron and Steel Co. In 1915 he acted as one of the counsel for the U.S. Government in the suit brought against the Secretary of the Treasury and the Comptroller of the Currency by the Riggs National Bank of Washington, D.C., which charged there was a conspiracy to wreck it; the defendants were cleared. He took an active part in preparing the Federal Reserve Bank law, the Clayton bill, the Federal Trade Commission bill, and other legislation curbing trusts. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1904, 1908, 1912, and delegate-at-large for the state of New York in 1916. He was a strong supporter of President Wilson’s administration. After America entered the World War he was adviser to the Treasury Department regarding the interpretation of the income tax and the excess profits tax laws. He was appointed by President Wilson to serve on the U.S. section of the International High Commission, which sat at Buenos Aires, in 1916, for the purpose of framing uniform laws for the Pan-American countries. In 1920 he was counsel for the Lockwood Committee, appointed by the state Legislature to investigate an alleged conspiracy among the building trades of New York City. It was charged that labour leaders were using their power by extorting bribes for the prevention of strikes, by preventing independent bids and by forcing building awards to favourites. Many illegal acts were disclosed and numerous convictions secured. Robert P. Brindell, who was at the head of the labour council of the building trades with a membership of 115,000 was prosecuted by Mr. Untermyer, who conducted the case in person as a special attorney-general, and convicted of extortion and sentenced to from five to ten years in state prison. At the end of 1921, when the prosecutions were being continued, more than 600 indictments had been found as a result of the investigation and many more were said to be impending. There were more than 200 convictions including pleas of guilty by employers, labour leaders and others and over $500,000 had been collected in fines. In connexion with the exposure of abuses and acts of illegality among the labour unions, all unions in the state were required, under the threat of criminal prosecution and of submitting to incorporation, to amend their constitutions and bylaws by eliminating these abuses; this they all agreed to do. It was shown that in many of the building trades both manufacturers and dealers, often with the collusive aid of labour leaders, had organized to fix prices and prevent competition. Subsequent prosecutions established the fact that these and other unfair practices were an important element in preventing building operations and increasing rental charges for dwelling property. Public opinion, especially in view of the housing shortage, reacted sharply to these revelations, and it was felt that Mr. Untermyer’s work in this connexion had been performed with admirable public spirit, energy and courage. It was generally believed, moreover, that the evils brought to light by the committee were not confined to New York, and a demand for similar investigations arose in other parts of the country.

Mr. Untermyer was an ardent believer in the Zionist movement and was President of the Koren Hayesod, the agency through which the movement was conducted in America.