The Highway & the Carpenter

When he retired six years ago at 77, Big Bill Hutcheson was known as the ruthless dictator of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, a key dowel in the U.S. labor movement for more than 30 years. Before his death in 1953 he had bequeathed his claw hammer to his complaisant son Maurice, who finished construction of the union by bringing the membership to 850,000. cut for himself a slot in the loftiest beams of labor leadership--vice president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., member of the executive council. Last week at 60, Carpenter Maurice Hutcheson dodged the well-aimed hammer blows of a Senate investigating committee.

Hutcheson's name hit the sawdusty scandal trail when investigators for Tennessee Senator Albert Gore's public-roads subcommittee began to check over a growing woodpile of corruption in Indiana's road-building program. The story, as Gore developed it in Washington hearings last week: Carpenters' Treasurer Frank Chapman, 52, borrowed $20,000 from an Indianapolis bank on his own and Hutcheson's signatures, bought up nine pieces of Indiana right-of-way land for $22,500, sold it all within 30 days to the state for $101,000. Furthermore, Brotherhood Vice President O. William Blaier, 69, bought 33 acres of land for $16,500, sold 1 1/2 acres to the state for $19,000. In Frank Chapman's bank account were found such items of payment as $15,500 to Carpenter Boss Hutcheson, $26,968 to Chapman himself. $25,432 to Blaier, and similar amounts to two Indiana road officials (who are already under indictment for conspiracy to defraud and embezzle).

As Committee Chairman Gore nailed these pieces together. Hutcheson and his cronies pleaded that their answers might tend to incriminate them, crowded in under the Fifth Amendment shelter. Even when the committee established that Hutcheson is a member of the same A.F.L.-C.I.O. executive council that ousted Teamster Boss Dave Beck for crawling under the Fifth, the finger-drumming witness declined to say whether he had voted for the ouster (he did). Hutcheson, it then became apparent, had his own rationale for personal behavior. Asked if he is familiar with the A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s code of ethics, which states that Fifth Amendment witnesses have "no right to-hold office in his union," Hutcheson replied "Yes, sir."

"Do you believe in this policy?"

"Not completely. It mixes the personal duties with the duties of the organization. I want to state that I have never used any Brotherhood funds for any purpose except Brotherhood business at any time since I have been in office."

Documenting what could become a case of conspiracy to defraud the Government, Investigator Gore turned his evidence on Maurice Hutcheson's strictly personal activities over to the Justice Department.

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