On the ferries which daily swish and creak from Manhattan to Staten Island a busy grimy tribe ply their trade. Their cry is "Shine? Shine?"; their trade is polishing shoes for a dime and, by unwritten law, a nickel tip.
Once they worked for a boss who paid them $8 weekly. Now they are their own syndicated bosses, weekly earn an average of $30. Last week, the city of New York, as it does every two years, auctioned the bootblacking concession. The syndicated polishers sent their banker, one Philip Bernardini, to bid. Banker Bernardini...
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