(3 of 3)
Big boss of the tipster trade is Moses ("Moe") Annenberg, tall, cadaverous brother of hard-boiled Max Annenberg, circulation director of the New York Daily News. In addition to a string of tipster sheets (Racing Form, Morning Telegraph—), Moe Annenberg owns Nationwide News Service, which furnishes track information by A. T. & T. teletype to some 200 U. S. and Canadian cities. According to Miami's Andrew W. Kavanaugh, head of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, Moe Annenberg's "News" service takes in $6,000,000 annually, a figure which has caught the eye of enterprising racketeers and unemployed bootleggers.
A. T. & T. cannot discriminate against customers on moral grounds, has to furnish service under most circumstances if requested. Its real trouble, as Counsel Becker last week adduced, was in rescuing its costly teletype machines after a gambling joint has been raided, since high-minded judges are apt to order destroyed all equipment seized on the premises.
For close co-operation between telephone employes and public officials a special feather went to Jamestown, N. Y. There a teletype was seized in a gambling raid, but the judge was not disposed to give it up. The local telephone manager went to City Attorney James A. Hughes, who wangled the machine away from the police. Meantime the arrested gambler reopened for business under another name at another stand, where the same teletype was promptly reinstalled. In a candid report an A. T. & T. agent noted: "Called upon Mr. Hughes and received his statement for $25 for legal service. Besides, I gave ... a small box of cigars to the police department." The report also related that the case against the gambler was dropped after he forfeited bail and that he was also a client of City Attorney Hughes. That, said Counsel Becker, completed a "triple play on the part of Mr. Hughes."
A. T. & T. admitted that its "loyal" employes had been "overzealous" in promoting the company's interests. President Gifford thought it was all pretty "messy," though he was taken aback when it was announced that G-men from the Department of Justice were also going to investigate. "We certainly don't want this business," Mr. Gifford declared. "We want to get rid of this character of service, but, frankly, we don't know how to do it. . . . If a rule could be drawn, which would eliminate this service without making the telephone company and its employes part of an espionage system, we would certainly welcome it."