American comics: I drew Superman during the Great Depression

Wow!

As Luciano was speaking, the audience around the Polo Stadium suddenly cheered. It was the legendary Yankees star Babe Ruth who hit a home run in the game.

"Good shot!"

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

Then, a few minutes later.

The home run baseball hit by Babe Ruth appeared in Luciano's hands.

"Tell Mr. Rupert that I want to invite Babe Ruth to dinner and let him sign the baseball."

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

Rupert is the current owner of the Yankees and is also one of the celebrities Luciano has contacted. The two had also had a drink at the same party.

After dealing with the trivial matters in front of him, Luciano turned his head and focused his attention on Colin in front of him again.

Opposite him, Colin also looked at him calmly.

The upgraded abilities during this period made him confident that he could get out of most dangerous situations, including the meeting with Luciano.

Seeing Colin's calm expression, Luciano raised his drooping eyes and sat back in his original position, saying slowly: "To be honest, Mr. Colin Luper, I didn't intend to invite you here in such an 'offensive' way."

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

Considering the true identity of Luciano, the person who said this, Colin felt that the scene in front of him was inexplicably ironic.

A person who is called the 'father of modern organized crime in the United States' is discussing New York's public security in front of him.

This may also be Luciano's brilliance. Who could have thought that this middle-aged man who was in and out of the upper class and dressed brightly was actually the godfather of crime in New York City?

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

After expressing a positive attitude towards Colin's previous exposure of the mayor's bribery scandal in the "Courier", Luciano changed the subject and showed obvious regret in his tone: "Perhaps, Mr. Colin Luper, you exposed the scandal of the New York mayor out of the job of the media, but obviously, there are some ulterior motives behind this, or the political party took advantage of this. Turn it into a means of mutual attack to eliminate dissidents..."

After a brief foreshadowing, Luciano finally exposed the purpose of his trip.

No, you are wrong. I never report news because of the illusory existence of justice.

"What do you mean?"

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

"Tammany Association..."

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

"Tammany Association has always been committed to improving New York City's municipal administration, and it has also achieved considerable results. The Manhattan Bridge and the Metropolitan Museum of Art were all completed under the strong leadership of the association. In addition to building New York, Tammany 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 through the most difficult days of the Great Depression."

The Tammany Association mentioned by Luciano seems to be a charity group that actively promotes the construction of the New York City government and is committed to helping the poor.

However, from LaGuardia, Colin has received a completely different situation from what he said.

Although Tammany Association has made achievements in New York's municipal administration, Luciano has intentionally or unintentionally ignored the fact that the association itself has used various methods such as contracting government contracts, inflating costs, and collecting kickbacks to make money crazily.

Without mentioning the distant past, let's take the Manhattan Bridge as an example given by LaGuardia.

After the Tammany Association took over the construction, the 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 City Council and demanded more than half of the private shares of the bridge company.

Because only private shareholders have voting rights on the company's board of directors, no matter how much money the New York and Brooklyn governments invested, the project and its expenses were controlled by the Tammany Association.

Another famous example of the Tammany Association is the New York Courthouse, which was approved for construction in 1858. Its budget soared from the initial $250,000 to $1 million in the second year. After it was completed, it was estimated by the Budget and Appropriations Committee in 1914 that the total cost was between $11 million and $12 million, almost twice the cost of the United States purchasing 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 US dollars. If converted, in later generations, it would be almost 200 US 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 report to slander the association. "

It was 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 seriously.

"But as far as I know, Tammany Hall has always been controversial, especially since the New York Times reported years ago that there was evidence of massive embezzlement by the president and his associates."

"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 itself, working hard to reverse the wrong image of the past.”

Facing Colin's question, Luciano seemed to be well prepared. He lowered his head and took a puff of his cigar before explaining immediately.

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