Research

Scope and Content Note

This series contains information about rents, banking, insurance, labor, and construction supply gathered by the committee, known as the "Lockwood Committee" for chairman Charles C. Lockwood, while investigating the high cost of housing. The bulk of the series consists of reports written by the committee from the information gathered detailing abuses which increased housing costs.

Constitutions and/or bylaws of labor and building supply associations, testimony transcripts, and exhibits (contract cards, bids, ledgers) are found, in addition to one folder of transcripts from the (New York City) Mayor's Committee on Rent Profiteering, of which Samuel Untermeyer was the primary investigator. (Untermeyer was also chief counsel of this Joint Legislative Committee on Housing.)

Also found are lists, indices, and digests of the witnesses and exhibits which appeared before the committee. Transcripts of court cases, testimony and memoranda on various trade and labor associations, and other records relating to grand jury hearings and other courts matters precipitated by the committee's investigation are in this series. Because the committee was most successful in convincing prosecutors to bring these two groups to court, these records recount abuses of labor and building suppliers primarily.