The Medina sentinel. [volume] (Medina, Ohio) 1888-1961, 1919-08-15
GRAND JURY INDIcTs
SEVEN MILK OFFICIALS
]. A. CLARK FORCED TO
SPEND. NIGHT IN JAIL
State Grange Master Declares Arrest
An Insult To Every Farmer In
the State.

some "juicy" copy and several hun
dred farmers in this county We're un-
duly "riled up" last Friday when
the special grand jury Of Cuyahoga
county returned indictments against
seven officials of the Ohio Farmers
Cooperative Milk Co., until recently
known as The Northern Ohio Pro-
ducers Association, for violation OF
the Valentine antitrust law.
The seven men who were named
in the indictments were Fl. w. Inger-
soil, Of Elyria, president Of the COM
pany; Allan Mills, Chagrin Falls; s.
A. Hull, Painesville; s. W. Kelner,
Lagrange; 2. "A. Kent, Aurora; w. b
Richmond, Elyria, and ]. A. Clark,
of Medina The last six named are
members of the sales committee.
As stated in the Sentinel last week
the company had served notice that
they wanted an increase of four cents
gallon over the 33 cent rate which
they had been receiving since July I.
Upon the heels of this announce
ment came news Of the Indictment OF
the seven men.
Deputy Sheriffs from Cleveland ar
rived in Medina Friday afternoon and
were assured that Mr.. Clark would
be in Cleveland next morning in time
for his hearing. They went back te
the city, but returned about midnight
having received instructions to bring
all seven into Cleveland at once. Ac-
cordingly Mr.. Clark was routed oui
of bed and forced to endure chilly
ride into the city.
Arriving in Cleveland Clark and the
other six members were confined in 8
smelly sell at police headquarters. 4
The men refused to go to bed anf
as there were but three chairs in the
cell, they took turns walking bach
and forth endeavoring to keep warm
At breakfast time the Jail ment
was far from pleasing so all sever
went without food until their release
later in the morning.
Saturday morning a hearing wa'
had before Judge Thomas Kennedy il
common pleas court. The men wer,
represented by Walter D. Meals AM
all entered pleas of not guilty. Bont
was fixed in each case at $4,000, whicl
was furnished by bonding company
September Z, the first day of tn,
September term of common plea.
court, was fixed as the date for tn,
trial of the seven indicted.
When asked for statement, Inger
soil charged that "men between
rather than the producers, are respon
sible for the increasing price of milk
"We want an Investigation to show
| just where the difference between tht
farmers selling price and what tht
consumer pays goes to-" said Inger
soil speaking for himself and his as
sociates. at would not be bad ides
to investigate how much is going tt
the people who never do anything bu
speculate.
"The producer does the hardes
work and gets the least out Of it
We have no combine and never die
have one to maintain prices. We buy
milk and sell it and don't get even al
that the state food administrator al
lowed us.
"He allowed us 81 cents gallon
We are getting only 20. Of course il
costs the farmer one or two cents ex
ira to ship it into the city,"
At the hearing before Judge Ken
nedy, Prosecutor Doerfer, who hae
charge OF the prosecution, refused tt
recommend that the men be released
on bail. Doerfler is the same one who
was SO badly scored by the specia
crime investigating jury recently, this
body OF men even recommending thai
he resign. Harry Davis, mayor o1
Cleveland, then came across with the
statement that Doerfler was his frienc
and there the matter stopped.
The indictment of the dairymen
which was secret, was returned after
the fourth days investigation of the
grand jury into the high cost of liv.
| ing.
| Doerfer issued statement ir
which he said he had collected suf
fcient evidence to convince him that
the producers were linked together ir
an unlawful combination to fix prices
He also promised an investigation o1
the distributors in Cleveland. Civi
action IN common pleas court to re-
woke the charter of the milk company
was likewise threatened.
The Ohio Farmers Co-Operativt
Milk Co., was formerly the Northern
Ohio Milk Producers Association. 1t i.
now state organization, although thu
present action is confined to tht
branch in this section of the state
Ingersoll, an attorney from Elyria, i.
president and the other six men in
dicted are part of committee of x
known as the Sales Committee. Abou
1000 farmers in this section, arr
members, large percentage of then
being from this county. A majorit,
of these take the arrest and confine
ment of the seven men as a persona
insult and in all probability a funt