Evening star., 1932-07-24
CHILDREN AND NFIRM HlT|
BY NEW YORK MILK Racket
Origin of Means of Adulterating Product
With Water and COcoanut Oil Is
Laid to Former Health Employe.

, trapped Danziger he found some OF the
prosecutors hostile. A notable excep.
ton was John E. Mcclellan, district
attorney of the Bronx. later supreme
court justice At this juncture the
Citizens Union, through its chairman
William j. Schieffelin, requested tht
, Governor to supercede the local prose
cutors with a special assistant attorney
general. There were many reasons why
he should act. The daily disclosures by
DR.. Harris revealed a city-wide con
spiracy. A grand jury In one OF tht
! five boroughs could not investigate
crimes committed In any OF the other
four. DR.. Harris said that the sellers
of adulterated milk disposed of 200 .OO(
quarts daily, after paying graft to Off
cialS charged with preventing the salt
of impure milk, and that it was highly
probable that the untraceable typhoid
cases in the city, being 60 per cent o.
the whole, had their origin in waterec
milk.
Extraordinary Term Promised.
This was said fortnight before
Schieffelin requested the Governor to
order a city-wide investigation. The
request had scarcely reached the State
Capital when it was announced that
the Governor, Alfred E. Smith, would
convoke an extraordinary term of the
Supreme Court. This was on May 20
1926.
Three weeks went by and the Gov
ernor did not convoke the extraordln-
airy term of court. Then Clougher was
placed on trial. Danziger, who had
turned States witness, gave most un-
usual testimony concerning the division
/ nf no hn
! the division being on the customary
$3.50 basis, he divided it 10 and 80, the
larger share going to Clougher.
! DanZiger testified he paid graft to
scores of others. including Kaufman
and Kehoe; and that Kehoe in turn
paid tribute to Clougher. Kehoe. a
henchman of Clougher, admitted that
he had deposited sl22 900 in two years
in his own bank accounts. To the
ordinary milk inspector, DanZiger paid
about S2,500 in graft annually.
| Four indictments were returned
against Clougher: one in the Bronx,
two in Manhattan and one in Queens
He was found guilty in the Bronx and
! hopes were high that he would confess
to escape the maximum sentence of &c
years, 10 on each count. These hopes
were in vain
Clougher also announced through
counsel that he would not throw him
self on the mercy of the court.
Clougher was observing faithfully
the cardinal tenet Of the underworld
in not squealing on his pals in the
racket which netted them 100000
in two years, according to DR.. Harris.
Promised Arrest on Release.
After sentence of not less than 5
years and not more than 10 had been
imposed, Ferdinand Pecora, first as
sistant district attorney of New York
County. said Clougher would be ar
rested when he finished his term and
returned to New York County for trial
on another bribery indictment. On
this and the other indictments pend
ng against him. Clougher faced a max
mum penalty of 80 years.
But DR.. Harris was not satisfied
with postponing trial on any Of the
indictments against Clougher. He as
sailed the prosecutors for not pro-
ceeding with the other trials in order
to force Clougher to confess and get
bars.
DR.. Harris recalled that after
Clougher had served his relatively
short sentence he would leave prison
a rich man"
The people were with the fighting
health commissioner: and in his ig-
norance of the weird ways of political
machines he thought that this SEN
timent was shared by the local rulers
of his party In appointing him, Mayor
Walker told DR.. Harris to rout out the
milk racket. This he was doing. but
he found political forces arrayed
against him.
Aware Of the situation, civic organi.
zatlcns grew more vociferous in theil
demands that the Governor supersede
the local prosecutors with the long
sought extraordinary term of the Su-
preme Court.
And the city took up the cry that thu
Governor act when they saw thai
Kaufman, Kehoe and Clougher hac
been sentenced to Sing Sing and the
bigger fish were still at large. And the
Fall came, and it being an even mum
bered year-1926-ther was a contest
the opposition party began echoine
publicly what civic organizations anc
newspapers had long been asking: I'M
prison the man higher up! Every one
ccnversant with the racket had infor.
nation that Clougher had a high pro.
tector, and that 1t was not his former
superior in the Health Department. Ir
the midst of the clamorous demands
George w. Olvany, successor to the late
Charles F. Murphy as leader OF
Tammany Hall, made reply. And here
is what Olvany said, word fer word:
L made inquiries of my own when il
was charged that some Tammany
'hlgher-up' was being protected in the
milk invectigation, and I know that
this is not true. If there is any mar
higher up-and I have no information
that there is-the trail leads elsewhere
than to Tammany Hall"
This was most astonishing. for hao
Olvany gene to DR. Harris he woulc
have been given the name of a Tam.
many district leader as the man whom
ne looked upon as Clougher's imme-
diate protector.
Political Faux Pas.
In striking at the unnamed am.
many district leader, DR. Harri~ ,ade
political faux pas of monui- unta
proportions. No one objected so lons
as he removed little fellows from Office
or sent them to jail. But he b!underec
IN seeking to open cell door for q
district leader
The big thing is nct to send dis.
trict leader to Jail. Once there was &
Governor who did this. His name was
William Sulzer. And Tammany re-
moved him from Office before he coule
send second Tammany chieftain te
prison.
After many months Gov. Smith re.
fused to call special term of the Su-
preme Court. His refusal brought
forth protests from Schieffelin, chair
man of the Citizens Union, who hae
been most persistent in demanding
action
Now let us return to Clougher to re-
call the uncontradicted testimony ot
Danziger at John Doe hearing before
Supreme Court Justice Arthur S
Tompkins. Dandger said that in 1872;
Kaufman and Clougher asked him te
organize the milk racket, and he testi.
fed it had two objects-to prevent pros