Evening star., 1932-07-24
BY DENIS TILDEN LYNCH.

children in certain jewish SEE
~ tions of New York City nave
been the principal victims OF
most cruel conspiracy, the milk racket,
invented by Thomas J. Clougher, tnen
secretary Of the Commissioner OF
Health. The milk was SKINNED OF ltS
cream or butterfat, water added. ana
cocoanut oil and other fats substituted, !,
and milk and cream from unapproVed
diaries were sold in the city through
the collusion of mercenary inspectors.
Millions of dollars were made by
these racketeers, and criminals in other
cities followed their unholy example.
cable dispatch from Havana, Cuba,
on April S, 1881, described the whole
sale adulteration of milk in that city
ard the destruction of $4,000 quarts OF
the adulterated material. Several were
arrested. Health Department officials
said th>y feared that thousands OF
deaths among babies had been caused
bv the racketeers.
In Havana the vigilance Of the health
officials and the severity of the courts
stopped the poisoning of babies almost
at the outset; and in the few places
outside New York where the racket
flourishes. it is little more than a gang
sters' agreement to p-oTe1r price cut
ting or other practices forbidden by
their employers.
Revived This Month
For about 1S months the people Of
New York were permitted to forget the
milk racket. Then. on the eighth OF
this month, newly organized group
OF milk distribution, called the Central
Dairy Dealers, Inc. of which Irving
Akalow was elected president, an
nounced that they had banded together
TO insist upon drastic action against
persons dealing in diluted and bootleg
milk"
No reason exists why the industry
cannot be put on a reputable basis:
The Health Department has unlimited
powers in all matters affecting the
health of the people Health Commis-
soner Shirley w. Wayne succeeded a
man who frowned on all protective or
ganizations in milk and other food
stuffs.
1t was not until the early part of 1926
that the country learned OF the exist
cnce in New York City of successful
scheme to sell adulterated milk under
official sanction. When DR.. Louis 1.
Harris, then Health Commissioner.
caused the arrest Of the slippery Harry
Danziger, the czar of the racket, it was
believed he was only the head Of an
other trade organization using violence
to maintain prices and enrich the rack
eteers. But when DR.. Harris tore the
mask from Danziger, Clougher and
their gang, the old town. case-hard-
ened to iniquity. Casped And all
echoed the name Dr. Harris gave them
baby poisoners.
DR.. Harris became an idol of the
town over night. Vet he vas forced
out of Office because he persisted in
trying to imprisol TIC hign-placed
politicians who had pr5tecteI the milk
recketeers
Old Order Returned.
With tf resignation OF DR.. Harris
the old c.der returned, and nov and
then the racketecrS would become so
brazen that come Of their victims
would make an out-ry. Then there
would be more Investigations. ending,
invariably in the acqu!ttal of the ac-
cused.
The most spectacular of these af-
fairs occurred n the Winter of 1881.
when most of the members cf the Milk
Chain Association. inc. were tried on
a charge of violating the State anti
was the politically powerful Larry Fay,
night club owner, flouter OF our courts.
Fay whose protector is Tammany
in the Indictment And all went free.
few months later another organi-
z2tion. of which several former aides
OF Fay were members, vas under in
vc;tigation, but nothing CT consequences
cere of it.
There have been other Investigations.
But no one hes gone to jail for milk
racketeering since Dr.. Harris made him
self unpopular with the influential by
trying to serd the political masters OF
the racketeers to Jail.
The milk racket was developed to its
peak Of efficiency toward the end OF
1924
One of its methods was significantly
named the death wagon" The death
wagon was used to force rebellious re-
tsiler to buy milk from the racketeerlng
niddlemen at the arbitrary price fixed
b. the lords of the racket. The death
agon sold milk below cost to rival
@ the rebelliouS retailer until he
pleaded for mercy or was forced to the
vail.
The death wagon did not work alone.
l; had allies in the "convincers." Sew
eral "convincers" would enter a store
marked for destruction and drop souring
pellets into the cans of milk and cream.
After this the "convincers' would slug
the shopkeeper
The adulteration of milk was not done
with the thought of poisoning babies,
In this respect the murders were r1t
deliberate. Yet William Milton Curtis,
sometime Judge of the Marine Court,
wrote to Jacob Panken, then judge of
the Municipal Court. who was demand
ing long prison terms for any person
found guilty of adulterating milk, that
his proposal was not in keeping with
the crime.
Another menace to health was in the
illegal sale of cream from unapproved
dairies. This cream was bootlegged
from Middle Western States points too
distant for inspection by the New York
Health Department, or from nearby
dairies whose sanitary conditions were
below standard.
Paid 81, ,0O0. 900 Annually.
According to DR.. Harris, at least
ST ,OOO, 900 annually was paid by owners
OF these unapproved dairies to officials
to permit the sale of the bootlegged
cream in the city.
Railroad employees in the local
freight yards were also in the racket,
Their job was to replace the tags on
the cans of cream, disclosing the point
O. shipment, with tags indicating that
the cream came from appr ,ed dairies.
The milk situation was matter OF
investigation a year before DR.: Harris
became health commissioner. John F.
Hylan was mayor at the time. Charges
were brought by Abraham L. Abraham
son. president Of the Hebrew Retail
Grocers' Association of Brownsville and
East New York, the two largest ghet-
toes in Brooklyn. and other Jewish
tradesmen, that Danziger was director
of a group of Jewish wholesalers call
ing themselves the Metropolitan Milk
Dealers Association in a scheme to con-
troll the sale and price of milk. Hylan
sent the charges to David Hirschfleld.
commissioner of accounts, who traced
the sources of the corruption to Clough-
er, secretary to DR.. Frank j. Monaghan,
then commissioner of health. Hylan
had a primary contest on his hands
and the milk racket was temporarily