In Milk We Trust

The dairy farmers surrounding Chicago had scarcely begun marketing their own products through the Milk Producers' Co-operating Marketing Co. when the federal government began investigating them. The Gazette reported in mid-April:

A thousand or more dealers, farmers and brokers will be summoned before a federal grand jury. It is alleged that the "milk trust" has complete control of milk and butter in the dairy district surrounding Chicago, in violation of the Sherman anti-trust law. Federal officers have had this matter under investigation for some time, and some farmers from this locality have been quizzed.

Secretaries of local branches of the Milk Producers' Association were ordered to bring their books and records to Chicago and turn them over to the grand jury. Locally, those summoned included George Lutz of Hobart, Robert Harper of Ainsworth, Walter Demmon of Merrillville, and L.F. Bay of Gary.

The details of the investigation were not reported in the Hobart papers, but evidently it resulted in the indictment of eight officials of the Milk Producers' Association. Although the case was ready to be heard in June 1919, it was postponed, apparently on the grounds that "keeping a jury locked up for the summer months" during what promised to be a "long drawn out" trial would be inhumane.

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In somewhat-related news,* the Lake County Commissioners announced in April that they had selected and purchased a site for the county's planned tuberculosis sanatorium — a spread of nearly 80 acres known as the J. Frank Meeker farm, in southern Ross Township about two miles north of Crown Point, and conveniently near a trolley line running to that town. The commissioners had $100,000 to work with, consisting of funds from the sale of bonds. The land cost about $13,000. The remainder would be used for buildings and fixtures.


(Click on image to enlarge)
This excerpt from the 1926 Plat Book shows what I believe to be the land purchased in 1919 by the Board of Commissioner's for Lake County's tuberculosis sanatorium. This land is now the site of the Lake County Government Center.

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*As we know, there is a link between dairy cows and tuberculosis in humans.


Sources:
♦ "County Commissioners Purchase Sanitarium Site." Hobart News 24 Apr. 1919.
♦ "Government to Probe Milk Trust." Hobart Gazette 18 Apr. 1919.
♦ "Indiana Milk Shippers Summoned Before Federal Authorities." Hobart News 24 Apr. 1919.
♦ "Local Drifts." Hobart Gazette 20 June 1919.