July 10, 2024 • 14 mins
If you’re a mobster and you can’t make money off of booze any longer what should you move to next? How about milk?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's
Chuck and Jerry's here, and Dave is hovering over. It's
like a hologram of Obi Wan Kenobi, which makes this
short stuff.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
It makes us his only hope.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
That's right, boy, that's tough for Dave. Where his only hope? Sorry, Dave?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Yeah, you know, we haven't talked too much. We talked
a little bit about the Mafia and stuff like that,
but I feel like we have a gap in our
sort of al Capone Chicago Mob sort of time frame,
like who are the what was the movie The Untouchables
that sort.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Of era, such a good movie.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
We don't have a lot of that stuff. So this
is maybe the beginning of a little bit more of that.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Okay, this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. As
al Capone said.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Once that's right, then you got a knife in your back.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
So our story actually takes place in nineteen thirty three.
That's when it although it lasted almost the entire decade
of the thirties, but by this time, and this is
so funny because this whole thing is associated with al Capone.
But if we were going to jump to the end
and put it at the beginning. Yeah, he probably had
almost nothing to do with this.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
The reason this Chicago milk War as it's called, is
associated with al Capone is because his direct descendants, his
proteges that took over when he was put into federal prison,
they were the ones who were involved in this. So
he had some sort of kind of like phantom supernumerary
hand involved, but no direct involvement.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah. Like if he wouldn't have been in prison, it
would have been al Capone running this milk war.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
And it would have been ten times bloodier.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Probably, Yeah, you're probably right, But like we all know,
he was in prison for tax evasion, initially right here
in Atlanta and then eventually in Alcatraz, very famously. But
we're talking about the milk war, like you were saying,
and this gets a convoluted because there's just a lot
of milk unions and delivery driver unions for milk, and
(02:10):
they all have similar names, and they most of them
are pretty good band names, so it gets a little
bit confusing. But we're going to do the best we
can to tell you how the mob in Chicago got
involved in the milk business. And one of the main
reasons is that FDR came along and the writing was
(02:32):
on the wall that prohibition was going to be repealed,
and that was really bad for the Mob because they
were making a ton of money with bootlegging and with
the speakeasies. So they're like, we need to divert we
need to diversify. So they said, how about milk. It's
pretty unregulated and under the radar, and we are already
in the food business a little bit. We've run the
(02:53):
we run the artichoke racket, which.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Was true crazy. That's the fact of the short stuff
right there.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Well, that and the whisky on some cheese rackets. So
they already had the foot and the pro dairy and produce.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Business, right. So yeah, I guess milk is a logical
extension of those. I mean the cheese that makes sense too,
but it is surprising to go from booze to milk. Yeah,
but it almost didn't matter what the product was. Sure
the Mob could figure out a way to completely upend
the industry. They were early disruptors, I guess you'd call
(03:26):
them in twenty ten speak. Yeah, but the way that
they did that was through like violence and intimidation, and
that's the first, the first tactic they tried when they
showed up at a guy named Steve Sumner's door, And
Steve Summner's door was the front door of the office
of the Milk wagon Driver's Union Local seven point fifty three.
(03:47):
And the reason why is because Steve Sumner ran that
he was the union leader, right, and you had said
this whole thing's kind of convoluted, it is. And the
reason why is because from what I can tell, there
was an uneasy working relationship between the different unions and
the different associations that all came together to heart to produce, buy, bottle, sell,
(04:15):
and distribute milk. And each one had their own competing
interests and they were all trying to work together. There
was some price fixing involved, there were some alliances that
were all uneasy. But then when the mob came in,
they came in kicking on the door and shooting down,
shooting tommy guns into this whole alliance, and it just
created this total chaos that had just been waiting to happen,
(04:39):
that the mob coming and really triggered.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
And then some yeah, absolutely, because at the time the
milk prices were I guess you would say fixed, right,
is that the term. Yeah yeah, milk prices were set
or capped rather, and they had to use union representatives
to you know, to drive and deliver this milk, can
distribute this milk. The Mob of Chicago basically said, all right,
(05:05):
we're gonna get in on the ground floor. We're going
to buy an actual dairy, and they bought meadow More Dairies,
And that's how we're going to get into the milk industry.
And what we can do is then not have to
use union employees. We can bypass that fixed pricing and
we can undercut by a penny or two what everyone
(05:26):
else is selling it for and get all the milk
money ourselves.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Yeah, and don't forget this is during the depression, right,
So a couple of pennies off of a bottle of
milk that was selling for eleven cents, Oh yeah, that
meant a lot. Like you, yeah, you could make a
pretty big deal. So there was price fixing, which is illegal,
and the Mob came in and undermined it by introducing
good old American competition to it, which is really weird.
(05:51):
That's why this whole thing is so hard to kind
of wrap your head around, because it all is totally nonsensical.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yeah, yeah, you're right. I mean I feel better because
I couldn't figure out why. I couldn't really make the
most sense of this because it's not the most complicated story.
But yeah, they came to Steve Sumner eventually this guy
named Murray the Camel Humphries, who was one of Capone's fixers.
If you have a fixer, you're not a good person.
(06:20):
Let's just say that. Yeah, that means you're breaking things
if you need someone to fix things.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
That's a great, great slogan.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Oh yeah, I should get that on a T shirt. Huh.
So they went to Sumner and said, hey, if you
and your union can just lay low for a little while,
let us hire these non union workers. We can sell
our stuff cheaper, and then you can make a big
deal about that, and you can protest that. Then we
(06:46):
can raise these prices again. And in exchange for this,
we're not gonna we're gonna offer you protection, which everyone
knows for the mob means we're not going to destroy
your milk trucks and firebomb your livery wagons.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Right, And what's funny is like I can't remember the
spoof movie that this is in I want to say
top secret, but I might be wrong. Where somebody comes
in some like traditional like maybe gangster criminal comes in
and starts shooting up the place, and then all of
these like normal people like pull guns out of nowhere
and start shooting back unexpectedly. That's exactly what happened with this,
(07:24):
because the mob came in and said that they were
going to start breaking heads if everybody didn't fall in line,
and so all these people in the dairy industry, who
were allegedly legitimate went and bombed the mob's dairy the
moment they the moment they said that they were going
to do this, they went and bombed their dairy.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
All right, I say we should take a break, because
that's a pretty remarkable thing. I'm going to I'm going
to go with Johnny Dangerously. I'm not sure if that's
true or not.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Is that it okay?
Speaker 2 (07:53):
But it seems like a likely candidate, And we'll come
back right after this.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Johnny Dangerously top Secret. It's virtually the same movie.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
I mean, that's just a guess.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Boy.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
I saw Johnny Dangerously in the theater when I was
a kid. I thought it was, oh yeah, funniest thing
I've ever seen it hit? Some parts of it are
still pretty funny. I haven't seen in a long time,
but I think it was. Yeah, Joe Biscopo, Michael Keaton,
you kidding me?
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Yeah? The Dear, the dream Team is what they call that.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Griffin Dunn, yes, Master Chargia.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Did you know? Uh, he's Joan Didion's nephew.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Of course, he's got a new book out.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Called I'm Joan Didion's Nephew by Joan Didion's nephew.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
You dummy. Emily just got its supposed to be a
good read, so she's all into that.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Have you ever seen After Hours?
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Oh? Yeah, of course, good movie. It's course azy baby, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
It was, but it's also like a kind of a
screwball comedy.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yeah, yeah, the only one he did really. Yeah, all right,
that's been movie crush. Oh I missed that show. Not
enough to do it again, though. So we're back. And
like you said when we left, I believe right before
I said, Johnny, dangerously, you said, these regular schmos started
bombing the mobs dairy, And that's what happened, and it's
(09:36):
just crazy and all of a sudden, you know, this
milk war has kicked off.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Yes, so I said that there was like a bunch
of different competing groups. There were the people who made
the milk. Those are the farm producers. Those are the
farmers who are like milking the cows, putting into huge
like canisters, and then selling it to the milk dealers.
The milk dealers have formed an association and they're the
ones who were fixing the price. They were saying, hey, farmers,
(10:02):
this is how much you're gonna get from milk. Don't
ask for anything more because everyone who's going to buy
it from you is in cahoots against you. Right, So
the farmers said, well, this is all crazy. We're just
going to go on strike. You're not going to get
any milk unless you guys start giving us a better price. So,
in addition to this group these people were arguing, there's
(10:23):
also another group that were involved, and they were the
stores that sold milk. Okay, they had milk for one
set price, and they could typically sell it lower lower
than other companies who used delivery drivers milk men to
deliver their milk directly to people's homes. Because there's that
added cost, and then on top of the added costs,
(10:44):
the milk drivers were unionized. That's what Steve Sumner represented,
and so they had like a contract with those companies
saying like, you're going to pay our drivers like a
good wage. And so there was competition between the companies
that used union drivers and the companies that just sold
it directly from stores, and all of them hated each
(11:06):
other because they were all beating one another up to
get as much of a margin of profit out of
the others as they possibly could, because the American public
were the ones who are like, we're not going to
pay that much for milk. You guys are gonna have
to figure this out yourself.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Yeah. Do you think the mob ever went up to
people and went you're going to be eating your granula
with water? Or did they have cereal by then or
were they still calling.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
The Paul You remember at Kellogg's episode that was the
nineteenth century.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
That's what I'm saying. That was like the early nineteen ten,
So they were calling it granula, but they called it
cereal pretty soon after, right.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Oh, I see what you mean. Sure, sure, probably, Yeah.
I wonder what the first one was, because I think
they called their corn flakes corn flakes pretty early on,
so they at least take corn flakes.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
All right, let me do another take. Okay, you're going
to beat your corn flakes with cereal?
Speaker 1 (11:56):
God, you want to take a third take?
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Yeah, to take three?
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Uh, I'm going to add a line too. I'm gonna
improv the line. You're going to be eating cereal with
water like in the movie Fridays.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
That's all.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah, you had to drink it or you had to
eat it with water.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Oh boy? Uh, where were we.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
We're talking about corn flakes?
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Well, in the story, I know there was a band
name wanted to mention, the Pure Milk Association. Yeah, they
were one of the union's great band name Post Dealers.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
What about that one?
Speaker 2 (12:33):
That's not too bad?
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Milk Wagon Drivers Union. You know, we haven't taken a break.
You have? Oh we did? We did? Okay? Good?
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yeah? Good, I mean we're we're supposed to be done
by now. So here's what happened. In nineteen thirty nine.
There was an anti trust case that was going on,
basically with with this you know, monopoly that was happening,
and the court threw it out. As a district court
judge that threw it out, I believe it was reinstated
(13:02):
by the Supreme Court later, but they avoided trial. The
DOJ said, you know what, if everyone signs and agrees
to this, then we can get this milk ore over.
The farmers and the unions. You gotta say that you
won't stop independent producers from marketing milk. There can be
independent producers, distributors. You can't fix your prices anymore. And
(13:27):
drivers you're a union. There's a lot of moving parts here. Yeah,
you can't hamper the store sales of milk. Like, I know,
you like delivering to people's houses, but distribution is the
thing now, and you got to let that.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Happen, right, And so essentially what the Justice Department said
was you basically need to go the way that the
mob was trying to take this and go your separate
ways and compete with one another, like be capitalists rather
than price fixers.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
What's funny is there's a quote from Steve Sumner, who's
just befuddled by this antitrust case that was slapped against
him and some of the others. He's like, we're trying
to get the milk flowing again, Like we're just making
deals here, and they're like, you're price fixing that was
the problem in the first place, so stop doing that,
and I got the milk flowing again. I think in
(14:15):
nineteen forty the whole thing ended. That's right, pretty great stuff,
the Chicago Milk Oars featuring al Capone in name only.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Check said that's right twice everybody, and of course that
means short stuff is out.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Stuff you should know is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1 (14:42):
You listen to your favorite shows.
Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's
Chuck and Jerry's here, and Dave is hovering over. It's
like a hologram of Obi Wan Kenobi, which makes this
short stuff.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
It makes us his only hope.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
That's right, boy, that's tough for Dave. Where his only hope? Sorry, Dave?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Yeah, you know, we haven't talked too much. We talked
a little bit about the Mafia and stuff like that,
but I feel like we have a gap in our
sort of al Capone Chicago Mob sort of time frame,
like who are the what was the movie The Untouchables
that sort.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Of era, such a good movie.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
We don't have a lot of that stuff. So this
is maybe the beginning of a little bit more of that.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Okay, this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. As
al Capone said.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Once that's right, then you got a knife in your back.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
So our story actually takes place in nineteen thirty three.
That's when it although it lasted almost the entire decade
of the thirties, but by this time, and this is
so funny because this whole thing is associated with al Capone.
But if we were going to jump to the end
and put it at the beginning. Yeah, he probably had
almost nothing to do with this.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
The reason this Chicago milk War as it's called, is
associated with al Capone is because his direct descendants, his
proteges that took over when he was put into federal prison,
they were the ones who were involved in this. So
he had some sort of kind of like phantom supernumerary
hand involved, but no direct involvement.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Yeah. Like if he wouldn't have been in prison, it
would have been al Capone running this milk war.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
And it would have been ten times bloodier.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Probably, Yeah, you're probably right, But like we all know,
he was in prison for tax evasion, initially right here
in Atlanta and then eventually in Alcatraz, very famously. But
we're talking about the milk war, like you were saying,
and this gets a convoluted because there's just a lot
of milk unions and delivery driver unions for milk, and
(02:10):
they all have similar names, and they most of them
are pretty good band names, so it gets a little
bit confusing. But we're going to do the best we
can to tell you how the mob in Chicago got
involved in the milk business. And one of the main
reasons is that FDR came along and the writing was
(02:32):
on the wall that prohibition was going to be repealed,
and that was really bad for the Mob because they
were making a ton of money with bootlegging and with
the speakeasies. So they're like, we need to divert we
need to diversify. So they said, how about milk. It's
pretty unregulated and under the radar, and we are already
in the food business a little bit. We've run the
(02:53):
we run the artichoke racket, which.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Was true crazy. That's the fact of the short stuff
right there.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Well, that and the whisky on some cheese rackets. So
they already had the foot and the pro dairy and produce.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Business, right. So yeah, I guess milk is a logical
extension of those. I mean the cheese that makes sense too,
but it is surprising to go from booze to milk. Yeah,
but it almost didn't matter what the product was. Sure
the Mob could figure out a way to completely upend
the industry. They were early disruptors, I guess you'd call
(03:26):
them in twenty ten speak. Yeah, but the way that
they did that was through like violence and intimidation, and
that's the first, the first tactic they tried when they
showed up at a guy named Steve Sumner's door, And
Steve Summner's door was the front door of the office
of the Milk wagon Driver's Union Local seven point fifty three.
(03:47):
And the reason why is because Steve Sumner ran that
he was the union leader, right, and you had said
this whole thing's kind of convoluted, it is. And the
reason why is because from what I can tell, there
was an uneasy working relationship between the different unions and
the different associations that all came together to heart to produce, buy, bottle, sell,
(04:15):
and distribute milk. And each one had their own competing
interests and they were all trying to work together. There
was some price fixing involved, there were some alliances that
were all uneasy. But then when the mob came in,
they came in kicking on the door and shooting down,
shooting tommy guns into this whole alliance, and it just
created this total chaos that had just been waiting to happen,
(04:39):
that the mob coming and really triggered.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
And then some yeah, absolutely, because at the time the
milk prices were I guess you would say fixed, right,
is that the term. Yeah yeah, milk prices were set
or capped rather, and they had to use union representatives
to you know, to drive and deliver this milk, can
distribute this milk. The Mob of Chicago basically said, all right,
(05:05):
we're gonna get in on the ground floor. We're going
to buy an actual dairy, and they bought meadow More Dairies,
And that's how we're going to get into the milk industry.
And what we can do is then not have to
use union employees. We can bypass that fixed pricing and
we can undercut by a penny or two what everyone
(05:26):
else is selling it for and get all the milk
money ourselves.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Yeah, and don't forget this is during the depression, right,
So a couple of pennies off of a bottle of
milk that was selling for eleven cents, Oh yeah, that
meant a lot. Like you, yeah, you could make a
pretty big deal. So there was price fixing, which is illegal,
and the Mob came in and undermined it by introducing
good old American competition to it, which is really weird.
(05:51):
That's why this whole thing is so hard to kind
of wrap your head around, because it all is totally nonsensical.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yeah, yeah, you're right. I mean I feel better because
I couldn't figure out why. I couldn't really make the
most sense of this because it's not the most complicated story.
But yeah, they came to Steve Sumner eventually this guy
named Murray the Camel Humphries, who was one of Capone's fixers.
If you have a fixer, you're not a good person.
(06:20):
Let's just say that. Yeah, that means you're breaking things
if you need someone to fix things.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
That's a great, great slogan.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Oh yeah, I should get that on a T shirt. Huh.
So they went to Sumner and said, hey, if you
and your union can just lay low for a little while,
let us hire these non union workers. We can sell
our stuff cheaper, and then you can make a big
deal about that, and you can protest that. Then we
(06:46):
can raise these prices again. And in exchange for this,
we're not gonna we're gonna offer you protection, which everyone
knows for the mob means we're not going to destroy
your milk trucks and firebomb your livery wagons.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Right, And what's funny is like I can't remember the
spoof movie that this is in I want to say
top secret, but I might be wrong. Where somebody comes
in some like traditional like maybe gangster criminal comes in
and starts shooting up the place, and then all of
these like normal people like pull guns out of nowhere
and start shooting back unexpectedly. That's exactly what happened with this,
(07:24):
because the mob came in and said that they were
going to start breaking heads if everybody didn't fall in line,
and so all these people in the dairy industry, who
were allegedly legitimate went and bombed the mob's dairy the
moment they the moment they said that they were going
to do this, they went and bombed their dairy.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
All right, I say we should take a break, because
that's a pretty remarkable thing. I'm going to I'm going
to go with Johnny Dangerously. I'm not sure if that's
true or not.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Is that it okay?
Speaker 2 (07:53):
But it seems like a likely candidate, And we'll come
back right after this.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Johnny Dangerously top Secret. It's virtually the same movie.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
I mean, that's just a guess.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Boy.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
I saw Johnny Dangerously in the theater when I was
a kid. I thought it was, oh yeah, funniest thing
I've ever seen it hit? Some parts of it are
still pretty funny. I haven't seen in a long time,
but I think it was. Yeah, Joe Biscopo, Michael Keaton,
you kidding me?
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Yeah? The Dear, the dream Team is what they call that.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Griffin Dunn, yes, Master Chargia.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Did you know? Uh, he's Joan Didion's nephew.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Of course, he's got a new book out.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Called I'm Joan Didion's Nephew by Joan Didion's nephew.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
You dummy. Emily just got its supposed to be a
good read, so she's all into that.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Have you ever seen After Hours?
Speaker 2 (09:04):
Oh? Yeah, of course, good movie. It's course azy baby, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
It was, but it's also like a kind of a
screwball comedy.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yeah, yeah, the only one he did really. Yeah, all right,
that's been movie crush. Oh I missed that show. Not
enough to do it again, though. So we're back. And
like you said when we left, I believe right before
I said, Johnny, dangerously, you said, these regular schmos started
bombing the mobs dairy, And that's what happened, and it's
(09:36):
just crazy and all of a sudden, you know, this
milk war has kicked off.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Yes, so I said that there was like a bunch
of different competing groups. There were the people who made
the milk. Those are the farm producers. Those are the
farmers who are like milking the cows, putting into huge
like canisters, and then selling it to the milk dealers.
The milk dealers have formed an association and they're the
ones who were fixing the price. They were saying, hey, farmers,
(10:02):
this is how much you're gonna get from milk. Don't
ask for anything more because everyone who's going to buy
it from you is in cahoots against you. Right, So
the farmers said, well, this is all crazy. We're just
going to go on strike. You're not going to get
any milk unless you guys start giving us a better price. So,
in addition to this group these people were arguing, there's
(10:23):
also another group that were involved, and they were the
stores that sold milk. Okay, they had milk for one
set price, and they could typically sell it lower lower
than other companies who used delivery drivers milk men to
deliver their milk directly to people's homes. Because there's that
added cost, and then on top of the added costs,
(10:44):
the milk drivers were unionized. That's what Steve Sumner represented,
and so they had like a contract with those companies
saying like, you're going to pay our drivers like a
good wage. And so there was competition between the companies
that used union drivers and the companies that just sold
it directly from stores, and all of them hated each
(11:06):
other because they were all beating one another up to
get as much of a margin of profit out of
the others as they possibly could, because the American public
were the ones who are like, we're not going to
pay that much for milk. You guys are gonna have
to figure this out yourself.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Yeah. Do you think the mob ever went up to
people and went you're going to be eating your granula
with water? Or did they have cereal by then or
were they still calling.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
The Paul You remember at Kellogg's episode that was the
nineteenth century.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
That's what I'm saying. That was like the early nineteen ten,
So they were calling it granula, but they called it
cereal pretty soon after, right.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Oh, I see what you mean. Sure, sure, probably, Yeah.
I wonder what the first one was, because I think
they called their corn flakes corn flakes pretty early on,
so they at least take corn flakes.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
All right, let me do another take. Okay, you're going
to beat your corn flakes with cereal?
Speaker 1 (11:56):
God, you want to take a third take?
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Yeah, to take three?
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Uh, I'm going to add a line too. I'm gonna
improv the line. You're going to be eating cereal with
water like in the movie Fridays.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
That's all.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah, you had to drink it or you had to
eat it with water.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Oh boy? Uh, where were we.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
We're talking about corn flakes?
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Well, in the story, I know there was a band
name wanted to mention, the Pure Milk Association. Yeah, they
were one of the union's great band name Post Dealers.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
What about that one?
Speaker 2 (12:33):
That's not too bad?
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Milk Wagon Drivers Union. You know, we haven't taken a break.
You have? Oh we did? We did? Okay? Good?
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yeah? Good, I mean we're we're supposed to be done
by now. So here's what happened. In nineteen thirty nine.
There was an anti trust case that was going on,
basically with with this you know, monopoly that was happening,
and the court threw it out. As a district court
judge that threw it out, I believe it was reinstated
(13:02):
by the Supreme Court later, but they avoided trial. The
DOJ said, you know what, if everyone signs and agrees
to this, then we can get this milk ore over.
The farmers and the unions. You gotta say that you
won't stop independent producers from marketing milk. There can be
independent producers, distributors. You can't fix your prices anymore. And
(13:27):
drivers you're a union. There's a lot of moving parts here. Yeah,
you can't hamper the store sales of milk. Like, I know,
you like delivering to people's houses, but distribution is the
thing now, and you got to let that.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Happen, right, And so essentially what the Justice Department said
was you basically need to go the way that the
mob was trying to take this and go your separate
ways and compete with one another, like be capitalists rather
than price fixers.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
What's funny is there's a quote from Steve Sumner, who's
just befuddled by this antitrust case that was slapped against
him and some of the others. He's like, we're trying
to get the milk flowing again, Like we're just making
deals here, and they're like, you're price fixing that was
the problem in the first place, so stop doing that,
and I got the milk flowing again. I think in
(14:15):
nineteen forty the whole thing ended. That's right, pretty great stuff,
the Chicago Milk Oars featuring al Capone in name only.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Check said that's right twice everybody, and of course that
means short stuff is out.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Stuff you should know is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1 (14:42):
You listen to your favorite shows.
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