Catch-22 Chapter 22: Milo the Mayor

The mission to Avignon and Snowden's resulting death traumatized Yossarian. Dobbs erratically wrestled the flight controls away from the fifteen-year-old pilot, Huple, and the plane plunged into a terrifying dive. Responding to Snowden's whimpers, Yossarian crawled back to help the injured and freezing radio-gunner. Dobbs is a terrible pilot and a scheming assassin. On the day Colonel Cathcart raised the number of required missions to sixty, Dobbs plotted to kill Cathcart and unsuccessfully sought Yossarian's blessing.

Yossarian and the buck-toothed freak, Orr, accompany Milo on a supply trip to Cairo. Milo's syndicate is a huge and complex international success. From eggs to artichokes, Milo buys his produce, sells it to other countries, and repurchases it to build up the price and profit the syndicate. When Yossarian questions how Milo can buy eggs in Malta for seven cents apiece and then sell them for five cents, Milo replies, "But I make a profit of three and a quarter cents an egg by selling them for four and a quarter cents an egg to the people in Malta I buy them from for seven cents an egg. Of course, I don't make the profit. The syndicate makes the profit. And everybody has a share." Chapter22, pg. 241 Through a mathematical entanglement of trading and re-trading, everything benefits the syndicate, and, as Milo explains in his favorite motto, everyone in Yossarian's outfit has a share. Yossarian is perplexed by the majestic welcome Milo receives when their supply plane arrives in Palermo. He soon learns that Milo had been elected mayor for introducing the lucrative scotch trade there. Milo's fruitful trading practices have garnered him similar public offices in nearly every city on his trade route. After purchasing an entire crop of Egyptian cotton in Cairo, Milo conducts a few more transactions and heads back to Pianosa. The syndicate is a booming success and everybody has a share.