532 STATE BOARD OF AGRICUiLTURE. 



were the agreements amuug producers in certain districts to stand firm 

 for a set price. But tlie legality of such "restraint of trade" price- 

 fixing attempts was more than doubtful and hopes of help from this 

 source were soon given up. Milk producer's associations in which milk 

 selling was to be done as a unit through a common salesman, in a word 

 "collective bargaining," offered another plan from which help might come. 

 Since associations of this sort were by far the most successful of the 

 various schemes used, a fuller discussion will now be made of their be- 

 ginnings and successes. 



THE MICHIGAN MILK TRODUCEr'S ASSOCIATION. 



The speed with which associations of this sort were begun during the 

 last months of 1910, and tlieir certain promise of success makes it worth 

 while to show again the solid basis upon which they stand. Dairymen 

 selling milk to Detroit, it must first be remembered, were already in 

 part organized or at least drawn together through the privilege given 

 them by the Detroit Board of Health of being the only dairymen who 

 could ship to the metropolis. 



Secondly, milk being highly perishable, could not be shipped over 

 long distances, and therefore, roughly speaking, must be sold to and 

 bought only by Detroit. Thirdly, these producers while numerous, lived 

 fairly near each other in a compact area, sold milk to the same city 

 dealers and, therefore, were known to each other through a common 

 interest so that united action was easily possible. Fourthly, the custom 

 of contract sales between daii^men and city dealers made price con- 

 ferences a necessity and this helped toward organization. 



The condensaries were the first to feel the brunt from these new 

 associations of dairymen. In the winter of 1915-lG, meetings were held 

 among the condensary patrons in all parts of the state and more or less 

 stable local unions were formed. Besides the prime matter of milk 

 prices stood for by these organizations, some minor subjects such as 

 those of milk quality and the recognition of the associations by the 

 condensaries, were debated. 



In May, 1910, at the call of several local dairymen's associations a 

 general meeting of dairymen from the whole state, met at the Agri- 

 cultural College and the first formal step was taken toward the getting 

 together of all Michigan milk producers. In October of this year a still 

 larger meeting of dairymen met at the same place where a permanent 

 state association known as the Michigan Milk Producers' Association was 

 formed, a salaried secretary was chosen and a price at which milk could 

 be profitably sold during the coming year was suggested. 



Fortunately the city dealers had already formed an organization under 

 the name of tlie "Detroit Milk Bottle Exchange". This association, as its 

 name implies, had for its purpose the very practical end of recovering 

 strayed milk bottles. This end could not be reached, however, without 

 many meetings together of the various dealers and these gatherings be- 

 came the means of united action for these middlemen. Action of this 

 sort was soon demanded, indeed, in order to reduce Ibe clamor of the 

 producers' association for a much higher milk price than hitherto had 

 been the rule. In tlie price dispute which followed each association 

 spoke through its agent and in the resulting parley the well known 

 principle of collective bargaining had its first triumph as a means of 

 settling milk prices in Micliigan. 



