EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 533 



The busiiiess-plau of the Micliigan Milk Producers' Association is 

 strictly a growth from necessity. Of its many thousands of members, 

 8,000 at least, making up more than half of the entire membership, sell to 

 the Detroit ]\Iarket. These act as a unit in allowing the secretary of the 

 association to contract their milk to the Detroit dealers. Membership 

 in the association is got by daii'ymen in the Detroit area through a 

 written promise to the association officials to submit to its rules — 

 especially those in respect to milk sales and to pay an annual fee. 



Even this fee shows the good sense which has thus far been unfailing 

 in the Avorkings of this association. As every one knows the direct collec- 

 tion of a fee from a membership of so many thousands would be diffi- 

 cult and involve an enormous expense. The whole of the 8,000, however, 

 sell to the Detroit milk dealers and the plan was at last hit upon of 

 getting through these dealers the payment to the association treasury of 

 one cent per hundred-Aveight from the milk sold by each country patron. 

 A well filled strong box is thus given to the Milk Producers' Assoeiation 

 wliich has helped much to its usefulness and permanency. 



The general purpose of the association as summed up in its by-laws is 

 to "stabilize the conditions of milk iiroduction". It is safe to say that its 

 success has gone far beyond all hopes. 



THE DETROIT MILK COMMISSION. 



Helpful as collective bargaining had proven to be in its first use as a 

 plan for settling milk prices, such employment in its simplest form in this 

 field was short-lived. Bad]y as war conditions had raised costs prior 

 to the entry of the United States into the war, it was the food shortage 

 year of 1917 which was to prove epoch-making in this respect. The retail 

 price of milk to the Detroit consumer by midsummer of this year stood 

 at 12 cents per quart with a certainty that with rising costs it still must 

 go up. In this dilemma disputes between the producers' and the dealers' 

 associations faded away in view of the paralj^zing milk prices which con- 

 sumers would soon be asked to pay. Both associations found themselves 

 in fact in full accord in asking for a commission which would deal with 

 the difficulty. Indeed, it is only frankness to say that it was thought that 

 by means of a commission the coming high prices which the consumer 

 must pay, might seem more just to him and thus the gathering storm from 

 that quarter would be allayed. 



Fortunately the germ of such a commission was already at hand in the 

 form of the State Dairy Commission of five men which had been appointed 

 by Governor Sleeper earlier in the year to study the entire daily industry 

 of the state with a view to its proper upkeep during the war. To these 

 now were added hj assent of the two associations as speaking for 

 Detroit's interests, J. Walter Drake of the Board of Commerce, Mrs. R. 

 M. Grindley, Detroit Federation of Women's Clubs, and Frank X. Martel 

 of the Detroit Federation of Labor. The membership of the original 

 commission of five consisted of Ex-Governor Warner, State Board of 

 Agriculture member Waterbury, Dairy and Food Commissioner Wood- 

 worth, State Market Director McBride and Michigan Agricultural 

 College Professor Anderson. Every milk interest and the public at 

 large were given a vote in this commission and it will be seen by a study 

 of its membership and there was also good luck in the fact that the 

 country members were all trained and experienced dairymen. 



