558 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE OS. Doc. 



cent per quart less than the suppliers of the other cities of the East, 

 and the IMiiladelphia milk dealer is being ground to powder beneath 

 the upper and the nether mill stone set by these trade conditions. 



No sensible person will claim that this is a reasonable state of 

 aflairs, and no honest consumer believing in fair play between man 

 and man. will laUe satisfaction in the one cent per day that each fam- 

 ily is saving at such unbearable cost to those who supply them this 

 common necessity of life. 



But the general public is unreasonable. The average man is sel- 

 fish and unfair, lie will boast of the price paid for an oil painting, 

 an automobile or a phonograph, and at the same time boast of the 

 low price at which he has secured his transportation, coal, bread 

 or milk — the common necessities of life. 



The Philadelphia newspapers are largely time serving, bidding 

 for popularity, and the temptation to take sides with the unreasonable 

 and selfish portion of the community has proved to them irresistable. 

 For twenty years past, different newspapers of Philadelphia have 

 from time to time made attacks upon the purity and excellence of 

 the City's milk supply, and to this in measure we believe is due the 

 fact that the use of milk is so small, — only a half pint per capita. 



No one claims that the general supply is perfect, neither that is 

 is as good as it should be, but had a spirit of fairness or an honest 

 wish to improve conditions prompted these attacks, there would have 

 been encouragement for etforts towards that end. But the slogan has 

 ever been, "Down with the price!" ''Down with the milk dealer!" 

 And this although great pains have been taken to convince them 

 that milk is no exception to the general rule, and that a fair price 

 must be paid for a good product. When in 1907, a prominent Phila- 

 delphia Daily unscrupulouslj' and virulentl}- attacked the milk trade 

 to prevent a just and equitable rise in price, unfortunately the Milk 

 Shippers' Union was oilicered by narrow-minded, vindictive men 

 who entered into a conspiracy with this prominent daily, and for 

 two 3'ears opposed every effort to raise the price of milk at retail. 

 Under such an attack it was but natural that a large portion of the 

 consuming public was aroused and quickened, and a state of mind 

 engendered that would wreak vengeance upon any dealer who ven- 

 tured to ask an increased price for milk. 



Meanwhile, Philadelphia's Department of Public Health is feeling 

 the pressure of the nation-wide movement for a more hygienic milk 

 supply, but they cannot apply the requirements in force in cities 

 where a reasonable price is paid, for fear of precipitating a milk 

 famine. Dairymen will not bestow the expense and care requisite 

 for the production of hygienic milk when they can just as readily 

 drive to the door of the butter factory and receive as much for the 

 product, and no questions be asked. 



What is the remedy for this unreasonable and discouraging con- 

 dition? It takes months to build a good barn and to fill it with 

 the products of the farm, but the fool or the vicious can burn it in 

 an hour. The damage to the milk trade is great and it will be hard 

 to repair. The regeneration of those responsible for its undoing 

 seems the first step for relief. The Milk Shippers' Union seems to 

 have recovered in measure its sanity, and there is a little breaking, 

 as of dawn, in the mental horizon with the benighted newspapers. 



