COOPERATIVES, 1920-32 309 



As in the case of grain and livestock, once the local dairy cooperatives 

 had shown their value, the next step was to organize regional marketing 

 associations. Progress was made in the marketing of fluid milk and manu- 

 factured products, including cheese and butter. 



The attempt to organize fluid-milk marketing associations was noth- 

 ing new. Such associations, weak and isolated though they were, existed 

 during the last decades of the nineteenth century. Still, one must look 

 to the World War years to find the first successful large-scale associations. 

 Among the first to organize were those in the Chicago, New York, and 

 Boston areas. During the nineteenth century the idea appeared among the 

 eastern producers and then spread into the Middle West, but the methods 

 employed later were popularized by the producers of the Chicago area. 

 Their chief weapon, the strike, was borrowed from organized labor. 



The thing that drove the producers together was the low price of milk. 

 It appears that from the latter part of 1912 to the end of 1915, milk prices 

 were almost invariably higher than those of other commodities; but the 

 year 1916 showed that a wide disparity had developed. Using the years 

 1910 to 1914 as the base, milk prices late in 1916 were more than thirty 

 points lower than were those of all other commodities. In the spring of 

 1917 milk prices dropped to even lower levels, with no relief in sight. 

 The first reaction of the milk producers was to turn to the existing co- 

 operatives for relief. 49 



The producers of the Chicago area were the first to act. In the spring 

 of 1916 there were about 13,000 producers supplying milk to Chicago, 

 about 2,600 of whom belonged to the Chicago Milk Producers' Associa- 

 tion. It is claimed that 52 per cent of the townships adjoining this area 

 were about 70 per cent organized, that over 65 per cent of the farms were 

 operated by tenants, and that some 56 per cent of the producers were 

 foreign-born. 



In 1916, producers for the Chicago market asked $1.55 per hundred 

 pounds for 3.5 per cent milk, an increase over the past year, to which the 

 distributors replied by offering $i.33 ! /2 per hundred. This was rejected 

 by the producers, who decided instead to withhold their milk from the 

 market. In about one week their prices were met and the strike was over. 



49. Hutzel Metzger, Cooperative Marketing of Fluid Mil^, U. S. Dept. Agri., 

 Technical Bulletin 179 (Washington, 1930), pp. 1-9. 



