MILK SUPPLY: DISCUSSION 221 



suggestions as to the municipal supply of milk. They had 

 heard of a milk depot here and there, but that did not in 

 any way meet the needs. These milk depots were very 

 limited in their scope and they were always voluntary or 

 municipal agencies on a charitable basis. What they re- 

 quired was a municipal milk supply exactly like a water 

 supply. It had been found quite impossible for the in- 

 dividual consumer to supply himself with sound, pure water. 

 It was equally impossible for the individual consumer to 

 obtain for himself a sufficient supply of pure milk. They 

 could never face this question of pure milk for the com- 

 munity until they made the municipality responsible for the 

 supply and sale of pure milk at a price that was within the 

 reach of the poor people in the community. She had hoped 

 very much that they would have heard in the discussion 

 not only how to purify milk, but how to supply that pure 

 milk at a reasonable figure. The discussion seemed to her 

 to lack vitality. They all knew the powers which local 

 authorities possessed under the Dairies, Cowsheds and Milk- 

 shops Order, and many of them were trying to get the 

 Mill Bill amended, but that did not meet the need. Both 

 in town and country the supply was inadequate because of 

 the cost. If that Conference would make some definite 

 proposal asking for an inquiry to be made into the possi- 

 bility of municipalizing the milk supply, she thought that 

 it would bear far more fruit than if they were to continue 

 to discuss how to purify the milk supply. They were all 

 at one for purifying milk, but they had not yet seriously 

 considered the question of supplying it at a reasonable rate 

 for the poor. At present they could not expect that the 

 poverty-stricken classes in England would be able to get 

 a sufficiency of milk to keep their children in good health. 

 They found in many parts of the country that whole milk 

 was being given to the pigs and calves, while babies had only 

 skim milk. It was the duty of the community to put within 

 the reach of the poor the necessities of life, as they did in 

 the case of such things as water and gas, and they ought in 

 the same way to see that a food like milk, which was vital for 

 the people, should be within the reach of the poorest. They 

 had no right to say, " You shall not have milk, because it 

 'is of such a bad quality that we won't allow you to drink 

 it," unless they provided the people with good quality milk 

 at a price they could pav. She wanted to see a discussion 

 as to the means of municipalizing the milk supply and she 

 was dreadfully disappointed that neither from the point of 

 view of the cities nor of the country towns had this 

 question of the supplv of milk been touched, although it 

 affected the lives of infants and children very largely. 



