CONTROL OF THE PUBLIC MILK SUPPLY 381 



Objections that are urged to establishing a system of grading are that: 

 (1) These grades which are practically the only ones in use, are based on 

 insufficient experimental data and are at best merely tentative. (2) 

 There should be but one grade of milk and that should be of sufficiently 

 good quality to pass all reasonable tests of healthfulness. (3) The 

 attempt to maintain more than one grade of milk will confuse the public 

 and impose additional costs on the dealers who will find it more difficult 

 to conduct a profitable business working under a system of grades than 

 under a single standard of quality. (4) The poor will be the purchasers 

 of the inferior milk. (5) The public is not educated up to paying for the 

 higher grades of milk. (6) The grading of milk offers opportunity for col- 

 lusion between the dealer and the Board of Health. 



In favor of the grading system it is urged : (1) All food products except 

 milk are sold in the market according to quality or grade and there is a 

 clear demand by the public for three grades of milk. (2) Milk that is 

 handled with superior care should not be forced to compete with ordinary 

 milk. (3) While there has been a notable improvement in the quality 

 of milk sold in the last 'decade the improvement proceeds too slowly for 

 the well-being of both the consumer and the industry and it can best be 

 accelerated by the establishment of grades. (4) The contention that the 

 poor will get all the inferior milk is without merit for they get it under a 

 non-graded system. The tendency of grading is to raise the average 

 market quality which is a benefit in which the poor share. (5) There is 

 no evidence in the experience of New York dealers that the grading sys- 

 tem reduced profits. (6) While it is true fraudulent practices may creep 

 into the grading system, so they may in any system of milk control and 

 there is no reason to suppose that the honest elements of society will be 

 any less likely to be successful in controlling them under the grading sys- 

 tem than under any other. 



The grading system has attained enough success in New York to make 

 it certain that in the future some system of grading will be widely used. 

 The experience of New York City and experiments that are designed to 

 get data for more rational grading than has yet been possible are being 

 watched closely. Till more information is available the grading of milk 

 should be attempted very cautiously. It is the opinion of the Committee 

 on Improvement of Milk Supplies of the International Milk Dealer's 

 Association that the discussion of the establishment of the purchase of 

 cream on a basis of quality for the manufacture of butter in the 

 States of Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, 

 Michigan, Illinois and Ohio, has paved the way for the advancement 

 of milk grading. 



The Milk Code Should be Suited to the Community. It is highly 

 important that the ordinance shall be suited to the community which is 

 to use it. The mistake is often made of copying the ordinance of a city 



