371 ] THE BUTTER MARKET I47 



invited to prepare rules to govern their branch of the busi- 

 ness on the Exchange. 1 Several meetings were held to dis- 

 cuss this matter, but owing to friction with members of 

 other trades on the floor, 2 the butter and cheese dealers de- 

 cided to sever their connection with the N. Y. Produce Ex- 

 change, and organize a market of their own under the name 

 of the Butter and Cheese Exchange of New York, where 

 the dairy trade would receive the attention that its growing 

 importance deserved. The name of this exchange was 

 changed several times, and in 1882 assumed its present 

 name, The New York Mercantile Exchange. 



The objects of the Exchange, as stated in its charter, are 

 "to foster trade; to protect it against unjust or unlawful 

 exactions ; to reform abuses ; to diffuse accurate and reliable 

 information; to settle differences between members, and to 

 promote among them goodfellowship and a more enlarged 

 and friendly intercourse ". 



Since the establishment of the New York Mercantile Ex- 

 change similar middlemen's markets for the sale of butter 

 and cheese have been organized in other cities, although not 

 usually as a separate institution. In Boston and Cincinnati, 

 for instance, the butter and cheese trades are a department 

 in the Chamber of Commerce. On the Pacific Coast these 

 markets came of course at a much later date than in the 

 eastern cities. By 1903, some of the Pacific Coast cities 

 had their organized butter markets; but San Francisco at 

 that time was still experiencing the troubles arising out of 

 the plan of leaving the task of quoting accurate prices to 

 the newspapers whose reporters " are likely to be cajoled 

 and misled according to the wishes of the particular dealer 

 as it affects his condition ". 3 This is the plan usually fol- 



1 Report, op. cit., p. 30. *N. Y. Mercantile Exchange Handbook, p. 18 

 3 From the Elgin Dairy Report, June 29, 1903 (copied from the Dairy 

 and Produce Review of San Francisco). 



