A National Policy. loi 



disease. The traders could not be trusted to give the 

 consumers milk which was unadulterated or handled in 

 such a way as to limit the possibilities of epidemic disease. 



While the farmers complained that the price they got 

 for their milk entailed sweated conditions on their workers 

 and themselves, the consumers complained that they did 

 not receive the advantage of the cheap milk. Here and 

 there milk was undoubtedly sold at a price that would not 

 pay properly for its production, but the bulk of the 

 consumers were paying a price that should have given 

 them a pure and clean supply and secured to the producers 

 reasonable conditions of labour. The ridiculous system 

 of distribution meant that the middlemen made a living 

 (and many of them very good livings) while the consumer 

 was cheated and the farmers and workers sweated. 



Anyone who has to travel much on our railways cannot 

 fail to see the reason. For some time I have examined 

 the labels on milk churns at many stations and I have been 

 amazed to find how frequently milk is sent travelling over 

 a railway where it passes milk going in the opposite 

 direction between much the same points. It is not 

 uncommon to find milk being sent on a journey of 200 

 miles to a town, where milk within fifty miles of that town 

 is sent on another long journey in the direction of the 

 other source of supply. 



The Food Ministry found it necessary to prevent this 

 waste of transport during the war, but it is as necessary 

 to prevent it during peace. 



Even more wasteful is the distribution inside towns and 

 industrial areas. The multiplicity of shops, carts and 



