CHAPTER II 



THE CASE TO-DAY 



THE CRY FOE "PURE MILK" 



Publicity on such facts as have been outlined in the 

 last chapter has resulted in a general demand for "pure 

 milk," a demand associated in the public mind with 

 the general movement for "pure food." A language 

 of milk "horrifies" has been developed, based at one 

 end on more or less exaggerated fact and on the other 

 on the fear emotion of the public. Sanitary reformers, 

 enterprising health officials, lecturers, and writers 

 have vied with each other in vivid picturing of the 

 menaces of impure milk. Bacteria in milk have been 

 branded as the "invisible murderers" that produce the 

 "slaughter of the innocents." Newspapers eager for 

 popular sensation have been quick to see the publicity 

 value of all this and have given it columns of space. 

 Some have even conducted inspection campaigns of 

 their own, professing their inability completely to 

 tell the "unbelievable truth of the unsanitary condi- 

 tions which have been existing." As the result of their 

 efforts they have announced the "cleaning of the 

 Augean stables in a day," and have then turned the 

 matter over to be dealt with by the "angered au- 

 thorities." 



The following utterances quoted in a recent news- 

 paper account of a milk inspectors' meeting, headed 



31 



