THE ECONOMIC FACTORS 147 



this system, the adjustment of retail prices in fractions 

 of a cent for regular customers seems worthy of more 

 attention than it has received thus far. One of the 

 large companies of New York has recently been con- 

 sidering the plan of a weekly retail price which will 

 allow for fluctuations in cost. 



2. Non-recognition of Quality Differences. To the 

 public "milk is milk/' and naturally, for the consumer 

 ordinarily has no knowledge of its source or actual 

 sanitary quality. Its whiteness and cream line are 

 all that are visible to the housewife. Hence, while 

 eggs, for example, are sold under four or five different 

 grades, there is, so far as official designation goes, 

 (certified milk aside), generally only one kind of milk 

 on the market. Vital distinctions are thus ignored 

 which it should be the object of regulation to make 

 clear. 



ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF SANITARY 

 REGULATION* 



Those who view the milk problem from the sanitary 

 side are so apt to slight the economic bearings of sani- 

 tary regulation that some consideration of them here 

 will not be out of place. 



In the absence of any effective regulation market 

 milk is bought and sold irrespective of sanitary quality. 

 In this case "milk is milk" and there is one retail price 

 for all except in so far as certain milkmen may have 

 built up a public reputation of their own. 



Where certain minimum sanitary regulations are put 

 into effect, the situation, assuming that the cost of 



* Cf . figures on cost of sanitary items, Appendix D. 



