150 THE MODERN MILK PROBLEM 



economic principle stated in Gresham's law of cur- 

 rency, "if poor milk as a commodity of commerce 

 commands the same price as good milk and is cheaper 

 to produce, we may expect the milk supply to tend to 

 approximate the poore t quality which health officials 

 will allow to be sold." Affirming that such premiums 

 for quality as have been established by some contrac- 

 tors are "entirely inadequate," he continued: 



Now the question is this, Can milk which is dirty and 

 loaded with bacteria be cleaned by running through a clari- 

 fier, have its bacteria killed by pasteurization, and still be a 

 good, clean, wholesome product, fit for human consump- 

 tion? If so, there is very little need to encourage cleanliness 

 in production, because when the producer of clean milk sees 

 his product emptied into the same vat with the product of 

 the filthy producer, as is now the case, and he receives no 

 reward for his pains taken, he soon grows tired of attempting 

 to produce a clean product, and the quality of the milk supply 

 sinks to a low level. I have been repeatedly asked by ... 

 contractors to devise some way to encourage the produc- 

 tion of clean milk. I have always inquired if clean milk was 

 worth any more than dirty milk so that they would care to 

 make an adequate distinction in price, but I have not yet 

 had a satisfactory answer. 



The remedy of this situation is obviously not the 

 throwing of discredit upon clarification and pasteuriza- 

 tion processes good in themselves but the estab- 

 lishment and enforcement by health authorities of 

 standards which will act back to the original product 

 and necessitate a monetary distinction between good 

 milk and better milk and rule out the worse. For if 

 certain official grades of milk are established (as was 



