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Mrs. Smith: We would like to have some discussion on this question 

 by the milkmen present and the consumers. Dr. Williams would be glad 

 to answer any questions asked of him. 



Mr. Pile: Instead of 173 dealers, if there were only one dealer, what 

 would they pay for the milk in Rochester? 



Dr. Williams: One of the large distributing companies that have 

 followed this question very closely and assisted me in following this investi- 

 gation put at my disposal their equipment. They told me that if they could 

 secure any part of the city which would enable them to operate satis- 

 factorily, they would be willing to sell their very best milk for seven cents 

 a quart. They would make a one cent reduction in the cost of distributing 

 the milk and give the consumer something he is not getting now. That is 

 the answer this company made to me and that is the proposal they made to 

 me, providing I could find a market for their milk. 



Mr. Pile : Would they not take the cost off the producer? 



Dr. Williams: No, I am not in favor of that. I think the producer 

 ought to get more for his milk. 



Mr. Pile: Would that not be the rule? 



Dr. Williams: If that phase were not safeguarded in some way. I 

 find this, that in the competition between the producers and the distributors, 

 I do not believe this problem will be solved until some harmony is developed. 

 The Western New York Shippers' Association meets several times a year 

 for the main purpose of conspiring how to get the better of the distributors; 

 and the distributors meet once a month for the same purpose. It would 

 not be necessary to overthrow any existing government to introduce 

 harmony. Nearly every city in the United States is engaged today in the , 

 milk business. We have almost as many milk stations in Rochester run 

 by the city for the sale of milk for the poor as we have school houses. So 

 it would not be a question of abstract philosophy. 



Mr. Felix Albright: A number of years ago there was an organiza- 

 tion of farmers to raise the price of milk. What did dealers do in Phila- 

 delphia? They went 400 miles into the State of New York to get milk 

 down here to destroy the organization. It cost them more money than it 

 does now. They paid six cents a quart for New York milk and won't give 

 us but 4|. They tried to kill us all. They have gone to work and got an 

 ordinance passed that the milk must come down here in a refrigerator car. 

 One of our committee bought a quart of milk of a dealer in Philadelphia 

 and he had the doctor look at that milk and it looked very pure. No doubt 

 he had extracted some of the cream, and it generated enough gas in fifteen 

 minutes to blow the cork up to the ceiling. I was introduced to one of 

 the best chemists in Philadelphia. Afterwards the government secured 

 his services. I was introduced to him and he said, ''I will show you what 

 the people are buying for evaporated cream, which is nothing but four per 



