MILK SURVEY OF THE CITY OF ROCHESTER 227 



Your committee sought to afford every party interested an opportunity to state 

 and prove his case, and determined from the outset to learn and permanently record 

 for the benefit of the people of Rochester the truth in respect to every phase of 

 the milk question, and thus to arrive at and establish a basis for any action which 

 it might hereafter be deemed advisable to take. Your committee feels that this 

 has been fully accomplished. 



Dr. North was asked to prepare and submit such recommendations as he 

 wished to make after concluding the investigation. These recommendations appear 

 at the foot of the report. As to the suggestion that the City seek legislative author- 

 ity to grant a franchise to a public service corporation for the distribution of milk, 

 your committee is advised that the distribution of milk is not and may not properly 

 be considered a public utility to be the subject of a franchise, but your committee 

 concurs in the recommendation to secure all possible proper legislative authority 

 for the direction and control of the distribution of milk. 



Your committee finds and respectfully reports that it is not expedient for the 

 City to attempt the purchase and distribution by the City of Rochester of all milk 

 used within its limits at this time. 



It must be borne in mind that having once embarked upon such an enterprise 

 which would involve the expenditure of upwards of a million dollars, the City 

 could not abandon the project but would be obliged to continue whether it suc- 

 ceeded or not. In other words, it is not a matter in which experiment is possible. 

 Our investigation has disclosed that centralization of milk distribution will result 

 in important economies which would accrue to the financial benefit of the con- 

 sumers of milk by lowering the price to them. There is, however, no reason why 

 such centralization may not be carried put by private individual effort, and your 

 committee is of the opinion that the City of Rochester should attempt to secure 

 this before attempting municipal ownership. 



To produce the milk now consumed in the City of Rochester on municipally 

 owned farms would require the expenditure of about twenty million dollars for 

 land alone. Your committee has been unable to find that the City of 'Rochester 

 would be able to lower the cost of production by this method, and therefore reports 

 that to enter upon such a course would not be expedient. 



Your committee respectfully recommends the adoption and rigid Enforcement of 

 ordinances prohibiting the retail sale of milk or cream within the city limits other- 

 wise than in carefully closed containers, filled before being loaded for delivery, 

 and requiring that all milk and cream sold at wholesale be contained in sealed cans 

 or other containers. 



Your committee further respectfully recommends the adoption and rigid en- 

 forcement of an ordinance requiring the proper pasteurization under municipal 

 inspection and control, of all milk and cream sold in the City of Rochester, except 

 certified and grade A milk, and that such ordinance take effect at the end of such 

 a period as will afford reasonable opportunity for dealers to arrange their equip- 

 ment accordingly. 



The weighing and measuring of children in the public schools is regularly 

 carried out during the year under the direction of the Health Officer, and is now 

 being done. Your committee procured other data in respect to race, sex, milk-diet, 

 etc., through the Department of Education, but a complete tabulation cannot be 

 had until the weighing and measuring has been completed, and we have been able 

 to include in this report only one table. 



We respectfully recommend that when the weighing and measuring for the 

 present school year shall have been finished, the tabulation be completed and made 

 available for reference. 



Your committee further respectfully recommends that its report be printed and 

 bound so as to be available to all properly interested persons and organizations, 

 with such arrangements and restrictions in respect to distribution either gratis or 

 by sale as your honorable body shall deem wise. 



Respectfully submitted, 



GEORGE B. HART, 

 B. B. RAPPLEYE, 

 JOHN A. RUSSELL, 

 LINDEN STEELSMITH, 

 MARTIN B. O'NEIL, 

 Public Safety Committee of the Common Council. 



