14 THE MILK SITUATION IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 



the embodiment of statistical tabulations and detailed comparative 

 statements. No attempt has been made, furthermore, to furnish 

 illustrations, this desideratum being in its judgment adequately sat- 

 isfied by consulting the splendid series of illustrations accompanying 

 in most instances the publications referred to in Appendix F of this 

 report. 



II. COMPLAINTS FILED AGAINST HEALTH DEPARTMENT, DISTRICT OF 



COLUMBIA. 



ITEMS OF COMPLAINT. 



It has been charged by the representatives of the milk producers 

 and dealers before the committee that the administration of the 

 health department of the District of Columbia under the supervision 

 of Dr. William C. Woodward, health officer, has been inefficient and 

 unsatisfactory; that the regulations have been enforced without 

 proper consistency and without the exercise of uniform courtesy and 

 consideration on the part of inspectors of the department; that the 

 inspectors of the department have not only been abusive in their 

 conduct toward the dealers but have persecuted them and haled 

 them into court without just reason ; that a number of local grocers 

 and other dealers have been permitted to dispense milk without 

 license with the full knowledge and assent of the health officer; 

 that the farmers of Pennsylvania, New York, and even of Maryland 

 and Virginia, have been permitted, without license, to ship into the 

 District of Columbia milk from farms which have not been subjected 

 to inspection or other surveillance by the local health department: 

 that the requirements of law with regard to the standards of milk, 

 cream, and other dairy products are unnecessarily 'stringent and im- 

 possible of observance generally by the producer and purveyor of 

 milk; that certain regulations promulgated by the health depart- 

 ment, with the approval of the District Commissioners, are without 

 authorization of law ; that the contemplated insistence on the tuber- 

 culin test, -the maintenance of temperatures not exceeding 50 F. 

 from time of milking to delivery to the consumer, a prescribed bac- 

 terial content, and the compulsory pasteurization of milk derived 

 from cows which have not been subjected, without reaction, to the 

 tuberculin test, is entirely without legal justification and would re- 

 sult in a permanent milk famine in the District; thai the require- 

 ments of the health department as to the amount of space, light, and 

 ventilation in barns where cows are stabled should be amended so as 

 to be less exacting where are a small number of cows are maintained 

 on the dairy farm ; that the specification of concrete and granolithic 

 floors for cow stalls is unreasonable and causes rheumatism among 

 animals stabled in such manner; that many items in the score cards 

 for rating dairy farms and dairies are unjust to the small producer or 

 dealer and unnecessary (as, for example, the ratings allowed for the 

 items of convenience and for washing, bottling, and capping ma- 

 chines) ; that the contemplated additional regulations, if put into 

 execution, will greatly increase the wholesale and retail prices of 

 milk, both in winter and in summer, causing a manifest hardship to 

 the poor classes, who can not afford to pay the increased prices de- 

 manded, and consequently compelling the use of powdered milk and 



