108 THE MILK SITUATION IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 







ice could be rendered with equal efficiency and doubtless as eco- 

 nomically, if not more so, if left to private enterprise, and in view 

 of the further consideration that, in its judgment, the State should 

 not be charged with supplying the material wants of the citizen where 

 this can be done with equal efficiency and economy through individual 

 agency, there is no valid reason why the responsibility should be 

 saddled upon the community. In the judgment of the committee 

 the establishment of the proposed plant or plants under municipal 

 ownership is, therefore, neither necessary nor desirable. The ma- 

 jority of those consulted by the committee on the question incline to 

 the opinion that a municipal pasteurization planfr or plants is neither 

 practicable nor expedient. 



In this connection the justice and propriety of permitting the con- 

 densing and pasteurizing plant which has already been established, 

 with a considerable pecuniary outlay, at Frederick, Md., largely 

 through the energy and public spirit of residents of Washington, 

 and with a view to furnishing to the city a clean, wholesome milk 

 supply (and possiblv other plants already operating in connection 

 with the local milk supply), to continue their operations in prove- 

 nancing the Washington market, is urged by the committee. 



SUGGESTION OF A MUNICIPAL DAIRY. 



It has been suggested that a centralized dairy farm and distribu- 

 ting agency, conducted under municipal auspices, would constitute an 

 advance in the methods of furnishing the District milk supply as at 

 present handled. The committee is not prepared to look with favor 

 upon such a proposal, for the present at least. 



GENERAL MILK -DELIVERY SERVICE RECOMMENDED. 



The committee ventures to suggest, however, as a means of lessen- 

 ing the cost of supplying milk to residents of Washington, and 

 thereby offsetting to some extent the slightly increased cost of pro- 

 duction, due to the proposed general insistence on the tuberculin test 

 and pasteurization, that a general milk-delivery service be organized 

 by the local dealers, and that a concerted effort be made in this man- 

 ner to obviate largely the enormous duplication and waste of re- 

 sources and labor resulting from the present individualistic system of 

 delivery. As many as 40 milk wagons, with horses and drivers, may 

 be conservatively estimated to be engaged in the actual delivery of 

 milk to residents on opposite sides of a single city street from corner 

 to corner. This enormous waste of energy could, in the judgment of 

 the committee, be husbanded to decided material advantage. Such 

 an organized delivery would be somewhat in the nature of the de- 

 livery system patronized in common by many of our local stores, 

 though perhaps best owned and managed by the milk dealers them- 

 selves. 



ALLEGED MONOPOLY OF MANUFACTURE OF PASTEURIZING MACHINERY. 



With regard to the contention of the milk dealers that pasteuriz- 

 ing machines are possibly controlled by a monopoly, it has not trans- 

 pired during the investigations of the committee that evidence of any 



