240 THE MILK SITUATION IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 



DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND CHARITIES, 



Philadelphia, December 8, 1910. 

 J. Lours WILLIGE, Esq., 



Chairman Milk Committee, 



Washington Chamber of Commerce, Washington, D. C. 



DEAR SIR: The Philadelphia milk commission, which has been making a study 

 of the milk problem in Philadelphia, has not as yet made its report. When 

 such has been received I will be pleased to take up with you the questions men- 

 tioned in your letter of recent date. This commission is going into the matter 

 extensively and I feel that its findings will be of great importance to the city 

 of Philadelphia. 



Very truly, yours, J. S. NEFF, Director. 



DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND SANITATION, 



Seattle, Wash., November 21, 1910. 

 THE WASHINGTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, 



Washington, D. C. 



GENTLEMEN : Please find inclosed answers in full to questions submitted. 



You must realize that I am 3,000 miles away from Washington and laboring 

 under somewhat different conditions, but I have answered the questions as it 

 seems to me they should be answered in a district in which we have practically 

 an all-year's outdoor pasturage, and in a district in which we have no very hot 

 weather. 



You will notice that a tone of antagonism runs through my answers in refer- 

 ence to pasteurization. I hardly know what I would do were I commissioner 

 of health in a hot, eastern city. I am satisfied, however, that I would regard 

 it only as a makeshift and would oppose it with all my strength and manhood 

 as a permanent proposition, since I believe that it would be an insult to the 

 intelligence of civilized men to admit that, with all our skill and cunning, we 

 can not produce a good wholesome milk just as God Almighty made it, unmodi- 

 fied by man. If pasteurization shall be unnecessarily adopted in any com- 

 munity and for any greater length of time than is absolutely necessary, I be- 

 lieve that it will put back the time when we can expect to see safe milk pro- 

 duced many, many years. In other words, by pasteurization the milk can be 

 taken to a city and sold containing such contamination originally as would have 

 condemned such milk had it not been pasteurized. Therefore the stimulus 

 to produce milk without contamination has been removed and the tendency will 

 be, without the slightest doubt, to deteriorate the standard of excellence from 

 day to day and from year to year. 



Look at the difference in the quality of milk in most American cities to-day as 

 compared to what it was, say, five years ago. Think of the swill-fed dairies of 

 Cincinnati; then realize what has been accomplished without pasteurization 

 and think what may be accomplished during the next 10 or 20 years. In the 

 meantime, however, under carefully drawn lines, pasteurization will save many 

 lives. 



Yours, very truly, J. E. CRICHTON, 



Commissioner of Health. 



DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY, 



Syracuse, November 11, 1910. 

 Mr. THOMAS GRANT, 



Secretary Chamber of Commerce, Washington, D. C. 



DEAR SIR: I have answered the questions to the inclosed circular letter to the 

 best of my ability. The answers to many of the questions have been made off- 

 hand, and so may be of little value to you. We have been carrying on an 

 extensive milk campaign here in Syracuse for some four years, and we have 

 done a great deal along the line of betterments in our milk supply. We are 

 far from perfection in all of this work. The problems are very great, and many 

 of them difficult of solution. Our aim has been to lessen the infant mortality 

 in our city. We feel that something has been done in this line, but much still 

 remains to be done. If you can give us any helpful suggestions from your 

 studies and investigations, we should be very glad to get them. 

 Yours, very truly, 



D. M. TOTMAN, Health Officer. 



