THE MILK SITUATION IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 245 



PBOBABLE EESULTS IF THE TUBERCULIN TEST IS MADE COMPULSORY. 



Assuming that the figures given out by the dairy division of the Agricultural 

 Department are correct, and I haven't any reason to doubt them, the per cent 

 of reacting cattle in the District was about 18 per cent. Basing our estimate 

 on these figures we must look for something like 16 or 18 per cent of reacting 

 cattle in the States of Maryland and Virginia, and it is only reasonable to 

 assume that something like 10 per cent of the farmers will be forced out of 

 the business or will abandon it sooner than submit to the test. Conceding this 

 to be true we must look for something like 25 or 30 per cent decrease in the herds 

 in the States of Maryland and Virginia. If this supposition is borne out we 

 must naturally expect something like 25 per cent shrinkage in the supply of milk. 

 With the present shortage of milk added to what we may look for if com- 

 pulsory tuberculin testing is insisted on, it will surely drive off all competition, 

 and when competition is destroyed it must be apparent to anyone that an 

 unreasonably high price will obtain. Nor is this the only bad result. Should 

 the price of milk be forced up to something like 10 or 12 cents a quart it will 

 surely put it beyond the reach of from 40,000 to 60,000 people in the Dis- 

 trict, and a large portion of this class must necessarily be young children, 

 who will never have an opportunity to indulge in a glass of milk. If the 

 commissioners and the Agricultural Department deem this action wise and 

 philanthropic they should proceed on lines that will insure milk from tuberculin 

 tested cattle. But before doing this it might be well to consider, first, whether 

 they are justified in taking this milk from the mouths of these people without 

 offering them any substitute that is as cheap and as good as the milk they now 

 have; second, whether they are getting any better milk than they would at 8 

 or 9 cents a quart, since no one can dare come forward and say that they have 

 proof positive that tuberculosis can be transmitted from the bovine to the 

 human family and since no one can bring proof positive that even one case can 

 be shown to have been introduced into the human family by milk. Nor is this 

 all. The preponderance of evidence to-day with those who have had experience 

 with the tuberculin test deqlare it is not an infallible diagnostic, and will not 

 cause a reaction after cattle have been tested with it three or four times, and 

 opens the way for more duplicity and rascality than any other test I know of. 



COMPULSORY PASTEURIZATION. 



There is very little that can be said in favor of pasteurized milk, and from 

 my viewpoint there is only one condition under which milk should ever be 

 allowed to be pasteurized, and that is in the home under the instructions and 

 advice of a practicing physician. To permit the pasteurization of milk under 

 any other conditions is dangerous in the extreme and should not have the 

 sanction of any conscientious gentlemen. The use of pasteurized milk in 

 foundling asylums, children's hospitals, and similar institutions has long since 

 been abandoned and is now regarded by most all physicians of note as an 

 unsafe diet and should not be tolerated. To temporize with either of the 

 above expedients will only defer for 5 or 10 years the accomplishing of 

 what we might call an ideal dairy supply for the District of Columbia, and 

 might in the end defeat the very object for which the authorities are work- 

 ing. To destroy competition is detrimental to the consumer, and anything that 

 tends to decrease the supply must necessarily aid in the destruction of Com- 

 petition. It should be the object of the authorities to make the laws covering 

 the milk traffic sufficiently broad to protect the dairy producers in their property 

 rights and at the same time stringent enough to safeguard the public and 

 induce capital to invest in the dairy business, instead of making short-sighted, 

 vexatious, and drastic regulations that will drive the business in the hands of 

 unscrupulous men, as it is a well-known fact that it is next to impossible to 

 properly police the milk business. 



Respectfully submitted. 



C. THOMPSON. 



