COLLECTIVE BARGAINING 141 



which had "unlawfully assumed to control the milk mar- 

 ket by arbitrarily fixing prices and other means to the 

 detriment of the producers and consumers." 1 The activi- 

 ties of the union were confined principally to the organi- 

 zation of locals for some years after this. 



The union was still in existence in 1897 2 when excite- 

 ment over a gigantic milk trust said to be forming in New 

 York 3 gave fresh impetus to activity among the milk pro- 

 ducers and resulted in 1898 in the formation of the Five 

 States Milk Producers' Association 4 which before the end 

 of that year attained a membership of 3,715 producers. 5 

 The building of local creameries was urged as a means 

 of combating the city dealers. 6 In 1899 the association 

 numbered eight thousand members, representing owner- 

 ship of two hundred thousand cows, 7 and controlling 

 twenty thousand of the twenty-five thousand cans of milk 

 daily shipped to New York City. 8 



A big contract was made with The Consolidated Milk 

 Company, which was to purchase the milk from the as- 

 sociation at a higher price than the dealers' organization 

 would pay, 9 but this company failed to live up to its con- 

 tract, 10 and the producers were compelled to make terms 

 with the milk dealers. That such terms were not satis- 

 factory to the former is evidenced by the unrest among 



1 Cultivator and Country Gentleman., Oct. 15, 1891. 



2 Ohio Farmer, Dec. 23, 1897. 



3 Hoard's Dairyman, Sept. 24, 1897; Mar. 4, 1898. 



4 Cultivator and Country Gentleman, Mar. 24, 1898; New York Produce Review, 

 July 3, 1901. 



6 Ibid., Oct. 27, 1898. 



6 Ibid. 



7 New York Pro. Rev. y American Creamery, Mar. 29, 1899. 



8 Hoard's Dairyman, June 6, 1919. 

 Ibid. 



10 Ibid., Apr. 14, 1899. 



