MILK PRICES 221 



were slightly out of line with other markets at once got 

 too much or too little milk. Producers' organizations have 

 been very active during the past few years; yet a study of 

 the charts showing milk prices from 1913 to 1919, inclu- 

 sive, shows a rather remarkable similarity in the curves 

 for the various cities. 



Enthusiastic officers of producers' associations and 

 others have often made extravagant claims as to gains 

 resulting from collective bargaining. One writer, for 

 example, has made a comparison of milk prices in the 

 Chicago district for the year ending September, 1917, 

 and for the year ending September, 1918, and claims for 

 his association the credit for the entire gain over the pre- 

 ceding year. 1 Table XXXVIII compares the average 

 Chicago prices for the two years with a number of other 

 prices covering the same period. The Chicago milk price 

 was 35.6 per cent higher in the second year, while the in- 

 crease in the ten cities average was 40.3 per cent. During 

 the second period New York butter prices were 16 per 

 cent higher; the United States Department of Agriculture 

 Index Number of Crop Prices was 18.4 per cent higher; 

 the United States Department of Agriculture Index of 

 Prices of Meat Animals was 28.7 per cent higher, and the 

 "all commodities" index compiled by the War Industries 

 Board was 15.4 per cent higher. If any gain to is be 

 accredited to this particular association, it should be the 

 difference between its gains and those of other commo- 

 dities, such as New York butter prices, crop prices, or "all 

 commodities" prices, and this credit would have to be 

 shared with other associations, since it was doubtless the 

 concerted movement of milk producers' organizations over 



1 Milk News, Sept., 1918, p. 8. 



