244 THE MARKETING OF WHOLE MILK 



spoken of as "a passing phase of public opinion/' which 

 opinion is "notoriously fickle," its proponents in some 

 instances have made fairly good cases. 



Can the distribution of milk be considered a public 

 function? Various writers have sought to show that it is 

 as much so as water supply, gas, or electricity. Spargo, 

 for example, seeks to show that impure milk is of more 

 danger to children than impure water, the supplying of 

 which is quite generally recognized to be a proper public 

 function. 1 With regard to milk for infant consumption, he 

 goes so far as to say that the municipality should produce 

 and distribute at least this portion of the supply. 2 An- 

 other writer, after citing numerous court decisions to show 

 that the supply of water has been considered by the courts 

 to be a proper municipal function, compares water and 

 milk as follows: 3 



4. Proposed in Wisconsin legislature, spring of 1919, for Wisconsin cities; 

 Creamery y Milk Plant Monthly, Apr., 1919, p. 39. 



5. Proposed by Mayor of Jamestown, N. Y., who presented elaborate figures 

 in support of his claims of advantages to the city. See American City, Vol. X, 

 p. 50, Jan., 1914. 



6. Taken up by Chamber of Commerce at Corning, N. Y.; Creamery & 

 Milk Plant Monthly, July, 1918, p. 22. 



7. Proposed in bill introduced in New York legislature providing for munic- 

 ipal milk supply in New York City; Ibid., Mar., 1918. 



8. Proposed for Tacoma, Washington; Milk News (Chicago), Nov., 1918, 

 p. 14. 



9. Proposed for New York City; Jennings, Irwin J., A Study of New York 

 City Milk Problem, National Civic Federation, 1919. 



10. Proposed for Winnipeg, Canada; Hughes, R. D., Report on Municipal 

 Milk Supply for the City of Winnipeg, 1919. 



11. Proposed as a last resort for Rochester, New York; North, Chas. E., 

 Report of Rochester Milk Survey, 1919. 



1 Spargo, John, The Milk Question, p. 176. 



2 Ibid., p. 220. 



8 Jennings, Irwin G., A Study of the New York Milk Problem, p. 51. 



