NATIONAL DAIRY COUNCIL CHICAGO 



37 



Milk is the basis of it aU. We need 

 more milk, and better milk. This is 

 a personal call addressed to you, Mr. 

 Dairy Farmer. The National Dairy 

 Council has fully investigated the 

 status of each part of the industry. It 

 knows the difficulties under which the 

 Milk Producer has performed his 

 great duty to the public, and how small 

 have been the returns for the great and 

 honest labor involved. The knottiest 

 question confronting us was that of 

 the profit of the Milk Producer; to find 

 encouragement for him to increase his 

 production and make it profitable for 

 him. 



Milk Producer and Milk Dealer have 

 been at sword's ends. Any attempt on 

 the part of the Milk Producer to have 

 his prices adjusted in keeping with the 

 advancing cost of operation collided 

 with the difficulty by which the Milk 

 Dealer was constantly confronted. His 

 only choice lay between reducing his 

 own profit and raising his prices to the 

 consumer. The Milk Dealer's costs of 

 operation have constantly risen. The 

 profits have been getting constantly 

 smaller. Any advance in the price of 

 milk meant an additional loss to him 

 because of his inability to exact a greater 

 price from the consumer. Nothing is 

 fought so bitterly by the people, backed 

 up by the press, as an attempt to raise 

 the price of milk, no matter how 

 justified. 



The unwillingness of the consumer to 

 pay an advanced price for milk is 

 founded in lack of information; first, 

 as to the cost of producing milk; 

 second, as to its food value and general 

 desirability as a food product; third, 

 as to its real cheapness when compared 



with other less nourishing, less whole- 

 some foods. 



The consumer is constantly paying 

 more for his meats, his vegetables, 

 his clothing, his shoes, everything; 

 yet when it is proposed to adjust the 

 price of milk, a food product which 

 forms one of his smallest expenditures, 

 a storm is raised. 



The Milk Dealer confronted with the 

 situation, and unable to solve the diffi- 

 culty single-handed, can do little else 

 than fight for a maintenance of existing 

 costs. 



The only solution is to bring Milk Pro- 

 ducer and Milk Dealer together to show 

 them their common interest in dis- 

 cussing price adjustments rather than 

 quarrel over them. The Milk Dealer 

 is interested in procuring a decent 

 profit not only for himself, but for the 

 producer, but hitherto they have 

 been utterly unable to work together 

 on common ground. 



The only way in which the public can 

 learn to appreciate the injustice to 

 Milk Dealer and Milk Producer alike in 

 their attitude on the price of milk is to 

 reach them in an educational way, 

 setting forth the real value of milk, 

 the real cost of production, the real 

 cost of distribution, and, with that 

 education thoroughly established, the 

 consumer will accept a just price for 

 his milk with the same patience and 

 good will with which he has been 

 obliged to accept advancing costs of all 

 else he eats, wears and uses. 



The Milk Producer has a just com- 

 plaint. Either he is sustaining a loss 

 or barely breaking even, or not making 



