To the Milk Dealer: 



THE Milk Dealer has been the 

 storm-center of the Dairy In- 

 dustry. No branch of our 

 business has suffered more severely 

 through lack of organization than the 

 branch of milk distribution. 



The Milk Dealer is ground between the 

 upper and nether millstone. 



On the one hand he is responsible to 

 the large public he serves. 



On the other he is beset by the grave 

 question of his supply. 



No matter how he performs his duty 

 to the public, no matter how conscien- 

 tiously and fairly he deals with the pro- 

 ducer — he is never left in peace to work 

 out his serious problems. 



Between the two he is the favorite foot- 

 ball. When advancing costs of pro- 

 duction compel him to pay more to 

 the producer he is justified to ask more 

 from the consumer. Immediately a 

 storm gathers. He is assailed from all 

 sides. The public always has an 

 exaggerated idea of the profits of any 

 business. It does not know, and when 

 told, does not believe, that the profit in 

 milk, butter, cheese and ice cream is 

 ridiculously low — away below the point 

 of safety allowed any other business. 



The consumer has no conception of 

 the enormous investment behind his 

 bottle of milk. He finds it on his door- 

 step in the morning. He rarely sees 

 the man who delivers it, the horse and 

 wagon which carries it. To him it is 

 just a quart of milk. 



He does not see the farmer's cost of 

 production, the hauling to the milk 



station, the railroad freight charges, 

 the hauling from the railroad to the 

 bottling plant, the intricate and com- 

 plicated handling there to insure the 

 safety, cleanliness and quality of his 

 milk. 



He does not know (because he has never 

 been told) that behind his daily bottle 

 of milk stands probably a million dollar 

 investment — constantly in jeopardy 

 from assaults from within and without 

 the industry. 



He has dinned into his ears forever and 

 forever the high cost of living, and sees 

 extortion in every advance of price, no 

 matter how justified. 



He forgets that the class of goods which, 

 under the wonderfully improved con- 

 ditions, he receives today cannot be 

 compared, in quality and in price, to 

 the goods which he received years ago. 



The improvement in conditions on the 

 farm, the better cows, the cleaner 

 barns, the cooler milk-house, the 

 scrupulous care under which milk and 

 its products are now produced, handled 

 and distributed — to say nothing of the 

 rise in land, in feed, in pay roll, in 

 delivery charges — these all cost addi- 

 tional money and make the product 

 worth more. 



Nothing but widespread information 

 through advertising will convince the 

 public that the lower price of years ago 

 paid for a product, which none would 

 dare offer for sale, none would be per- 

 mitted to buy, today. 



So long as the public believes it is over- 

 charged, so long will it harbor resent- 

 ment against the Milk Dealer, keep 



