GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 21 



It causes an unnecessary amount of friction and engenders 

 ill-feeling from a misunderstanding of the fundamental 

 causes of the milk problem. 



Society must blame itself; that is, we are confronted with 

 a situation that has been evolved naturally as a result of 

 the existing state of civilization. The milk question is 

 simply one of the difficulties of a complex age — one of the 

 difficulties of an artificial civilization to which we have not 

 yet adjusted ourselves. It is part of the great sociologic 

 problem which has arisen as the result of the crowding of 

 great masses of humanity in centres of population. The 

 proper feeding of our metropolitan centres, with their in- 

 creasing demands and exactions of palate and purse, taxes 

 the ingenuity of the farmer, the transportation agent, the 

 middleman, and the retail distributor. The milk question is 

 part of this great problem. No one group of persons is to 

 blame. We are simply suffering the inevitable penalties we 

 must pay for modern conditions of life. 



The question, then, is to be met frankly and manfully as 

 one of the problems of the times and in an entirely imper- 

 sonal sense. It helps nothing and harms much to point the 

 finger of accusation at an innocent person. Of all those 

 concerned the farmer is least to blame for the situation as 

 it exists, and the consumer in the city should be ever mind- 

 ful that he has rather brought the conditions upon himself. 

 The ultimate solution of the problem will depend upon 

 cooperation and a constructive spirit of progress in which 

 all hands join. 



In one sense the milk question is not a modern question. 

 It must always have been present from the time milk be- 

 came an article of commerce. It is simply more apparent 

 to-day because science has focused the searchlight of truth 

 directly upon it. If anyone is to be blamed, therefore, it is the 

 scientists who have made the discovery that diphtheria, 

 scarlet fever, typhoid fever, tuberculosis, and other dis- 

 eases are spread by milk and that stale, warm, and bacteria- 



