i6o THE MARKETING OF WHOLE MILK 



Of twenty-eight associations which answered the ques- 

 tion regarding method found most satisfactory in arriving 

 at prices, six stated that cost of production is considered 

 or used as a basis; five use one or more dairy products 

 having a quoted price as the basis; and fourteen report 

 that bargaining with the dealers is found most satisfactory. 

 Cost of production, which numerous associations seized 

 upon during the war period as a panacea for their price 

 difficulties, has been largely given up as a peace price 

 determinant. Even of the six above mentioned as giving 

 cost of production as the basis for price, several intimated 

 that such figures are really used only as the basis for bar- 

 gaining. The leaders are apparently coming to see that 

 the true function of the association along this line is to 

 facilitate the focusing of the forces of supply and demand 

 and to make sure that the dairymen get their full share 

 of the "bargaining margin." 



The "strike," more properly called a boycott, has fre- 

 quently been used as a weapon to enforce demands, usu- 

 ally in connection with attempts to secure higher prices 

 for milk. At least as early as 1883 dairymen in Orange 

 County, New York, made use of the boycott. During the 

 period of rapidly rising prices following the outbreak 

 of the war in Europe, producers used this method of 

 enforcing their demands frequently. There is scarcely a 

 large city ^^hich has not had one or more strikes within the 

 past five or six years. Outstanding examples are the 

 Chicago strike of the spring of 1916, as a result of which 

 the producers asked and secured an average of J1.55 per 

 hundredweight for the six summer months, after having 

 been oflFered but I1.33, an increase of 22 cents per hun- 

 dredweight. The strike lasted for twelve days. Another 

 strike of importance was that in the New York milk zone 



