222 THE MARKETING OF WHOLE MILK 



the entire country that helped bring milk prices somewhat 

 nearer to the level of other prices. Certainly a study of 

 the price charts offers little ground for any fears on the 

 part of consumers that they are in the hands of a "milk 

 producers' trust," as our daily papers sometimes charge. 

 And this fear will continue groundless so long as every 

 man is relatively free to go from one line of farming to an- 

 other as he finds one or another more profitable, or to 

 increase or decrease his milk production as he sees fit. 

 Herein is the big difference between a true monopoly and 

 a farmers' organization as at present constituted. The 

 monopolist — a manager or a board of directors of a large 

 corporation — decides to curtail production so as to realize 

 a higher price. The entire control of the quantity to be 

 produced is centralized. In a farmers' organization — 

 be it a milk producers' association or a cotton growers' 

 organization — each member is a law unto himself. Each 

 may contract to sell all he produces through his organi- 

 zation, or he may even contract to produce only a cer- 

 tain amount. But with millions of scattered producers, 

 monopoly methods would seem to be impossible, ex- 

 cept for very short periods, say a few months or a 

 year. 



Perhaps one of the biggest weaknesses of producers' 

 organizations of to-day is that the members expect to 

 accomplish too much along the line of price increases and 

 become discouraged if appreciable increases are not forth- 

 coming. 



Sectional variations in prices have often been com- 

 mented upon as though they were wholly due to differ- 

 ences in the bargaining ability of organized producers 

 in one section as compared with unorganized producers 

 in another. This is undoubtedly the fact to some extent. 



