236 THE MARKETING OF WHOLE MILK 



have been relatively low and margins correspondingly 

 small, milk price wars have occasionally resulted from an 

 attempt on the part of a new concern, or In fact of any 

 concern, to win business by cut-price methods. For ex- 

 ample, Milwaukee had 7 cent milk from 1913 to 191 4, 

 which price was about 1.5 cents below the average of the 

 ten cities above named. ^ Early in 191 5 a new company 

 was organized which sought to gain business by cutting 

 prices, thinking the prevailing margin to be too wide. The 

 result was a price war and 6 cent milk forseventeenmonths. 

 Prices were for the most part at that time about 2.5 cents 

 below the other nine cities. Another instance in point is 

 the milk war in Columbus, Ohio, in the winter of 1919-1920, 

 which resulted because one dealer sought to gain favor 

 and business by remaining at 14 cents per quart when 

 most of the other dealers raised their retail price to 15 

 cents. The result was that the other dealers soon came 

 down to 14 cents. Later it was claimed that this margin 

 was so narrow that many of the dealers suffered losses, 

 that none made reasonable profits, and that prices will 

 have to go up in the near future.^ 



It is difficult to say to what extent producers' organi- 

 zations have had an influence on city retail prices. It is 

 true that where producers have at certain times secured 

 material advances in prices paid to them, the dealers have 

 at once raised the prices to consumers in the various 

 classes of trade. Figures 26, 27, and 28 show the average 

 retail prices in ten cities as reported by the United States 

 Bureau of Labor Statistics compared with those of a num- 

 ber of individual cities. 



' Milwaukee, Chicago, New Orleans, Pittsburg, Philadelphia, San Francisco, 

 Detroit, Baltimore, New York, Cleveland. 



2 Prices did go up to 15 cents in Sept., 1920 remaining there until Feb., 1921. 



