CONSIDERATION OF PROPOSED REMEDIES 255 



directors, immediate savings in distributing costs through 

 the elimination of some of the duplicated investments and 

 service, and further savings of the same kind through the 

 gradual elimination of unnecessary points of operation, 

 the institution of trade reforms, such as (to choose but 

 one example) requiring a deposit on bottles, thus insuring 

 the cooperation of the consumer in this respect, increasing 

 the distributing capacity of the wagons and thus reducing 

 the delivery cost per unit, increasing the volume of milk 

 handled at the country depots and pasteurizing plants, 

 thus reducing the per unit country costs, conserving in the 

 industry individual initiative, (and conserving) the skill 

 of men long experienced in the conduct of a specialized 

 business which in a large measure might be lost under 

 other plans which have been suggested {i. e., municipal 

 ownership and operation)." 



Such a plan has actually been tried in Calgary, Canada, 

 where the business of the large companies was, at the 

 suggestion of the food controller, so revised as to give 90 

 per cent of the fluid milk business to one company. The 

 other leading companies confined themselves to ice cream 

 and butter manufacturing respectively. The plan is said 

 to be working well from the point of economy of distri- 

 bution and to have reduced the number of delivery wagons 

 from fifty to thirty-one.^ 



This plan could hardly do away with all the evils of com- 

 petition at once unless some way could be found whereby 

 the city could limit the number in the business, practi- 

 cally compelling all dealers to join the one company. 

 This last point would doubtless meet constitutional ob- 

 jections ih any of the states. The particular advantages 

 claimed for such a scheme as compared with municipal 



1 Hoard's Dairyman, Oct. 17, 1919, p. 551. 



