182 THE COMMON SENSE OF THE MILK QUESTION 



from a health point of view, in having the municipality 

 take over the business of supplying milk of doubtful 

 quality, distributing ever so efficiently impure and 

 disease-breeding milk. 



Ill 



The municipalization of the general milk supply, 

 for the reasons stated, seems to me a proposition 

 of little more than academic interest at present. 

 Eventually, I believe, we shall come to that, but 

 first of all there must come the concentration of 

 production, with the inexorable crushing out of the 

 small and inefficient producers and dealers, — the 

 creation of conditions which will make municipaliza- 

 tion practicable. 



It does not follow, however, that no part of the 

 milk supply should be brought under municipal 

 management and control. On the contrary, there 

 are very urgent and convincing reasons why, in 

 nearly every city, some parts of the milk supply 

 should be immediately municipalized. So far as the 

 municipality itself is a consumer of milk it should 

 aim to supply its own needs. In almost every city 

 a certain quantity of milk is used in connection with 

 municipal institutions, such as hospitals, asylums, 

 sanatoria for consumptives, and so on. The common 

 practice is for the public authority to contract for 

 this milk supply, generally by public tender. Practi- 



