OUTLINES OF A POLICY OF REFORM 279 



see that every possible safeguard is provided against 

 the dissemination of typhoid, scarlet fever, and other 

 milk-borne diseases as against tuberculosis. Here, 

 in this general inspection, is a task big enough to 

 tax the energies of the states. To do it thoroughly 

 requires, everywhere, a large extension of the system 

 of inspection, more money and more men. 



One very great defect in the present methods of 

 inspection prevailing throughout the states is the 

 lack of uniformity, the same anarchical spirit which 

 permeates so much of our national life. There is 

 no common standard to which the farmers must 

 keep, nor any common method of judging the merits 

 of a farmer's conditions. Many different "score 

 cards" have been devised for the purpose of establish- 

 ing as nearly as possible ideal standards of require- 

 ments which the milk producers and the milk dealers 

 should be compelled to fulfil. Of late there has been 

 a bewildering increase in the number of these score 

 cards, and a careful examination of a large number 

 of them is at once interesting and instructive. 



Some of the cards which I have examined seem 

 to me to be fairly open to the charge of being "fad- 

 dish." More of them are open to the grave objection 

 that they are not explicit enough to the farmer, and 

 leave room for friction between the farmer and the 

 inspector. Too much is left to the personal judgment 

 of the inspector. I know well enough that the per- 



