THIRTY-SIXTH ANNUAL CONVENTION. 145 



deed what good would it do if we knew? Shifting the respon- 

 sibihty will never make our milk more wholesome, our cheese 

 less bitter or our butter less rancid; all of which terms imply 

 improper care at some particular stage of the process. 



It is in meetings of this sort that we must face the situation 

 squarely and deal with the facts, unpleasant as they may seem. 

 Everyone in the line, from producer to manufacturer has sinned 

 and one is not less guilty than another, simply because the na- 

 ture of his business enables him to transfer the blame to some 

 one else. 



The handling of milk and cream from the standpoint of 

 the manufacturer is not essentially different from that of any 

 individual, other than it looks in both directions. On the one 

 hand it sees coming the great procession of dairymen in the 

 State of Illinois, most of whom are armed with knowledge suf- 

 ficient to enable them to bring from their herd a grade of milk 

 suitable for the most delicate invalid; on the other, it sees an 

 army of commission houses whose business it is to pay on the 

 basis of quality. In the middle then stands the great manufac- 

 turing interests with power to command the proper grade of 

 raw material and whose duty it is to make the best of whatever 

 it gets. And here is the whole of the business in miniature. 



The manufacturer cannot make a first grade product from 

 a second grade raw material and to this extent the farmer and 

 the dairyman, the producer of milk, are responsible. But what 

 inducement has been offered for a material capable of making 

 the best manufactured product? Little, when the price paid for 

 the can of gaseous cream with bulging sides and cover, is the 

 same as for that can suitable for the making of the best grade 

 of butter. Little, when a neighboring plant takes what the home 

 one rejects as unfit for use, in order that another patron may be 

 added to its list. Foolish competition has been a hard master in 

 our efforts to maintain and develop quality. Greediness in the 

 dairy business is not confined to the man who is guilty of in- 

 creasing the milk flow by the addition of water. It is also one 

 of the faults of the consumer. The arguments in favor of but- 



