iiiiimnnuu^^g 
^J/Try  h 
VOL.  LI.  No.  2219. 
NEW  YORK,  AUGUST  6,  1892. 
PRICE,  FIVE  CENTS. 
$3.00  PER  YEAR. 
Inspecting  Milk. 
A  BIO  OFFICIAL  FARCE. 
There  is  probably  no  greater  official  farce  than  the 
milk  inspection  of  New  York  city,  under  the  direction 
of  the  Board  of  Health.  The  city  is  divided  into  seven 
milk  inspection  districts  to  each  of  which  an  inspector 
is  assigned,  and  after  working  there  three  weeks,  he 
is  transferred  to  another  district,  ostensibly  to  prevent 
collusion  with  the  venders.  From  May  to  November 
inclusive,  the  men  are  required  to  inspect  the  milk 
early  in  the  morning  from  4  to  8.30  A.  M.,  as  it  is  de¬ 
livered  by  dealers  to  customers,  twice  each  week,  and 
at  least  twice  each  month  they  are  required  to  ex¬ 
amine  the  milk  as  it  comes  into  the  city  at  the  ferries 
or  railway  stations. 
This  reads  well,  but  practically  it  amounts  to  very 
little.  The  system  does 
not  take  into  account  the 
morals  of  the  inspectors, 
and  it  thus  falls  far  short 
of  the  purpose  for  which 
it  was  ostensibly  de- 
signed.  There  is  too  I  If  Idlin' 
much  “  politics”  in  it.  It  ^  j  I 
is  not  very  long  since  the  j>  ! 
papers  contained  ac-  U  i  j| 
counts  of  the  blackmail-  |  I  j  [ 
ing  work  done  by  some  of  j 
these  fellows  and  there  is 
nothing  in  the  character 
of  the  work  accomplished 
to-day  to  warrant  a  belief  \  jj| 
that  the  service  has  been  [ 
purified.  The  recent  / 
resignations  of  a  number  'll 
of  noted  physicians  from  I  ]  ' / 
connection  with  this  -  j  ^ 'I  jf  jt  j  if 
Board  has  called  public  III  '  //  /  /  /tWtk  !  I 
attention  to  it  anew,  |  \  j  /  7 
though  The  Rural  has  j.  / / j  j 
been  satisfied  fora  long  ZT  \  ,  y\ 
time  of  the  practical 
worthlessness  of  the  m  MlLh 
methods  employed  and  / 
the  lack  of  character  of  • 
many  of  the  employees. 
One  has  only  to  follow 
these  fellows  around,  as 
we  have  done,  to  become 
satisfied  that  they  are 
doing  anything  but  j 
honest  work.  Their  ex-  it 
amination  of  milk  on  the  /  fj 
wagons  of  peddlers  is,  as  /) j fjlj 
a  rule,  the  broadest  bur-  III!!' 
lesque.  We  have  seen  an  /  J  - 
inspector  halt  a  wagon  to  /'./ 
inspect  the  milk. 
“Give  me  a  sample,’  A  City  Inspe 
said  he  to  the  vender,  and 
the  request  was  complied  with.  Instead  of  mounting 
the  wagon  and  taking  it  himself,  first  stirring  the 
milk  well,  he  took  it  from  the  vender,  who  doubtless 
did  not  dip  very  deep  to  get  it. 
“  Give  me  a  sample  from  another  can,”  sa;d  the  in¬ 
spector.  The  vender  coolly  gave  him  a  second  sample 
from  the  same  can  and,  no  objection  being  raised, 
drove  off.  For  all  the  inspector  knew,  half  the  load 
might  have  been  skimmed.  We  have  seen  these  men 
look  at  milk  in  grocery  stores  and  pass  on  without 
taking  samples,  when  any  tyro  knew  at  a  glance  that 
it  had  been  adulterated.  We  have  heard  dealers, 
when  they  thought  they  were  not  being  watched,  tell 
about  buying  inspectors  and  laugh  as  they  told  of  how 
cheaply  it  had  been  done. 
Our  cartoon  tells  the  story.  One  glance  at  it  will 
explain  why  it  is  that  so  little  adulterated  milk  is  dis¬ 
covered  in  this  city  These  men  are  not  the  first  who 
have  had  their  eyes  shut  with  dollars,  and  doubtless 
will  not  be  the  last,  so  long  as  the  present  regime  con¬ 
trols  this  great  metropolis.  The  Rural  ventures  to 
assert  without  fear  of  contradiction,  that  it  can  go  out 
any  forenoon  and  find  a  half  dozen  samples  of  adul¬ 
terated  milk,  and  follow  in  the  trail  of  the  inspectors 
of  the  Board  of  Health.  We  bought  four  sample  a  few 
weeks  since  at  as  many  different  places  and  the  Bab¬ 
cock  tester  showed  that  two  of  them  were  below  the 
legal  standard.  If  two  out  of  four  purchased  were 
adulterated,  it  seems  a  little  queer  that  these  inspec¬ 
tors  will  report  examining  between  2,000  and  3,000 
specimens  in  a  single  week  and  find  only  two  or  three 
below  the  standard,  and  sometimes  none  at  all. 
if  LE 
I  IIP 
A  City  Inspector  as  He  sees  Milk  Through  “Regulation”  Glasses.  Fig.  213. 
The  same  methods  prevail  all  through  the  depart¬ 
ment.  The  law  prohibits  the  sale  of  “  bob  ”  veal,  that 
is,  veal  from  calves  only  a  few  days  or  hours  of  age, 
and  yet,  in  the  spring  of  the  year,  large  quantities  of 
this  stuff  come  to  the  city  nightly  and  are  sold  with¬ 
out  molestation.  If  these  inspectors  really  wanted  to 
stop  this  trade,  not  a  pound  of  it  would  get  into  the 
city.  To  stop  the  trade  would  not  suit  them.  Their 
study  is  to  find  out  how  much  there  is  in  it  for  them¬ 
selves.  They  conduct  their  business  for  “  revenue 
only,”  but  the  revenue  does  not  get  into  the  city’s 
coffers. 
The  methods  used  by  the  milk  inspectors  are  not 
the  best,  even  if  they  were  honestly  applied.  The 
lactometer  is  of  little  value — the  expert  adulterators 
can  beat  it  with  but  little  trouble,  and  they  do. 
In  the  annual  report  of  the  Board  of  Health  for  1890, 
we  find  the  following  statement:  “At  least  90  per 
cent  of  the  skimmed  milk  sold  in  this  city,  is  skimmed 
before  it  comes  within  the  jurisdiction  of  this  depart¬ 
ment,  i.  c.,  within  the  city  limits.”  The  remark  would 
have  been  more  interesting  had  the  location  of  the 
skimming  process  been  more  definitely  located.  As  it 
now  stands,  the  casual  reader  would  infer  that  the 
farmers  are  the  guilty  parties.  Such,  however,  is  not 
the  case.  The  milk  alluded  to  comes  from  the  milk¬ 
receiving  stations  or  creameries,  owned  and  controlled 
by  members  of  the  New  York  Milk  Exchange.  They 
do  not  propose  to  let  the  milk  producer  do  any  adul¬ 
terating.  If  the  milk  is  rich  enough  to  render  adul¬ 
teration  safe,  they  propose  to  do  the  dirty  work  and 
reap  the  profits.  How  they  do  it  has  been  often  shown 
in  our  columns. 
The  R.  N.-Y.  does  not 
y  .  charge  that  the  heads  of 
/  departments  in  this  great 
*  /  bureau  arc  corrupt,  or 
)*'  ,  /  that  they  have  personal 
/  /  V  yy/  knowledge  of  the  pecula- 
/  f  tions  or  worthlessness  of 
/  _ _ _  their  subordinates.  At 
'rT-wvV*'  JKt  ft  times  they  have  had  their 
i  n **  (j  crooked  work  brought  to 
t,lcir  view  by  the  public 
1 1  press  and  we  are  forced 
Tr  ^  gMf  lr//  to  say  that  no  great  zeal 
[  [  M\  Wllfl  /  bas  been  sbown  in  the 
,,  K  J  efforts  made  to  punish 
l1  (/  /lr\W^fS  U  I /  these  faithless  public  ser- 
I vants.  The  power  that 
W  I  t  puts  them  in  official  posi- 
!,A  -  j  tion  *s  same  power 
r  I  '  that  mabes  the  heads  of 
|  ri  III lli  <=  —  pul  I  departments,  and  so  its 
'  ill  iH/l,  *  ^  Wt!®  I  mandates  must  be  obeyed. 
Tf/?  '  !/  =  W/ 1  The  curse  of  rotten  poli- 
A.|' '  ^  tics,  the  politics  that 
T  knows  no  other  business, 
"  - p=»  has  no  higher  aim  than 
—  - •>  “  boodle”  or  spoils,  hangs 
/  over  and  largely  controls 
v  =*'•  ^  this  d  e  p  a  r  t  m  e  n  t .  It 
7  should  be  otherwise.  The 
-  \\  public  health  should 
never  be  placed  in  such 
hands.  The  chief  should 
y'wv  ^  .  /  be  above  suspicion  and 
subor(linate8  should 
be  °f  the  same  type.  In- 
~  stead  of  choosing  men  at 
the  behest  of  ward  heel- 
ers,  for  these  positions, 
: — .V  we  should  have  them 
-  11  “  selected  by  our  best  and 
s.  Fig.  213.  public  spirited  physicians 
with  special  reference  to 
integrity  and  ability.  Integrity— -personal  honesty— 
comes  first.  Without  this,  no  other  qualifications  are 
of  any  avail  and  it  is  the  lack  of  this  which  makes  the 
department  in  question,  as  well  as  others  in  this  city, 
so  justly  liable  to  harsh  criticism.  Better  times  may 
come,  but  they  will  not  until  an  awakened  public 
arises  in  its  wrath  and  warns  the  politicians  to  keep 
their  hands  off  our  Board  of  Health. 
A  change  is  needed,  throughout  the  department,  of 
nearly  all  the  subordinate  officials  who  come  in  direct 
contact  with  the  milk  dealers.  If  the  chiefs  of  this 
department  will  do  a  little  detective  work  on  their 
own  account,  they  will  soon  find  the  evidence  to 
establish  all  the  charges  made  by  The  Rural,  and 
to  enable  them  to  do  a  lot  of  very  valuable  “  weed¬ 
ing  out.”  Will  they  do  it  ? 
