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0  U  B  U  R  BA  /N/ 
NEW  YOIMv,  JUNE  10,  1910, 
The  Great  Chicago  Milk  War 
True  Story  by  the  Dairymen’s  Leader 
THE  PRODUCERS’  ORGANIZATION.— For  some 
years  we  have  had  an  organization  called  the 
Milk  Producers'  Association,  and  yearly  have  pre¬ 
sented  a  half-hearted  front  as  we  tried  to  force  an 
increase  in  prices.  At  one  time  we  had  about  5,000 
members,  hut  repeated  failures  to  obtain  any  sub¬ 
stantial  increase  in  prices  caused  the  membership 
t<-  dwindle  to  about  1,700  members  at  the  close  of 
the  year  1915.  There  are  about  1.3,000  farms  mak¬ 
ing  milk  and  milk  products  for  tire  Chicago  mar¬ 
ket.  This  number  does  not  include 
the  makers  of  butter  and  cheese  in 
the  more  remote  regions.  Our  as¬ 
sociation  was  in  debt  at  the  begin¬ 
ning  of  this  year  and  the  outlook 
was  not  promising. 
HANDLING  TIIE  MILK.— The 
milk  of  Chicago  is  handled  by  about 
12.500  small  dealers  who  buy  milk 
from  the  dairymen  in  cans  deliv¬ 
ered  in  Chicago,  and  handle  nearly 
50  per  cent,  of  the  milk  sold,  and 
the  rest  is  marketed  by  large  com¬ 
panies,  such  as  the  Borden.  Row- 
man,  Mix  and  other  concerns  who 
have  plants  in  the  better  towns  in 
the  country.  They  buy  the  milk 
from  the  dairymen  at  these  plants 
and  bottle  it  or  make  other  use  of 
it,  and  ship  in  car  lots  daily  to 
Chicago.  The  Ilorden  Company  has 
about  15  such  plants  in  various 
towns,  and  has  dictated  the  general 
policy  and  price  of  the  business  for 
the  whole  region.  It  has  handled 
nearly  one-quarter  of  the  whole 
milk  output  of  the  Chicago  district. 
The  larger  dealers  were  organized 
and  know  just  what  they  were  do¬ 
ing.  and  the  smaller  dealers  had 
their  meetings  and  acted  as  prac¬ 
tically  one  person.  So  great  was 
their  power  that  it  seemed  to  be 
a  task  entirely  beyond  our  power 
to  oppose  them  ill  any  manner. 
That  they  believed  we  were  a  back 
number  and  had  no  power  is  shown 
by  their  ignoring  my  letter  as 
president  of  the  association  inviting 
them  to  consider  with  us  the  im¬ 
possible  conditions  surrounding  the 
making  of  milk  on  the  dairy  farms 
where  the  production  of  milk  was 
the  business  from  which  the  family 
lived  and  paid  the  rent  and  clothed 
the  children.  I  addressed  the  lead¬ 
ing  marketers  on  March  11  but  got 
but  one  response. 
UNREAL  A  RLE  CONDITIONS, — So  unbearable 
were  the  conditions  and  so  utterly  impossible  was  it 
to  continue  longer  making  milk  at  the  price  offered 
by  the  Rorden  Company,  $1.33  per  ewt.  for  the  Sum¬ 
mer  six  months,  that  meetings  were  called  all  over 
the  dairy  regions  and  addressed  by  the  best  speak¬ 
ers  we  had,  and  our  story  was  told,  and  with  all 
the  powers  we  had  we  urged  organization,  individ¬ 
ual  effort  and  team  action  to  enforce  our  conten¬ 
tions.  The  movement  spread  like  a  prairie  fire  and 
the  enthusiasm  was  beyond  belief.  In  one  meeting, 
when  it  was  asked  what,  protection  had  been  pro¬ 
vided  to  reimburse  the  tenant  farmer  who  without 
means  to  meet  his  rent  and  pay  his  bills  should 
dump  his  milk,  a  subscription  was  started,  and 
more  than  $3,500  was  pledged.  Such  meetings  of 
farmers  were  never  held  before.  Halls  could  not 
be  obtained  large  enough  to  hold  them,  and  they  re¬ 
sponded  to  the  calls  of  their  leaders  as  one  man. 
CONDITIONS  INVOLVED.— Had  I  time  I  would 
go  into  the  conditions  surrounding  the  making  of 
milk  in  the  dairy  region  about  Chicago.  It  will 
have  to  do  now  to  say  that  only  tenant  farmers 
with  large  families  of  working  children  who  live 
most  of  the  day  in  the  cow  barns,  and  with  mothers 
who  were  equal  to  men  when  it  comes  to  milking 
and  cleaning  the  stables,  could  make  ends  meet  and 
pay  rent  with  the  prices  we  were  getting.  More 
than  75%  of  the  farms  were  run  by  tenant  farmers, 
as  the  owners  found  that  the  rent  in  cash  was  more 
than  they  could  make,  even  when  they  labored  It 
hours  a  day.  With  land  worth  on  an  average  $175 
an  acre  so  bad  were  dairy  conditions  that  it  would 
rent  for  $4  per  acre.  Even  with  this  low  rent  there 
were  many  failures,  and  sales  of  cows  and  farm 
equipments  were  of  daily  occurrence  just  before 
March  1.  Bankers  told  me  that  never  had  there 
been  so  many  bankruptcy  providings  by  dairymen. 
The  low  prices  offered  us  for  our  milk  made  it  very 
plain  that  there  was  a  conspiracy  to  keep  prices 
down  below  what  they  would  be  in  remote  regions 
with  the  milk  made  into  butter  and  cheese. 
TYRANNICAL  BUYERS. — We  found  places 
where  the  dairymen  were  afraid.  They  were  with¬ 
out  spirit  and  like  whipped  curs.  They  had  been 
punished  at  the  milk-buying  plants  when  they 
showed  any  independence  by  having  their  milk  re¬ 
fused.  and  without  means  of  obtaining  a  market 
elsewhere  the  milk  became  almost  a  loss.  When 
they  were  snlliciently  humbled  they  were  taken  back 
and  the  way  they  bowed  and  lifted  their  hats  to 
the  managers  of  those  plants  would  remind  you  of 
some  town  in  a  despotic  country 
when  an  official  was  passing.  It 
did  not  seem  that  such  conditions 
could  be  possible  in  America.  Again 
we  found  a  fighting  spirit  that 
would  shine  brightest  in  some  ten¬ 
ant  farmer  wlm  was  absolutely  de¬ 
pendent  on  his  daily  milk  output. 
With  about  50%  of  the  towns  with 
local  organizations  and  00%  of  the 
producers  in  these  towns  members 
of  the  association  we  came  to  April 
1,  the  day  when  we  had  voted  to 
revolt  and  give  no  more  milk  to  any 
dealer  who  had  not  agreed  to  pay 
the  price  we  had  set  as  the  lowest 
we  could  live  upon. 
THE  REVOLT.— The  meeting  of 
the  directors  of  the  association  with 
the  milk  boards  of  each  local  held 
in  Chicago  March  23  should  have 
been  taken  as  an  index  of  the  tre¬ 
mendous  earnestness  and  fighting 
spirit  of  the  members  of  the  asso¬ 
ciation.  It  was  necessary  to  ad¬ 
journ  the  meeting  to  one  of  the 
largest;  auditoriums  to  seat  the  dele¬ 
gates  and  friends.  A  report  of  the 
conditions  in  each  local  showed  far 
too  many  towns  with  weak  organi¬ 
zations,  but  other  towns  making 
large  outputs  of  milk  and  dairy  pro¬ 
ducts  were  very  strongly  organized. 
A  resolution  was  adopted  at  this 
meeting  to  allow  any  milk  bought  at 
the  price  set  by  our  milk  board  to 
come  in,  but  that  no  milk  should  be 
delivered  to  any  buyer  who  would 
not  pay  our  price  to  all  liis  pro¬ 
ducers  and  pay  it  at  all  liis  plants. 
This  was  to  prevent  Borden  and 
Bowman  getting  milk  by  meeting 
the  price  at  their  organized  towns 
and  at.  our  weakly  organized  towns 
wearing  out  our  members  by  dila¬ 
tory  tactics,  and  finally  when  our 
farming  season  was  on  by  various 
pretexts  getting  their  prices  back  to 
the  old  figures,  in  all  their  plants. 
TIIE  GREAT  STRUGGLE— “The  farmers  have 
descended  to  the  tactics  of  the  labor  unions  and  are 
wantonly  destroying  property  and  interfering  with 
the  rights  of  business,”  were  headings  in  the  papers 
of  some  of  the  cities  during  the  first  few  days  of 
April.  Looking  back  over  the  situation  and  ask¬ 
ing  myself  the  question  whether  we  could  have  won 
without  picketing  and  turning  back  producers  who 
had  started  to  town  with  their  milk,  I  am  forced  to 
say  that  I  believe  we  would  have  lost.  Many  farm¬ 
ers  who  could  not  be  reached  by  reason  were  quick¬ 
ened  in  their  thought  when  determined  men  stepped 
No  Use  Crying  Over  Spilt  Milk!  Try  It  Again! 
