The Federal Milk Commission Report 
FEBRUARY PRICE.—The Federal Milk Commis¬ 
sion has reduced the price of milk to producers for 
the month of February one-half cent below the 
January price. It has also adjusted the price to 
consumers on the same basi.s. This makes the Feb¬ 
ruary price .$.‘1.84 per hundi'cd pounds for 3% milk 
in the 150-mile zone, “subject to the rules and rei;u- 
lations of the trade.‘’ This last clause is sifrnificant. 
and will no doubt be interjireted by the dealers to 
justify any exactions or sleisht-of-hand performance 
that has developed in the trade. 
FIXING PRICES.—The Commission admits that 
it has made no study of the milk distribution prob¬ 
lem except the lisjures taken from the books of the 
coni})anies. and it also admits that the.se tiftures 
represent an expensive and wasteful system of dis¬ 
tributing milk, -NAhicli it asserts it has no power to 
reform. AYe cannot fiilly agree with the Commission 
in this limitation of its powers and dutie.-^. It has 
power to fix prices for production and distribution. 
It exercised that jiower in .Tanuary and again in 
February. It will later make the price for March. 
Originally it promised 1o lix the price to the pro¬ 
ducer on the cost of production, plus a reasonable 
jirolit. It has not done .so. It now makes no pre¬ 
tense of having done so. Every farmer knows it 
costs as much to make milk in February as it does 
in January, and the price in January did not cover 
what the figures .showed to be the cost of production 
and a reasonable profit. In the case of the di.strib- 
utors the actual cost was taken as the basi.s. and a 
rea.sonable profit added, aiul this same cost of profit 
has been maintained for both January and February. 
RETAIL PRICE AND COST.—Tbe rommission 
makes a price of lOi^c. a quart for can -milk deliv¬ 
ered to store.s. Tlie storekeepers are allowed to 
(barge consumers 11c. ])er quart. Of course, they 
make up by selling sliort quails of hmse milk. The 
jirice charged stores for Grade B bottled milk is 
18A4c.. and they sell to families at 14c. The 
Commission asserts that it costs 8c. per quart to 
carry the milk from the distributing center or sta¬ 
tion in the city to the consumer’s door under the 
present method of distribution. The present co.st 
for one quart of B grade 8.8% milk, Avhich is a fair 
average as distributed in New York, is as follows: 
Cost . 07.85 
Piistinnizing .002.5 
Fringht .0075 
Delivery .0025 
IToMts .004 
RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Federal Government, with almost limitless appro¬ 
priation, confesses its inability to interfere with the 
system and profits of the New York milk trust. It 
finds no such limitation in its poAver AAiien it turns 
to fix the price for the producer. The Commission 
tells consumers that for .8.7% milk the cost of di.s- 
tribution aa’ouUI be only 8.8 cents, and argues from 
this that the consumer has a reasonable service. 
The Commission must knoAV that the consumer of 
milk in NeAv York does not receive the .8.7% milk. 
The Patrons’ League! Organize! 
Patrons’ Leagues for handling the school-hiAv ques¬ 
tion effectively are being organized all over XeAV 
York State. In many school distiicts all voters, 
both men and AA'omen, haA^e joined the League, and 
signed petitions for the repeal of the hiAv. The 
circular given beloAv is a samjile of the Avay they are 
doing it. This original printed circular is 11 x 15 
inches in size: 
.^ ■ ——= 0 ^* — — ' ' 
PATRONS’ LEAGUE 
TO REPEAL TOWNSHIP SCHOOL LAW 
SATURDAY 
AT I O’CLOCK P. M. 
FEB. 2 
IN THE VILLAGE HALL. DEPOSIT. N.Y. 
This will be a joint meetin^^ of any or all of the 
towns of Delaware and Broome counties. 
Let each school district interested send dele¬ 
gates to represent them at this meeting. All ooine 
that can and bring your wives. We want them 
enrolled as Patrons dl thd League. 
BY ORDER OF 
SCHOOL DIRECTORS 
.0000 
Tliis Avould allow a saA’iiig of l'‘/^c. a quart to the 
consuiner for loose milk, and at that the dealer 
Avould have a larger prolit over cost than the pro¬ 
ducer receives if he Avere alloAved milk driver's 
Avages for his time. 
STORE DISTRIBUTION.— Tf consumers Avere 
obliged to make a deposit for bottle.s, as they could 
if the price Avere reasoiiahle, milk in bottles sold 
through the stores should not cost more than a half 
a cent a quart in excess of the loose milk, but if 
Ave alloAved a full cent the bottled milk could be 
distributed to the stores at 10c., and on the basis 
of present jirices .sold to tlie consumer at lOi^c. The 
stores Avould deliver to the family d<Aor at 11c.. or 
at a saving of from 3c. to .‘U/^c. over the price fixed 
and authorized by the Milk Commis.sion for B grade 
milk. Since the Commission has the antliority to 
make the iirit-e that they have already announced, 
and since they admit that these prices are expen- 
.sive and Avasteful, and again since they exercised 
their antliority to reduce the price to producers be- 
loAV what their figures .show to be the actual cost of 
production, it would be intere.sting to hear their rea¬ 
sons for the assertion that it has no poAver to fix 
the cost of di.stributiou at a reasonable price for 
the service. 
A ONE-SIDED REPORT.—The distributors’ influ¬ 
ence on the Commission is evident in the thinly 
A-eiled apologies for and defense of the milk trust 
running all through their report. It exiiresses con¬ 
fidence in the figures taken from the hooks of the 
distributors. It goes into no detail of the cost of 
distribution of either loose milk or bottled milk. 
If it had merely added the cost of bottling to the 
cost of delivering loose milk ami ordered that stores 
lie furnished A,vith a full supply at this price, the 
cost of bottled milk to the consumer could be re¬ 
duced 3V^c. a cpiart, and the consumption of milk 
in the city very much increased. The city authori¬ 
ties complain that 20% of the .school children of the 
city are underfed and anannic. They lay most of 
Ihe blame to the cost of milk. Here is an oppor¬ 
tunity to help them by merely reducing the cos't of 
distribution to a reasonable figure, and yet this Fed¬ 
eral Commission, Avith all the poAver of State and 
Usually some entenjrising man or woman in the 
neighborhood starts out Avith the petition and talks 
the matter np. others are sure to come on and 
the plan is spread by personal appeal, over the 
'phone, by letter or through the local papers. Some 
one must start—the rest is ea-'^y. The countj’’ meet¬ 
ings are brought together by notices in the local 
papers, jiersonal letters and the machinery of the 
Orange, Dairymen’s League or the Farm Bureau. 
Form all the l‘atron.s’ Leagues possible and hold 
them together for effective work: 
PATRONS’ LEAGUE 
To Rejieal 
THE TOWNSHIP SCHOOL LAW. 
We, the undersigned patrons of School District 
No. in the toAvu of. 
County of.>4tate of Ncav York, 
hereby bind ourselves in an organization to be knoAvn 
as the Patrou.s’ League, the puiiiose of Avhich shall 
lie to u.se our united iiiflueuce to repeal the Toavii- 
sbip School Lhav, kuoAvn as Chapter 328 of the Lhavs 
of 1017. 
e i>romise to attend local meetings as often ns 
possible; to formally organize the Patrons’ League; 
to help elect delegates to a county league to be or¬ 
ganized for the same purpo.se; and to make a vol¬ 
untary contribution to help ]»ay expen.se of postage 
and travel. 
Names of Members. 
It does not tell her AA’hat per cent she does receive, 
excei>t by this erroneous inference, and she is left 
entirely at the mercy of the milk tru.st to give her 
any quality it jileases so long as it is not below the 
3% legal limit. 
PRODUCTION AND DI.^lTHBUTION.-The Com¬ 
mission is again at pains to remind ns that on an 
average for bottled milk and loose milk the dealer 
does not receive as much for distribution as the 
201 
farmer. receives for jiroduction. hut it neglects to 
point out that the average cost of distribution in 
bottles is more than the price paid to the producer 
for it. This excessive cost of bottle delivery reduces 
the proportion of milk sold in bottles and forces 
consumers of limited means to resort to the purebase 
of loose milk. Avbicb the committee implies carries 
with it a iiossibility of infection during its passage 
from the store to the home. Here again the Com- 
iiiission might do a service to the producer and 
consumer. The Board of Health now forbids the 
Iiottling of milk outside of the pasteurization plants 
in NeAA' York, and the stores are I'estrained from 
putting milk in bottles at the stores, so that the 
looise-niilk buyer is forced to use a less sanitary ves¬ 
sel, and often carries the milk home in open pail or 
pitcher. If the stores Avere permitted to do so they 
could use bottles and require the consumer to put 
up a deposit and avoid any danger of infection, but 
this AA’onld break the trust monopoly in the bottling 
of milk in Ncaa^ York, an authority that the Com¬ 
mission seems not inclined to assume. Home of 
this is repetition, and what has been said before, but 
we propose to keep ou repeating until milk is dis¬ 
tributed in New York at a reasonable cost. 
Prosecution of Dairymen’s League 
Officials 
A NEWSPAPER .\GREEMENT.—On .January 2G 
all the city pajiers in New York City, including both 
morning and eA'ening editions, increased their prices 
from one cent to tAvo cents a copy. Tlie announce¬ 
ments Avere made simultaneously in all the papers 
the day before. Rnniors of the i>ending advance had 
been lieard for a Aveek. The delay Avas caused by 
the iiiclinarion of one paper to stick to the old 
pi-ice, and it was important that all make the ad¬ 
vance at once. As soon as all were agreed the ncAv 
price Avent pronijjrly into effect. 
.COMBINATION OF INTERESTS.—No one has 
pretended that the advance in price of every paper 
in the city ou the same day resulted from an indi¬ 
vidual initiatiA-e of all the publishers. Such a claim 
if made Avould be too ridiculous for .serious consid¬ 
eration. Tlie new prices were clearly made after 
consultation and agreement by every daily paper in 
the city, Avhich had previously sold for one cent, 
and that meant practically all. Under the Donnelly 
Act that conduct of the publishers is clearly a con¬ 
spiracy. It is in restraint of trade and illegal. 
There is no tlioiiglit of indicting these publishers for 
Iheir open conremiit of the Donnelly Act. No con¬ 
viction could be secured, even if the publishers Avere 
j)ut to trial for this offense of State law. No con¬ 
viction ought to folloAv. With the increa.sed cost of 
pa])er, labor and material and a decline in adA’er- 
tisiug patronage due to Avar conditions the advance 
Avas a necessity to the makers of papei*s to keej) 
them going, and to all to escape publication at a 
loss. 
COMPARISON WITH MILK.—But the District 
Attorney of Ncav York County, who i-emaius indif¬ 
ferent to the action of these publishers of the city, 
did not he.'iita.to to insist on an indictment of members 
of tlie Dairymen’s League ou the alleged ground that 
they had increased the jirice of milk iii the .same Avay. 
As a matter of fact, the difference is all in favor 
of the dairymen. The price of milk was made by 
one company acting as sales agent for its patrons. 
The dairy company had to make a ijrice before it 
could negotiate a sale. The accused directors and 
other official's were performing their regular business 
functions. J hey sought a majority opinion in mak¬ 
ing the price at Avhich they could sell the milk, just 
as they must do Avlien they decide on any other 
Inisiness or policy. Their majority opinion became 
the act of the comi)any through the execution of 
its officers. Every other corporation operates in the 
same way. No eorjioration can operate in any 
other Avay. Clearly there is no violation of the 
Donnelly hiAv or any other luAv in thus. 
THE PUBLISHERS’ POSITION.— The publi.shers. 
on the other hand, all belonged to different com- 
jianies. They did not act as directors of a company. 
They met to agree on a price for their papers. That 
meeting, AA'hether fornietl as such, Avas just AA’hat 
Avas anticipated iu the laAV and defined as a con¬ 
spiracy and made illegal. 
A VIOLATED LAW.—Every business man knows 
that the Donuelly Act is being violated daily Avith 
imjiunity by the milk dealers of New' York and many 
other industries. It is one of those laws that may 
be used effectively to shelter the strong and influ¬ 
ential and to intimidate the Aveak. 
IMPROVING THE LAW.—An amendment to tin* 
Donnelly laAv is noAv proposed by Senator Lord to 
exem])t farm associations and companies from it.s 
fContinued on page 213.) 
