Book Description

Excerpt from A Study of the New York City Milk Problem In the month of September, 1916, the receipt of the daily milk supply of New York City was seriously imperiled. For more than a week, the producers under the leadership of their "association" had been on a strike demanding increased prices from the New York dealers. Much good milk in the possession of those seeking to deliver it to shipping stations was destroyed by the striking producers. A large part of the milk received during this period was not of a sanitary character. A deadlock was reached. The Mayor of the city intervened and tried to settle the dispute, but he made no progress whatever. The dealers were proceeding on the theory that the public would not stand for a rise in the price of milk and their profits were so small that a very slight advance in the cost of milk to them if they were compelled to sell at the then retail prices, would drive practically all of the smaller companies out of business. The producers were conscious that the price they were receiving from the dealers did not cover the cost of production and so were determined at all events to see the strike through. Beyond the interest taken by the Mayor, there was no authoritative assertion of the right of the New York public to receive its daily supply. The controversy was finally settled, but the public paid the bill. From this time on, the price of milk to the consumer was progressively higher until in November, 1917, but little more than a year from the time of the first strike, grade B milk rose from 9 cents to 15 cents or an advance of 66-2/3% over its former price. In the fall of 1917, controversy again rose. Public authorities began to take cognizance of the situation and the District Attorney even threatened to indict the leaders of the producers who were making what seemed to him to be exorbitant demands. It was reported that if the District Attorney should carry out his threat against one or more of the members of the Producers' Association, the cows would be killed and the milk destroyed. Again the New York milk supply was imperiled and again the controversy was settled by the New York public's paying the bill. Something more than a year has passed. In the meantime, the Federal Food Commission which had adjusted the price between the producer and the distributor during the war, after the armistice, discontinued its efforts along that line. Under the Commission the policy followed was for the dealers to charge their patrons just as much more for their milk as the commission permitted the producers to add to the existing price. Thus both the dealers and farmers got along very nicely at the expense of the consumer. But, in January, 1919, the first month that these two interests in the industry were left to themselves, on account of their inability to agree, a milk strike resulted. There were three conflicting factors in this strike, the dairymen's league, the milk dealers' pool and the New York public. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.