Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-06-10
TIE hILK QUESTION.
Will Bs Disessssl at Health Dsarl
 lleotint on 1uesday.

VIII " U1UGUuuoo " 00o1S0 Ooot0
 hsstint sn Tsssday.
 The department of health called at- tention to the fact that 1t will be in session at o'clock in the afternoon of June 13, when parties who appear will be heard relative to the passage of an ordinance regulating the sale and dis position of milk. This is important and the public should not leave every thing to the dealers. The consumers would make no mistake by sending a delegation there for the purpose of stating the case from the standpoint of the great army of people who are at the mercy of the men who sell milk. The milkmen are entitled to fair play, and as they are now thoroughly or ganized they are bound to have their rights if they have to fight for them.
 "They took dollar from us before for license" said milk dealer today, .'and made lot of rules to govern 0u. conduct What did all this amount to? When they found they had no right to charge for a license they refused to give back our money and we had to get along without 1t. The officials could wink at law made by the leg islature, but I suppose the milkmeR will have to knuckle down to anything the Waterbury board of health decides to do. I wonder how long will this thing last? Is 1t so that future boards will be bound by laws passed by the present body? I hope not. If li- cense will help to bring about better treatment of customers all around have no objection to it, but why charge milkmen for license when men are peddling all kinds of wares from one door to another without license. I can dispose of the produce of my farm across the street from the grocer on any of your streets and nobody says a word to me about paying license. don't know why anybody should stop me, and don't see why the dealer should be held up, either. Milk is commodity that everybody wants and the more restrictions you place on the sale of 1t the higher the price will go, 80 that instead of helping the people by making the handling more expen- sive, the board is simply putting up the price and doing nobody any good. Why don't they try to pass an Ordl- nance providing that man who takes your milk from one month to another and then refuses to settle will be brought into the court and fined. I suppose that's the dealers lookout. Why don't they say so to the con- sumer and remind him that If his milk is poor he has the privilege of chang ing from one dealer to another? No. they have no interest in anybody but the consumer. The dealer is made the victim of the law as well as a mark for those who want his stock and then kick about paying. It is the same thing in other respects. Look at what they are doing in the legislature about tenement houses. If they keep ,on working people will soon have to camp out. because 1t will cost so much to put up building no workingman can afford to rent tenement. Tenants and milk consumers laugh at all this and console themselves by assuring each other that these things don't con. cern them. Don't they. They are the ones who will carry the added burden. If 1t costs me more to handle my milk I'll have to get more for it. If land lord Is put to unnecessary expense in the construction of tenement house he twill have to make his rents higher. Where will all this money come from? It will come out of the pockets of ten ants and milk consumers, not from the landlords and milkmen as too many enormously suppose. It Is the public and not the dealers that is getting 1t in the neck and as consequence things have now reached a stage that a man with good salary cannot make as much headway as he could ten or fifteen years ago on half his present income. How do you account for this! :! Probably Chairman Rodman of the board of health and his associates will answer this with other questions when they meet to hear what folks have to say about an ordinance regulating the sale and disposition of milk. Yes, understand they. not only want to reg ulate the sale of the article. but they intend to tell you what disposition you shall make of it after 1t has been spilled into your pail on the back veranda. Oh, these arbitrary methods won't last long enough to harm any body. though I souldn't be at all sur prised if the present board made lot of trouble before they retire. Wasn't 1t an excellent thing that they were de- feated in their effort to hold onto their offices after January IF
 The mllkmen are angry and claim that if the board of health tries to rough it onto them they will not stand for it. If 1t Is going to be a case of everybody who does business on the public streets paying license they have no fault to find, but if others go free and they have to pay that Is an- other matter and the result will be a big battle. The objection raised by the milkmen brings up an old question. that Is that vendors of all kinds of merchandise should be licensed and pay something for the privilege of doing business in the community. While some don't like this way of doing things 1t has lot Of merit in it and if carried out permanent dealers and the public generally would profit by 1t. It is hard on a resident dealer who pays taxes on his stock to find himself in competition with transient who drops in at the busy season and disappears when it suits his purpose. If such people had 10 go 10 the city clerks office and take out q license and pay something for it. the public would profit something by their pres ence and when they got ready to leave .ss