Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-11-02
MILK IN QUAKERT0WN
Philadelphia Householders
Resent Rise in Price.
MAKE THREAT OF BOYCOTT
Citizens Hold Indignation Meetings
and Voice Protest.
INDEPENDENT DEALERS ACT
Members of Association Said to Be
Frightened by Solid Front
of Patrons.
INDEPENDENT DEALERS ACT

While Washington hOuseholders, with
comparatively ! tt complaint are bearing
the burden of an increase in the price of
milk, in common with other elements in
the Increased cost of living. conditions are
vastly different in the neighboring city of
Philadelph a. Ordinarily characterized as
the abode of a peacefully inclined and
more or less phlegmatc people, the City
of BrotherIy Love a most has lost Its
right to flaunt that pseudonym before the
world and all oy virtue of this same milk
question.
Dairy men in Quakertown recently put
their heads together and decided that the
heretofore ruling price of cents Per
quart for milk should become matter
Of history, and chat a new rate of 10
cents per quart should be the standard.
The change was explained a necessity
in view OF the simultaneous advance in
the wholesale price of milk by the pro-
duCers from 41e to j11 cents per quart.
There was no doubt that great majority
Of the producers Of milk mot the cows
but Their owners mad united to force up
ward the wholesale price and the presi-
dent of the Milk Shippers Union, one
Charles S. Atkinson OF Good Hope. Pa,
was freely quoted ON the proposition that
there Is no longer profit to the farmers
IN sending milk to market at ~. cents.
Views of Owner Of Herd.
In one interview Mr.. Atkinson cited his
own case as fair sample. Said he: ''On
my farm of 100 acres l have a herd of
twenty-five cows, which. on a daily aver
age the year round, produces 10 quarts
Of milk l value the farm, buildings, cat
tie. etc. at $1,000. In former times cows
could be purchased at $50 apiece. Now
hoy lob
not so very long ago averaged $15 to SIC
per month and now hands are hard to z It
a $50 to SD. Besides that the cost of
feed is much higher, and farm lands have
Increased in value
My daily income from the sale of ITO
quarts OF milk at Az cents is s765. and
after all expenses are paid | have for
myself $3.50 as compensation for my own
iaDOrS and to represent interest on my
investment. Under such circumstances
milk cannot longer be sold with profit at
ne old price.
ia rly in October the producers of the
MIX Shippers Union determined that they
would sell milk y cents only until
November /. After that date the price
vas to he l cent more per quart Five
and one half cents or no milk was their
ultimatum and the dairymen in the City
of Brotherly Love and SiSterly Devotion
prepared to meet the changed conditions
by a coincident advance in the retail price
of the lactael fluid to 10 cents per quart.
Sit Up and Take Notice.
Philadelphians, heretofore somnoent. be
gan to sit up and take notice as the hands
Of the dairymen began to approach their
most valued possessions, their pocket
books and there was one grand Daean of
protest which could be heard cen as far
as Camden, n. ]. Boycott was threat
ened by househoiders when they were
notified of the new price promised for
milk. and citizens held indignation meet
ings galore. The Federation Of Labor
took a hand and urged the dairymen to
fight the proposed advance by the farm
ers. Nine cents per quart was suggested
as compromise measure. but ''S cents"
was the cry of the multitude. Tentative
advances to the producers brought no an
sWer, except a hint that cents per quart
might be accepted.
With wholesale threats of desertion by
customers the dairymen We're left in
position far from promising, because
dealers independent of the Retailers AS
sociation were promising to sell milk at
cents per quart from farmers independ-
ent of the Shippers Union. who seemed
ready and willing to supply milk at the
Did schedule-il2 cents. Farmers in the
Shippers Union declared the creamerieS
and condensories would pay AZ cents per
quart, and collect the product from farm
10 farm and thus give the producers one
quarter cent more than they were re-
ceiving from the city wholesalers. after
cost of transportation was deducted.
Patrons Present Solid Front
November l arrived and the Philadel-
phia dealers apparently We're frightened
at the solid front of their patrons. be-
cause only a few of them had the cour-
age to demand nine cents quart for
tleir milk. The others held to the old
rate of eight cents al the same time pay
f,,.r . dad -
five and one-haIf cents, though it was re-
peatedly declared milk could not be de-
Iivered at a cost OF less than three and
one-half cents.
And it is this chaotic condition which
obtains in QuakertoWn at the present
time with no immediate prospect of re-
cesSiOn. settlement compromise by
either of the three principals-the farm
-rs the dairynan or the public.