Republican farmer., 1919-05-02

Aside from the losses apprehended
 through the insolvency of the Farm
 CTS Dairy Co. the Bridgeport milk
 situation is far from satisfactory to
 the producers in this and adjoining
 towns by whom the Bridgeport mar
 ket is supplied. A decrease of near
 1y one cent per quart in the price
 as compared with last years rate
 constitutes the main grievance and
 incidentally there are others. There
 has been an increase rather than a
 lessening Tn the prices of hay and
 grain, and wages are fully as high
 as last seasons, so that the lower
 milk price is not warranted by lower
 production costs Besides the
 Bridgeport rate of 3-4 cents is the
 lowest obtaining in any large city of
 the state. For this discrepancy the
 explanation advanced seems to be in itself a sort of a puzzle difficult to
 understand. The Bridgeport rate.
 the inquirer learns, comes from the
 schedule established by the Dairy
 mems League of New York state,
 while the price ruling in other Con necticut cities are derived from the schedule fixed by the Connecticut
 Dairymen's League. Thus the New
 York schedule, after crossing the boundary, skips Norwalk, but finds Judgement in Bridgeport and nowhere beyond. It may be assumed that Bridgeport adopts it as a money saving device and thus gets by with a scheme which her sister cities did not try, perhaps I thew Ia rl o6 haps because of a belief that it would not work. Of course. neither league has the power to fix prices that are authoritative and compulsory in legal sense although naturally their i figures exercise a good deal of infu- 1 ence in determining the rates which finally prevail However, the attempt i to apply to the same territory disa- | greeing schedules proceeding from i different bodies must inevitably be i productive of confusion.
 l For the first time in a long period, l if not the first without any qualifica-
 tion, uniform wholesale rate now prevails in Bridgeport. The produc- i CTS find this another disquieting cir l cumstance, regarding it as they do IS | an indication that the dealers have | entered into a, combination to the i extent at least of a 'gentlemen's i agreement" To those who gave 1 financial support towards the start ] ing of the Farmers Dairy Co. this
 seems like the unlindest cut of all be- 1 cause the propulsive force leading to 1 the creation of that organization was | a desire to achieve independence of l the monopoIistic dictation of prices i rendered possible by a combination i of private purchasing interests. That i the Farmers Dairy Co.,, which was es- i sentially a cooperative effort, should apparently have become part of ! such monopoly makes it's founders mourn, but they are powerless to rem | edy matters as the company has pass l ed from the management of the 1 stockholders to that of the creditors 1 with a court receiver as the latter's representative. In what shape the i company will emerge from it's pres ! but the general impression prevails l that sale or reorganization will mean it's finish as a cooperative institu- l ton.
 Meanwhile local dairymen are en- couraged to hope for better days 1 from the enterprise to be started at 1 Bethel for the reduction of milk to l powdered form. This concern is en- | tering into contracts to pay eight | cents the year round and collect its ] own supplies which are conditions d i heap better than those offered by the 1 Bridgeport market. But for this promised relief a number of the Red 1 ding milkmen say they would quit 1 the business.