Evening star., 1919-04-11
Majority Are Interested.

OF course, to some housekeepers a
| quart Of milk is nothing more than
quart of milk, to be left at the door by
the early rising milkman and to be paid
for-with or without grumbling-at
! whatever rate the bill says. There are
! others, however-and they appear to be
largely in the majority-who take a per-
! sonal interest in the matutinal quart or
pint. They want to know it's parentage,
| as it were.
They trace it back to it's native
heath: they inquire more or less fire.
quently as to the health and we'll
being of the COWS that furnish it.
They talk it over at their club meet
| inGs at their mothers meetings. at
their home and school association
meetings. If at times it appears to
contain an undue portion of the ira
ditional peck of dirt the old saying
holds that each of US must ultimate
ly eat; they tell the health depart
ment about it, forwarding samples.
And most of all are they interested
in the apparent fairness Of its price,
iwholesomeness considered.
A straw. ballot of milk consumers
in Washington probably would show
an overwhelming preponderance OF
too high. even considering the high
laverage quality of milk distributed
there.
If Baltimore can have milk at IA
cents quart" they urge. there is no
reason why Washington cannot have il,
lat that price. 1t is not likely that
the health authorities of a city the
size of Baltimore are any less con-
cerned for the health and safety Of a
large part Of the city's population
than is the local health department,
$50 there can be no material differ
ence. as regards healthfulness. whole
someness, purity and food value Of
the milk sold there and that supplied
here. The two cities draw their sup
plies largely from the same terri
tribution costs for the two cities
cannot differ very greatly. Maryland
tdairymen buy their feed principally
from the Baltimore markets Yet
Baltimore has 14-cent milk. while
Washington must pay Is to II cents
or more for it's milk There's some
thing wrong somewhere"
Dietician Gives Views.
A nationally known dietician who
declined to be quoted, had this to
say:
Washington lies practically on the
dividing line between the south, where
scarcer the farther one travels toward
the gulf, and the north, where there
is now and has always been an abun-
dant milk supply. The National Capt.
tdl Is pretty ClOSS 10 ln0 aCIcdl mason
and Dixon line. To the south Of us
milk prices rise with a pretty steep
curve. During the past winter Rich
mond, Va, paid a minimum of 20
cents q quart for milk: Down as far
as Jacksonville, Fla, fresh milk sold
for 80 to IS cents a quart. At the
same time we were paying 18 cents
here. Baltimore was paying 16 cents.
But Philadelphia milk users paid 1S
cents and upward. and in New York
city milk was 20 cents. But just over
the East river, in Brooklyn, the same
quality of milk sold for IS cents. So
the Mason and Dixon line Of milk
production apparently cut little ig-
That. to my mind, shows there is
something wrong in the local situa-
tion.
NOW Baltimoreans are getting
plenty of milk for II cents. while we
are still paying from Is cents upward.
April l the Philadelphia price went
down to is cents. and May it is
cheduled for drop of another cent,
according to my information. Rich
mond's milk price is down to Is cents.
which is about the average for that
city for this season of the year. And
even in sub-tropical New Orleans, ac-
price Of milk has dropped to "A cents
for what they call grade A milk. To
understand the significance OF this
it must be borne in mind that the
| nearest real milk producing region u
New Orleans is in Tennessee. a dis
tance Of several hundred miles. 50
that it will be seen that while milk
prices both to the north and the south
of us were higher during the winter.
they are lower now than they are
here To the casual observer this
might indicate that there is pretty
close agreement among local milk dis
tributors and dealers, no matter how
they may appear to compete. Mind,
I am not saying that this is a fact:
merely that surface indications point
that way.