The sun., 1919-01-19
MILK COMPLICATIONS.
All I, Not Easy for the Middlemen
Who Serve the Fluid.

To THE EDITOR OF THE SUr-Sir. The
interesting and very fair editorial srti-
Gle in THE SUS OF January 10 raises
one question on which it Is desirable
that the public should have Information
on the milk controversy.
The milk business in New York has
had unique feature not generally
understood. The milk dealer. instead OF
buying what the ordinary purchaser
buys namely. what he wants for his
customers. agrees with the farmer to
purchase ali the milk which the farmer
produces for a given period. This ar
rsngeuent IS necessary because milk
Is hisnly perishable commodity and
any othsr basis would result in waste.
on tbs principle, for years past, milk
distributors have fixed prices TO their
producers, at which thcy agreed to buy
all tho milk produced. The old custom
continues, but now the Dairymens
League, instead OF the dealer, proposes
to fix the price. The dealer. in years
past. in fixing the price to the producer
naturally considered market conditions
and supply and demand The dealer
wanted to sell as much as possible OF
his milk to his customers and to have
little left over. which he had to make
into by-products such as butter. In
winter months these by-products IN
variably meant loss owing 20 the high
price Of the milk.
Tho league. in fixing the January
price OF S4.o1 a hundredw eight for milk.
disregarded utterly the law of supply
| and demand. or any other consideration
\ a.
ascertained by q Theoretical formula.
The price named was substantially the
same as In December. There is FAR
more milk produced IN January than
IN December.
Tho effect OF tho price flxed by the
Da!rymen's League on the dealer would
he therefore twofold: First, to require
the distributor TO keep up the Decem-
Der high prices, without giving tho con-
sumner the benefit of a lower price
which the increased supply Of milk
would justify second. inasmuch as the
consuming public would not at Deem
Der prices consume this increased flow
Of January milk, the distributor would
have milk on his hands left over which
would have to be made into butter at q
great loss.
The distributors fet that this price
Fixed by the farmers. dsrega riding mar
ket conditions and putting the burden
II loss from this arbitrary price upon
the distributors. was unjust TO the dis
| tributer and to the consumer For ek-
ample, the farmers asking price would
mean a loss 10 the distributors ON every
hundred pounds Of milk they bourh.
and could not sell and turned into
, butter at $40. These amounts wonld
increase the January losses into hun
dreds Of thousands Of dollars
Another aspect needs consideration.
! The condensed milk compa Meg in the
New York mill, belt are asked to pay the
same price for milk as the city distribu-
tiers. These condensed milk companies
compete with companies buying their
milk In other parts OF the country. In
Michigan. for example. tho current
| price for per cent. milk in January is
s334, The Da!rymens Leagues de-
nand here is 81 cents hundredweight
higher. The c,ndeusers declare that
they cannot pay such prices under com
petitive conditions and compete with
their more favored competitors and will
be obliged to keep their plants closed
us lonS as theSo ar"nc'al'y n'sn prices
continue.
The dealers and condensers who re-
fuse TO carry their losses created by
tho price fixing methods Of the Dairy
men 'e"sue "'o p'''u' {" !" some
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'e'p', w "''' e''"c' l"' '"E
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VI uo 90 ia' as Wv u''' '''"'e'S "' CUT
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