The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-11-25
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, ID. c.
THE MILK SHORTAGE.

supply is just now a pressing problem
in many cities.
| Dairy farmers say that they do not
know how they are to continue milk
production at their present rate of
profit. The children's bureau has for
some time been urging that children
| between Is months and IL years of
age should drink a pintNand a half Of
milk day. This is much more than
is row being consumed, and the
mothers OF poor families, and even
those in ordinary circumstances, say
they cannot continue to buy even SO
much milk Is they do now, II the price
scars higher And while the price and
existence of the milk supply is argued
over and made a subject for strikes,
health officials are busily fighting for
greater sanitation in milk handling.
OF all the angles of the milk prob
lem only the question of price seems TO
impress the ultimate consumer. He
hears that the health department of
his town has banned milk that is not
subjected to the tuberculin test, and
he is vaguely pleased. if he reacts at
all. A week later he finds that the
price of milk is to advance two cents
a quart, and he is stirred to indigna-
ton, language, and occasionally, ac-
ton.
The price difficulty. as in other
branches of agriculture, is that the
farmers claim that they have not had
square deal. The dairyman never
knows when he sends his milk TO
market, exactly what he will get in re-
turn. If the demand for condensed
milk is cut down, as it is now because
less is exported, the condenseries take
less milk or shut down entirely, and
dealers in the locality have so much
milk offered them that the price to
tI1sa for ics 1ON n +, "a 60
there is often nothing for the dairy
farmer to do but take the proffered
rate. Milk is purely a local COM
modify. It can seldom be shipped
with profit more than a hundred miles
because of its bulk and tendency to
spoil. So that when condenseries in
New York release SO many gallons OF
milk it does not mean that a milk
shortage in the south is to be helped
at all.
Farmer Organizations Help.
Where the milk producers are or
ganized, as in the greater part of the
northeast and around the great lakes,
they are better able to find an outlet
for their product in such instances.
and to get a fair share of profits. They
claim that cooperative associations of
dairy farmers are the main hope for
the business. The farmer WORKING
alone and unassisted will always be at
q disadvantage in dealing with the
middleman, and g dairy farmers in
particular are rapidly getting dis
couraged
Jamestown, n. Y. is trying in an
o'her way to use cooperation to make
tie farmer and milk consumer con-
tented. The milk problem has been
made a political issue in jamestown,
and, as a result, plans are under way
to set up a municipal milk plant-a
city ownership proposition. With du-
OF al ira cd l.
cheney in full swing, jamestown hopes
1 to cut down the consumers milk Dill
and give the farmer a fair return.
But while the rest of the country
waits for jamestown to show what
city milk plant can do, producers and
consumers continue to squabble over
prices and conditions, with the prog
pect for the consumer that while milk
is still rising in price, it has about
reached a peak. If it goes much high
er, sales will be cut down more than
the business can stand, and the dairy
herds, which should be almost doubled
to give everybody in the country fair
share of milk, will be reduced because
of the lighter demand for milk. Since
milk prices began to rise In New York.
the health department announced that
the total supply of milk used by the
city dropped Is per cent, and in the
tenement districts milk consumption
dropped so per cent
Sanitation Costly.
With price wars going on in various
cities it is difficult to push sanitation
campaigns. They mean more careful
attention to production, and often
more expense for equipment and, con- !
sequently, the already harassed dairy
men are not enthusiastic. Still, health
departments are trying to impress the
public with the fact that while 1t is
desirable that milk should be cheap
enough to be within the reach of
everyone it is equally important that
milk. of all foods, should be clean.
Washington is one of the cities
where an argument over clean milk is
| now in progress. The capital has
fought for. good milk from the time
when people began to understand that
there was such thing as pure and
impure milk. Children of presidents,
| congressman, diplomats, and federal
| employees are dependent on the purity
| Of the Washington milk supply, and
| the health officer of the district is in
sistent that the government workers
and their families shall not have to
worry over epidemics caused by milk.
! Twenty-Five years ago nobody save
| a few scientists thought very much
/ about milk as a disease carrier, but
about that time Mr. Emile Berliner
inventor of important devices con-
nected with the telephone and talking
| machine. and for many years president
of the tuberculosis Society of Wash
! ington, began to be interested iii milk
Mr.. Berliner's baby nearly died, and
the inventor was convinced that inn
pure milk was responsible. He began
to inquire about conditions in dairies,
chances for bacteria to be transmitted
| from the COW and the mixer into the
milk, chances of infection from these
bacteria. Mr.. Berliner organized a
milk society in Washington and helped
| to get together the most important
| scientists and health experts in the
country for the Washington milk con-
! ference of 1907. He pointed out to the
people that one baby in four died in
Washington in it's first year, and that
undoubtedly impure milk was the
cause of a large percentage of these
deaths. The truth of this claim is
conceded now. Whereas twenty years
ago, one baby in four died. today with
a well guarded milk supply, the loss
mas been reduced to one baby in