New-York tribune., 1921-11-08
The Milk Quest
Experiences of One of the Long,Suf-
fering Consumers

ANA1A6 NOAiodAlOlS
To the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: After reading your editorial
this morning on the milk strike may
l, as one of the long-suffering con-
sumcrs, protest against making the
point at issue q question of whether
we will have higher prices and the
convenience of a house-to-houss de-
livery, or accept such radical change
as going after milk ourselves?
The companies do not put their case
as discouragingly as this, but appear
to be out for cheaper house-to-h house
delivery. Surely, in these days, when
even in the backwoods milk is dumped
daily on ones boat landing, it is not
too much to hope that in city of this
size we need not SO far backslide as to
rush the growler" once more--even
for milk. d
The experiences Of the last few days
have inclined me to question some of
the things I see in print more eagerly
than usual, for the comfort of so many
is at stake. Since the strike was de-
clared I have stood in line, not in
sedan and sables," but literally under
an umbrella, and with an extra large
strong market bag, at delivery sta
ton, and come away each time for tho
Monday"
AS we all know who have tried 70
make real old-fashioned cottage cheese
of this high priced city milk, it never
sours; but, nevertheless, it is, or should
be, OF too perishabIe nature to be
sold as fresh at the top price--plus
car fare--on the fifth day! Hence, this
morning, Friday, ! tried the delicatessen
shop around the corner
The foreign-born dealer who runs
this shop would not fill my empty milk
bottle at all, but sent me back homo
for pail and then would not fill that
till had made another. purchase! This,
although l was not stranger to him,
and frequently buy his yeast, bread
or cheese. Do you suppose such mer-
Shoaieo WOUi0 cuoQlQcI Ill tHt
of a bigger milk business just for
love of fair prices and fair play Il
there was no profit in it for them!
And if there was profit might it not
so increase as to make us very shortly
worse off than we are at present?
Ny deductions from all this are that
fresh milk is not moving as yet, and
that the patient public will have to
drink its way through the bottles OF
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, etc,
unless some public benefactor allows
US to catch up and get fresh start
by emptying all the old stock into the
river, or somebody changes all the
labels to read as they should.
l deduce furthermore that in spits
OF the milk company's printed an
nouncement increasing deliveries to
grocery stores" are not to date being
made, and lastly, that too much news
paper copy is being made of the "up'
per East Side residential section" and
its mad, merry ways along the various
milk lines. Is there any good reasoS
why we should not all share and share
alike, in this crisis, or must one drsti
like candidate for the poorhouse u
order to buy milk for ones old and
young and invalids without comment.
If the strikers would go out in tn,
fields and thresh out their troubles
with the cows themselves they woust
show more sense than in attacking tha
greatest and strongest of all our co..
porations--American motherhood.
AN OPEN SHOPPER
New York. Nov. 4, 1921