The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-01-04
Milk Board Makes
 Reply To Pierpont
Chairman Morris Terms Local PrOducer-Dealer's :, Petition "Awkward"- Differences Unsettled

The discussion between M. 10. board Oe milk control shows no signs of bringing about a settlement of the differences. Mir Piorpont's staetment which appeared in the papers does not meet with the ap- Droval of tho milk control board, and is answered by Chairman Morris in the following communi- cation addressed to Mir PierpQpt:
 "RepIying to your letter of Janu-
 "Your evasion of responsibility for your publicity made aspersi0ns on the board of milk control seems to put you in a most unfavorable position. Tn the sixth paragraph of your letter you, admit that though you hold a responsible po- sition, you are ready to repeat common gossip, giving apparent dignity to some irresponsible per. sons statements by your repetition. This gossip in fact fails. Your re- tusal to, comply with our demand that you either prove or retract your statement has put you in an- other very awkward position. You say that the names were given to you in confidence. Then you have either grossly betrayed that confi- dence by publishing everything but the proof or else the party who pretended to give you the facts was too cowardly to father his own libels, prevailed on you to do 1t for him and 50 used you as his catspaw.
 "The reason and the only req ,.A An aRnt of quotas as its estimate of the amount of milk which would be used by consumers in the fluid form in December was because the best statistics we could as- semble at that time indicated that figure to be the proper percent age. 1t was n shock to me when l received those figures, because I also had confused my mind, as many others have done, the percentage of current production which would be Used in fluid form, with the percentage of quotas which would be used in fluid form. Since the total of ali quotas in- lcIudes the production in the flush months, as well as that of lean months, 1t is, of course. higher than tie current production rate in the fall of the year.
 "No member of the board ever, so far as 1 know, promised that the percentage would not vary more than one or two points from 77 per cent. My belief and recol- lection on this point are confirmed by MT Templeton. Mir Rapport is absent from the office this week. He always heBitated even to haz- ard il guess at this anticipated per- centagc. but on being pressed did make fl guess, saying that 1t was only a blind guess made without adequate information. That Is quite different from q promise.
 "One other general statement made by you calls for attention, namely the reference to the ill., feeling aroused by your (my) ap- penrance and that of MT Temple ton at the Nov 21 meeting of our tyour) association The board has consistently taken the attitude that every person who desired to bring constructive thought to the prob lems with which the board has been burdencd was moro than well come. We have profited greatly by such constructive criticism. Oppo- Aition that was sincere has never provoked us. msincere and facti- tious opposition has at times dis turbed us. Those who deliberately sought to create iiI-feeling nt tho Nov 2l meeting have only them- selves to look to for an explnnn- ton of that feeling.
 We are a public board, per forming public duties. All of our records are public records. The facts you nsk for arc as follows:
 70 The total of daily produc- ton quotaS Is changing daily us diIatory reports come in. It would divert the office force from more urgent work to compile it daily. It wns 773,267 when the December figui cs were set. Quarts sold in Glass l were 4G3, 9G0 averages. To- tnii production cannot be given. 50 ouch milk is used on farms. Total marketed in month IS,A2G, 502.,
 "t2D Exemptions have not been granted to certain producer-deai- CTS who have admitted that they bought milk regularly from other producers. We have tried 10 find proper exemption basis for those .roduce dealers who have in fact acither called on others for sup plies when short, nor unloaded sur plus when they had 1t on. hand.
 "(3) The board did draft one form of an application for exemp- lion that included n $100 bond fea- ture. This form was submitted to the attorney general, who ruled that the board had no power 10 require a bond. That ended that feature.
 "(4) The control board does want to help the farmers. That was what the board was created for, It would be mistaken friendship if we knowingly made an npwisc rul- ing that appeared on its face to favor them, because it would re- act to their harm in the Ion run. Have you never had an injudiciouH friend whose kindness you learned to fear? In the long run