Evening star., 1939-04-09
Complexities of Dairy Industry
Due For Supreme Court Airing
Dealings Between Distributor and
Producer to Be Argued
By Blair BoHes.

! been raised. The national milk stabiliza-
ton policy is at stake.
The other protest cited by the Agri-
culture Departments report-overstrin-
gent health regulations as limiter of
market-will be aired at the District in
vestigation. The regulations here have
been effective since 1926. No milk pro-
ducer can ship his milk here for sale as
| fluid unless his cattle and his barn and
barn equipment have been passed on by
an inspector from the District Health
Department. Washington's regulations
are the highest in the country.
Complexities Pointed Out.
The Agriculture Department, however,
| is more in sympathy with its milk mar
keting control program than its protest
| against interstate trade barriers in milk.
In a recent report entitled Stability in
| Milk Markets" it makes clear some of
the complexities in the milk industry:
Stabilized conditions under which
| milk producers can sell their product
have become the goal OF the dairy indus
| try The story of the attempt to bring
order out of chaos is the story of grow
| ing cooperative relationship among
dairymen generally.
''Chaos has resulted during the transi-
| tional period from the simple producer
to consumer method of distribution to
the complex system involving interme-
| diate handlers. At first dairymen tried
through their own efforts to reach the
| goal of reasonable price and assurance
| of fair share of the market.
| Then new and unstabilizing factors
came into the economic picture of the
dairy industry. Dairymen found their
| own efforts toward achieving stability
were not enough. They began to cast
about for additional mechanisms to sup
plement their own efforts and extend the
benefits already achieved through CO.
operatives. Today milk control boards
established by State laws and Federal
authority provided for under the Agri-
cultural Marketing Agreement Act of
1887 are the result. -.
Price Shall Be the Guide.
"The Marketing Agreement Act pro-
| :,
in establishing producer prices, shall be
guided by the price which is equivalent
in purchasing power to that of base
period" The base for milk is the pre-
war period, August, 1909, to July, 1914.
If the purchasing power during this
base period cannot be satisfactorily de-
termined through statistics available to
the Department of Agriculture, an al
tentative postwar base period is set up
as August, 1919 to July. 1929, or any part
of this period for which purchasing pow
er can be determined.
distributors who buy milk from pro-
ducers under marketing agreement
program must pay, as minimum,
stipulated price according to the use to
which the milk is put. This price, under
the provision of the plan, may be
changed as the supply and demand of
milk warrant
"Other supplementary steps may be
taken to increase the income Of the
dairymen supplying a milk marketing
area Such steps may be the adjust
ment of freight rates overcharges or
questionable country station the rural
central point for milk shipmentS and
| terminal charges, if they exist; the pro-
! lection of producers against failure or
neglect of distributors to pay them for
milk; the checking of tests and weights
of milk sold to distributors; the verifying
| of accuracy of payments made to pro-
ducers and the prohibition of unfair
competition and unfair trade practices" I"
Who could glance idly at Bossy placidly
could be the cause of such q ramif1cation
| of economic controls?
The cows at the bottom of all this
number 25,093, 900. There are more cows
turning out milk in the United States
than there are people in Canada and
| what was Czecho- -Slovakia. Even today's
| COWS are fewer than the cows of 1884.
when an all-time high in American
milch-cow population was struck with
26931 900. Then there were 213 cows for
each 100 of men and women in the
United States; now there are 1872.
Production at High Level.
But If 1895 COWS are outnumbered by
1934's. production today is at an almost
record high level. This is due to the
plentifulness of feed supplies. Milk pro-
duction per COW on March was the
highest for that date since 1881, and only
about Is per cent below the record pro-
duction per COW for that date in $780,
The more the milk, the more the prob
lem.
The New York milk market, which will
be reviewed during the Supreme Court
arguments, is the largest milk market in
the world. Sixty-five thousand dairymen
devote their herds output to New YORK
| Citys metropolitan area. These cows
who give their all for the Gay White
Way and environs eat their way through
| life in six States-New York, New Jersey,
Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts
| and Pennsylvania. These are more cows
by far than it takes to supply score Of
other cities combined
About 1000 dairymen supply WASH
ington.