The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-10-25
Price of Milk Starts
Nationwide Discussion
Fortune Magazine Maintains Profit Can Be Real
lied With Price Four Cents Less Than Present
Rate - Gives Proof of Claim

New York, Oct. 25.-Retail milk
prices can be brought down as much
as four cents per quart in almost
every American city, Fortune maya
zine will declare tomorrow in its
November issue.
Careful inquiry has convinced
the editors that the milk enigma
is not just another one of those in
durable ills of our times and that
the answer is, in fact, currently
being found in practice. 1t is now
possible to say that:
IF fluid milk is five cents to
farmers and twelve and a half
cents to housewives, then with
adjustments that will do no vio-
lence to present economic be-
liefs milk can be distributed so
as to bring the farmer the same
five cents or better and cost the
average housewife from nine to
perhaps ten cents at the outside.
In fact, ON Charge chain of
stores is in a position to sell milk
four and a half cents under the
average home delivered price
and still make profit.
In urging the necessity for a re-
adjustment Of milk prices, Fortune
will point out that the So, SOC, 900, 000-
a-year milk business is one of the
biggest in the country, accounting
for 10 per cent of all farm income
and 5 per cent of the entire ma
tional income from all sources.
Price Chief Fault
1.-THE trouble with milk is price,
Fortune will declare. Prom 1925
to 1896, per capita consumption OF
milk in the U. s. dropped SO per
cent, and it would be vain indeed
ito look elsewhere than to the steady
high price of milk to the consumer
for an explanation. In 1888 the
milk price index stood at 81, the
cost Of living index at SO, the food
component at 1873, clothing at 1928
and rent at 69.5.
Most Americans know that there
is a milk problem. They know it
because milk is continually in the
news, and the news is always bad.
ut is news of farmers who, hav-
ing MIXED the American COW, pro-
coed to dump chr product into the
country lanes in fierce milk strikes.
1t Is news of racketeering and of
upset milk delivery wagons in the
city streets. 1t is news of endless
Investigations into the milk trust
,"But behind the headlines Ameri-
cans know there is a milk problem
in a very practical and specific
sense" Fortune will point out. "They
know that whereas the farmer gets
between three and five cents for
his milk, housewives are asked to
pay from nine to Is cents for it..
They know that this is neither equit-
able to the farmer nor to the con-
sumner. They know that the aver
age American drinks 80 less quarts
OF milk each year than his minimum
health requirement.
Uns0lved Problem
American ingenuity and Ameri-
can business have a long record of
bring products such as the automo-
bile and the radio and a hundred
other marvels to the ever-larger
public. But in the case of the basic
commodity milk it, might be said
that the last great landmark seems
to have been back in 1893, when
pasteurization came into use.
And the problem of low-price
mass distribution remains unsolved.
"The one solid and immediate
hope that more people can get the
milk they want and need lies with
the store method of distribution,
Fortune will declare. with maxi
mum economies it is fair to say that
the store price of milk would be
at least four cents under the home
delivered price and at least two
cents under any home delivered
price that Is remotely possible.
why, then" Fortune will ask,
"are stores in some cities forced
by law to sell at the same price
that is charged for doorstep deliv-
cry? Why, in other cities, are they
limited by law to a one-cent differ
entail? Why, in cities where there
is no such regulation, do stores fear
to reflect the full differential in
their prices?
There must be powerful pressures
so to dam up the workings of a
supposedly free economy" Fortune
will state, proceeding to cite de-
tailed instances of racketeering and
government restrictions resulting
from "a type Of play in which the
farmer runs with the ball while
the union makes interference and
The big mill companies sit on the
bench and coach"
"On learning Of the appalling OBJ
to the sale of milk at low
prices, the first feelings Of the en-.
ragged citizen suggest that there
ought to be a law But one of the
thief troubles with the milk BUSH