(These letters are quoted from Success, April, 1905.)
IV
MUNICIPALIZATION OF THE MILK SUPPLY AND THE DANGERS OF STERILIZATION
“The real solution of the milk problem is not the supply of sterilized milk of doubtful purity, but rather the supply of clean milk from sources above all suspicion. The transport of milk from long distances under present conditions, as to cooling, transit, etc., may render sterilization all important, but the necessity for sterilization indicates the presence of avoidable organic impurity, and to obtain a naturally pure milk supply is the really important thing....
“If we municipalize water because the public health aspect is of such vital importance, then from the same standpoint we should municipalize the milk supply. We nearly all need milk—many live on it exclusively; its supply is as regular as the water supply, and its distribution demands even greater care for a longer time. The milkman calls more regularly than the postman and the milk bill comes in as regularly as the rate card. Like the liquor trade, the milk trade is a simple one, and the dividends of modern dairy companies show that it is profitable....
“We should bear in mind that, although under present conditions of supply any stringent enforcement of the most thorough sanitary regulations on farmers, or any distinct raising of the legal minimum of fat in milk, would certainly tend to raise the price of milk to the consumer, and any rise in price would be most unfortunate, yet a high standard of production and distribution is essential. The only way to get both low price and a better article is by means of the enormous economies in distribution, cartage, etc., which would at once result from municipal ownership....
“Finally, it has been shown that all successful attempts to solve the question have been those in which the aim has been other than the ordinary commercial one, and those organizing the supply have been interested in the public health, and in which there has been thorough organization on a large scale both in supply and distribution. These facts alone show that the only solution possible under modern conditions is that suggested by the municipal ownership and control of the milk supply.”—F. Lawson Dodd, M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., L.D.S., Eng., D.P.H., London, in The Problem of the Milk Supply.
Sir Richard Douglas Powell, in his lecture to the Congress of the Sanitary Institute at Glasgow, in July, 1904, said: “There can be no doubt that scientifically conducted dairy farms on a large scale, with urban depots for the reception and dispensing of pure milk in clean bottles at a fair price to the poor, would pay, and would be a most laudable employment of the municipal enterprise that is often devoted to matters of much less urgent public interest and importance. Apart from the primary benefit of affording a pure milk supply at a fair price, the object lesson to mothers and families in food cleanliness would be beyond price.”
Mrs. Watt Smith, an expert employed by the British Medical Journal, author of The Milk Supply in Large Towns, in her evidence before the Interdepartmental Committee on Physical Deterioration, condemned the policy of the English Infants’ Milk Depots, saying: “The milk comes from an uninspected source; they get it from a local dealer.... Then they sterilize that milk to make it safe. It is like purifying sewage to make it into clean water. It is not right.” Dr. Ralph M. Vincent also condemned the sterilization process for the same reason, and, in addition, insisted that sterilization impaired the nutritive value of the milk, causing at least one specific disease, scorbutus.—Report of the Committee, Vol. II, Minutes of Evidence.
Dr. George W. Goler, whose work in Rochester has been so much referred to, says: “For two more years the milk was Pasteurized, though considerable trouble was had with sour milk and in finding a man to furnish reasonably clean milk. After the first year four stations in all were required for the needs of four quarters of the city. Then, in 1899, we established our central station on a farm, and instead of Pasteurizing milk, with all its contained filth and bacteria, we strove to keep dirt and germs out of the milk, and began to sterilize all of the utensils, bottles, etc., and to put out milk that was clean. Clean milk, or milk approximately clean, having no more than 20,000 bacteria per cubic centimeter needs no application of heat to render it fit food for babies. Heat applied to milk alters it, makes its curd tougher and more difficult to digest, often gives rise to indigestion, diarrhœa, or constipation in the infant, and, further, the application of heat to milk in the operation of Pasteurizing or sterilizing leads people to think they may cure a condition that is more easily prevented by care in the handling of milk used for food.”—“But a Thousand a Year,” reprinted from Charities, August 5, 1905.