CHICAGO MILK

Hokitika Guardian, 30 August 1933, Page 2

CHICAGO MILK

GOVERNMENT FIXES PRICES SELLING AND 1 BUYING CHICAGO August, 17; Great importance is attached to the Chicago milk agreement and the Court fight over its constitutionality. America for the first time freezes prices and guarantees profits, and later developments may mean the fixing of prices of milk arid similar commodities on a national basis. Chicago ' dealers to-day wei’e compelled to buy iniHc at a fixed price and sell it at a fixed ‘price. This is a sample of what can be done under the licensing provisions of the Agricultural Adjustment Act and th e National Recovery Act. About 75 par cent of Chicago’s milk is handled by the five large companies in the Chicago Milk Dealers’ Association, sometimes called the. “Milk Trust.” That group buys from the Pure Milk Association Co-operative, controlling the output of 18,000 farmers. The independent dealers have brought from 2000 other farmers and,, secretly, from some of the Cooperative members. It is stated that they paid the farmers as much as, or more than, the trust did, . although they sold at 6* cents as against nine cents. All was fairly well until 1932, when the farmers; losing their markets for, other products, began to pour in additional milk. Consumers, hard up, welcomed the cut prices. The organised industry had also to /.under-cut, so the co-operative, farmers received less.