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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1954-07-15, Page 2Editor's Note — the following carticle by Claude W. Gifford appeared recently in a leading United States farm magazine, The Farre Journal. Whether or not you agree with all the writer's statements or claims, seaway of which are applicable to a certain extent on this side of the border as well, you will at ,least find them thought-provok- ing. It's . about time that farmers looked at the "take" the middle- men are drawing out of the milk business. With milk producers suffering a big drop in income, these "milk middlemen" are doing better than ever. This includes dairy plant wage earners, home and store deliverymen, and dealer. This wouldn't be so bad if .these middlemen—whose job it is to sell milk—were doing a bang-up job. The truth is that milk outlets are partially paralyzed from abuses, dealer shenanigans, selfish labor encroachments, horse -and -buggy laws and regu- lations, and plain "dead wood" in the distributing business. It's time that somebody be- sides farmers listened to advice about cutting costs, culling, and selling and promoting harder. If we had competitive markets everywhere pushing milk sales from the small towns, up through the biggest cities—we'd have no surplus. The excess is only about 5% of our milk -1.7 ounces a day per person. Farmers can do something about this. You can do some- thing. The trouble may be no farther away than your nearest town—and if so that's the place to start. Farm Journal has become con- vinced of this after talking with some of the country's top milk m a r k e t men, government specialists, and farmer bargain- ing groups. The milk middlemen's gross "take" since 1950 has climbed :nearly a fifth, in 25 of the country's larger milk markets. Milk prices have dropped 3%. U.S.D.A, figures show this startling fact: the biggest in- crease in "middleman" incomes came in 1953 — right when. farmers' milk prices were hitting the skids. Milk companies were enjoying one of their better years. Dairy plant wages were never higher. Wholesale milk delivery men for a company in a well- known eastern city averaged $11,500 a year for a 40 -hour week, More than $5 an hour! U.S.D.A, figures show that typi- e ;al New York dairy farm -families worked for less than E0 cents an hour labor return last year. The dairy distributors—whose • job it is to sell our milk—are actually selling 14% less total :milk per person than they did in the depression Thirties.,.. And this while consumer incomes are at peak levels, and farmers are producing 'higher -quality milk. Middlemen are an essential • ;part of the dairy team, and in some markets they are doing a bang-up job, but in' others • it's another story. A. L. McWilliams, general manager of Chicago's Pure Milk Association, gets to the core of this problem quickly. "Too much 'Balk and too little action." As a busy director of a farmer bar- gaining group representing more than half of the farmers selling milk in the Chicago area, he erry ..,heesec Jtli? 1 O1WTIfer MAMMA EltE'S a delicious cheesecake all your fatally will enjoy. It is glorified with a glazed topping of cultivated bili t:>r}.ter, and dtl a$ beautiful to look at am It is delightful to eat. Blueberry -Glazed Cheesecakes (Makes if -10 servings) Crust: One and one half cups graham cracker crumbs, is cup eup melted butter. Combine crumbs and sugar Blend in butter, Press mixture evenly on sides and bottom of 8 -inch greased spring -form pan. Cheeeeonke it-1ixtuzrer Two 8Mounce packages creamed cottage cheese, 1 *up sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, 4 eggs, separated; 2 - tablespoons melted butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 1 cup thick, sour cream; 2 tablespoons grated lemon rind, Force cottage cheese through a coarse sieve. Add sugar gradu- ally, then flour When well blended, add egg yolks, ane at a time, beating until very light Add butter and vanilla: Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites. Stir in sour cream and grated lemon rind. When smooth and not bubbly turn into crumb -lined pan. Bake in slow oven 275 degrees F. 11/2 hours or until firm to the Witch Remove from oven and set aside to cool Blueberry 'Giese Two teaspoons unflavored gelatin, n/4 cup cold water, ' eups fresh, cultivated blueberries; 2 tablespoons. water, 'tlash.rhace, dash cinnamon, 3 tablespoons sugar. Sprinkle gelatin over the to cup water in small dish. Wash and drain blueberries. In saucepan, combine 1 cup of the blueberries and 2 tablespoons water. Bring to a boil Drain berries, saving juice. Press berries through a food mill or sieve in small saucepan combine strained pulp, juice, mace and sugar. Stir to blend: • Heat. Add gelatin and stir until thoroughly dissolved. Let mixture tchill until consistency of unbeaten egg whites. Then spread e've'rchilled u tberry cheesecake, served with s, beverage, makes sx v zsflet,- ful summertime eating e>kperlenee, cheesecake and top this taste -treat with remaining 1 cup of culit- veted.,blueberries. Chill until glaze is firm. Note: ilf frozen berries are used, thaw syad proceed as with frosl1L blueberries. i:f canned, blueberries are used, elrain.:snd eroceeel as with fresh berries. speaks with the conviction and experience that comes Brom in- fighting on a turbulent milk mar- ket. "There's only one way to get the job done—that's for farmers to pitch in and do it themselves." Do what? Dr. Roland W. Bart- lett, the University of Illinois crusading in i 1 k marketing specialist, answers: "Recognize a `dead' dairy market, wherever it may be, and do whatever is necessary to liven it up—ensake it sell farmers' milk." Just ask yourself these seven questions about your own mar- ket. They'll tell you whether the place to start is right in your own back yard. 1. Are your. dairies, the ones in your milk market,• promoting milk with vigorous advertising in newspapers, over radii , •'and with signs in - stores? If not, that may be the tell-tale sign of stagnated 'competition between milk dealers. Or perhaps a "dead -wood" company has the town "sewed up," ' Or dealers may be co- operating • backstageto soft- pedal competitive selling, or to set prices that will keep them all in clover. • Pricing or health regulations may have frozen prices—or may be protecting dead -wood dis- tributors by 'keeping aggressive companies off your market. Local farmers often applaud this, figuring that • it protects themfrom competition, too. 2. Can customers save money enough to amount to anything by carrying milk home from stores in your milk market? To make "carry -home" attrac- tive, the difference between home delivery and store prices needs to be two cents or more a quart, except in • little stores small towns. If there isn't this difference in your town, "middlemen" costs are too high. What's- .Worse, people aren't drinking as much of your milk as they would if they could hake this much sav- ingby going after their own milk. . A little over a year ago com- petition dropped store prices in • Cleveland from one cent below home delivery (in quart con- tainers) down to'five ' cents below (in gallon jugs). Milk consumption shot up 8% for the year—the biggest increase for any large city in the country. SI.OW.DOWh1 SIGNAL—This is something new which formers around Columbia hope will 'promote highway safety. The slow- , moving farm tractor flies a red' flag that warns approaching cars to slow down. Without the banner, the farmer's vehicle is often hidden from vow until a speeding. motorist Is on top of lt, The ,Missouri ljarmers' Association is furnishing the flag to all farmers requesting them, Yet farmers were gen�gore ems' per hundred for Class ;; is -:fluid milk! They .collected a half - million dollars more foz the year. In Chicago stores milk can be bought from four to seven cents a quart under single -quart home -delivery prices. In 1930 Chicago stores handled only 6% of the milk sold in the city; now it's near 70%. • The simple facts are that milk can be sold through' stores (in all but' smaller towns) at.,,sbu.-•. stantially lower' costs than wlien delivered from door to door. If your store prices don't reflect that: e • e The stores inay be chdrgin too much; maybe because they're" forced to. O The milk distributors may be dictating -store prices in your town. - es The milk -wagon delivery' union may be pressuring com- panies to keep store prices high. • Outmoded state price-fixing Iaws and regulations may have frozen store prices. In about theee-fourths of the nation's cities and- towns, a quart of milk still costs the same, or only a penny less, than for home delivery regardless of how Much you buy at one timer Why? 'Why not find out? 3. Can you buy milk at lower prices in half-gallonse or gallons? Or can you get discounts for tak- ing more than one single quart container per: delivery? ' "The important thing is that milk should cost less per quart for. • quantity sales — no matter what size package is used," states Dr.,- Leland Spencer, Cor- n e 11 . University's well - known marketing specialist: That's what happens in Fort Wayne, Ind,, where you pay 18 cents for a single quart. If you take two. quarts per delivery, the price is 16 cents; for four to six quarts, 15 cents a quart. In Minneapolis you can get a 2 -cent -per -quart discount on de- liveries of two or more quarts, Why aren't more markets pass- ing along this saving for quantity sales — which would encourage higher milk use? One Milwauke dealer reports that 70% of his retail route busi- ness is .in half -gallons. He passes along •a' one -cent per quart sav- ing; two cents if the customer takes 26 half -gallons a month. Quarts are going otit of the picture in Chicago, observes Fed- eral Milk Market Administrator A, W. Colebank. 67% of the milk there is already being sold in gallons or half -gallons •— at a good price saving, Yet May USDA figures show that less than half of the nation's 132 larger markets were selling milk in half -gallons or gallons at a saving under single -quart prices. Even then, the difference was often only a half -cent a quart. Why? 4. Can you find new products on your market? Lots of variety?—;such as flavored milk. skim milk fortified with dry- milk ry- milk solids, egg nog, new cheeses, and other new products In varying sizes and quantities? Such variety is a healthy sign -indicating spirited competition and aggressive promotion. Some distributors are offering a fast -selling milk containing only 2% butterfat and 10% extra non-fat solids. • It's going great guns under such "health" names as Zest, Zim, Champ. Cream is very poorly merchant ' 'dised on many markets — being both overpriced and of poor '.` quality. • 5. Are milk sales going up in your market? Or ate they stand- tntg still, maybe slipping? • "Fluid intik sales are terrific in Chicago," reports Carl Dey- senroth of the Milk Foundation, 1 this city of wide-open coni- 14rm Scott, pressman with the Wilson Publishing Company, while on vacation at Moira Lake caught this 9 - 11 - 13 - 15 - ? pcund trout after an exhausting str.lggie. Opinions as to the real doge differ but -we'd have !hove raughit' it, Arid so foul petition and high store sales due' to much lower prices, than home delivery .— milk consump- tion per person went up 4% between 1945 and 1949, when it was dropping 10% for the nation! 6. Are there vending machines and: milk dispensers on your market? If not, you're losing one of your best chances to sell more milk. Two hundred machines install- ed in Indianapolis and Chicago establishments (where milk was already being sold over the coun- ter) . increased total sales 60%, Lester Will, manager of the American Dairy Association, es- timates that if we could dupli- cate • the vending machine • sales of coffee and soft drinks, we could sell more than 7 billion half-pints yearly of milk and chocolate milk. That's half of our present surplus. Sy les in large schools have shot up phenomenally when vending machines were put in. Why? Simply because students could get uniformly cold milk easily and quickly. If all students could, it's estimated from actual tests that they would drink an average of a half-pint a day — more than tripling their present low 'intake. Aside from being good for the kids, this increase • is equal to a third of the- butter and • half the dry milk „now in storage. Many schools don't even have milk, and in many schools — maybe most — it isn't as well re- frigerated, nor as high quality, nor as easy to get, as it might be. How about your school? 7. Axe" labor restrictions and wage scales out 'of • line for your dairy plants or route delivery - men? If so, they're taking a bigger bite .than they're entitled to, and adding casts that hold down sales. Part of the answer in larger cities may 'be.jnilk sub -dealers -- those independent distributors who own their own- trucks,. and buy their milk wholesale from a dairy. Unlike milk wagon men on salary, these sub -dealers hus- tle up their own easterners, set their own prices where they can, and take their own profits. They often handle 50% to `100% more Milk in a day than a union driv- er. What if these. <seven, questions show that your. market doesn't treasure up? •" "Go to a source of the troub- le and see if it can be corrected. 12 not, give the matter wide pith - Hefty," advises Chicago -wise A. L. McWilliams, e Get your local farm organi- zation on it — or start a milk bar- gaining association. Either way, set up a committee with gump- tion enough to dig up the facts, no matter how hard they may be to get. Then plan some action. e Get active in your local ADA or Dairy Council, if you have one; contribute to dairy promotion, locally and nationally, e "Get your organization to take the lead in doing away with state laws that allow minimum price fixing to the consumer," urges Bartlett. He insists that these laws merely protect inef- ficient distributors, (You can still protect the price paid to the farmer.) At one time or another 21 states have fixed minimum consumer prices. Nearly a third of the U.S. population lives in the 13 states that still do. Bartlett argues that Milk Control Boards relying on- these laws have demonstrated that they resist change„ force'. consumers to pay higher prices, - slow up sales, and cut down on healthy competition in milk dis- tribution. Here's what's actually happening: Milk is 92' cents a gallon in Pittsburgh (where the state sets consumer prices), and only 60 cents a gallon in near -by Youngs - town, Ohio, where competition sets consumer prices. A difference of 32 cents a gallon! Yet farm- ers in the Pittsburgh milk shed get only five cents a gallon more for milk. • Bartlett cites 17 typical com- petitive markets where there is no price fixing. Store prices av- erage 3.1 cents a quart below home delivery prices. In 18 oth- er market, where state milk con- trol boards set consumer prices, milk in stores averages only a half -cent below home delivery. This boils down to the fact that there is much we can do about our milk markets. We can sell all of the milk that we're now producing. The obstacles are ar- tificial and can be overcome. Pro- gressive markets are shoving the way. Why not have yours join the parade? Working is the best cure for grousing. Remember the old saying; `.`A mule can't kick when pulling." MY St:OOi, L SON I;1 Rev. R. Barclay Warren, B.A.. 8.13. Growing Through Bible Study Alets 17.10-11; 1 Timothy 4:13-16; 2 Timothy 1;5; 2:15; 3:14.1'7; Hebrews 4:1.2 Memory Selection: All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for re.. proof, for correction, for instruc- tion in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thor- oughly furnished unto all good works. 2 Timothy 3:16,17. The study of the Bible con- tributes greatly to the Christian's growth. The people of Berea were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they receiv- ed the wordwith all readiness of mind, and searched the scrip_ • tures daily, whether those things were so. The study of the scrip- tures has an ennobling effect, It .should begin in early childhood. Timothy was fortunate in thus receiving the Word early. He also saw it demonstrated in the lives of his mother and grandmother. The Word of God is more power- ful than atomic weapons or hydro- gen bombs. It is sharper than any two-edged sword, piecing even to the dividing asunder of sou] and spirit, and of the joints and mar- row, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. The Word applied by the Holy Spirit will discover men to them- selves. Conscience is quickened and conviction for sin follows. The awakened sinner sees the precious promises inviting him to trust in Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour. He enters the kingdom of God by embracing some such promise as, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved," or "If we con- fess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteous- ness." Through the Word we enter in- to the way of salvation. We grow by continuing the study of the Word and using it to help others, As bread to the body so is God's Word to the soul. Let us -search it 4aily. NOW We Get Heat From The Sun Heat comes to us'from the sun across millions of miles of empty space by means of radiation. Radiant heat may 'pass through objects without heating them. Energy, or radiant heat, from the sun passes through the upper layers of the earth's atmosphere .without heating them Glass permits some of the short waves of radiant energy from the sun to penetrate, but not longer waves like those of a flame, If a pane of . glass be held before a gas flame, it will transmit only a little of the heat and will become very hot because it has absorbed much of this •heat. The reason is that the flame emits'e long waves, The sun's heat, however. passes readily through a glass - enclosed greenhouse; yet the heat from the inside the greenhouse can not escape through the glass. The short waves from the sun can penetrate the atmosphere but when they strike the earth they are absorbed and warm it up. The earth radiates longer waves which are mostly absorbed by the surrounding atmosphere. If the atmosphere were not present we would burn to death during the day and freeze to death at night. BUT WHAT TIME IS IT? -1t could be a most any time at all, if you had this clock, and the knowledge necessary to interpret its indications. Displayed in Paris, Prance, by inventor P. J. Senac; the instrument is set to give, for 100 years, the follow- • ing. :information: bay, date, month and year; occurence of Easter; phases of•the'moon, sidreal and mean solar time; predictions of approaching lunar ilea *solar eclipses« . •