THE CASE FOR CHEAP MILK
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Like the " Next Five Years' Group," you accept the view that the milk supply must be under the control of a Board having a monopoly of the supply, and like it you only insist that the Board should not be entirely controlled by producers but should also include representatives of con- sumers. You overlook the fact that the ramifications and repercussions of trade and business are so infinitely com- plicated that no Board can possibly know how far-reaching will be the effect of its actions upon innumerable people, par- ticularly those small people who are unorganised and have no means of voicing their injuries. No man knows where the shoe pinches except the wearer, and the idea that the interests of millions of consumers can be protected by a few very worthy, well-intentioned and perhaps very able gentlemen formed into a Consumers' Committee, often with only an advisory but no determining power, or constituting a portion of a governing Board upon which they can always be out- voted, is mere moonshine. But beyond that point there is no need whatever for a monopoly of the milk supply. It is now well-established that the average cost of producing mill; is about 9id. a gallon, and equally well-established that plenty
of farmers can produce profitably at about 6d. a gallon. .Tt is obvious that the 6d. man can sell 3id. cheaper than the 90. man. If he were not prevented from doing so by the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1931, section 6 (3), the problem of cheap milk would be solved.—Yours, &c.,
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