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Show Published Every Saturday GOODWINS WEEKLY PUBLISHING CO., INC. BY A. W. RAYBOULD, Business Manager SUBSCRIPTION PRICE: eludin' postage in the United States, Canada and Mexico, $2.50 per year, 'or six months. Subscriptions to all foreign countries, within the Postal $4.50 per year. Single copies, 10 cents. Payments should be made by Check, Money Order or Registered Letter, nay. able to The Citizen. Address all communications to The Citizen. Entered as second-clas- s matter, June 21, 1919, at the Postoffice at 8alt Lake under of Act the March 3, 1879. Utah, .City, 3 Phone Wasatch 5409. Ness Bldg. Salt Lake City, Utah. 311-12-1- MILK PROFITEERING EXPOSED B Y EXPERT DAIRYMAN jeorge E. Parkin, of 160 Vidas avenue, for i m twenty years a suc-- il dairyman of this county, with an establishment at 155 Vidas lie, now under lease to the Barrell people, gives a true version milk profiteering campaign now going on in Salt Lake, solely interest of the consumer and without solicitation of any tr. Parkin may be said to have qualified as an expert in all things jertain to the dairy business, because of his long and successful ience in conducting a distributing plant on the outskirts of the nd by reason of the fact that his services have been eagerly t by members of the milk combine. Recently he was offered i month to become manager of a certain large milk distributing in this city, and this offer was renewed last Monday. Ir. Parkin says that the milk distributing business in Salt Lake Stable. He avers it always has been profitable and is espe-s- o at this time when the supply of milk is almost double the it ordinarily offered for consumption in Salt Lake, because of f a market in outside communities. That the price of milk to )nsumer is not governed by this abnormal supply, is the belief . Parkin, and he says this is the reason that so much milk is spilled into gutters and down sewers and reveals the real really so much skim milk is flooding the charity booths of the city, ut, and herein lies the real status of the skim milk situation : that is skimmed, says Parnin, is bought by the dairies at the it price paid for butter fat, which is about 26 cents today, and it has been separated, the residue represents so much waste r and has not cost the milk distributors one solitary cent. In it away they are not charging off one cent of actual invest-exccp- t, perhaps, a trifling handling charge, he milk business has been profitable, says Mr. Parkin, for Also it is most y years to his certain knowledge in Salt Lake. profitable now, he claims, and to back up his assertion gives p example the Barrell plant at 155 Vidas avenue, which is oper-nto a capacity of 400 gallons per day and is selling milk in nd delivering to the homes, in bottles, at 10 cents per quart. ie Barrell dairy does not own a single cow ; it buys all its milk he producer! the farmer for which it pays an average price S cents a gallon. This dairy operates along the same plan as tfer dairies, says Mr. Parkin, and pays its wagon drivers a tee of $1.00 a day and allows 15 per cent commission on all his route, s collected by the wagon driver from customers on out with is no loss to the dairy, because each driver is charged amount of milk which he takes out each day and must make gallons, t that amount, whether it be fifty or a hundred the dairy. If a driver suffers loss through a customer it is ins own affair and it never comes back to the dairy to be 1 d to profit and Joss. Mr. Parkin says that the Barrell dairy is making a net profit of 15 per cent get it? net profit over and above all operating and processing charges, over and above all first costs of milk from the producer on the amount of money the wagon drivers collect each day, week or month, as the case may be, and turn into its coffers. This is an abstract statement. Lets see what it means: Four hundred gallons of milk cost the Barrell dairy, at an average price of cents to the producer, just $74. It is retailed to the consumer at 40 cents per gallon (10 cents a quart) and brings in gross receipts $160. This is an indicated margin of $86. But the overhead and the delivery cost and all other costs incidental to operating a modern dairy of this capacity must come out of this indicated margin. Mr. Parkin, who is a recognized dairy expert and whose services are worth $250 a month in these stressful times to the milk barons, says this dairy is actually making a net profit of 15 per cent on $160 each and every time the clock ticks the circuit for twenty-fou- r hours. Fifteen per cent of $160 is found to be just $24. And the Barrell dairy is reaping a clean profit of $24 every twenty-fou- r hours, from the sale of 400 gallons of milk which it is selling and delivering to the consumer at 40 cents a gallon. The milk combine is getting 50 cents a gallon for milk delivered to the consumer and says it is a fair price. This extra ten cents per gallon represents an extra profit of approximately 25 per cent over Parkins 15 per cent that is finding its way into the well-line- d pockets of the milk purveyors of this city. And yet, two investigating committees of Salt Lake citizens have said that the price of milk is not Of course not, not from the standpoint of the profiteer ; excessive. not from the standpoint of the business institution cringing and crying for a perpetuation of the old wartime miasma of inflated prices and riotous living. Mr. Parkin says 40 cents a gallon to the consumer is a fair price and one that will give the milk distributors a handsome, clear profit. He further states that 18 to 19 cents a gallon to the producer is a fair price and one that will show them a handsome profit even when on green feeding their cows in the stalls, instead of ranging them a month grass plots as at present. And if Mr. Parkin is worth $250 to the milk combine, how much more reliable do you believe his version to be than that of the alleged investigating committees who told you milk prices were not excessive? In 1920, up to March 16. when he sold out to the Barrell people, Mr. Parkin conducted his small dairy and bought his milk from the sold and delivered it to the producer at 28 to 32 cents a gallon. He of homes for 50 cents a gallon and made a net profit every month is not close to $300. And yet the price of milk today, in Salt Lake, excessive. ' The Citizen agrees and further agrees that it is, apparently, a very aggrevated form of robbery. 18 |