The problem of securing an adequate supply of pure milk for cities has for a long time been the subject of serious consideration. This commodity is such an essential food in the dietary of every household, and at the same time is so highly perishable, so easily contaminated, and so dangerous as a medium for carrying disease that the duty to safeguard its purity and wholesomeness has been recognized in most large centers. It is true that the problem has most generally been viewed from the standpoint of sociology. The economic phases of the problem have until recently remained in the background. So long as there remained large sections of the producing field unexploited, and so long as the distributive organization was on a competitive price basis, the economic problems of milk production and distribution never were acute. Evidences of the impending struggle appeared in the conditions in Boston and New York, where investigations were deemed necessary to break the growing monopolistic power of the milk dealers. It may now be seen that these were only preliminary to the crisis that occurred during the summer and autumn of I9I7. This crisis developed in various large cities from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and led to many investigations.