The evening world. Newspaper, March 22, 1920, Page 17

e dollar you paid us. by the newspapers (quoting the District Attorney and the Health Commissioner) that the Sheffield Farms Company was conspir- ing to restrict milk production, that we were guilty of profiteering in 1918 during the war, and that we were making abnormal profits by goug- ing the poor consumers of New York City. These attacks on our company are not made in good faith, The men who make these state- ments know that they are misleading. I know that they are untrue and unworthy of attention. Yet in deference to the thousands of customers who depend on our service, whose confidence we have won through 50 years of fair dealing, I feel that these attacks should be publicly answered. We did advise our farmers not to produce an abnormal supply. Had we failed to advise the farmers of the market conditions we would have been unfair to them and have committed our- D's the past week you have been told . selves to the handling of a greater volume of milk than you would have accepted at any price. No good purpose could be served by encourag- ing farmers to produce a flood of milk that can- not be consumed and would inevitably result in decimating the dairy herds of New York State. Last year Europe wanted and bought a large part of this excess milk. This year they won’t buy, whether they want it or not. Here and abroad there are.twelve million cases of condensed milk stacked up in warehouses, representing the unused production of last year. To repeat this excess production would be a calamity. The farmer was not asked to curtail your supply. Under ordinary conditions there will be twice your needs during the flush season. To reduce the excess is a perfectly sane eco- nomic proposition. No one wants to see a repe- tition of the condition which arose in the West a few years ago, when farmers were burning grain for fuel because there was no market for the abnormal crop. Yet this is just the sort of situation our critics would create. 1 do not believe the fact that Sheffield Farms made $774,000 in,one year constitutes a crime. During the year 1918, when we were accused of profiteering because we earned that sum, our critics forgot that the price we paid was fixed by the Federal Food Administration, and also the price you paid. We have always made money. No business organization is worth a sou to the community unless it is operated at a profit sufficient to maintain itself and grow. But I believe we give more service for the dollars we take than any business institution in New York. We deliver eight ‘bottles of milk to earn one cent. Do you know of any other business that can show any- where near so smalla margin of profit? If we gave back each month the profit we made on the average milk bill it would barely pay the price of one street car ride. We doa large business. We operate nearly 1,500 wagons and trucks. This volume of sales THE EVENING WORLD, MONDAY, MAROH 32, 1920. Milk at '% of a cent - per quart profit In 1918 Sheffield Farms delivered bottled milk to your door for one-eighth of a cent per quart profit. We delivered eight quarts to earn one cent. On our total sales, including milk, milk products, 180 retail stores, the manu- facture and sale of ice, we retained as profit 2 and 54-100 cents out of each operated on a highly efficient basis makes it pos- sible to give you Sheffield milk at the price you pay. It could not be done without large volume. And I want to say here that Sheffield milk is better, is richer, and if you want official support for this statement I refer you to the Wicks report, which shows that we paid the farmers more for milk than any other company they investigated. Sheffield Farms has always made a profit. It makes money because it gives better goods and better service for the same price, and customers have come in increasing numbers ¢ach succeed- ing year. If I had the capital and equipment to handle it I believe I could have 75% of New York’s retail milk business in the next five years. We represent something more than a collection of delivery wagons. We have ideas about milk service and milk quality, and the public has not been slow in recognizing the fact. : In 1903, the year after this company was organ- ized, we did a business of less than $1,000,000. In 1919 our total was $32,615,816.99. On the day in 1902 when the Sheffield Farms Company was consolidated we sold 32,000 quarts of milk. To-day our daily average is nearly 500,000 quarts. I speak of these things to show how we have grown. And this growth has come in the face of the fiercest competition that ever beset a business. Had there been anything better to be had, or anything as good, this great volume of patronage would never have come to us. Had we been price gougers or profiteers, don’t you know that some one of the other milk dealers would have taken our trade away long ago? There have been some efforts to undersell Sheffield Farms, but as I look back over the years past I see the roads dotted with bankrupts who tried 'to sell milk for less than it cost. You accepted our service and our milk because the one was prompt and courteous and the other the best to be had. If you wanted milk without service we made it possible for you to get milk of the right kind and save the cost of service. You accepted our price because you found, by experience, that Sheffield Farms gave you more for your dollar than you could get elsewhere. We have grown steadily because we have been on the level with our customers and efficient. Every man in this organization is a worker, all striving to the same end: to be the best in our line, to serve the community well. Profits have come to us, but service has gone before them. No price gouger could live in the milk busi- ness; certainly one could never grow. When I speak here of Sheffield service I think of it in its broad sense. This service begins at the farm before the cow is milked and follows your bottle of milk to your door. This is overy- day service, working twenty-four hours a day. It was Sheffield service that demonstrated the commercial possibilities of Pasteurization. We built the first successful Pasteurizing plants set up in New York, and that New York is enjoying a supply of Pasteurized milk to-day is due to the initiative of Sheffield Farms. Sheffield service has been first and foremost in conducting research work in milk hygiene in this city, and has enlisted in its aid the services of America’s most noted scientists. Not only have we applied the results of their work to our own supply but we have given them freely to any others who chose to be helped by them. Sheffield service has exerted an uplifting influence on the whole milk industry of America. Yet in doing this you have not been taxed one extra dollar. Sheffield service has been made possible by the efficient manner in which this company is operated. Our country stations are built right. Our city plants are the largest and best equipped in the world. Our trucking problems are simplified by the intelligent arrangement of our city stations. Our plants and rolling equipment have been kept in good working order, so that they are always capable of operating efficiently. During the hours when our Pasteurizing machinery is not in use the power that operates it is used to make ice. It works all the time. There is no dead wood in this organization. No high salaried gentlemen who take something and give nothing. Everybody works. Every man in the place contributes to Sheffield service. On page 575 of the Wicks report you will find these words: “It suggests itself that no ordinary business could be maintained on a trading profit per dollar of sales so low as shown by the above This follows a table showing that our trading profit was lower than any other company the Wicks Committee had investigated. In a table on the following page the committee shows that Sheffield Farms paid a higher price to the farmer than the other companies. We paid a higher price because we bought the rich- est milk. We have undoubtedly the best milk service in America. We have always sold milk of a higher cream content. We have given our customers the benefit of the most advanced thoughts on milk hygiene. We have co-operated freely and gladly with every public spirited effort tomakea milk service more intimately useful to this community. We have always maintained a fair and equit- able price, and in spite of this you have in this town men in official life and out who make it a part of their daily routine to try to destroy, this institution. I am glad to be able to say that up to date my customers show no disposition to support them. LOTON HORTON, President. SHEFFIELD FARMS CO. : : New York _———SSa—————eEIIORQNRMlal““R [SSS a eS ew te