operating about 40 branches, having about 5,000 stockholders, and doing a gross business of approximately $7,000,000 annually. Mr. PARKER. Would you name the larger cities at which you have stations! Mr. HASKELL Boston, Providence, Worcester, Lowell, Lawrence, Fall River, Lynn, and Portland. Mr. PARKER. How long have you been engaged in the dairy business! Mr. HASKELL About five to six years. Mr. PARKER. And prior to that you had training at the Orono, Me.. State agricultural university? Mr. HASKELL Yes, sir. Mr. PARKER You import some milk and cream from Canada? Mr. HASKELL. We import almost entirely cream. The only importation of milk has been when we fell a little short of carload shipmens and we filled the car up, because we figured that came through Transportation free. ME. PARKER. You have creameries on the Canadian side? WZ. PARKER. How many have you? K. HAKOLL. We operate four plants in the Province of Quebec. kz. PiaKER. And at what stations are they? ML ExL. At Mellon, North Hatley, Magog, and Fitch Bay. Ko Praum. Are those in the vicinity of Lake Memphremagog? X: Exan. Yes, sir. Pix And you make your shipments to Boston, Portland, an farmac cities and Providence over what railroad? KEL. Almost entirely to Boston and Lowell, Mass. Pazza. Have you examined this bill that is before the comnutes at the present time, Senate 4126? Az EutILL Yes; not only have I personally examined it, but I. las jeen examined by the directors of our company. de Paxa. Will you state what your position is relative to the Fatons Crusions of this bill? At Zurn It seems to be the opinion of our people that the these jf the S is correct, and we surely would like to cooperate in The in path of the bill. The bill, as stated, seems to our people to Gernika inainst our stockholders and producers where we have Chefmeans in the Province of Quebec, inasmuch as we believe te bestedinta aced on their product is of somewhat higher stand than a wiced for from other sections. We would welcome an In that comparable with the inspection within the New X Zain. W you state whether there was any particular Pot won a far as the requirements for milk under this section 2 reize particularly provided time and money was given Zurement of the act. tomall. I am not just familiar with what section 2 covers. detide the scoring of the barn? A Paul. I: it does. If you will look that over. Mr. HASKELL. Our observation has been from the scoring done by the Boston Board of Health-and all our product is subject to their inspection that very few dairies would score up to 70. In fact, I think the Boston requirements are 50 for a passing score, and we doubt if very many dairies in the New England section would. come up to a 70 score. Now, that may be due to the different methods of scoring that I am not familiar with, but I am just taking my familiarity with the Boston Board of Health work. Mr. PARKER. Do you know whether there is any single standard which is used throughout the country on barn scores? Mr. HASKELL. Well, I assume that there is a standard used by the United States Department of Agriculture. I imagine that that is very nearly uniform. Mr. PARKER. Do you know definitely just what the points are or that? Mr. HASKELL. Well, I could not recite them to you. I know the principle of the thing. Mr. PARKER. You may state in general what the principle is. Mr. HASKELL. The principle of the United States dairy score which, as I understand it, calls for certain standards in reference to barn equipment, sanitation, air, cubic feet of air, light, whitewashing, the physical conditions of the dairy animals; and then they allow additional points for tuberculin tests. And that is the general idea, as I recall it. If I might be allowed to say one word in connection with that, our experience has been this, that some of the barns that might not score the highest we receive the very best product from, due almost entirely to the individual rather than to the equipment and animals. Mr. PARKER. In other words, you mean that with a very fine equipment which would give all that was necessary to the very highest barn score, the carelessness of the individual who operated that plant might bring a much higher bacterial content to the mill than you get in a poorer barn? Mr. HASKELL. That is very often the case. The CHAIRMAN. I have been impressed with that all through these hearings. I can clearly see how a man might technically comply with all these requirements and yet not have a high-grade product. But from your experience I would like to have you tell us at this point whether there is any way to avoid that difficulty, and if so, what is it? How can you meet the conditions that ought to be met to get pure milk? Mr. HASKELL. I think I will have to speak from the Boston Board of Health standpoint, because I am only familiar with their work. I think they have done a fine and an excellent piece of work with this United States dairy score card, because they have followed that up more or less with dairy inspection. After they have gone over and scored the barn, then they have spent several days at our plant testing each farmer's milk as it comes in, testing it for bacteria, etc., and I believe they have secured good results. The CHAIRMAN. If they find something wrong, what do they do? Mr. HASKELL. If they find a farmer who has a high bacterial count they first try to educate him and if they do not succeed in that they merely exclude him. The CHAIRMAN. Senator, what are you reading from? The CHAIRMAN. That is the section of Barnes Federal Code, then? The CHAIRMAN. Do you know where we would find that in the statutes? Senator LENROOT. Thirty-seventh Statutes at Large, page 506. The CHAIRMAN. Anyone looking it up would naturally look it up in the Statutes at Large. Senator LENROOT. Yes; then you have the citations. The CHAIRMAN. Read that section that you have just cited. Importation of neat cattle and hides.-The importation of neat cattle and the hides of neat cattle from any foreign country into the United States is prohibited: Provided, That the operation of this section shall be suspended as to any foreign country or countries, or any parts of such country or countries, whenever the Secretary of the Treasury shall officially determine and give public notice thereof, that such importation will not tend to the introduction or spread of contagious or infectious diseases among the cattle of the United States; and the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized and empowered, and it shall be his duty, to make all necessary orders and regulations to carry this section into effect, or to suspend the same as herein provided, and to send copies thereof to the proper officers in the United States and to such officers or agents of the United States in foreign countries as he shall judge necessary. Thirty-eighth Statute at Large, page 195. The CHAIRMAN. Senator, we do have a quarantine law, do we not, on that subject that also gives the Secretary the right to prohibit the shipping of those prohibited cattle? Senator LENROOT. I do not know as to that. The CHAIRMAN. I think we do. Senator LENROOT. I am coming to one with reference to diseased animals where we do not, I am sure, have such a law. The next one is with reference to convict labor, Thirty-eighth Statutes at Large, page 195: All goods, wares, articles, and merchandise manufactured wholly or in part in any foreign country by convict labor, shall not be entitled to entry at any of the ports of the United States, and the importation thereof is hereby prohibited, and the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized and directed to prescribe such regulations as may be necessary for the enforcement of this provision. That is Thirty-eighth Statutes, page 195, passed October 3, 1913. Now, that is on all fours with this case so far as unfair competition is concerned, because that was the only basis for that legislation, and, as the chairman knows, at every Congress there have been efforts made to pass that same provision with reference to interstate commerce, but none of them has ever passed. The next one is with reference to diseased animals: The importation of neat cattle, sheep, and other ruminants, and swine, which are diseased or infected with any disease, or which shall have been exposed to such infection within sixty days next before their exportation, is hereby prohibited. Twenty-sixth Statutes, page 416. Now, we have no like prohibition in interstate commerce at all. For instance, cattle having tuberculosis may be freely shipped and slaughtered at the Chicago stockyards, provided they originate in this country. The next one is the phosphorous-match provision: On and after January first, nineteen hundred and thirteen, white phosphorous matches, manufactured wholly or in part in any foreign country, shall not be entitled to entry at any of the ports of the United States, and the importation thereof is hereby prohibited. Thirty-seventh Statutes, page 83. Now, we have no similar prohibition with regard to interstate commerce, but, as the chairman knows, we have a tax provision applying to domestic production. Now, just one other word with reference to why interstate commerce is not included in this bill. If it were practical, I think everyone would be in favor of including it, but we have a very different situation with regard to interstate commerce than we have in regard to foreign commerce, and I speak of it at this time so that you gentlemen may consider that phase of it. With regard to foreign commerce, every import must be entered with a Government official. It is very easy to provide for the carrying out of this law as applied to foreign countries. When we come, however, to our interstate commerce, here are farmers right along the boundary line of every State, perhaps shipping their milk just across the line to some little town in another State, and to apply the principles of this bill interstate would require every farmer in the United States who lives along the border of a State to secure such a license as here provided. There is no such difficulty in regard to foreign commerce, because the importers are very few in number and it is very easy to take care of that. And when we do come to make some provision with reference to interstate commerce it is clear that we will have to provide some other means, because, in the first place, the cost would be so very, very tremendous to apply it to every farmer living along the border line of every State. For instance, the chairman's own State of Nebraska with its thousands of miles of boundaries and farmers living along those boundaries, I do not think anyone could be in favor of applying that provision to those farmers at Government cost, and yet I am hopeful that we will be able to devise some plan in the future that will enable us to apply the protective features of this bill to interstate commerce, but it is not practicable at the present time. The CHAIRMAN. All right, Mr. Parker. Mr. PARKER. I will call Mr. Haskell. STATEMENT OF WESTON B. HASKELL, AUBURN, ME. Mr. PARKER. Will you give your full name? Mr. PARKER. And your residence? Mr. HASKELL. Auburn, Me. Mr. PARKER. And what is your position and business? Mr. HASKELL. General manager of the Turners Center System. Mr. PARKER. Will you tell what the Turners Center System is? Mr. HASKELL. The Turners Center System is a cooperative organization dealing in dairy products with its principal office in Auburn, Me. It has sales agencies in the principal cities of New England, The CHAIRMAN. Senator, what are you reading from? Senator LENROOT. Barnes Federal Code. The CHAIRMAN. That is the section of Barnes Federal Code, then? Senator LENROOT. Yes; I said that. The CHAIRMAN. Do you know where we would find that in the statutes? Senator LENROOT. Thirty-seventh Statutes at Large, page 506. The CHAIRMAN. Anyone looking it up would naturally look it up in the Statutes at Large. Senator LENROOT. Yes; then you have the citations. The CHAIRMAN. Read that section that you have just cited. Importation of neat cattle and hides.-The importation of neat cattle and the hides of neat cattle from any foreign country into the United States is prohibited: Provided, That the operation of this section shall be suspended as to any foreign country or countries, or any parts of such country or countries, whenever the Secretary of the Treasury shall officially determine and give public notice thereof, that such importation will not tend to the introduction or spread of contagious or infectious diseases among the cattle of the United States; and the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized and empowered, and it shall be his duty, to make all necessary orders and regulations to carry this section into effect, or to suspend the same as herein provided, and to send copies thereof to the proper officers in the United States and to such officers or agents of the United States in foreign countries as he shall judge necessary. Thirty-eighth Statute at Large, page 195. The CHAIRMAN. Senator, we do have a quarantine law, do we not, on that subject that also gives the Secretary the right to prohibit the shipping of those prohibited cattle? Senator LENROOT. I do not know as to that. The CHAIRMAN. I think we do. Senator LENROOT. I am coming to one with reference to diseased animals where we do not, I am sure, have such a law. The next one is with reference to convict labor, Thirty-eighth Statutes at Large, page 195: All goods, wares, articles, and merchandise manufactured wholly or in part in any foreign country by convict labor, shall not be entitled to entry at any of the ports of the United States, and the importation thereof is hereby prohibited, and the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized and directed to prescribe such régulations as may be necessary for the enforcement of this provision. That is Thirty-eighth Statutes, page 195, passed October 3, 1913. Now, that is on all fours with this case so far as unfair competition is concerned, because that was the only basis for that legislation, and, as the chairman knows, at every Congress there have been efforts made to pass that same provision with reference to interstate commerce, but none of them has ever passed. The next one is with reference to diseased animals: The importation of neat cattle, sheep, and other ruminants, and swine, which are diseased or infected with any disease, or which shall have been exposed to such infection within sixty days next before their exportation, is hereby prohibited. Twenty-sixth Statutes, page 416. Now, we have no like prohibition in interstate commerce at all. For instance, cattle having tuberculosis may be freely shipped and slaughtered at the Chicago stockyards, provided they originate in this country. |