The Milkman's Watered-Down Secret
A leaked letter from a diary hand reveals how Seattle milk was being diluted with water to pad wages in 1892.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Milk Inspector Crichton said yesterday that after investigating the quality of milk the people of Seattle have been drinking, he had come to the conclusion that the city as a whole has paid about $1,600 per month for water under the name of milk. He finds support for his opinion in the following extract from a letter found a few days ago on a road leading into the city and turned over to Mr. Crichton, the signature having been torn off: 'ORILLIA, Wash., Jan. 30, 1892. Dear Father and Sister: I am afraid if my arm does not get better I will have to quit milking. They only get about 12 cents a gallon for the milk now. We ship about forty-five gallons per day and about four gallons of that is water, or perhaps more. We have a dipper in the barn something larger than the one you have, and we put in eight dippers full of it in each ten-gallon can, so you see the water pays us almost our wages. I hear that the milk inspector spilled a wagon load of milk in Seattle the other day because it was watered.' Mr. Crichton yesterday condemned thirty gallons of adulterated milk and poured it out; he also condemned two bob veals.
“They only get about 12 cents a gallon for the milk now... so you see the water pays us almost our wages.”
Food safety and the economic exploitation of workers are perennial urban issues. Much like the 1892 Seattle consumer who paid premium prices for diluted milk, today's residents grapple with rising costs of living where the 'quality' of basic necessities is increasingly questioned by economic necessity.
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