DAIRY AND SEED IMPROVEMENT MEETINGS. 20/ 



cheese, and any substance in the semblance of butter or cheese 

 not the usual product of the dairy and not made exclusively of 

 pure and unadulterated milk or cream, transported into any 

 state or territory or the District of Columbia, and remaining 

 therein for use, consumption, sale, or storage therein, shall, 

 upon the arrival within the limits of such state or territory or 

 the District of Columbia, be subject to the operation and effect 

 of the laws of such state or territory or the District of Colum- 

 bia, enacted in the exercise of its police powers, to the same 

 extent and in the same manner as though such articles or sub- 

 stances had been produced in such state or territory or the 

 District of Columbia, and shall not be exempt therefrom by 

 reason of being introduced therein in original packages or 

 otherwise." 



The oleomargarine people, or persons representing them, w^ho 

 are opposing the present attempt at national legislation, have 

 been very much opposed to this section. It might not be out of 

 place to call attention in this gathering, that, in the Plumley 

 case, the court had distinguished against the colored product 

 on the ground practically that it was an imitation or counter- 

 feit, or fraud. In the bill then pending, which afterwards be- 

 came a law, there is a clause specifically taxing colored oleo- 

 margarine, and which was not done before. 



The law of 1886 simply taxed oleomargarine. It was during 

 the existence of that law that the Plumley case was handed 

 down. 



It is a well-known rule that what the national government 

 taxes it recognizes as a legitimate article of commerce. A bill 

 then pending was to tax colored oleomargarine specifically. 

 It thus was being recognized as a legitimate article of com- 

 merce. It was then thought that, under this rule, if another 

 case went before the Supreme Court, the oleomargarine people 

 would raise the proposition that since the passing of the decision 

 in the Plumley case, colored oleomargarine had to be an imita- 

 tion or fraud from a legal standpoint, in view of the fact that 

 Congress had specifically recognized it as a legitimate article of 

 commerce : and that it would, therefore, not be within the 

 power of Congress to view it as a fraud, and that the goods 

 thereafter could be sold, irrespective of color, in the original 

 packages. To prevent this possibility the section above referred 



