VERMONT DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 125 



tax law, it is the laboring men. When oleomargarine is colored it is 

 sold at the price of butter, or nearly at that price. When it is uncolored 

 it is sold at an oleomargarine price. The uncolored article is of the 

 same quality as the colored. It is just as nutritious. It is just as good 

 in every way. The only difference is nobody can be fooled into paying 

 more than it is worth. The representative of labor was in effect arguing 

 that the wealthy oleomargarine manufacturers should not be stopped in 

 their practice of cheating the laboring men by selling them a mixture 

 of beef fat, hog fat and cottonseed oil so colored that they would buy it 

 for butter. And he was claiming this privilege for his gay deceivers as 

 one of the natural rights of men. Oh Labor, what follies are committed 

 in thy name! 



One word went into the oleomargarine law which should not be 

 there. It is "artificial." The law provides that the ten cent tax shall be 

 paid upon all oleomargarine which has mixed with it any artificial 

 coloration which causes it to look like yellow butter. The word 

 "artificial" was put in upon the insistence of Senator Foraker of Ohio, 

 who threatened to oppose the bill if the change was not made. The Senate 

 was evenly balanced and the friends of the measure were compelled to 

 accept the amendment or see the bill defeated. It makes no difference 

 whether oleomargarine is colored naturally or artificially. If it is made 

 to look like butter to the extent that the average consumer is apt to be 

 deceived by its appearance and buy it for butter, it is a fraud. It should 

 make no difference whether the color is caused by a drop of aniline dye 

 or a bucketful of yellow beef fat. The word has proved a bonanza to 

 the legal fraternity, and it has caused a great amount of costly litiga- 

 tion. 



Immediately after the law went into effect the manufacturers of the 

 counterfeit undertook to evade it. With ample means to employ the best 

 chemical and inventive talent, they endeavored to color their product 

 in such a way that it would not be artificial coloration within the mean- 

 ing of the law. They undertook to color it by mixing with butter that 

 was highly colored with butter color and by the use of palm oil, a deeply 

 colored oil of which only a small portion could be used. The Com- 

 missioner of Internal Revenue, Mr. Yerkes, decided both methods to be 

 unlawful, and the lower Federal courts sustained him. Four of the cases 

 have been appealed to the Supreme Court. They were argued last 

 month and a decision may be handed down at any time. 



The constitutionality of the taxing clause of the act of 1886, with the 

 amendments of the act of 1902, is attacked. The first three cases were 

 criminal prosecutions under the law of 1902, instituted in the U. S. Dis- 

 trict Court for the Northern District of Illinois. One case has gone up 

 from the District Court of the Southern District of Ohio, and turns upon 

 the question as to whether or not oleomargarine under the law of 1902 

 can be colored by the addition of butter containing artificial butter 

 color. This is the first time that the constitutionality of the act of 

 1886 has been attacked in the Supreme Court of the United States. The 



