VERMONT DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 1 27 



reached 126,000,000 pounds in round numbers. That year was excep- 

 tional. The manufacturers crowded production to the fullest extent in 

 order to get their product on the market before the ten cent tax law 

 should go into effect. The reduction in annual product caused by the 

 new law is apparently 53,000,000 pounds; 67,000,000 pounds of uncolored 

 oleomargarine made and sold in a single year in spite of the fact that 

 the oleomargarine lobby told Congress that nobody would buy the 

 -uncolored article. Not only that, but the 67,000,000 pounds were sold to 

 the poorer classes in this country for five and six cents per pound less 

 than if it had been colored. The people who wanted a cheap substitute 

 for butter got it. It carried a white face and was not as good as butter, 

 but it was honest. It carried no yellow flag, claiming the cow as its 

 mother, but stood upon its merits as lard and tallow and cottonseed 

 oil and moved into the society of legitimate products acknowledging the 

 parentage of hogs and steers. 



There is a place for oleomargarine. Nobody disputes it. It is not as 

 digestible as butter, but it can be digested. It costs less than butter. 

 But it has no moral rights in the market when it is a deceptive counter- 

 feit of a more generally desired and more valuable article, and it should 

 have no legal rights. The ten cent tax law was intended as a prohibition 

 tipon butter counterfeits colored to look like butter. The taxing power 

 of the government was invoked to stop a fraud, and it has pretty nearly 

 stopped it. The American courts have fairly grounded the principle 

 which lies at the base of the anti-color laws of the States. These laws 

 are not class legislation. It is true that all these laws have been passed 

 in obedience to the demands of the farmers of the country, but when 

 they reach the courts they are beyond the reach of class appeals and 

 are decided upon constitutional grounds and the principles of the com- 

 mon law. The Supreme Court of Ohio, the Supreme Court of New 

 York, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the Supreme Court of 

 Missouri and the Supreme Court of Minnesota have affirmed the 

 constitutionality of the laws of these States which flatly prohibit the 

 manufacture and sale of oleomargarine colored to look like butter. 

 The farmer has a right to demand protection from fraudulent com- 

 petition. It is exasperating to be told in Congress and elsewhere by 

 men who are sincere that we are asking for class legislation. If there 

 is any class of men that does not seek and does not get class legislation, 

 it is the men who till the soil of the nation. A wave of rage and disgust 

 ran along the line of metropolitan dailies from the Atlantic to the 

 Pacific when the last Congress failed to yield to the oleomargarine lobby 

 and stood up squarely for honesty in trade. The farmers were charged 

 with having looked after their own interests, and for once the charge 

 was true. The men who make 1,500,000,000 pounds of honest butter 

 every year by hard work were tired of the competition of a dishonest 

 product, costing less than half as much per pound and stealing the 

 color of butter for the purpose of robbing the purchaser. 



Talk about class legislation! The law against picking pockets is class 



