( Y)MMISSI0XER OF AGRICULTURE. 13 



in the United States was 850,408,270 pounds. When it is con- 

 sidered that practically all of these goods have gone to the 

 consumer in such a way as to lead him to believe he was con- 

 suming butter, the immensity of the fraud speaks for itself, 

 and the argument in favor of any scheme, whether by taxation 

 or otherwise, that will take the fraud out of the product need 

 not be made. The intent of the Grout bill, so called, that will 

 tax colored oleomargarine 10 cents per pound, is to tax the 

 fraud out of oleomargarine, but not to tax oleomargarine out 

 of existence. The people of this State are greatly interested 

 in having this done, for the reason that it will help us, so far 

 as the consuming public is concerned, to put matters on a basis 

 so that they cannot be deceived by these people who are at- 

 tempting to sell the goods clandestinely. The report of the 

 Internal Revenue Commissioner shows that all the money re- 

 ceived from licenses for selling oleomargarine in the State of 

 New York, during the year ending June 30, 1901, was $622. It 

 is, therefore, fair to conclude that what goods are sold here are 

 practically sold without license in defiance of the National law 

 and clandestinely, so that any measure which has a tendency 

 to take the fraud out of the commodity would have a proportion- \ 

 ate tendency to stop these clandestine sales. 



These figures also show that the manufacture and sale 

 is not increasing at an astonishingly rapid rate when the 

 thrift and enterprise that is behind the business is known. 

 The oleomargarine manufacturers are endeavoring to leave 

 the impression that these goods are sought for by the 

 people and that the increased manufacture was due to the 

 demand for the goods. One of the strongest arguments 

 of these people is to the effect that the manufacture of 

 these goods is a good thing for the dairy interests, be- 

 ciiuse statistics show that during those months of the year 

 that most oleomargarine was made the price of butter was the 

 highest, asking the public to reach the conclusion that the in- 

 crease in the price of butter was due to the fact that more 

 oleomargarine was made during that time of year, while the 

 simple truth is that when butter is higher the profit on oleomar- 



