264 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



ization was formed for the purpose of enforcing any law; it was formed 

 for the purpose of securing a law that would protect the dairymen in 

 the right to sell his product for what it was. The law was secured, and 

 you know the rest. You know of the benefits it has been to you. The 

 beginning of the last fiscal year of the law saw a big increase in the out- 

 put of oleomargarine, amounting to as much as 100 per cent increase over 

 the same month of the preceding year. Complaints began to flow into 

 our office of the illegal sale of the products; merchants in the outlying 

 districts of Chicago came in, bringing samples of the product that their 

 customers had been induced to buy for butter; their trade in butter was 

 beihg ruined. The complaints became so urgent and frequent that we 

 took the matter of the enforcement of the law up with the proper authori- 

 ties, and in a way that the last six months of the year shows a 46 per 

 cent decrease over the same months of the previous year, instead of the 

 100 per cent increase, as in the first six months. It also resulted in the 

 sending of some of the worst and most persistent violators of the law to 

 the penitentiary, and of making others refugees from the State; and the 

 collection of thousands and thousands of dollars in fines; it has also 

 resulted in driving the illegal sale of oleomargarine pretty well out of the 

 city. Chicago is not the only city that has done this. 



Today State Dairy Commissioner Washburn, of Missouri, backed by 

 our organization, is making a fight to bring about the same condition of 

 affairs in St. Louis. For six months he has been trying to bring some 

 cases to trial, but so far without success. We must continue to assist him 

 in this fight, and we must also continue to maintain our vigilant watch 

 over the dairy industry for some time yet to come, for it has been the 

 history of oleomargarine from its introduction up to the present time 

 that, if left to itself, it has invariably found its way surreptiously into 

 the channels of the butter trade. 



There is one thing in this connection that I desire to call to your 

 attention. You are all aware of the passage of our pure food laws and 

 the provisions it contains; you are also aware that a committee was 

 appointed, by our Secretary of Agriculture, to pass upon and establish 

 food standards. This committee met a few weeks ago, and while they 

 conceded the right of dairymen to use a harmless coloring matter, they 

 failed to say what the nature and kind of the coloring matter might be, 

 and referred the matter back to the Secretary of Agriculture, who depends 

 for his information upon the chairman of this committee. This man is 

 Dr. Wiley, Chief Chemist of the Agricultural Department at Washington, 

 and his attitude during the past toward the dairymen has been very 

 antagonistic. Now, whether there is anything in this or not we do not 

 know, but so far we can see no good reason why the move was made, 

 but just so long as this man is in a position where he has influence to 

 make a ruling of any kind affecting the dairy interests, just so long will it 

 be necessary for the dairymen to be on their guard and be ready to carry 

 their case to a higher authority to obtain justice. 



The greatest and most important question for us to consider today i3 

 how to improve the quality of our butter product. If every dairyman 

 and buttermaker in the country thoroughly understood and appreciated 

 just what it means to the future of their industry by the making and 



