186 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



a slight yellow color, as has been the case wtih most oleomar- 

 garine put on the market since July i, 1902. 



It was tO' be expected that manufacturers of oleomargarine 

 would make every effort tO' avoid the regulations and restrictions 

 of the new law and that they would also use every legal means 

 to weaken tlie value of the law by adverse court decisions. A 

 number of expedients were resorted to by them, but the only one 

 that seemed to be effective was the use of palm oil in very small 

 quantities. This was successful in evading the spirit of the law 

 until a chemist was found who could detect in the oleomargarine 

 the small quantity of palm oil that had beeen used. 



Following the discovery that certain manufacturers of oleo- 

 margarine had been using palm oil, the internal revenue depart- 

 ment assessed against a number of them very large sums under 

 the feature of the law which requires the payment of ten cents 

 per pound on oleomargarine having in it any "artificial colora- 

 tion." These sums of money they have been obligfed to pay and 

 they are now suing the government for tlie return of the money 

 so paid, and these suits, of course, raise all the points that have 

 l)een urged against the oleomargarine lav/, and the determination 

 of them w^ill go very far towards settling the exact meaning of 

 the law and determining the future eft'ect of it. In the meantime 

 the make of oleomargarine decreoses still more because the man- 

 ufacturers are not using the palm oil now as it is alleged by the 

 department of internal revenue they were doing last year. 



The oleomargarine interests have also succeeded in getting a 

 case before the Supreme Court of the United States on appeal 

 from the United States District Court, Southern District of Ohio, 

 the determination of which will have a very important bearing* 

 on the future success O'f the law. While it is true that the law 

 has been a large part of what its supporters hoped for and that 

 the enforcement of it has been rigidly carried out by the internal 

 revenue department, and all the suits under this law so far have 

 been determined in favor of the support of the law, yet it is also 

 true that the butter interests should not now give up the fight 

 against oleomargarine, and must be warned against assuming 

 that the battle for honesty in the sale of both butter and oleomar- 

 garine has been won. The oleom.argarine interests are, as al- 



