286 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



ADDRESS. 



I. E. Burridge, Cleveland, Ohip. 



Any discussion of the benefits derived from the new law must 

 take into consideration the conditions preceding its enactment, 

 those immediately following and what we may reasonably expect in the 

 future. Anyone at all conversant with conditions in the great "interior" 

 markets of the country preceding the enactment of the law was, in a 

 sense, better fit to judge of the load the dairymen were carrying, than 

 those who are doing business in markets where oleo was not the prime 

 factor. And little as the interior markets of this country have in the 

 past been appreciated, yet they at that time exerted a considerable 

 infiuence upon the butter market and had great weight n the 'making of 

 prices and the using of the surplus. 



By the term "interior markets" we mean such markets as Chicago, 

 Cleveland,' Pittsburg, Cincinnati, St. Loui's and a few^ other smaller ones 

 which, at that time consumed comparatively little creamery butter, but 

 at the present time, are drawing considerable supplies. Great 

 as is the Chicago market, enormous as the demands are from New York 

 and other seaboard points, yet these alone, without the balancing power 

 of the other interior markets, would not have been able to care for the 

 enormous product that w^e have witnessed the past season. 



Speaking of such markets, for instance, as Cleveland, Pittsburg and 

 Cincinnati. In them oleo was "king." In Cleveland probably as much 

 oleo was sold as butter, while in Pittsburg and Cincinnati the quantity 

 sold was several times greater than that of butter. And we say, without 

 fear of successful contradiction, that in ninety-nine cases out of a hun- 

 dred oleo was sold not only for butter, but for the best grade, and a 

 large contingent of jobbers and dealers was supported by the oleo men, 

 and they in turn used every effort to place oleo first in consumption. 

 Their violations of State laws were constant. When arrested by the 

 State officers for violation their fines were paid by the oleo manufac- 

 turer — they were urged to go forth and repeat. 



In Cincinnati the business of violating the law was an organized one. 

 The dealers there in oleo were in a combine, every pound sold was sub- 

 ject to tax of one cent, which went into their protection fund, which was 

 used mostly to pay the fines of violators of the law. The scheme of pro- 

 tection in some other cities was carried to as great an extent as in the 

 Cincinnati case. Those interests w^ere thoroughly organized and their 

 influence was not only local, but extended to the State capitals in the 

 different States. Since the enactment of the new law the writer has had 

 from an employe of one of the largest manufactories in this country the 

 statement that the dairy and food commissioner of one of these States 

 was in the regular employ of his company and received his check on 

 pay-day the same as the other employes. This, of course, would be a 

 pretty^ hard matter to substantiate and can not be accepted as a fact only 

 when considering the source and when one is conversant with the nu- 

 merous other schemes used to affect and nullify the law. 



