280 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



aside a law which was passed by Congress, and set it aside on the ground 

 that Congress has surpassed its rights in passing such a law, the Supreme 

 Court would simply be abusing its power in order to correct an abuse of 

 of another co-ordinate branch of the Government. That is, it would be a 

 case of "dog eat dog"; the Supreme Court would be as far wrong in setting 

 aside the law as Congress was in making the law. 



Another thing the Supreme Court called attention to was the fact that 

 colored oleomargarine had been declared a fraud in a number of cases by 

 the Supreme Court of the United States, and the cases cited; and, inasmuch 

 as the court had declared this article a fraud and had decided that the vari- 

 ous states had the right to suppress and absolutely prohibit it if they so 

 desired; that such an article had no ground to stand upon coming before the 

 court; that it really had no legal right to exist; that they had declared time 

 and again that the suppression of colored oleomargarine was not violating 

 any fundamental right of any person or persons throughout the United 

 States. 



The efiEect of this decision was to furnish an argument to our people in 

 Congress. It gave us not only the support and the recognition of the high- 

 est legal minds in the United States, but it furnished us new arguments so 

 that if the matter should come up before Congress again, the Supreme Court 

 of the United States, through Justice White, can be quoted in direct support 

 of the law, not only as a constitutional measure, but as a measure which is 

 right. 



There were three cases in which the constitutionality of the law was ques- 

 tioned, and the fourth case, in which the use of palm oil was under consid- 

 eration. The fourth case was not decided until last June; the oleomargarine 

 people argued that, inasmuch as the legal definition of oleomargarine 

 embraced animal and vegetable oils and fats, that they had the right to use 

 any kind of vegetable oil and fats and that palm oil, being a vegetable oil, 

 was embraced in that definition. The internal revenue department decided 

 that the palm oil used was entirely for the purpose of coloring, that it was 

 not a proper article of diet, that it had never been used in food, and the 

 quantity which they used plainly showed that it was used for no other purpose 

 than coloring. 



The oleomargarine people took exceptions to that and, while the lower 

 court decided for the government, they took this matter up and laid it be- 

 fore the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court took the same view the com- 

 missioner of internal revenue did, and the decision of June, 1904, declared 

 that the use of the palm oil added to oleomargarine constituted artificial 

 coloration and subjected such oleomargarine to a tax of ten cents per pound. 

 There was hanging on that decision a matter of almost a half million dol- 

 lars taxes, which had been paid by the oleomargarine makers into the 

 treasury of the internal revenue department in shape of fines. For instance, 

 Wm. J. Moxley, in the city of Chicago, two years ago made in the month 

 of February, 280,000 pounds of oleomargarine in which he put one-half of 

 one per cent of palm oil. The Government came into that factory, ascer- 

 tained from his books and records how much oleomargarine he had made, 

 and put in a bill for $28,000 for the amount of taxes under the law, and 

 Moxley was compelled to pay his $28,000 at once or suffer his factory to go 

 into the hands of the Government. The Government would have gone in 



