532 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



committee, known as the committee on rules and ask them if you can get 

 a day for consideration. When you consider the fact that in an ordinary 

 session of congress there are 15,000 measures introduced and not over 7,000 

 acted upon you see it means that only a small proportion of those intro- 

 duced ever see the light of day from the committee. When you get a favor- 

 able report from the committee they decide to let you come onto the floor. 

 Then you are dealing with 357 members of the house, and at the next 

 session, with the increased membership, there will be 387 members to look 

 after. You have got to have a majority of that 387 members. After you 

 have secured this majority and the favorable action of the house, after 

 every trap has been avoided and you have the bill through the house, you 

 have to take it to the senate and ask to have it referred to the senate 

 committee. If you are fortunate enough to have it referred to this 

 committee then you have the same work to do you had in the house, going 

 before the senate committee. You must bring your evidence before that 

 committee and convince a majority of them that your cause is just. If they 

 decide to report your measure and it is reported, you must see the members' 

 of the senate objects to that bill being disposed of, it can not be disposed 

 to have it brought before the senate, and when it is brought before the 

 senate at last you must have the consent of every member of that senate 

 to have the bill voted upon. So long as a single one of the ninety members 

 of the senate objects to that bill being disposed of it can not be disposed 

 of. So you see the manner of making laws down at Washington is com- 

 plicated and long drawn out. And after a measure has passed through the 

 gauntlet of all of these committees it gets kind of out of shape. If the 

 senate happens to make an amendment to the measure you have to have 

 the thing go back to the house again, concurred in there, then sent to a 

 committee on conference from the two bodies and have them agree on the 

 new measure. 



When we went to Washington in 1899 we had a bill formed, the vital 

 part of which was a ten per cent tax on all oleomargarine containing any 

 shade of yellow and sold in imitation of butter. There was a great deal 

 of discussion over the matter as to whether oleomargarine could be made 

 without some shade of yellow. Now yellow is a color pretty close to white. 

 Snow is white, and as a rule when you look at white paper you would say 

 it was white, but put it aside of the snow and you would see it showed some 

 shade of yellow. The opponents of the measure contended that all oleo- 

 margarine contained a shade of yellow, because part of the materials from 

 which it was made, viz. : cotton seed oil and oleo, gave it a shade of yellow. 

 We experimented in the committee room of the United States senate, 

 and the friends of this measure were obliged to admit that when this mix- 

 ture was compared with a piece of paper or snow or your shirt front, it 

 showed a shade of yellow. There were some members who claimed to be 

 with us but who decided that they could not go to the extent of placing 

 a tax on all oleomargarine that had a shade of yellow. But they were 

 willing to vote for a tax of ten cents a pound on all oleomargarine that 

 contained artificial coloring of yellow. This made it possible for the 

 oleomargarine men to produce their product from the natural oils and 



