454 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



white or nearly so. Butter was yellow before oleomargarine was invented. 

 Yellow is the natural color of butter. The cow had been developed by 

 man until she produces milk at all seasons of the year instead of during 

 only the summer season. Before being domesticated she gave only 

 sufficient milk to support her offspring a few weeks in the spring and 

 the butter oil in her milk was yellow. Yellow is the natural color of 

 butter oil, and only man's development of the cow has made it necessary 

 to introduce artificial coloring matter in order to give butter its natural 

 color the year round. 



The oleomargarine people have persistently endeavored to emphasize 

 that they are representing the consumers of the country in an attempt 

 to secure a "pure, wholesome and nutritious" food product at a reason- 

 able price, and that the tax of 10c per pound on colored oleomargarine 

 makes oleomargarine cost the consum just that much more than it 

 should cost. They are, however, so magnanimous that they do not object 

 to a tax of 2c per pound on all oleomargarine. 



In addition to claiming that they are sponsors for the consumers of 

 the counfry, they contend that the dairymen are actuated only by selfish 

 motives in attempting to retain the 10c tax. In other words, they are 

 not satisfied with the present high prices for butter, but wish to create 

 such a monopoly as will allow them to persecute the consumers of butter, 

 a large number of whom would use oleomargarine if that 10c tax were 

 only removed. Of course they know better, but such claims suit their 

 purpose well. They advance them for the purpose^of diverting attention 

 from their real motives. 



They know, as all informed people know, . that the retail price of 

 colored oleomargarine is not regulated by the cost of production or by 

 the market demand for the product, but by the retail price of butter. This 

 is true whether it is sold as oleomargarine or as butter. It is sold for 

 two or three cents less than butter, whether the latter retails at 30c or 

 40c per pound. Under existing conditions yellow oleomargarine, which is 

 taxed only one-fourth cent per pound, is sold for a very few cents less 

 than butter, while white oleomargarine produced at the same cost, is sold 

 for 10c to 12c less than butter. 



How is the consumer going to be benefitted by the removal of the 10c 

 tax? What benefit does he derive when the inevitable result is an in- 

 crease in the price of oleomargarine just as soon as it is colored? Even 

 if the element of fraud did not enter in, how is the consumer to be 

 benefitted by a condition which results in increasing the price of the sub- 

 stitute for which he is clamoring (?). 



When even the most conspicuous and innocent appearing claims of these 

 people are analyzed, there is but one conclusion to which the intelligent 

 person can come, i. e., that the only motive behind their efforts is an 

 ulterior one. They want to make the task of committing fraud an easier 

 one. Instead of working in the interests of the consumer, they are striv- 

 ing to create a condition of affairs whereby he can be humbugged and 

 defrauded with even more ease than at present. 



