MARGARINE 225 



It was also stated that all sales made by manufacturers 

 and wholesale dealers must be in the original stamped 

 package. It was stipulated that the retail dealer must 

 sell only from original stamped packages, in quantities 

 not to exceed ten pounds; that when sold by him, it 

 must be packed in suitable wooden or paper packages 

 which must be marked and branded as prescribed by the 

 Commissioner of Internal Revenues, with the approval of 

 the Secretary of the Treasury. 



Since the enactment of this law, the manufacturers of 

 margarine have used successfully certain ingredients to 

 give the desired color without the use of artificial matter. 

 Thus this butter substitute, or perhaps more properly 

 imitation butter, has gone on the market sufficiently high 

 in color to deceive the average purchaser, at a tax of one 

 quarter of a cent instead of ten cents a pound. 



It has been claimed that the high tax is unreasonable. 

 However, it must be borne in mind that the spirit and pur- 

 pose of this law was to permit the uncolored margarine, 

 which is just as nutritious as that product with a higher 

 color, to pass with a tax only sufficient to execute the law. 

 The margarine trade has been able to sell its product to bet- 

 ter advantage, when in such form as to deceive the public. 

 Because of this deception, which is apparent from the 

 following quotation, a bill was offered before Congress 

 by Haugen * which it was hoped would prevent the existing 

 unscrupulous sale of margarine. The following is a state- 

 ment by Haugen when introducing the bill that has sup- 

 port of the National Dairy Union : " The fraudulent sale 

 of oleo at the time the Government Bill was under con- 

 sideration in 1899, disclosing the fact that manufacturers of 



1 Haugen, The Dairyman's Position, N. Y. Prod. Rev. and 

 Amer. Cry., Apr. 12, 1916. 

 Q 



