OLEOMARGARINE. 11 



Senator HANSBROUGH. Mr. Chairman, I wish to ask if there has been 

 any arrangement whereby a limit is placed on the hearing? 



The CHAIRMAN. There has not been any, and in the notice 1 sent out 

 1 said that we would hear gentlemen to-day, and to-morrow, and the 

 next day. 



Mr. GROUT. I simply want to say, gentlemen, that with this testi 

 mony the friends of the bill submit their case, and give the field to 

 those who are opposed to the measure. 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN (Senator Hansbrough). It is understood that 

 Governor Hoard is present and desires to be heard. 



STATEMENT OF HON. W. D. HOARD. 



Mr. HOARD. Mr. Chairman, I have nothing to submit at the present 

 time. I think it only fair that the men who are opposed to this legis- 

 lation should have the time. The proponents of the bill have had their 

 say before the House. I am astonished to hear one gentleman say that 

 he has had no chance to appear before any committee, because this bill 

 occupied two months last winter before the House Committee on 

 Agriculture. 



1 will only add that the bill is for the purpose of preventing the 

 counterfeiting of food, so far as the constitutional power of the Federal 

 Government can go. The Federal Government is limited in its con- 

 stitutional power. It has no right to enact prohibition. It has no 

 police power. Those things vou are as well aware of as I am. But it 

 has taken ground upon certain lines, like the taxation of State banks 

 in the interest of a sound currency. 



We believe this is a taxation of a counterfeit and a fraud in the 

 interest of fair dealing, in the interest of the consumer, and in the 

 interest of the producer. Here is a great army, between five and six 

 million men, in this nation who are engaged in one of the most impor- 

 tant branches of agriculture. Here is another great army of consum- 

 ers who are being defrauded and imposed upon. The one is being 

 swindled out of his rightful market and the other out of his property, 

 and they are both imposed upon by a fraud and a counterfeit. 



The question was raised whether it is not just as lawful to color 

 oleomargarine as it is to color butter. No. In one case the question 

 of color is a matter of taste. In the other it is a matter of fraud, a 

 vehicle of deception. In no instance is the coloring of butter a vehicle 

 of deception. 



I had a distinguished member of the other House ask me if butter 

 was not colored in winter to make the consumer believe that it was 

 made last June. That gentleman was a student of maxims, not of 

 markets. The cheapest and poorest butter in winter is that made last 

 June. The highest-priced butter is that which is not over ten days 

 old and faultless in character and flavor. In the butter scores at all 

 dairy fairs and conventions you will find in a scale of 100 that flavor 

 takes 50, color, 5. It is a question of taste with the consumer. 

 Senator Allen appears here with a woolen suit of clothes colored black. 

 It is a question of taste with him. He would not wear that suit in its 

 original color for any reason except that of taste. It was not colored 

 black to make him believe it was silk, or that it was linen or cotton. 

 It was simply colored to suit his taste; that is all. So it is with the 



