OLEOMARGARINE. 17 



is directly exercising the police power of the State. That is true if 

 it is true that the effect of the bill is to prohibit the sale of artificially 

 colored oleomargarine, and the advocates of the measure claim that 

 that is its effect, because they claim that only by the passage of the bill 

 can the State laws now existing which forbid the sale of colored 

 oleomargarine be enforced. 



Therefore I say that this act is, it seems to me, properly character- 

 ized as legally a dishonest act, a pretense, an act which seeks to do by 

 indirection what Congress can not do directly; and while it is upon its 

 face a revenue act, it is avowed by its friends and advocates to be an 

 act not for the purpose of raising revenue, but for the purpose of 

 regulating competition; an act which enables Congress to exercise the 

 police power which is reserved to the State. 



If that is true, that, it seems to me, is sufficient to condemn the act. 

 It is utterly in violation of principle, and if it is in violation of prin- 

 ciple, then no considerations of expediency are strong enough to justify 

 the passage of the act. That is the broad ground which we take. 



But we do claim much further than that that even though this act 

 were justified on principle, if it were not what we claim it to be, a sub- 

 terfuge, it is not just or expedient in its provisions. As the author of 

 the bill has said this morning, the chief opposition to the proposed act 

 has not come upon the first section of the bill, but the first section of 

 the bill is nevertheless for certain reasons very objectionable, and for 

 certain other reasons it may in the future be very dangerous. It may, 

 I believe, accomplish what even the advocates of the measure do not 

 desire should be accomplished. 



Of course every honest manufacturer of oleomargarine, protests 

 against the first section of the act because it places oleomargarine in the 

 category of those dangerous articles of food the use of which the State 

 by the exercise of its police power ought to regulate and does regu- 

 late. We claim that we make an absolutely healthful food product, a 

 food product which more than any other is certified to be healthful and 

 wholesome the one food product, perhaps, which the Government of 

 the United States makes it its business to see that it is absolutely 

 wholesome; and we object and protest against having that product of 

 ours placed in the category of articles which justify the exercise of the 

 police regulations of the different States. 



But I desire to call the attention of every member of the committee, 

 if I may, to the wording of the last part of the first section of the act, 

 which reads as follows: 



"Provided, That nothing in this act shall be construed to permit any 

 State to forbid the manufacture or sale of oleomargarine in a separate 

 and distinctTform, and in such manner as will advise the consumer of 

 its real character, free from coloration or ingredient that causes it to 

 look like butter." 



Every ingredient of oleomargarine causes it to look like butter. 

 Without the use of any artificial coloring matter whatever oleomarga- 

 rine as it comes from the factory looks like butter. It is in its natural 

 state nearly white, and ordinary butter produced at most seasons of 

 the year is in its natural state almost white. 



It may be very well claimed under the language of this section that 

 this section does permit any State to make a law forbidding the manu- 

 facture and sale of oleomargarine which contains any ingredient which 

 makes it look like butter; and upon the section as it stands we know 

 S. Rep. 2043 2 



