OLEOMARGARINE AND OTHER IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. VII 



shall be fined not less than two hundred nor more than one thousand dollars and be 

 imprisoned not less than sixty days nor more than two years." 



One of the claims made by the friends of the Grout bill is that it will protect the 

 interests of the farmer. We call attention to the fact that every ingredient that 

 enters into the manufacture of oleomargarine is as much a product of the farm as is 

 butter, and that such ingredients are made more valuable on account of their use in 

 the manufacture of oleomargarine. 



Your committee has had before it representatives of both the cattle and hog raisers 

 of the country, and also representatives of the cotton industry, and they are unani- 

 mous in their opinion that their business will be materially injured and the price of 

 their product lowered by the passage of the Grout bill and the destruction of the 

 oleomargarine industry. 



The manufacture and sale of oleomargarine does not interfere with the growth and 

 prosperity of the butter industry. Statistics show a much greater percentage in the 

 increase of the production of butter than in the production of oleomargarine. Though 

 similar in ingredients, they are not strictly competing, as the oleomargarine is prac- 

 tically all bought by the poorer class of our people. 



In justification of this statement we have received a large number of petitions from 

 the labor organizations of our country protesting against the passage of this bill for 

 the above-given reasons. 



It being possible to keep oleomargarine in a sweet and sound condition much 

 longer than butter, it is also used extensively in the mining and lumber camps, on 

 exploring and hunting expeditions, on ships at sea, and by armies in the field. 



The claim made by the friends of the Grout bill that the manufacture and sale of 

 oleomargarine has greatly depreciated the price of butter will not obtain when it is 

 known that there is now manufactured in the United States nearly 2,000,000,000 

 pounds of butter annually, and it is positively known that there only were 83,000,000 

 pounds of oleomargarine' manufactured last year, which shows that the amount of 

 oleomargarine produced is about 4 per cent of the amount of butter produced. 

 Therefore, the argument that oleomargarine in any material sense controls the price 

 of butter is not justified by the facts. 



The manufacture and sale of oleomargarine have in no way depreciated the price 

 of butter, as more butter is being sold at a higher price in this country than ever 

 before, as shown by testimony. 



It is a suggestive" fact that those sections of our country which are most exclusively 

 devoted to the dairy interests are blessed with the greatest prosperity, as brought out 

 in the testimony of ex-Governor Hoard, of Wisconsin, before our committee, who 

 said that a few years ago land was worth only $15 an acre in that State, but as the 

 State began to be devoted more exclusively to the dairy interests land had rapidly 

 appreciated in price, and that farmers had gotten out of debt, had paid their mort- 

 gages, and the land is now worth the sum of $80 per acre, this price averaging much 

 higher than agricultural lands in other parts of the country. 



In conclusion, the members of the Committee on Agriculture who have joined in 

 this minority report beg to assure the House and the country in the most solemn man- 

 ner possible that it has been their earnest intention, and is'now their determination, 

 to do everything possible to be done to enforce the sale of oleomargarine as oleomar- 

 garine and to prevent its sale as butter. To prevent fraud and not to stamp out an 

 industry has been and is our purpose. We believe that it ought to be the sole pur- 

 pose of all legislation and the sole motive of all just men. 



J. W. WADSWORTH. 

 WM. LORIMER. 

 W. J. BAILEY. 

 G. H. WHITE. 

 JOHN S. WILLIAMS. 

 J. WM. STOKES. 

 H. D. ALLEN. 



[Substitute for H. R. 3717.] 



A BILL To amend sectipns three and six of an act entitled "An act defining butter, also imposing a 

 tax upon and regulating the manufacture, sale, importation, and exportation of oleomargarine," 

 approved August second, eighteen hundred and eighty-six, and also to define manufacturers and 

 dealers and to provide for the payment of special taxes by them. 



Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America 

 in Congress assembled, That sections three and six of an act entitled "An act defin- 

 ing butter, also imposing a tax upon and regulating the manufacture, sale, importa- 

 tion, and exportation of oleomargarine," approved August second, eighteen hundred 

 and eighty-six, be amended so as to read as follows: 



"SEC. 1. That special tax on the manufacture and sale of oleomargarine shall be 



