OLEOMARGARINE AND OTHER IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. Ill 



[House Report No. 1854, Fifty-sixth Congress, first session.] 



The Committee on Agriculture, to whom was referred H. R. 3717, known as the 

 Grout bill, " To make oleomargarine and other imitation dairy products subject to 

 the laws of the State or Territory into which they are transported and to change the 

 tax on oleomargarine," beg leave to submit the following report and recommend the 

 passage of the bill: 



We are of the opinion that the people have ample cause for alarm at the tremen- 

 dous illegal growth of the oleomargarine traffic in this country during the past few 

 years, which now appears to have reached proportions beyond the power of the 

 States to successfully regulate or control, and the present Federal laws are apparently 

 altogether inadequate for the emergency. 



After carefully weighing the evidence and suggestions offered for remedies for the 

 regulation of this traffic we are constrained to hold that the provisions of H. R.. 3717 

 offer the best practical solution of the difficulty. 



We believe that the States should be protected in their rights to regulate their 

 internal affairs to the fullest extent in relation to articles of food which have been 

 adjudged adulterated or of a deceitful character, and we do not think that the inter- 

 state-commerce law of the Government should protect a deceitful imitation from the 

 jurisdiction of the State's laws, even if the article in question is in the original pack- 

 age and is shipped from an outsider into the State in such package. 



We find that the very foundation and cause of the enormous amount of fraud and 

 illegal selling of oleomargarine is in the great profits which are derived from the sale 

 of the imitation because of its absolute counterfeit of butter, which enables unscru- 

 pulous dealers to impose upon unsuspecting customers. These profits are sufficiently 

 large to cause the retailer to run the chances of detection and prosecution; and they 

 are further emboldened and encouraged through the guaranties of the manufacturers 

 of protection against prosecutions under the State laws. 



Thirty-two States, having four-fifths of the entire population of the United States, 

 absolutely forbid the manufacture and sale of oleomargarine colored to resemble 

 butter. These laws have been upheld in the higher courts without a single excep- 

 tion, and the question has twice been passed upon favorably by the Supreme Court 

 of the United States. Therefore, the policy of a very large majority of bur people 

 is plainly against the existence of the article in such counterfeit form. 



The tax of 10 cents per pound upon oleomargarine colored to resemble butter will 

 not deprive the manufacturers and dealers or consumers of any great amount of legal 

 right they now possess. Four-fifths of the colored article made is sold illegally now, 

 as indicated by the reports of the Treasury Department, and the only effect of this 

 tax, even were it prohibitive upon this class of oleomargarine, would be to prevent 

 the manufacture of an article the sale of which is contrary to the laws of 32 States 

 of the Union. This tax will bring the cost of the colored article up to a figure that 

 will take from it the possibility for the large profits which have been the incentive 

 to violate the laws of the State and Government and defraud innocent purchasers, 

 while the reduction of the tax on oleomargarine in its natural color from 2 cents to 

 one-fourth cent per pound will make it possible for the man who really desires to 

 consume oleomargarine to procure it at a much lower cost than heretofore, the only 

 difference being that it will not contain coloring matter, which not even the oppo- 

 nents of this measure claim contributes anything to its palatableness or nutritive 

 value. 



We believe the manufacture and sale of oleomargarine will continue under this 

 measure, and that those who desire a cheap substitute for butter will purchase the 

 uncolored article. The only difference is that the counterfeit article, colored in imi- 

 tation of butter, will no longer be accessible to hotel keepers, restaurant keepers, and 

 boarding-house proprietors at such prices as will be an inducement for them to deceive 

 their guests, as is now, we believe, absolutely universal w r here it is served, and thus 

 another class of consumers, who have been subject to imposition for more than twenty 

 years, will be able to know whether they are eating butter fat or hog fat when they 

 spread their bread. If colored oleomargarine is served it will be because it is better 

 and not because it is cheaper than butter. 



_ Serious conditions require drastic measures, and it certainly appears from the tes- 

 timony of those representing the producers of butter, as well as from the admissions 

 of the witnesses for the other side, that those who are engaged in this oleomargarine 

 traffic have absolutely no regard for State laws, and regard the public as their legiti- 

 mate victim, in whose behalf they resent the interference of the General Govern- 

 ment. The continued existence of such a condition we can not but believe furnishes 

 a demoralizing example to our people in trade, who are being tutored by this oleo- 

 margarine interest in the art of evasion and defiance of the legally constituted 

 authorities. 



