28 OLEOMARGARINE. 



As 1 have said, 1 appear here simply as an attorney, simply as an 

 advocate, without a special knowledge of this business. Upon this 

 point, however, I can appear as a witness, for I know the condition of 

 affairs which exists in my own city of Providence. The State of Rhode 

 Island has a law which provides that oleomargarine when it is sold 

 shall be branded as such. That is all the law upon the subject in the 

 State of Rhode Island. The result is that in the State of Rhode 

 Island the sale of oleomargarine is a legitimate business. It is sold 

 as oleomargarine, and it is sold as nothing else. Our wholesale and 

 our retail dealers advertise in the papers that they have this, that, or 

 the other brand of oleomargarine for sale, and as you walk up and 

 down our streets you will see upon the placards in front of our grocery 

 stores this or that brand of oleomargarine at such a price. The busi- 

 ness is advertised as widely as it can be advertised. When you enter 

 the stores you will see the same signs. You will see the Oakdale oleo- 

 margarine or the Vermont oleomargarine or Swift's oleomargarine for 

 sale side by side with process butter, and side by side with creamery 

 butter, and it is sold for what it is. 



It is- undoubtedly the fact that at the inception of this industry 

 unscrupulous dealers saw an opportunity for large profits, and that 

 they sold this substance for butter. As district attorney of the United 

 States for the district of Rhode Island, I had occasion, twelve years ago 

 or so, to prosecute many such persons, and prosecutions were insti- 

 tuted and most vigorously carried on by the Internal-Revenue Depart- 

 ment of the United States. 



Under the stimulus of the possibility of a legitimate business with a 

 fair profit into which high-minded business men can enter, that condi- 

 tion of affairs has absolutely disappeared. I state, gentlemen, that 

 to-day in the one city with which I am familiar, as a result of the 

 fair treatment of this business, the business is conducted fairly and 

 honestty. This article is sold simply for what it is, as honestly as any 

 other article of food is sold for what it is. 



1 assert as a corollary to this proposition that almost every item of 

 fraud of which the advocates of this bill complain is due to the enact- 

 ment in very many States of unjust and unwholesome laws forbidding 

 its sale for what it is laws which have no backing in public opin- 

 ion, and which interfere with what otherwise would be a legitimate 

 business. 



Let me refer to what is the condition of things in Massachusetts, a 

 neighboring State which does forbid absolutely the sale of colored 

 oleomargarine even as oleomargarine. The condition there follows 

 perfectly naturally, it seems to me, from what we must all understand 

 to be the circumstances. We all know that there is no more universal 

 demand than the demand for butter or something to take the place of 

 butter. Butter is not a luxury. Butter is a necessity of life to-day, 

 and there is a demand on the part of all classes in the community for 

 a pure butter at a reasonable .price, or a pure butter substitute at a 

 reasonable price. Creamery butter is undoubtedly the best which can 

 be used or which can be purchased, but, as we all know, the great 

 mass of the community can not pay the price which is charged for 

 creamery butter. They go to the person from whom they buy their 

 butter in Massachusetts, where the sale of oleomargarine colored is 

 forbidden, and they tell him that they want a pure butter, a good but- 

 ter, at a reasonable price. 



