OLEOMARGARINE. 39 



per pound to the manufacturer, and with a profit to the retailer at the 

 lowest rate at which he is willing to handle it, because where he sells 

 his oleomargarine it sells in the strictest competition with other oleo- 

 margarine. Remade butter, renovated butter, process butter, resur- 

 rection butter, as it has been called, the method of manufacture of 

 which I understand the committee is to inquire into, it is shown, I 

 I think, by the evidence, can be produced for 13 or 14 cents a pound. 

 It pays no tax, and oleomargarine, which can only be retailed, as it 

 evidently can be retailed, after the payment of a 10-cent tax, at not 

 less than 21 or 22 cents a pound, has got to come into competition, if it 

 is sold colored, with this made-over, acid-treated butter, which can be 

 sold at a profit at 15 cents per pound. Therefore, colored oleomarga- 

 rine is absolutely driven out of the market. 



Mr. KNIGHT. I beg your pardon, but where do you get the figures 

 which show the price of renovated butter? 



Mr. GAKDNER. 1 get those from statements which will be made 

 here, if they have not already been made. My clients say that reno- 

 vated butter is sold to-day in the city of Providence for 15, 16, and 

 18 cents per pound, and colored oleomargarine can not possibly be 

 sold at less than 21 or 23 cents a pound if taxed ten cents a pound. 



But gentlemen will say to me that oleomargarine can still be sold 

 uncolored. Gentlemen, it can not. We come back to the old ques- 

 tion of the eye aiding the palate. The attempt to sell oleomargarine 

 uncolored runs counter to a law which is more universal in its opera- 

 tion and stronger in its action than any law of Congress a law of 

 human nature the law of conformity to custom. The people of the 

 United States have been accustomed to spreading upon their bread a 

 yellow compound. The manufacturers of butter realize it. The 

 author of this bill said here yesterday that he considered it was silly 

 and foolish and unwise for people to demand an artificially colored 

 butter; but he admitted that people did demand an artificially colored 

 butter, and that a butter which is not artificially colored, no matter 

 how excellent it may be in any other respect, can not be sold in market 

 to-day in competition with a butter which is artificially colored. 



It is exactly the same with oleomargarine. No matter though the 

 purchaser may be convinced that oleomargarine is absolutely pure, no 

 matter though his taste may inform him that it is palatable, if an 

 attempt is made to make him use it when it bears a color absolutely 

 distinct and different from that which belonged to the article which he 

 and his fathers have used for the same purpose he refuses to use it. 

 The illustration was used here yesterday with reference to the coat of 

 a gentleman. When the author of this bill was asked why the manu- 

 facturers of butter colored their product, he said they did it to meet 

 the demand; that they did it to comply with a law of conformity to 

 custom, and he illustrated it by saying that a member of this committee 

 was wearing to-day a black coat. He did it because black suited his 

 taste. 



If it were proposed to-day to a member of this committee that he 

 should purchase either a black coat of poor quality and high price or 

 a bright pink coat of the very best quality at a low price, the poor 

 black coat at a high price would be purchased and the excellent pink 

 coat at a low price thrown aside. It is silly; yes, it is silly; but it is a 

 law of custom which exists more vividly and with greater effect in that 

 which we eat than it exists anywhere else. We may violate it in the 



