42 OLEOMARGARINE. 



Senator MONEY. Will you allow me to ask 3^011 a question ? 



Mr. GARDNER. Certainly. 



Senator MONEY. As I came in I heard you speaking about the 

 rights of the producers of butter, oleomargarine, renovated butter, 

 and so on. Have you said anything to the committee about the rights 

 of the people who use these things the consumers? 



Mr. GARDNER. I did at considerable length yesterday. 



Senator MONEY. P]xcuse me, 1 will get it in your printed remarks. 



Senator BATP:. The hearing will be printed. 



Mr. GARDNER. There were also during that same year about four 

 and a half million pounds of cotton-seed oil used, forming a very large 

 outlet for that industiy . I wish to call once more the attention of the 

 committee 



Senator FOSTER. How much oleomargarine was made that year ? 



Mr. GARDNER. Ninety -one million pounds. 



Mr. KNIGHT. Eighty-three million pounds, I guess it was. 



Mr. GARDNER. It is given as 91,000,000 pounds. I do not know. 

 If you dispute the report of the Commissioner I can not help it. 



Mr. KNIGHT. You have not got the right report. 



Mr. GARDNER. 1 have the report for the year ending June 30, 1SIM), 

 and I have read the figures correctly. 



Mr. KNIGHT. You have read the ingredients and not the product. 



Mr. GARDNER. In this connection I wish to call the attention of the 

 committee once more to the precise wording of the proposed act which 

 is before the committee. It authorizes any State to forbid by law not 

 merely the manufacture of any oleomargarine containing coloring 

 matter, but any oleomargarine containing an ingredient which makes 

 it resemble butter, or look like butter, in the language of the act. I 

 am informed that there is a slight tinge to cotton-seed oil which 

 makes oleomargarine manufactured from cotton-seed oil a little off' the 

 white, and which to that extent makes it look like butter. Therefore, 

 if this act is left as it is, it is going to have the effect, or it may have 

 the effect, if States see fit to comply with the terms given them in the 

 act, to forbid the manufacture of any oleomargarine containing cotton- 

 seed oil. I do not know whether any substitute for cotton-seed oil 

 which is absolutely colorless can be found or not. The bill would 

 make it perfectly possible for the legislature of the State of Vermont, 

 or the legislature of any State of this Union, to say, ''Manufacture 

 your oleomargarine if you can, but do not put any cotton-seed oil 

 into it." 



Mr. GROUT. Do you refer to the proviso to the first section ? 



Mr. GARDNER. Yes, sir. 



Mr. GROUT. That, allow me to state, is the language of the Supreme 

 Court in deciding the Plumley case, and it was incorporated into this 

 bill. That first section went through the House four years ago. It 

 was incorporated in the bill on the motion of Mr. Williams, of Missis- 

 sippi, who then said it made that section of the bill satisfactory to him, 

 and that language was taken from the decision of the Supreme Court. 

 It is Mr. Justice Harlan's language. 



Mr. GARDNER. I ask the lawyers on the committee to read that 

 section and tell me if the inference which I have drawn from it is not 

 correct. 



Senator WARREN. I understood you yesterday to say that butter 

 and milk also tend to color oleomargarine. 



