62 OLEOMARGABINE. 



" Resolved^ That the Mercantile Club of Kansas City, Kans., protest 

 against the enactment of the law proposed in said bills, to the end that 

 just competition in the manufacture and sale of food products be 

 maintained." 



We ask your careful consideration of the same, believing, as we do, 

 that the subject is one of great importance. The sale of butterine is 

 already regulated by the act of 1886, and an increase in the tax would 

 simply kill a great industry, in which millions of dollars are invested 

 and many thousands of men employed. Therefore, we feel confident 

 that on examination you will find many more people benefited by the 

 furnishing to them of a wholesome and attractive substitute for butter 

 than could possibly be benefited by the giving of a monopoly to the 

 dairy interests. 



Yours, very truly, W. E. GRIFFITH, Secretary. 



Here are resolutions passed by the Commercial Club of Kansas City: 



KANSAS CITY, MO., COMMERCIAL CLUB. 



' ' To the honorable the Senate and the House of Representatives of the 



United States: 



"The Commercial Club of Kansas City respectfully represents that 

 it is an organization composed of over TOO business men of Kansas 

 City, Mo. ; that the business interests represented by its members 

 comprehend the principal jobbing and manufacturing plants of Kansas 

 City. The population of Kansas City and its adjacent territory, com- 

 prising one commercial city, is nearly or quite 300,000, and within a 

 radius of 100 miles there is a population of 3,000,000. Kansas City occu- 

 pies the tenth place in the amount of bank clearings in this country. 

 We have nine States and Territories that regard Kansas City as their 

 banking center. The commercial organization is constantly watchful in 

 advancing the commercial interests of Kansas City, and seeks to protect 

 these interests when threatened by adverse legislation. As an associa- 

 tion it desires to enter its emphatic protest against the enactment of 

 H. R. bill No. 6, which was introduced in the House of Representatives 

 December 4, 1899, by Mr. Tawney, of Minnesota, providing for an 

 enactment of 4 An act defining butter, also imposing a tax upon and reg- 

 ulating the manufacture, sale, importation, and exportation of oleo- 

 margarine;' that this measure, if passed, will build up one industry at 

 the expense of tearing down and ruining another industry, and will in 

 effect amount to the giving of a monopoly to the industry sought to 

 be benefited by such legislation; that the bill above referred to, if 

 it becomes a law, will reduce the value to the farmers and raisers of 

 cattle an average of $2 per head and a corresponding decrease in the 

 value of hogs. 



"The use of the fat of beef, as well as the use of thousands of gallons 

 of milk daily, and the other fats used in making oleomargarine, not 

 only increases the value of every beef animal, but every milch cow 

 and every hog, arid acts as an encouragement to the owner and raiser 

 of cattle and hogs to improve his herd and raise the grade of his live 

 stock so that they will carry more of this animal fat and will in the end 

 raise the standard and the grade of cattle and hogs throughout the 

 entire United States. The farmers and cattle raisers of the United 

 States are directly interested in such legislation as depreciates the value 



