OLEOMARGARINE. 109 



February 20 last taxing process butter as follows: Manufacturers, $600 

 per year; wholesalers, $480 per year; retailers, $48 per year; and the 

 butter 2 cents per pound. This would virtually prohibit the sale of 

 that kind of butter. I get on hand a lot of butter same as other mer- 

 chants, and it will get stale; it is then bought up by parties who thor- 

 oughly work it over, taking out all the milk, resalting it, and place it 

 in cold storage till butter gets scarce, then it finds a market. There 

 are times of the year when butter is very plenty, and if we could not 

 dispose of it we could not pay the farmers anything for it. As it is, 

 these parties pay us from 10 to 14 cents a pound for rancid butter. I 

 suppose I sell during the year as much as 5,000 pounds of that kind of 

 butter, and when this bill is called up you would favor this district by 

 voting against it, not only for the benefit of the merchants, but the 

 farmers also, who would not have a market for their surplus butter. 

 "Respectfullv. yours, 



"JOHN F. DEPKE." 



Mr. SPRINGER. What is process butter? It is butter that has been 

 shipped out to dealers and by being kept long on hand has become 

 rancid and unfit for sale. The dealers then send it back to the manu- 

 facturing centers, where it is collected in immense quantities and put 

 through chemical processes and worked over again and made into a 

 butter that goes out and takes the place of dairy butter and creamery 

 butter. I think here is a place for Congress if Congress wants to 

 look after a fraud to look after a real one because I can not under- 

 stand how process butter, which is made. out of butter which has 

 become rancid and unfit for use, can become a wholesome and health- 

 ful article of food. It ought to be subject at least to the police pow- 

 ers of the State. Why not put it in this bill? 



Mr. HOARD. One thing at a time. 



Mr. SPRINGER. I desire to call the attention of the committee to 

 another direction in which articles coming into general use in this 

 country have been adulterated, and Congress has never undertaken to 

 do away with the evil or to abate it. 



The total production of wool in the United States in the census year 

 1890 amounted to 276,000,000 pounds in the grease, which was equal to 

 only 92,000,000 pounds when scoured ready for weaving into cloth. 

 The shoddy used during that year in manufacturing woolen goods 

 amounted to 61,626,261 pounds. Thus the shoddy had a cloth-pro- 

 ducing power equal to 67 per cent of all the wool produced in the 

 United States. The whole number of sheep in the United States for 

 the census year 1890 was 44,336,072; the fleeces produced scoured wool 

 to the amount of 61,000,000 pounds. Thus the shoddy used during 

 that year produced woolen goods equal to the fleeces of 29,605,168 

 sheep. 



Mr. HOARD. A great fraud. 



Mr. SPRINGER. Yes; equal to the fleeces of 29,000,000 sheep. 



Mr. HOARD. You will not find any of the dairy interests uphold- 

 ing it. 



Mr. FLANDERS. It is not a proper subject of the police power. We 

 are invoking the police power. 



Mr. SPRINGER. The prevention of this kind of adulteration- 

 Mr. FLANDERS. That is not adulteration; it is a substitution. It is 

 not within the police power. 



