OLEOMARGARINE. Ill 



Gentlemen of the committee, I desire to call your attention to the 

 fact that the discussion upon this subject when the bill was before the 

 House of Representatives in 1886 was misleading to the Representa- 

 tives. At that time I had the honor to be a member of the House, and 

 I was chairman of the Committee of the Whole House during the 

 entire discussion of the oleomargarine bill in the House in that Con- 

 gress. At that time the House of Representatives was a deliberative 

 body, as the Senate now is. The discussion lasted some time, and 

 every gentleman who desired to speak had the opportunity to do so. 

 They now have rules by which they can bring them to a vote in a 

 very short time. At that time the discussion upon this subject was 

 such that the majority of the members of the House were led to believe, 

 and did believe, that oleomargarine was a dangerous, unwholesome, 

 and filthy production. 



Let me call your attention to several statements made by gentlemen 

 at that time. You will hardly believe that such things could have 

 been. There were several bills pending, and the Hatch bill was finally 

 passed. It provides for placing a tax of two cents a pound upon oleo- 

 margarine, and for a general inspection, through the Departments of 

 the Government, of every part of the article manufactured, so that 

 when you see oleomargarine manufactured in this country you see an 

 article that the officers of the Government have inspected from its 

 inception to the time it passes away from the factory in the original 

 packages. They certify to its condition. 



Mr. HOARD. You mean that the law provides for the inspection? 



Mr. SPRINGER. Yes, I do. 



Mr. FLANDERS. That it may be done. 



Mr. SPRINGER. It provides for it. 



Mr. HOARD. It may be done. 



Mr. SPRINGER. It provides for it. 



Mr. HOARD. You do not assert that it is done 2 



Mr. SPRINGER. No, sir; I do not assert as to whether or not any- 

 body performs his duty, but the law presumes that every officer of 

 the Government does his duty, and until the contrary is shown I 

 assume that they have done their duty. The law assumes that every- 

 body is honest, and especially does the law assume that the officers of 

 the Government and of the States do their duty. I hope they do. If 

 they do not, they ought to be taught to do it. 



During the discussion of this act in the House, it was charged by its 

 friends that oleomargarine was deleterious to health. 



Mr. William L. Scott, of Pennsylvania, said in the House May 2-t, 

 1886: 



u The genius which succeeded, by the application of chemical fluids 

 and compounds, in transforming a mass of loathsome and unwholesome 

 ingredients into an article of food at a trifling cost, does not hesitate 

 to impose the product upon the public, and receive in the way of 

 excessive profit the difference between the cost of the imitation or 

 counterfeit article and that of pure butter." 



Mr. A. J. Hopkins, a member of Congress from the dairy district 

 of Illinois, said (May 24, 1886): 



"During the Franco-Prussian war an inventive genius, by the name 

 of M. Mege, discovered that the fats of such animals as cattle, horses, 

 and dogs could be made into a substitute for butter. The war measure 



