118 OLEOMARGARINE. 



is bad weather and short crops, there will be high prices. By the 

 demand for 24,000,000 pounds of oleo oil in the manufacture of oleo- 

 margarine you. have taken that much of the product and raised it in 

 price from 6 cents to about 10 cents a pound. You have increased at 

 least the demand for this kind of product, and by increasing the demand 

 for that much of the product you have raised the price of the whole 

 product to some extent. To just what extent it would take a board of 

 trade man to tell, and he might make a mistake and get caught in the 

 deal. But it does have some effect. 



Now, suppose you stop the manufacture of oleomargarine in this 

 country and throw the 24,000,000 pounds of oleo oil back into the con- 

 dition of tallow, to what extent will you depress the price of the whole 

 product of tallow in the United States ? Nobody can tell. But you 

 will depress it; you will depress it something, depress it even to the 

 amount of several points at least, as they say upon the board of trade, 

 by reason of throwing 24,000,000 pounds upon the market and putting 

 it into tallow, increasing the product that much and depressing the price. 



So when you come to estimate the loss or gain to those engaged in 

 agriculture by reason of this legislation, it is in a great measure specu- 

 lative. What is known is and that is the fact to which 1 call atten- 

 tion that there was, under all the restrictive legislation of the several 

 States of this Union, amounting to prohibition in 32 States, a demand 

 for 24,000,000 pounds of oleo oil and 31,000,000 pounds of leaf lard, the 

 product of the hog, and this large demand, if taken away, would depress 

 these various articles in the market, and nobody can tell exactly where 

 it would land. 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. Let me ask you a question. Is oleo oil used 

 for any purpose other than the manufacture of oleomargarine? 



Mr. SPRINGER. Some of the gentlemen engaged in that manufacture 

 can tell. 



Mr. MILLER. I will say that it is not. I am with Armour & Co. 

 I should like to bring out a point here in regard to oleo oil. If you 

 destroy the oleomargarine industry you naturally place a ban on our 

 oleo oil which will necessarily have a very injurious effect on the for- 

 eign market. It will perhaps also place a ban on our oil, and we would 

 lose the use of 24,000,000 pounds in the United States and perhaps the 

 sale of 142,000,000 pounds in foreign countries. 



Mr. HOARD. That is speculative. 



Mr. MILLER. Everyone here is familiar with the agrarian spirit 

 which predominates in Europe at present. They have not only tried 

 to restrict the importation of cotton-seed oil, but of meats and many 

 other agricultural products. 



Mr. SPRINGER. While I can not say, and no other man can sa}^, just 

 how much the price of cattle would be depreciated by destroying this 

 industry, or how much it would be appreciated by repealing the restric- 

 tive State laws and letting oleomargarine go free, as other food prod- 

 ucts do, yet I know it would depreciate animal fats in the one case, 

 and it would appreciate in the other very largely if this article should 

 be left in the same condition that other food products are left. 



I called your attention this morning to the possibility, under the 

 amount consumed in Rhode Island, for a demand for oleomargarine in 

 this country of 500,000,000 pounds a year. Suppose that existed 

 instead of the demand for 100,000,000 pounds that existed last year, 

 how much that would appreciate the price of all the products of the 



