OLEOMARGARINE. 127 



shape, so that as it filters down through the avenues of commerce it 

 may ultimately be sold as butter. While living up to the letter of the 

 law evade its spirit. 



Mr. MATHEWSON. How would the proposed 10-cent tax do away 

 with that difficulty? 



Mr. FLANDERS. I am not a prophet or the son of a prophet. I can 

 not tell what would happen, but I will tell you what I wish to see 

 happen. I speak individually, and I do not speak for anybody but 

 myself. I hope it would tax the fraud out of the oleomargarine. 

 That is all I want. 



Mr. MATHEWSON. If oleomargarine sold at a price high enough so 

 that the manufacturers could pay the 10 cents 5 would not the fraud 

 exist the same ? 



Mr. FLANDERS. No, sir. I will stake my reputation now as a 

 prophet I would not a moment ago on the proposition that when 

 you put butter at 30 cents or above cows enough will come forward 

 to produce butter enough to hold it down. That never will happen in 

 this country under ordinary conditions. 



Mr. MATHEWSON. I merely asked how the 10 cents tax would remove 

 the fraud. 



Mr. FLANDERS. We hope it will. We want the fraud stopped, and 

 then we want your people, if your goods are as good as you say they 

 are, to step out into the open market and sell them for what they are, 

 so that they can deceive no one. That is fair. 



Mr. MATHEWSON. Would it be a fair proposition to ask the manu- 

 facturers of creamery butter to leave the color out of their butter ? 



Mr. FLANDERS. No, sir; and I will tell you why. In the first place, 

 that is the natural color of the butter, if they color it as they ought to 

 color it. Butter is yellow when the cows feed upon nature's succulent 

 food. Color in butter is for the purpose of uniformity. 



Mr. MATHEWSON. It brings a little more on the market. 



Mr. FLANDERS. Not at all. I ate butter in New York City the other 

 day with all the flavor you could ask, and not one bit of coloring and 

 not a bit of salt in it. I ate to-day down at the hotel cheese with not 

 one bit of coloring matter in it, and I liked it just as well. The truth 

 is that the people, if your commodity is good, can be educated to eat 

 it without its coloring matter, and you will not deceive them as to the 

 commodity. 



Mr. MATHEWSON. If the butter is so good when it is white, why not 

 leave out the coloring matter ? 



Mr. HOARD. That is not the proposition. 



Mr. FLANDERS. I am willing to discuss that point at length at the 

 proper time and place, but you are aware that your speaker occupied 

 an hour and three-quarters, and my time is limited and vanishing with 

 ordinary rapidity. 



Mr. MATHEWSON. The Judge answered very courteously any ques- 

 tion put to him. 



Mr. FLANDERS. If you will give me time, I will gladly answer your 

 questions. 



Mr. MATHEWSON. We will give you all the time the committee will. 



Mr. FLANDERS. Talk about the healthfulness of the commodity. 

 We say that the commodity that is sold upon the market is not health- 

 ful. The Judge in speaking said that it was universally acknowledged 

 to be healthful. That is not true. I think the Judge made the state- 

 ment from a lack of knowledge of the facts. 



