158 OLEOMARGARINE. 



about 90,000,000 to 100,000,000 pounds of butter per year, and accord- 

 ing to the census of 1890 the milk product was 437.525,349 gallons. 

 These cows are distributed among 211,412 farmers' families, consisting 

 of over 1,000,000 persons, or about one-fifth of our entire population. 

 The income of the farming people of Pennsylvania last year from 

 butter alone amounted to between eighteen and twenty millions of 

 dollars; and the milk product, at 8 cents per gallon, amounted to 

 $35,000,000 more. This vast sum is a new product each year, adding 

 this much to the actual wealth of the State, and is distributed all through 

 the Commonwealth, going to the support of over 1,000,000 people, 

 enabling them to maintain themselves in comparative comfort. The 

 loss of such a sum as this by the agricultural people of the State would 

 be a calamity, particularly because much of the material that is used 

 in the feeding of these dairy cows would, if the industry were destroyed, 

 be left on the farmers' hands valueless. 



c ' If the product of these animals were seriously threatened there 

 would also be an immediate depreciation in the value of milch cows 

 throughout the Commonwealth amounting to many millions of dollars, 

 and would involve the partial or total loss of the stabling, creamery 

 buildings, and machinery that are now in use in the prosecution of 

 this industry. A large number of our people, also, would be thrown 

 out of employment. Instead of men, women, and children on the 

 farms having at all seasons occupations suited to their strength and 

 attainments, there would be, in the cutting off of this line of work, 

 comparative idleness during a considerable portion of the year. 



"The people of this State require about 200,000,000 pounds of but- 

 ter annually to supply their needs. The business, therefore, is one 

 that has room for growth, and the doubling of the products of milk 

 and butter will double the income of the farming people an increase 

 of from fifty to sixty millions of dollars annually. 



"If oleomargarine were wholly substituted for butter in this State 

 it would mean a direct loss on that article alone of from $ 30,000,000 

 to $40,000,000 per year, and the profits of the new industry, instead 

 of being distributed among 1,000,000 of people, would be retained in 

 the hands of a very few, rendering them inordinately rich at the 

 expense of those whose industry they had destroyed. 



"It is true that in no event can oleomargarine entirely supplant 

 butter production, but enough is known to make sure that this prod- 

 uct, which can be made for about 7 cents per pound, will seriously 

 injure the butter industry and effectually prevent its development. 

 It would be extremely bad business policy to drive out a source of 

 revenue and means of livelihood as important as the dairy industry 

 for the sake of benefiting a few individuals belonging to the oleomar- 

 garine trade; to take from 1,000,000 agricultural people the profits of 

 their chief industry and give these profits to a select syndicate of cap- 

 italists, that they may become enormously rich. 



"If this new industry required for its prosecution the employment 

 of 2,000,000 people instead of the 1,000,000 at present needed by the 

 dairies, one could see how it might be to the advantage of the State to 

 substitute the new industry for the old, because of the increased num- 

 ber of laborers that it would employ; but when it proposes to do away 

 with 1,000,000 laborers and su bstitute therefor a factory system employ- 

 ing only a few workmen, the danger that will ensue becomes apparent 

 to every thoughtful citizen. We need employment for more labor 



