160 OLEOMARGARINE. 



beating about the bush; that it was the purpose of the friends of the 

 Grout bill to enact that measure into law and stop the manufacture and 

 sale of oleomargarine colored in imitation of yellow butter jieither 

 more nor less. It may be that the gentlemen understood that I made 

 a stronger statement than I did make; but it is an unfair thing to the 

 representatives of the dairy interests of this country to put them in the 

 false position of making an idiotic attack upon oleomargarine pure and 

 simple under its own color and in its own form; and at no place will I 

 permit any gentleman to quote me as having said something which I did 

 not say and which is an injustice to myself and to the interests which 

 I represent. 



Mr. WADSWORTH. Mr. Chairman, that report was published last May. 

 This is the first time it has been contradicted. We will drop it now, 

 so far as I am concerned, except that I will simply say to Mr. Adams 

 that it is a question of memory between the committee and him as to 

 the words he used. 



Mr. ADAMS. Permit me to say further that, at the request of a mem- 

 ber of Congress, when my attention was first called to the statement of 

 the minority, I submitted a written statement of the facts, which he 

 incorporated in his speech, and that was published in the Congressional 

 Record. 



The CHAIRMAN. This committee is not trying the proceedings of the 

 other House. 



Mr. WADSWORTH. I wished it understood that I appear here simply 

 to correct that matter, on the part of the minority of the committee. 



STATEMENT OF JOHN HAMILTON EESTJMED. 



Mr. HAMILTON. Mr. Chairman, I will finish in a moment, if you can 

 indulge me. This article, oleomargarine, is a fraud on the public. I 

 think that statement is corroborated by every dairy and food commis- 

 sioner that has to do with it in every State where laws exist regulating 

 its sale. We have had a great deal of experience in Pennsylvania with 

 this article, and a large amount of it is not branded, although it may 

 be sold for butter. We have examined more than a thousand samples 

 of it this year, and a large percentage of it is not branded so as to 

 distinguish it from butter, and is sold as butter. 



Now, with regard to the Grout bill. My view, and the views of 

 those whom I represent, is that the Grout bill will overcome our diffi- 

 culties; that it will enable the dairy and food commissioners of the 

 several States to enforce their laws better than they do at present; 

 that this Grout bill is not a prohibitive law; that it is simply one that 

 protects the dairy industry. It costs the farmers from 16 to 20 cents 

 to make butter, according to the season of the year, and if this article 

 can be sold down as low as 15 cents or 12 cents it makes it impossible 

 for the dairymen of the State to compete with such an article. The 

 purpose of the Grout bill, as I understand it, is simply to raise the 

 price of oleomargarine up somewhere near the cost of producing butter, 

 so that they may start in the market at equal prices. Then it is sold 

 colored, and the butter is sold colored, and they will have a fair chance 

 in the market, started equal; but if the one starts down at 10 cents or 

 9 cents and the other can not start until it reaches 16 or 18 cents, it 

 does not take much of a prophet to know what the conclusion of the 

 whole matter will be in the very near future the destruction of the 



