162 OLEOMARGARINE. 



reading notices and advertisements and through the personal solicita- 

 tion and interference with the jurymen or those who are to be sum- 

 moned as jurymen to try a case, that it is almost impossible to secure 

 convictions in these large towns, or many of them. 



I will refer to one case that happened a short time ago in a smaller 

 town in Ohio, the city of Portsmouth. The case was tried by a jury, 

 as all our cases have been until this week. The law makes the sale of 

 colored oleomargarine a misdemeanor, and we have always gone on the 

 theory that these cases must be tried by a jury. We are working now 

 under a new plan, and trying to do away with the jury because it 

 increases the difficulties of securing conviction. In the case of a jury 

 trial the State must have twelve men who are convinced that there has 

 been a violation of the law, while the defendant only needs one to hang 

 the jury; and, under a peculiarity of our jury law, a member of the 

 jury is not paid unless the defendant is either acquitted or convicted, 

 so that hung juries do not get their fees until the case is finally decided. 

 In this case that I have reference to, in Portsmouth, the case was not 

 tried very hard sometimes our cases are fought very bitterly and a 

 great deal of feeling develops but the very next day after that jury 

 hung, or disagreed, two members of the jury went to work for grocers 

 in that town. We have no proof that this was prearranged, but we 

 hope to get some proof on that subject in the near future, and ever} r - 

 thing indicates, and everybody who has paid any attention to the sub- 

 ject believes, that that jury was corrupted. That is simply one 

 instance. I could relate dozens of such cases. 



I will state that it has become a common practice in the larger cities 

 and I refer to Cincinnati and Dayton, where instances have lately 

 occurred of the jury having acquitted the defendant for having sold col- 

 ored oleomargarine as oleomargarine; not as butter, but colored oleo- 

 margarine for the jury to be taken out and banqueted by the defendant 

 and the defendant's attorneys. 1 will state further that I have been 

 informed by one of the most prominent representatives of grocery inter- 

 ests in the State of Ohio that they are encouraged to sell oleomargarine 

 for butter. I asked him why and by whom. He said, "Well, there is 

 not much in the grocery business any more, and if we sell oleomarga- 

 rine as oleomargarine we make about a cent or 2 cents a pound on it. 

 If we sell it for butter, we make 8 or 10 cents a pound or more." I 

 asked him who encouraged this. He said, "Well, when the manu- 

 facturers' agents come around and give us a guarantee to protect us 

 against all prosecution it is a pretty big temptation for a fellow to 

 take chances." I said, "Are they in the habit of doing this?" He 

 said, ' ' They are." I understand it is a very common practice for manu- 

 facturers, as an inducement to handle oleomargarine contrary to the 

 laws of Ohio, not only to pay part or all of their license fees, their 

 national license, but also to give them assurances and guarantees that 

 under no circumstances will they permit them to be involved in any 

 trouble on account of the activity of the dairy and food department; 

 that they guarantee them against any loss whatever; that they will 

 protect them and do protect them. 



Perhaps the largest oleo manufacturing concern in our State, the 

 Capital City Dairy Company, of Columbus, provides a lawyer nearly 

 all of whose time is taken up in defending retail dealers. They not 

 only furnish a lawyer, but they furnish a stenographer to make and 



