OLEOMARGARINE. 185 



THE NATIONAL LIVE STOCK EXCHANGE, 



OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, 



Union Stock Yards, Chicago, III. , December 21, 1900. 



THE HONORABLE THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES: 



Your orator, The National Live Stock Exchange, respectfully rep- 

 resents unto your honorable body that it is an association composed of 

 local live-stock exchanges located at all the principal live-stock centers 

 throughout the country, having a roster of over two thousand mem- 

 bers actively engaged in breeding, raising, feeding, shipping, buying, 

 selling, and slaughtering all kinds of live stock; was organized, among 

 other things, for the purpose of promoting the best interests of the 

 live-stock industry as a whole, jealously guarding the interests of the 

 producer and consumer alike, and is the recognized and official mouth- 

 piece of the live-stock industry on all questions of an interstate or 

 international character, especially when the interests of the producer 

 or consumer are in any way affected. 



Your orator in behalf of its constituency desires to enter its emphatic 

 protest against the enactment of what is commonly known as the 

 Grout bill, and in support of its protest desires to record a few of the 

 many reasons in support of its contention. 



This measure is a species of class legislation of the most dangerous 

 kind, calculated to build up one industry at the expense of another 

 equally as important. It seeks to impose an unjust, uncalled for, and 

 unwarranted burden upon one of the principal commercial industries of 

 the country for the purpose of prohibiting its manufacture, thereby 

 destroying competition, as the manufacturers can not assume the addi- 

 tional burden sought to be imposed by this measure and sell their 

 product in competition with butter. The enactment of this measure 

 would throttle competition, render useless the immense establishments 

 erected at great expense for the manufacture of butterine, deprive 

 thousands of employees of the opportunity to gain a livelihood, and 

 deny the people, and especially the workingmen and their dependents 

 of a wholesome article of diet. 



In butterine a very large proportion of the consumers of this coun- 

 try, especially the working classes, have a wholesome, nutritious, and 

 satisfactory article of diet, which before its advent they were obliged, 

 owing to the high price of butter and their limited means, to go 

 without. 



The ''butter fat" of an average beef animal for the purpose of mak- 

 ing butterine is worth $3 per head more than it was before the advent 

 of butterine, when the same had to be used for tallow, which increased 

 value of the beef steer has been added to the market value of the 

 animal, and consequently to the profit of the producer. 



To legislate this article of commerce out of existence, as the pas- 

 sage of this law would surely do, would compel slaughterers to use 

 this fat for tallow, and depreciate the market value of the beef cattle 

 $3 per head, which would entail a loss on the producers of this coun- 

 try of millions of dollars. 



Your orator submits that it is manifestly unjust, unreasonable, and 

 unwarranted to deny the manufacturers of the product of the beef 

 steer the same privileges in regard to the use of coloring matter that 

 are accorded the manufacturers of the product of the dairy. 



The rights and privileges of the producers of beef cattle should be 



