196 OLEOMARGARINE. 



here?" He said, "No, we do not; but then," he said, "you can see 

 it when we wrap' it in paper," which is true. I said, "Are you afraid 

 to state that this is butterine?" He said, "No; but we "get called 

 down pretty often if we do call it that, because it seems to be objec- 

 tionable to the people to have their attention called to it." 



Mr. SPRINGER. I will state, Senator, that on page 12 of the House 

 hearings the synopsis of the District of Columbia law is given. It is 

 the act of Congress approved March 2, 1895 : 



"Substances in semblance of butter or cheese, not made exclusively 

 of milk or cream, but with the addition of melted butter or any oil, 

 shall be plainly branded on each package 'Oleomargarine,' and a label 

 similarly printed must accompany each retail sale. " 



Mr. KNIGHT. In answer to your question, Senator, I will give you 

 a little information on that. You said you saw no marks on the bricks ? 



Senator HEITFELD. I saw no mark. 



Mr. KNIGHT. In the House hearing the oleomargarine people, Swift 

 & Co. , came before the committee and exhibited some bricks of oleo- 

 margarine with those wrappers on. That was in accordance with a 

 certain ruling. 



Senator HEITFELD. I think that mark was on the brown paper they 

 wrapped it in down here; but I did not see any marks on the product 

 itself. 



Mr. KNIGHT. I will tell you why those marks were absent. A few 

 years ago they used to put the words "Jersey," "Holstein," and all 

 kinds of creamery names on butterine. Just about a year ago the 

 Internal-Revenue Department made a ruling to the effect that if they 

 put any printed matter whatever on the parchment wrappers that went 

 around butterine, they must also put the word "Oleomargarine" in 

 letters of a certain size. Immediately in this market every vestige of 

 printed matter disappeared from every package of oleomargarine, and 

 I do not believe you can find in the city of Washington to-day a pound 

 of oleomargarine on sale that has a printed wrapper on it; because, if 

 they put the printed wrapper on, or any kind of printing, it must have 

 the word "Oleomargarine" on it. 



Senator HEITFELD. They wrap it up in a wrapper that has the word 

 i ' Oleomargarine " on it. 



Mr. KNIGHT. But it does not have that word on the brick. 



Senator HEITFELD. No, not on the brick. The brick is wrapped in 

 tissue paper. 



Mr. KNIGHT. Formerly they had the words "Swift's Jersey" and 

 such words as that; but when the ruling was made that they should 

 put the word "Oleomargarine" on if they had any printing, immedi- 

 ately everything dropped off. I made a search of this town, in 

 company with Representative Neville, of Nebraska, Representative 

 Haugen, of Iowa, and Representative Dahle, of Wisconsin, and we 

 searched every place to find a package of oleomargarine in parchment 

 paper that had any printing on it at all, and we failed to find one in 

 the city. 



Senator HEITFELD. Of course, if anyone were looking out for it, 

 he could find it very nicety in this sign above the stand. 



Mr. KNIGHT. That may be, in the Center Market. 



Senator HEITFELD. If anybod}^ desired to avoid buying it, he could 

 see that sign; or if anybody wanted it very bad he could see it. 



Mr. KNIGHT. It is just as likely to be butterine on the butter side, 



