OLEOMAKGAKINE. 223 



act with the way the oleo manufacturers dispose of theirs. The butter 

 makers make their butter and send it to reputable commission houses, 

 where it is disposed of for the account of these shippers on a commis- 

 sion basis. The oleo dealers, after having exhausted every means in 

 their power to interest the respectable element in the butter trade, 

 and induce them to handle their oleo, without avail, with the aid of 

 expert salesmen encourage illiterate people, this low class of Russian 

 Jews, men who have been unsuccessful in business, who can not com- 

 pete legitimately with up-to-date business men, to embark in this trade, 

 with the guilty knowledge before them that these men to whom they 

 are selling this oleo must violate the law in order to dispose of their 

 product. 



I think that speaks for itself. If the people wanted oleo, every 

 butter man in Philadelphia would endeavor to get it for them, if he 

 could sell it legally. 



I believe that is all I have to say. 



Mr. JELKE. Just one question. You have been in the butter busi- 

 ness eighteen years? 



Mr. EDSON. Eighteen years; yes, sir. 



Mr. JELKE. Have you ever sold oleomargarine? 



Mr. EDSON. Yes, sir; I have. 



Mr. JELKE. How long ago? 



Mr. EDSON. Not for the last ten or eleven years. I should be very 

 glad to answer questions here for an hour, as far as I am concerned, 

 gentlemen. 



Mr. KNIGHT. Mr. Edson, why did you cease selling oleo ? 



Mr. EDSON. Because it was against the law to sell it. 



Mr. SPRINGER. Do you not recognize this difference, Mr. Edson? 

 The law prohibits the sale of any imitation of butter, colored any- 

 thing colored in imitation of butter. If the dealer were to sell it for 

 either butter or oleomargarine, he would be guilty of violation of 

 the law. 



Mr. EDSON. No; the law, as it stands now, as I understand it, per- 

 mits him to sell it if he sells it for oleomargarine. 



Mr. SPRINGER. No, sir; no sir! 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. The law of Pennsylvania prohibits the 

 manufacture or sale of oleomargarine made in semblance of butter. 



Mr. EDSON. Oh, the law of Pennsylvania! I did not know you 

 meant that. 



Mr. SPRINGER. So, Mr. Edson, if they sell it for oleomargarine, 

 they confess that they are guilty ? 



Mr. EDSON. Yes. 



Mr. SPRINGER. If they sell it for butter, the burden of proof, on* 

 the other hand, is upon the Government to show that what they sell is 

 not butter, but oleomargarine ? 



Mr. EDSON, Yes, sir. 



Mr. SPRINGER. So that it is to their interest to sell it as butter unless 

 they want to confess themselves guilty ? 



Mr. JELKE. Just one question, please. Do you sell process butter? 



Mr. EDSON. Yes, sir. 



Mr. KAUFFMAN. Mr. Chairman, the next speaker will be W. F. 

 Drennan, who is also one of the largest butter dealers in the city of 

 Philadelphia. 



