228 OLEOMARGARINE. 



men who manufacture genuine real butter should be compelled to 

 compete in the market with a fraudulent article which is made in 

 imitation of our butter. 



I do not think the wholesomeness which I heard discussed here this 

 morning enters into the question at all, pro or con. The question is 

 simply the fraud that these men perpetrate when they make an article 

 which is not butter and sell it as butter. 



Now, we color our butter. There is no use denying that; because 

 we have never attempted to deny it at all. We color it to suit our 

 trade; but it is what we sell it for. It is butter; we say it is butter. 

 It is not made of tallow and cottonseed oil and lard, or anything else 

 of that kind. It is butter, and it is nothing but butter, and we sell it 

 for just exactly what it is. 



I say that these manufacturers have no moral right to color another 

 product and sell it in the market as butter in competition with our 

 product. They have no moral right to compel us to compete with an 

 article of that kind. It is not justice; it is not right. 



Pennsylvania has profited by the protective tariff. It has been one 

 of the great protective- tariff States, and every one of our industries 

 is protected except us farmers who manufacture butter. 



I have been making butter for twenty-five years. In that time I 

 have seen the actual value of our lands depreciate 40 per cent. 

 Within one mile of my place there are seven farms owned by aliens 

 and run by tenants. Within a mile and a half of my place (and we 

 live in a fairly good country, on the Brandywine Hills) I have seen 

 two farms put up for sale without a single actual bidder for them. 

 They were fine farms, too, one of them containing 137 acres and the 

 other some 160 odd acres, and they never had a bidder. That is 

 simply because our business has become so unprofitable that only those 

 who are compelled to stay in it or go bankrupt stay there. 



Mr. SPRINGER. What is the business ? 



Mr. SHARPLESS. Making butter making dairy butter. I do not 

 furnish milk to a creamery at all. I make my own butter in my own 

 spring house on the place, and furnish it to private trade. 



Mr. JELKE. At what price do you sell your butter? 



Mr. SHARPLESS. I sell my butter at 35 cents the year round, whole- 

 sale. I have no secrets at all about my trade. I make butter and 

 nothing else, and I sell it for butter, too. I sell it to people who appre- 

 ciate butter, and they do not buy oleo. Now, I have eaten oleo, and, 

 for anything that I could taste about it, I knew I was eating oleo when 

 I ate it. For anything that I could taste about it, it tasted fairly good. 

 But that is not the question whether it is good or whether it is bad. 

 There is bad butter made as well as there is good butter made. The 

 question is simply, u Shall I, who make an honest, square article of 

 butter, be compelled to compete with an article that is not butter, 

 made in the semblance of my product?" 1 say it is not fair; it is not 

 right. Whether the Grout" bill is the remedy for it or not I do not 

 know, but it looks that way to me. 



Mr. MILLER. Mr. Sharpless, do we understand you to say that you 

 can make nothing on butter at 35 cents a pound ? 



Mr. SHARPLESS. I did not say that. 



Mr. MILLER. What do you say, then ? I understood you to say that 

 the business is very unprofitable, and that the value of land is 

 decreasing. 



