236 OLEOMAKGARINE. 



Mr. SCHELL. I am ready at any time, Mr. Chairman. 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. I would like to hear this gentleman, and also 

 to hear you, to-day. 



Mr. KAUFFMAN. How much time have we left? 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. It is now quarter to 4 o'clock; and if we 

 close our session at 5, that will leave us an hour and a quarter. 



Mr. KAUFFMAN. Whenever you have heard enough of me, just tell 

 me to stop. 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. We do not like to do that. Proceed, Mr. 

 Kauffman. 



STATEMENT OF LUTHER S. KAUFFMAN, ESd., ATTORNEY FOR THE 

 PURE BUTTER PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION, OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



Mr. KAUFFMAN. Mr. Chairman, first let me say, in order that you 

 may know that I am speaking from experience and with authority, 

 just who I am and just what I represent, and what experience I have 

 had in relation to oleomargarine. 



I am the attorney of the Pure Butter Protective Association. My 

 experience in this matter dates back to November, 1890. At that time 

 I was retained by the butter dealers of Philadelphia these gentlemen, 

 my clients then as now to enforce the law against oleomargarine in 

 the State of Pennsylvania. The law then (that of May 21, 1885) was 

 an absolutely prohibitory law. That law had been passed in the State 

 of Pennsylvania because although two prior laws had been passed, one 

 in 1878 and an amendment in 1881, which permitted the sale of oleo- 

 margarine and butterine if properly marked, they had been so utterly 

 inefficient to restrain the illegal sale of oleomargarine that the legis- 

 lature of Pennsylvania, in the exercise of its judgment, passed an 

 absolutely prohibitory law on May 21, 1885, absolutely prohibiting 

 the manufacture and sale of oleomargarine in the State of Pennsyl- 

 vania. 



In 1890, when I was retained by the butter men of Philadelphia, I 

 found just this that the whole city was filled with oleomargarine. 

 We organized a detective force, and sent them out, and we found that 

 there was not a pound of oleomargarine, as far as the experience of the 

 detectives was concerned, which was sold as oleomargarine. Every- 

 thing was sold as and for pure butter, at pure-butter prices, in 

 unmarked packages. 



Now, mark you, gentlemen of the committee, at that time, in 1890, 

 this very law which you are trying to amend, that of August 2, 1886, 

 had been in existence for four "years. The law provides, you under- 

 stand, that every retail dealer in oleomargarine, when he receives his 

 oleomargarine from the factory, shall sell it out of a stamped package. 

 He must make up his new wooden or paper package, and mark it 

 clearly, in letters, the size of which is defined by the act, ''Oleomar- 

 garine," one-half pound, or 1 pound, as the case may be. Then he 

 must put his name and address thereupon, to the end that everybody 

 may be advised that what he is selling is oleomargarine, and not butter. 



Now, I say that law had been in force for four years. The penal- 

 ties provided for under it were drastic. For every violation of that 

 act, the law provided that there should be imposed a fine not exceed- 

 ing $1,000, and imprisonment for not exceeding two years. It was a 



