238 OLEOMAEQARINE. 



We found again, in February of 1899, with this same United States 

 law still in force, not a dealer in oleomargarine in the city of Phila- 

 delphia but who was selling oleomargarine as and for butter; and the 

 detectives went out and paid butter prices for it, paying as high as 

 40 cents a pound for oleomargarine bought as butter. 



i have the cases here. There [exhibiting paper] is the list of cases, 

 with the date of purchase and the name and address of the party. 

 These are purchases made during that time by this association. There 

 they are, right straight along, page after page more than 500 cases 

 of purchases of oleomargarine in the city of Philadelphia. I am going 

 to give you a summary of them. There are in this list more than 500 

 cases of purchases of oleomargarine in the city of Philadelphia. The 

 detectives, in every single case, without exception, asked for butter; 

 and they got oleomargarine at butter prices, without any indication 

 from the seller that it was oleomargarine. There you have a fraud 

 directly upon the purchaser. 



Now, let me give you a summary of these cases. How many were 

 marked? There are 508 cases here. I have the details there. I am 

 not talking about fupposititious cases. Every case is there, with the 

 name and date and the result. These detectives went into these 

 places, places kept by men who were supposed to be selling oleomar- 

 garine, and who had paid revenue taxes. They asked for butter. 

 Five hundred and eight purchases were made. Of those 508 purchases, 

 49 were butter and 459 were oleomargarine. 



Gentlemen, I have have heard a great many theories, but one ounce 

 of fact is worth tons of theories. That is a fact. There was not a 

 single case of oleomargarine sold as oleomargarine. Of this large 

 number of purchases there were marked surreptitiously, marked on 

 the packages inside, marked with the word "oleomargarine" turned 

 down, perhaps 50 cases. Oh, if I were to go on to tell you the 

 trickery, the fraud, the schemes resorted to to deceive the purchasers, 

 I could talk to you here for two hours. But I will not go into such 

 detail. The simple statement of the matter is that every one of these 

 purchases was made as butter, while out of 508 purchases only 49 were 

 butter and the balance were oleomargarine. 



Now, then, is it true that if you simply have a color clause, they will 

 obey the law? No. Why? Just as the Good Book says, " The love 

 of money is the^ root of all evil," and that applies to this oleo traffic as 

 much as anything else. When a retail dealer can get oleomargarine 

 at 11, 12, or 13 cents a pound, and can go out and sell it. for 30 and 

 35 cents a pound by lying, by deceiving the public, the temptation is 

 greater than poor human nature can bear, and he does it. Why, there 

 in the city of Philadelphia, Mr. Chairman, before we began this crusade 

 a year and a half ago, there were hucksters with no capital whatsoever, 

 having an old horse and an old wagon, who would buy olemargarine 

 from the wholesale dealers at 14 and 15 cents a pound, and go among 

 our citizens, represent themselves as farmers from Bucks and Chester, 

 our adjoining counties, get up a butter route, and sell this stuff as but- 

 ter, as if they were from the farms. They would sell 1,000 pounds a 

 week, on which they made an average of -from 10 to 15 cents a pound 

 profit. You can see what they did. A thousand pounds at 10 cents 

 would be $100 a week, with a capital of $200 or $300 invested. 



How in the world can anybody compete with men who can buy stuff 

 of that kind and sell it fraudulently ? 



