OLEOMARGAKINE. 239 



Now, let us look at this thing for a moment, and see where we 

 stand. I think the very statement of this fact shows the fraud in the 

 retail trade. Are the wholesalers any the less to be censured ? Let 

 us see. 



We have driven lots of these poor fellows out of the business. 

 When we began this crusade in 1899, 162 retail dealers in the city of 

 Philadelphia had paid the special revenue tax. Now there are about 

 32 for this year, and the rest are out. Some we have put in jail, 

 some we have fined very heavily, and the rest are out of the business. 

 I could count scores of men who have been selling oleomargarine who 

 are no longer selling it. They have learned that the way of the trans- 

 gressor is hard, and they do not sell it. 



Now, let us look to the wholesalers. In the first place, the whole- 

 salers, to help the retailers to defraud in this matter, do what? Why, 

 some of these wholesalers adopt fancy creamery names for their prod- 

 uct. "Lakeside creamery!" Where is the creamery? " Lakeside 

 creamery ! " Oleomargarine ! But the word oleomargarine is not left on 

 it. The only place where the name "oleomargarine" appears is in the 

 Government stamp. And then what? Why, these honest manufac- 

 turers, desiring to spread the sale of an illegitimate article of produc- 

 tion that everybody may know, go to work and cover the original 

 packages, when they ship them from Chicago, with brown-paper cov- 

 ering. They put them in bags, in burlap, covered all over; and this 

 product comes to Philadelphia so that nobody sees the Government 

 stamps at all. And one manufacturer goes to work and puts up ten- 

 pound packages, and puts half a dozen of them in a crate, and ships 

 them in, and puts the Government stamp on the bottom of the crate, 

 so that the public will never see the Government stamp. 



They put the oleomargarine in such a shape, understand, that the 

 retailer can go to work immediately and sell it as butter. There is 

 not a mark upon it, as far as the wholesaler is concerned, inside. 



Now, you asked me the question, Mr. Chairman, and my friend here 

 has asked the question, whether or not, if we will put it in the original 

 package, they can sell it in that way. Now, we say, if you manufacture 

 oleomargarine in the semblance of butter, there is no legislation what- 

 soever that will prevent the retailer, if disposed to be dishonest, if dis- 

 posed to sell butter at butter prices, from effacing the marks, and 

 selling it as butter. There is only one thing that will accomplish the 

 result we are seeking, and that is to make the color of this material so 

 distinctly different from that of genuine butter that the purchaser, 

 when he sees it, will instantly see that it is not pure yellow butter. 

 That is the only thing. 



Now, if, according to the Wads worth bill, oleomargarine shall be 

 put up in these 1 and 2 pound prints and colored and sent on, 

 what will happen ? The Wadsworth bill provides for another fatal 

 thing, and that is that each one of those little packages, 1 pound 

 and 2 pounds, is to be an original package. What does that mean, 

 gentlemen? It means a great deal more than at first sight might 

 appear. If it is an original package, then there is no let or hindrance 

 to selling it anywhere in any State, because of the interstate-commerce 

 law. That is exactly the bone of contention. If we had not that 

 interstate-commerce law to contend with we could prevent the sale 

 and the manufacture of oleomargarine in the State of Pennsylvania. 

 But the very defect of our old prohibitory law was that the manufac- 



