OLEOMARGARINE. 313 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. Now, then, why should it be regarded as 

 disreputable to have this product on your table 1 ? Why should it dis- 

 grace the children to wake up to the fact that they are really eating 

 oleomargarine? 



Mr. PIERCE. Well, I have heard children say: " Oh 7 look at that old 

 stuff! It looks like lard." 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. Do they have that kind of oleomargarine 

 now? 



Mr. PIERCE. They will say that of the white stuff. They will do it. 

 I have heard them say it. 



Mr. KNIGHT. May 1 ask a question? Do you not know that oleomar- 

 garine is largely lard I 



Mr. PIERCE. I do not know what it is made of. 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. You eat it largely on faith yourself, I 

 should judge, Mr. Pierce? 



Mr. PIERCE. I do not. I never eat any. 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. You do not eat it at all? 



Mr. PIERCE. Oleomargarine? No, sir. 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. Why not? 



Mr. PIERCE. Well, I just don't have to. 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. So you regard it as the last resort, do you? 

 (Laughter.) 



Mr. PIERCE. Well, I would not be ashamed to eat it if I had to. 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. If it is as good as butter, I should not 

 think a sensible man ought to complain against it because it is cheap. 



Mr. PIERCE. I don't know that it is as good; I don't know. I can't 

 answer that question. 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. If you should go into a store and call for 

 butter, you would expect to get the genuine product, I take it, Mr. 

 Pierce? 



Mr. PIERCE. Yes; but there is such a thing as farmers coloring their 

 butter. 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. Oh, yes. 



Mr. PIERCE. I know it. 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. But, from all the testimony, I understand 

 that the coloring matter adds nothing to the nutritive or palatable 

 qualities of either oleomargarine or butter. 



Mr. PIERCE. Oh, no; it simply makes them look better. And why 

 should they pay 10 cents a pound for making a thing look a little more 

 palatable? Even if it is not, it will look more palatable. 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. Suppose it could be shown, Mr. Pierce, 

 that a large number of these people who call for butter at the grocery 

 stores of the country are looking forward to getting butter, and in 

 point of fact are getting oleomargarine, and that they have the same 

 prejudice against it that you personally have. Would it not be fair 

 to so fix the law as to prevent their being swindled? 



Mr. PIERCE. I believe there are some of them being swindled now 

 through buying country butter. I know that some of these farmers 

 buy oleomargarine. What they do it for I do not know. I do not 

 mean to say that all farmers do it, or that they would all of them do 

 anything like that; but I know it is done by some. And I know 

 another thing: I saw a lady, when she came home from market one 

 time, cut her 3-pound roll of butter in two, find a snowball in it, and a 

 little stone in the middle of that. [Laughter.] 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. A little what? 



Mr. PIERCE. A little stone in the middle of the snowball. That was 

 " country butter," too, mind you. 



