OLEOMARGARINE. 



347 



Mr. CULBERSON. No, sir. 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. It lias been stated here that the butter 

 color could be produced without the addition of coloring matter, by 

 taking advantage of certain grades and states of the cotton-seed oil 

 and other materials. What grade of cotton-seed oil is used in the 

 manufacture of oleomargarine? 



Mr. CULBERSON. What is known as butter oil. 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. Refined oil? 



Mr. CULBERSON. Refined oil. 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. What is the color of it? 



Mr. CULBERSON. The color of it is straw or light yellow. 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. And would the use of that proportion thai 

 enters into oleomargarine give that color to the product? 



Mr. CULBERSON. The light-yellow color? 



The ACTING CHAIRMA.N. Yes. 



Mr. CULBERSON. No. 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. Is there any possible mixture of the oil and 

 other materials, in the absence of other distinct coloring matter, that 

 would produce the butter color? 



Mr. CULBERSON. I think not. 



Mr. SCHELL. Mr. Chairman, on that subject allow me to suggest 

 that one of rny clients is the oldest man in the oleomargarine business 

 in this country, and he bas experimented all his life with the idea of 

 avoiding the use of any artificial color: and, so far, his efforts have 

 been unsuccessful. 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. He ought to consult with this firm that 

 furnishes it for New Jersey. [Laughter.] 



Mr. TILLINGHAST. The gentleman will pardon me a moment; but 

 the use of your cotton- seed oil does give to the oleomargarine a slight 

 color. 



Mr. CULBERSON. Perhaps so, but not sufficient color to bring it to 

 the color that the Government approved at the time they taxed it. 



I would like to know what the butter makers of the country colored 

 their butter with before this butter color was manufactured? Our 

 grandmothers, I take it, used carrots. If this is an improved method, 

 why should it be confined to butter itself? Why should any legislative 

 body give to any manufacturing enterprise a patent right to use that 

 exclusively? I can not see it. Oleomargarine or butterine has always 

 been made with a certain amount of color butter color, if you will. I 

 think the manufacturer of that color considers it just as much an oleo- 

 margarine color as a butter color, because it is used for such, and why 

 it should be restricted to one branch of trade to the exclusion of every- 

 thing else I can not see. 



What shall wo say of this free and liberty-loving country and people 

 drafting measures practically forbidding the manufacture of an article 

 because it comes in competition with an article with butter and con- 

 demning it because it is used as a substitute for butter, and thus rob- 

 bing the mass of poor people of a substitute that is at once pure and 

 wholesome and good, and has been so proved. 



Mr. TILLINGHAST. As you are from Texas (I do not remember 

 whether we have anyone else from that State or not), cairyou tell me 

 how oleomargarine is placed on the market there, and whether you 

 have any opinion as to how much of it is sold for butter, if any? 



Mr. CULBERSON. In Texas? 



Mr. TILLINGHAST. In Texas. 



