354 OLEOMARGARINE. 



Think, gentlemen, of a public official appealing for political support 

 to a particular element with which, on account of their numerical supe- 

 riority over their competitors, he has allied himself, not that the manu- 

 facture and sale of oleomargarine may be regulated, but that its death 

 knell may ring in the credulous ears of those financially interested in 

 its destruction and, drowning temporarily the voice of their protesting 

 consciences, permit of his reelection. 



Just think of such prostitution of the dignity of the office of our State 

 dairy and food commissioner : 



The many assurances of good will and expressions of gratitude I have already 

 received from the farmers and dairymen of Ohio are all the more appreciated because 

 of their antagonism of the past, an antagonism that was engendered hy a few per- 

 sons who placed a greater value upon their own opinions as to the most effective 

 method of making war against oleomargarine than upon the advice of able lawyers, 

 whose counsel I saw fit to follow. 



So that is one of the duties of a dairy and food commissioner to 

 make "war" upon a certain product, and then try to use the Congress 

 of the United States as an ally in that warfare. 



I submit to you whether or not my course has been vindicated by the results 

 obtained. 



Believing that I am deserving of some evidence of gratitude and confidence from 

 the farmers and dairymen for this victory, the benefits of whieh accrue to them, and 

 knowing that their interests will be best subserved by making no change in the per- 

 sonnel of this office, because of the possibility that some of the points in the above- 

 mentioned case may be taken to the Supreme Court of the United States, I respectfully 

 ask you to use your influence in behalf of my renomination with the delegates of 

 your county to the Republican State convention. 



We should stand together in a fight to a finish against oleomargarine. I will 

 appreciate very much an acknowledgment of the receipt of this, with any expres- 

 sions you may care to make. 



Very truly, yours, J. E. BLACKBURN. 



Now, gentlemen, if that is not conclusive evidence of the fact that 

 one of the main objects of the attempted enactment and enforcement of 

 legislation of this kind is the sacrifice of a useful, legitimate, and 

 (except with competitors) popular industry on the altar of political 

 ambition, then evidence is worthless in proving anything. However, 

 it is not necessary to dwell upon that point before a committtee consti- 

 tuted as this is. 



Now, we can not see that there is any justice whatever in placing any 

 tax upon oleomargarine. Heaven knows that its manufacture is already 

 sufficiently restricted and that it is an utter impossibility, under the 

 stringent laws which exist in almost all of our States regulating its 

 sale, for any deception to be practiced therein. And I want to assure 

 you, gentlemen, that if any deception in this connection should be 

 attempted in our part of the country it would be, and often is, in under- 

 taking to palm off inferior butter for the product known as oleomarga- 

 rine. I am myself a constant consumer of the article, and I propose 

 that it shall be continually used by my family, because I know, and so 

 do all of the members of organized labor who have listened to the dis- 

 cussions relative to this product in their various unions, that it is abso- 

 lutely free from all disease germs; that the process of its manufacture 

 is such as to destroy all the bacilli of tuberculosis and various other 

 disease germs that exist in the cow, and through the medium of butter 

 consumption are conveyed to the human system, and that butter is not 

 subjected to any process which will eliminate that element of danger. 



The CHAIRMAN. If that is so, would you not use it if it were of its 

 natural color? 



Mr. McNAMEE. Well, I will tell you, Senator; if, in eating a nice 

 ripe apple, it were harmlessly colored green, I would not eat it with 



