OLEOMARGARINE. 373 



STATEMENT OF J. J. DILLON, ESQ.., EDITOR OF THE RURAL NEW 



YORKER. 



Mr. DILLON. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I will take up very lit- 

 tle of your time on the pending question. 



I am connected with (and, in fact, am publishing) the publication 

 called the Rural New Yorker. My duties in that connection bring me 

 in contact with a great many ot the farmers throughout the whole coun- 

 try, and 1 am interested in farming and in dairying myself. 



We farmers look at this matter as simply one of right and wrong a 

 matter of fraud. We have been making a product of human consump- 

 tion for a great many years. We have been putting it up in a certain 

 form, under a certain color, and have established a trade for it as a 

 healthful and nutritious article of human food. 



Now, there come along these manufacturers. They recognize the 

 value of our trade; and they put up a product that costs them to man- 

 ufacture something like one-half of the cost of the genuine article of 

 butter; and by coloring it in imitation of butter, putting it up as we 

 put up butter, and putting it on the market just as we put butter on 

 the market, they have been able in certain cases to work into our 

 trade. 



The majority of the States have said, through their State laws, that 

 this should not be. We have endeavored to put certain restrictions 

 on the manufacture and especially on the sale of oleomargarine. We 

 have tried to get them to sell oleomargarine for just what it is. Our 

 State laws have been, for the most part, failures, however We have 

 succeeded fairly well in New York State in keeping out a large por- 

 tion of what formerly came there; but it is coming in to some extent 

 (as Mr. Kracke has said) from New Jersey and from other States. 

 Some of it is detected and some of it goes undetected. 



Then, some of it comes into competition with our butter in another 

 way. If the local laws of other States are not enforced and it goes 

 into consumption there, then the butter made in those States enters 

 into competition with our butter in our home markets. But for all 

 that, it resolves itself into a matter of imitating our product. 



Now, im the absence of State laws that are able to protect us, we 

 come to Congress, and say: "Give us a law which will simply prohibit 

 the manufacturer of oleomargarine from imitating our product and from 

 selling it as butter." That is all we ask. We do not care how much 

 they sell, if they sell it for just what it is. All that we ask Congress 

 to do is to simply give us some protection in the product we have been 

 making for years, and for which we have built up a trade. 



Mr. TILLINGHAST. Will the gentleman permit a question? 



Mr. DILLON. Yes, sir. 



Mr. TILLINGHAST. Do you consider that this law for which you are 

 asking is a prohibitive law? 



Mr. DILLON. We do not consider it a prohibitive law. 



Mr. TILLINGHAST. But you said that that was what you wanted. 



Mr. DILLON. A prohibitory law ? 



Mr. ROYCE. For selling it as butter not for selling it as oleomarga- 

 rine? 



Mr. DILLON. Yes; we want its sale as butter prohibited; that is all. 

 We simply want Congress to say to the manufacturer of oleomarga- 

 rine, "You must not put up your product in a form that imitates and 

 that will enable you to sell it as butter." That is all we ask. 



