378 OLEOMARGARINE. 



Now, those people do not undertake to come in and sell this oleo- 

 margarine as a "poor man's product.' 7 We hear a great deal about its 

 being a poor man's product, about the labor unions, and all that sort of 

 thing, but they do not sell their oleomargarine at a price that makes it 

 any advantage for a laboring man to buy it, even if he were willing to 

 be influenced by the lower price. The object is, all the time, to sell it 

 for butter, as butter, and at butter prices. And it all comes right back 

 again to the fact that all we ask is something that will protect us in our 

 legitimate industry and business. During the last six months I sup- 

 pose I have received at least an average of 1,000 letters a day from our 

 farmers. I do not say that I have read them all,, but I have gone 

 through them. And all through those letters, or frequently through 

 them, there are references made to this Grout bill. Never in the fif- 

 teen years that I have been in the publishing business have I known 

 of any questiop that created so much interest among the iarmers as 

 this question has, and they have gotten to the point when 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. Your farmers in New York are largely 

 dairymen, are they not? 



Mr. DILLON. Well, there- are large dairy interests there. 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. You do not feed cattle to any extent? 



Mr. DILLON. Not for beef; no, sir. 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. That is what I mean. 



Mr. DILLON. No; not very much. But of course I hear from farm- 

 ers outside of the State, and they are very much in earnest about this 

 bill, and they are not asking anything unreasonable. Back of all of 

 their arguments and their talk is the fact that they do not want any- 

 thing unreasonable. They are perfectly willing that oleomargarine 

 should stand on its own merits. But they do not want it sold as but- 

 ter. They do not want to stand that unjust, dishonest competition. 



That is all that we ask of this committee and all that we ask of Con- 

 gress in this matter to protect us, to protect our trademark. Let us 

 sell butter for what it is, and let them sell oleomargarine for what it is. 

 They can give it any other color they wish, so long as they leave us 

 butter. 



Mr. TILLINGHAST. I understood you to say, in some part of your 

 argument, that it was your opinion that it could not be sold white. Am 

 I correct? 



Mr. DILLON. It is my opinion, sir, that there are very, very few peo- 

 ple who will want to eat it if they know what it is. If it is made white, 

 they will probably know what it is, and then they will not want it. 



Mr. TILLINGHAST. Then you believe that this act would be entirely 

 prohibitive? 



Mr. DILLON (after a pause). Well, we are willing to let this act work 

 out its own course. We do not ask its enactment for the purpose of 

 prohibiting the manufacture of oleomargarine; but we ask it simply as 

 the only means that we have been able to devise to prevent the oleo- 

 margarine interests from imitating our product and selling their cheap 

 product as our genuine product. 



Mr. TILLINGHAST. And yet you admit that your laws in New York 

 are so thoroughly enforced that only the small amount of 200,000 pounds 

 is sold in your entire State in one year? 



Mr. DILLON. Well, only that much that we know about. The part 

 that comes in that we don't know about we are unable to estimate. 



Mr. TILLINGJHAST. There is no oleomargarine manufactured that the 

 Government does not know about. 



Mr. DILLON. Still it is manufactured, and it goes into other States. 

 How much goes into New Jersey? How much goes into Ohio? How 



