OLEOMAKGAKINE. 405 



since Solon himself could any law make its way in administration 

 through a community that did not have the community back of it. 



I was considering the proposition that is advanced on the other side, 

 that the coloring of oleomargarine is for the purpose of fraud, and that 

 the State laws are ineffectual to protect against this fraud. I had 

 called attention to the fact, as I had believed it to be a fact, that the 

 coloring of oleomargarine is for the same reason that there is coloring 

 of butter, namely, that it adds to the palatability of the article. I had 

 read from what Commissioner Wilson stated before the House com- 

 mittee, and what Prof. Wiley stated before the House committee, as to 

 the eye assisting the palate, and the mental attitude of the consumer 

 toward that which he was eating, and so on. I had passed on to point 

 out the fact that complaint is made here that the State laws are inef- 

 fectual, and that the reason that they are ineffectual is that the public 

 opinion is not behind them. They are not popular. The poor man 

 feels that they are bearing unduly on him. He is being compelled to 

 pay 25 cents for what he can get for 15 cents, and he does not see the 

 reason why. It is an unpopular law. The public heart is not in it, and 

 so long as that is true of any law it never will be enforced. 



Referring to the matter of color, we are not driven to mere inference 

 as to what is the object of this proposed legislation. The purpose of it 

 is avowed. I have been following the proceedings of this committee, 

 and I have observed that two or three gentlemen complained that they 

 were misrepresented before the House committee. One gentleman, I 

 believe, did claim that something was put into his mouth at a time when 

 he said there was no stenographer there, and another gentleman cor- 

 rects something that he is reported to have said. I am going to give 

 another one an opportunity to correct and convict the stenographer. 

 Mr. James Hewes, president of the Produce Exchange of Baltimoreand 

 vice president of the National Dairy Union of the State of Maryland, 

 when he was before that committee on the 24th day of last March, said 

 in so many words, as he is reported, that the object of this legislation 

 is " to tax that yellow color;" and in reply to an interruption, he wound 

 up by saying: 



If you will put it under your close supervision, such and such will be the result. 

 We will give you a million and a half dollars of revenue, and we ask you simply to 

 act as policemen. 



That is the appeal that the promoters of this bill are making to this 

 committee and to the Congress of the United States, avowedly, leav- 

 ing all the others out of the account. This man, who is at the head of 

 the produce exchange in Baltimore and the vice-president of the 

 National Dairy Union of the State of Maryland, comes before the 

 House committee and avows that the object of this bill is to tax the 

 yellow color and make the United States their policemen to see that 

 the butter industry is not invaded. 



Now, a plainer, more open appeal for class legislation I never heard. 

 A plainer, more open appeal for the violation of all the fundamental 

 principles of our institutions, by giving protection to one local industry 

 over another local industry, I never heard; and I say, apart from what 

 is to be got here by reading this law and analyzing it, we have here 

 the avowed purpose, which is to suppress this industry and to tax the 

 color, as they say. 



Now, in reply to your question, Senator Dolliver, about the color,, 

 whether the butterine men or oleomargarine men have any right to 

 appropriate what the buttermen having been using for so long. I 

 have read these proceedings before the House Committee on Agri- 



