432 OLEOMARGARINE. 



Gentlemen of the committee, we have not come here to Congress 

 asking for anything tbat is wrong in any way, shape, or manner. We 

 are not here representing an interest which is to crush down any other 

 legitimate industry in the United States. We have been charged with 

 coming here as manufacturers of an inferior product, butter, some of 

 which is manufactured as it should not be, and asking legislation which 

 is dishonest; and these gentlemen have stood up here day after day, 

 and I have quietly and patiently and calmly listened to their indict- 

 ment not only of the dairy judgment of this nation, but of the people 

 of 32 States, of the legislatures of 32 States, of the courts of 32 States, 

 and of the Supreme Court of the United States, which has declared 

 that a State prohibiting the manufacture of butterine colored in imita- 

 tion of butter is exercising a legitimate police power for what? To 

 protect the public health? No, sir; to protect and compel honesty in 

 trade. That is the basis of this legislation, as stated in the judgment 

 of the courts. Why, our friends come up here and say that these laws 

 are passed by chicanery; that they are passed because dairymen's asso- 

 ciations have political influence. Do these gentlemen pretend to say 

 that the 32 great States in this Union which have passed these laws 

 have passed them in obedience to a cheap and dishonest and class 

 sentiment ? 



I have here a map of the United States showing the States which 

 have passed anticolor laws. You find there a good portion of the 

 Southern States. You find all of New England except Ehode Island. 

 You find the great States of New York, and Pennsylvania, and Ohio, 

 and Michigan, and Illinois, and Minnesota, and North and South 

 Dakota, and Nebraska, and Iowa, and the great State of Missouri. In 

 1886 pur friends, the Democrats, endeavored to make that a party 

 question. It is not a party question. We went before the members of 

 the other House upon this question, claiming there, as we claim here, 

 that we are not endeavoring to interfere with the rights which belong to 

 any man or any class of men, and out of the Southern States we got 

 20 votes ; out of the Democratic vote in the lower House we got 49 

 votes, and leaders of the Kepublican party and leaders of the Demo- 

 cratic party on both sides of that question stood together. 



Senator ALLEN. How were the Populists? 



Mr. ADAMS. I think they stood by us, because the Populists as a 

 rule have some appreciation and knowledge of the work which a man 

 does who tills the soil and works upon the farm for his daily bread. I 

 want to say to you, gentlemen, that we are not here to do injustice to 

 the cotton-seed oil man. We are not here to do injustice to the men 

 who raise steers. We are not here to do injustice to any interest; but 

 I want to say to the men who represent the cotton seed oil interests 

 and the men who represent the beef interests and the hog interests 

 of this country that if we can prove to them that this bill is right, that 

 it is designed to stop a fraud, and that it probably will stop a fraud, it 

 is their business as honest men and as good citizens of this Kepublic 

 to line up with us, no matter whether it hurts their business or not. 



This is not simply a question of class interest. It is a question of 

 public policy; and I want to say to this committee that you can strike 

 all the color out of oleomargarine and have it sold in the markets of 

 this country and have good demand for it. In proof of that I want 

 to show you what we have up in the State of Wisconsin. 



I have here samples of butterine which may interest this committee, 

 and the gentlemen upon the other side of the question are invited to 

 inspect them. These samples were obtained in obedience to my orders 



