438 OLEOMARGARINE. 



shop in the city of Oshkosh. You have the best trade. Why do you 

 violate this law?" " Why," he said, u I did not suppose it was a vio- 

 lation. The representatives of the Chicago manufacturers came up 

 here and said there was no reason why I should not sell it; that if there 

 was any law it was unconstitutional; that the courts have turned it 

 down;" and he said: u i^ot thinking very much about it, I have been 

 selling it." I want to say to this committee that when my inspector 

 went up there and bought a sample of colored oleomargarine that man 

 was selling it at either 23 or 20 cents a pound; and he stopped the busi- 

 ness and went to selling the uncolored butterine at 16 cents a pound. 

 The price of butterine sold from that store was reduced 7 cents a pound, 

 and the laboring people of Oshkosh who were buying it got the butter 

 for less money simply because the law of the State was enforced. 



Senator ALLEN. Then it is possible to sell to the consumers uncol- 

 ored butterine? 



Mr. ADAMS. Certainly it is. 



Senator DOLLIVER. You mentioned a country in Europe, Denmark, 

 where that is done. 



Mr. ADAMS. Yes, sir. 



Senator DOLLIVER. Do you know the condition of that trade in 

 other countries in Europe? 



Mr. ADAMS. I know that so far as England is concerned they have a 

 law there prohibiting the sale of oleomargarine for butter. As to the 

 details of that law, and the extent to which it is carried out, I am not 

 informed. 



Mr. TILLINGHAST. Do you not know that in all foreign countries 

 wherever oleomargarine is sold it is sold precisely of the same color as 

 the butter that is sold in those countries, whether it is one thing or 

 another? 



Mr. ADAMS. The one country of which I have definite knowledge is 

 Denmark. There they prohibit its coloring and compel it to be sold in 

 its own color and in a separate place in the store in which it is sold. 



Mr. TILLINGHAST. Is butter colored there? 



Mr. ADAMS. I think very likely it is. I hope so. 



Mr. TILLINGHAST. What proportion of the 107,000,000 pounds of 

 oleomargarine that was sold last year do you think could be sold in the 

 United States if it was not colored? 



Mr. ADAMS. My estimate is based on these samples, provided none 

 of these samples are colored. These gentlemen think they are selling 

 uncolored butterine. I will concede that some of these samples are a 

 little colored. 



Senator DOLLIVER. This one is certainly highly colored. 



Mr. ADAMS. 1 should judge so. Providing this law goes into effect, 

 and providing that it prohibits the manufacture and sale of colored 

 oleomargarine, and provided there are as many licenses out in the 

 United States after the passage of the law as there are now there tire 

 now 9,028 licenses in this country I believe there would be sold on an 

 average at least 5,000 pounds a year by each of the 9,000 retailers of 

 the United States. 



Senator DOLLIVER. Do you not think if every merchant, instead of 

 becoming an apologist for oleomargarine, practically, in many cases, 

 denying that it is oleomargarine and claiming that it is butter, should 

 become literally an agent for the sale of the legitimate article, without 

 these prosecutions and fears of prosecution, that it would greatly 

 increase the sale of it? 



Mr. ADAMS. There is no question about it. These gentlemen upon 



