476 OLEOMAKGABINE. 



[Telker & Dunker, wholesale fruit and produce commission merchants, No. 118 East Court street.] 



CINCINNATI, January 7, 1901. 

 Mr. CHARLES Y. KNIGHT, Washington, J). C. 



DEAR SIR: We hear to-day that it has been argued that every pound of oleo sold 

 here is sold as oleo. This is decidedly not the case, as any amount is sold here as 

 butter. 



Respectfully, yours, TELKER & DUNKKR. 



[Office of Blome & Dreifus, commission merchants, 1010 Race street.] 



CINCINNATI, January 7, 1901. 

 Mr. CHARLES Y. KNIGHT, Washington, D. C. 



DEAR SIR: Have been shown your telegram saying oleo is sold in our market for 

 such ; it is very easy said as the wholesalers sell it for oleo as they are compelled to, 

 but the retailer sells it for what he can, but invariably for butter. The writer has 

 bought on several occasions (just to find out) butter and received oleo. The State 

 officers occasionally make some arrests, but the job is too big. The wholesalers guar- 

 antee the retailers protection and pay their fines. If the Government does not pass 

 the Grout bill, butter will soon be a thing of the past, as honest dealers in pure but- 

 ter can not compete with fraud. Some of the retailers make no effort any more to 

 sell for oleo as the wholesalers pay the fines. There is nothing too mean or low for 

 the oleo dealers to do. 



Yours, DAVID DREIFUS. 



[Finke & Schwier, commission merchants, 1008 Race street, near Court.] 



CINCINNATI, OHIO, January 7, 1901. 

 Mr. CHARLES Y. KNIGHT, Washington, D. C. 



DEAR SIR: We have just seen a telegram that a statement had been made to the 

 committee that all oleomargarine was sold as such in Cincinnati. We wish to 

 emphatically deny such statement. The wholesale dealers may, as the United States 

 Government compels them to. but the retailers sell it anyway just to sell it, because 

 they are protected by the wholesale dealers, who pay their fines, if caught. We 

 know it is sold as butter from personal observation. We also know that the retail 

 dealer is protected in selling it, as our customers tell us when they take out licenses 

 that they have no fear, as the wholesale dealers pay their fines, if arrested. If n<f 

 check is put on this fraud or imposition on the consumer, it is only a question of 

 time when the dairy interests will be overwhelmed. Hoping the facts above stated 

 may be of some benefit to the crusade against the colored oleomargarine fraud, we 

 remain, 



Yours, truly, 



FINKE & SCHWIER. 



[Halfhill & Kolb, general commission merchants, 134 West Court street.] 



CINCINNATI, OHIO, January 7, 1901. 

 Mr. CHARLES Y. KNIGHT. 



DEAR SIR: We were shown a telegram on 'change here in which it is asserted that 

 oleomargarine is being sold in this market as such, which is an untruth, as it is a 

 very common thing to go into our market and ask for a pound of butter and be 

 handed oleomargarine. 



The State authorities here have been unable to cope with the combine here and it 

 has been sold openly before them as butter. We therefore ask you in the interest 

 of pure food, and the chances of killing one of the largest industries in our States 

 by this adulteration of butter, to do your utmost in bringing about a fair and 

 equitable law in behalf of pure butter. 



Yours, very sincerely, HALFHILL & KOLB. 



The purport of all these letters is the same that is, that it is sold in 

 Cincinnati as butter and for butter, and that there is a protection fund 

 of a half cent levied upon the wholesale sales to protect those who do 

 the selling. 



