OLEOMAKGAKINE. 495 



This telegram from Mr. F. E. Coyne, collector of the first district of 

 Illinois, Chicago, speaks for itself. I did not care to bring it up, but 

 Mr. Knight yesterday made some personal allusions which were entirely 

 uncalled for, I think. (Beading:) 



I have ceased to pay any attention to rash statements of Charles Y. Knight, except 

 to request him to report violations of the oleomargarine law to my office or the 

 United States district attorney. As he has made no such report, I take it for 

 granted he has no evidence, or he is withholding valuable information from the 

 United States Government. F. E. Coyne, collector. 



Mr.'KNiGrHT. Gentlemen, I have an answer to that right here, and I 

 am very glad this point has been brought out. Mr. Coyne made just 

 exactly that kind of a statement when I was before the Agricultural 

 Committee of the House. I went home to Chicago; I went to the office 

 of the Chicago Becord, told them the situation, showed them what Mr. 

 Coyne had said, and asked them to come out with me. Accordingly, 

 Beporter Hackett was assigned the duty, and with me proceeded to 

 the store of William Broad well, which was just across the street from 

 the Becord office. He went in and asked for a pound of the best 

 creamery butter, for which he was charged 25 cents. When he came 

 out the package was examined, and turned under the corner, ingeni- 

 ously folded to defy detection by the unwary, was the oleomargarine 

 stamp. A half block down another store was visited, the Ohio Butter 

 Company, and best creamery butter called for here. It was sold for 20 

 cents at this place, and the package was wrapped in a purple paper 

 with the oleomargarine stamp stamped thereon in purple ink, which 

 was detected only after a careful search for some minutes to locate the 

 outlines. Still another store, that of Hughes & Schlick, was visited in 

 the same block, where 22 cents was charged for " best creamery butter," 

 the stamp on this occasion being concealed by turning the paper over the 

 end of the roll. Mr. Hackett went straight to the office of Collector 

 Coyne, informed him that he had personally purchased these packages 

 as creamery butter, and exhibited the internal-revenue rulings which 

 such practices violated. In the issue of Saturday, March 17, the 

 Becord published the following interview with Mr. Coyne, which cor- 

 roborates the statements frequently made by the collector of Chicago 

 to me. 



Now, this is the statement which Mr. Coyne gave the newspaper 

 reporter right there. I will say, in this connection, that Mr. Hackett 

 took these packages right up and asked Mr. Coyne how it was that 

 within a few blocks of his office these violations could have been going 

 on for years, as was reported down at Washington. I read the 

 interview : 



Internal Revenue Collector Coyne's attention was called to these violations of 

 the law yesterday and the wrappers exhibited. He said : 



"I am always willing to prosecute violators of the revenue laws, and I am glad 

 to have these cases called to my attention. It is unfortunate that I have to depend 

 on the public for my information, however. I have nineteen counties, including 

 Cook, to look after, and the fifteen deputies I am allowed have about 2,000 special 

 taxpayers in their respective districts. These include breweries, saloons, cigar 

 dealers and manufacturers, oleomargarine makers and dealers, and many others. 

 The force is not large enough for me to watch every retailer 2, 000 men would be 

 required to do that." 



The collector of internal revenue told me personally that that was 

 one of his excuses for not enforcing that law that it would take one 

 man to every retailer to see that it was enforced. (Beading:) 



"Nor can the deputies make cases by purchasing butter or its substitute, for they 

 have no fund for that. 



" Whenever a citizen comes to me and tells me of a case of this kind I am always 

 willing to do my duty as the law sets it forth. I have been accused by both sides of 



