498 OLEOMARGARINE. 



people who are now the oleomargarine dealers are largely I will not 

 say all those who stayed in it notwithstanding the laws. 



Now, you have this condition of affairs : 



Here is a man who is doing an honest butter business, endeavoring 

 to sell butter in compliance with the law. He is a butter man. He 

 could just as well sell oleomargarine, because it all goes to the same 

 trade. The retailers who sell oleomargarine sell butter; and he could 

 just as well sell oleomargarine and make the profit on it that oleomar- 

 garine dealers make if he wanted to violate the law. What is the con- 

 dition to day? He is asking you, as a law-abiding citizen, and a man 

 who will not resort to such practices, to protect him against the man 

 who is willing to take his chances and violate the law in order to make 

 that profit. That is the condition which exists to day, and that is the 

 difference between the oleomargarine man and the butter man. 



Mr. PETERS. Mr. Knight, will you allow me to ask one question? 



Mi-. KNIGHT. Certainly. 



Mr. PETERS. What objection would you have to having oleomar- 

 garine put up in square packages, so that anybody could distinguish 

 it from butter at a glance f 



Mr. KNIGHT. I do not think that square packages have anything 

 to do with the distinction. It has been my experience that there is 

 nothing easier in the world than for a man to take ten square pack- 

 ages of 1 pound each, put them in a 10-pound jar, and make "butter" 

 out of them. 



Mr. PETERS. That is not the question which I asked. You have 

 not answered it. 



Mr. KNIGHT. My objection is that it is absolutely no bar to fraud. 

 And I can not answer the gentleman any further, because I do not 

 consider that he is an expert in the butter business and in the enforce- 

 ment of laws. 



I want to say here, gentlemen, that one of our greatest difficulties 

 in trying to do anything with the illicit sale of oleomarga'rine is the 

 fact that there is a class of hucksters, who were described to you by 

 the gentleman from New York City the other day, who take this oleo- 

 margarine, take all the stamps and wrappers off of it, put it in jars, 

 and aH kinds of shapes, and take it and sell it around at the houses, 

 or take orders for it. I know I tried to catch one fellow of that class 

 who came to my house. I live in a suburb of Chicago. He came to 

 the house, and offered us butter the year round at 23 or 25 cents a 

 pound. He said that the people whom he represented owned cream- 

 eries in Iowa, and that fact made it possible for them to sell butter 

 cheaper than anybody else could sell it. 



My wife would not buy any, but when I heard of it, I told her, if he 

 came around again the next day, to give him an order for some. I did 

 that expecting to catch the fellow. He came around about a week 

 after that, and she gave him an order. Then I " laid " for the gentle- 

 man when he t came around to deliver the goods. What did I find? 

 When the goods came, they were delivered by an expressman, some- 

 body absolutely not connected with the thing at all, and I could find 

 no one to arrest and prosecute. The expressman came to collect for the 

 stuff, and brought it C. O. D. He disclaimed any connection with the 

 concern, and I was not able to locate the people at all. 



Under such conditions it is absolutely impossible for us to get any 

 kind of legal testimony unless we trace them down, and even then there 

 is no way to do it. 



