506 OLEOMARGARINE. 



Whereas we believe that the present Federal law taxing butterine 2 cents per 

 pound and the additional regulations imposed by the Commissioner of Internal Rev- 

 enue are sufficient to properly regulate the manufacture and sale of butterine ; there- 

 fore be it 



Resolved, That we, the representatives of the industrial classes in Chicago, and 

 voicing as we know we do the sentiments of the mechanic and the laborer through- 

 out the country, protest against the passage of the Tawney, Grout, or any other bills 

 that have for their object the further increase of tax or the relegating to the differ- 

 ent States the right to enact laws that are opposed to the interests of the people and 

 in no way in harmony with the inventive and progressive spirit of the age; and be 

 it further 



Resolved, That we instruct our secretary to have sufficient copies of these resolu- 

 tions printed that one be mailed to every Senator and Congressman in Washington 

 and one to each of the labor organizations affiliated with the Federation of Labor, 

 requesting them to indorse same or pass others of a similar character, so that a full 

 expressior of our condemnation of such legislation may be made known. 



Respectfully submitted. 



WALTER CARMODY, 

 Secretary Chicago Federation of Labor. 



Mr. Knight has intimated that my presence here has been influenced 

 by gentlemen representing the butterine interests. This statement I 

 most emphatically deny. Were my presence in Washington or before 

 this committee dependent upon any financial assistance, past, present, 

 or prospective, given or promised me by or upon the generosity of the 

 gentlemen here or elsewhere, or any other person representing directly 

 or indirectly any butterine industry in any part of the United States 

 or of the world, I assure you gentlemen, I would not yet, were I depend- 

 ent upon such assistance in coming here, 1 would not yet, I say, have 

 been able to cross the eastern corporation line of my home city of 

 Columbus, Ohio. I came here a perfect stranger to all of these men. 

 They did not know me. They did not know of my coming, nor were 

 they., as far as I know, aware of the fact that any action had been taken 

 in this connection by our body. Having been instructed and empow- 

 ered by the organizations I represent to oppose, in their name and in 

 their behalf, the passage of the Grout bill to the fullest extent of my 

 ability, for the reasons as expressed in my credentials, I propose to 

 demonstrate to them that the confidence they have reposed in me is 

 fully justifiable, and to carry out their wishes and their instructions to 

 the letter. That and that only, together with my own instinctive sense 

 of justice and right, is the motive which actuates my present course in 

 this connection. 



Another central labor organization, representing in turn hundreds 

 of subordinate organizations which has taken action against the Grout 

 bill, and taken such action unanimously, is the Ohio Federation of 

 Labor. I refer to the action of this body particularly because its pro- 

 test is not, as far as I can learn, on file here. Now, gentlemen, I desire 

 to say that the first intimation that I have had of the fact that said 

 federation had adopted resolutions condemning the Grout bill was 

 when the delegate representing the Columbus Trades and Labor 

 Assembly at the convention of said Ohio Federation of Labor, held in 

 Newark, Ohio, last November, reported that fact to a subsequent meet- 

 ing of said Columbus Trades and Labor Assembly as part of his official 

 report to said body. I was not present at the Ohio Federation of Labor 

 when this resolution was presented, and never knew that such a course 

 was contemplated, but now regard it as a matter of course that said 

 bill, together with all unjust legislation which affects the interests of 

 wage-earners, should receive, as it is receiving, general condemnation 

 by all such central bodies and organizations. I would be safe in say- 

 ing that my present opposition to this Grout bill is representative not 



