510 OLEOMAKGAR1NK. 



better than its competitors it must go down and the other business 

 takes its place. 



The conditions in Europe have been frequently spoken of. We find 

 that vast quantities of cotton seed oil have been shipped to Germany 

 and to Holland every year, and that the use of it in their dairies has 

 given them the very best results. They are making butters both for 

 their own use at home and for export. It has been used both in their 

 dairy processes and in their oleomargarine processes, and in both with 

 ample knowledge of the very best methods; and for that reason we 

 hear nothing of this competition over there. Whatever is not injurious 

 is permitted; whatever is fraudulent is not permitted; and whatever is 

 unwholesome either in the processes of dairy butter making or in the 

 oleomargarine making is strictly forbidden both in Germany and Hol- 

 land, and ought to be forbidden in this country. There is no discrimi- 

 nation in respect of one being taxed in favor of the other, but the law 

 simply provides that the processes must be such as will give whole- 

 some products; that no ingredients must be put in either that will be 

 injurious, and the coloring matter is not so considered. 



Senator DOLLIVER. Some time ago Congress passed a law taxing 

 what is known as mixed Hour. The testimony taken before the Ways 

 and Means Committee of the House was quite distinctly to the effect 

 that a common mixture with flour was cornstarch. It was very dubious 

 in the minds of everybody whether pure cornstarch added to the mill 

 product of wheat was injurious. Many testified that it was a common 

 practice for housewives, in making bread, to add cornstarch to the 

 flour in the process of the domestic manufacture of bread, and had 

 been for a long time. But Congress found that there were a large 

 number of people manufacturing flour, or what was put upon the 

 market under the name of flour, which contained a percentage of starch 

 in addition to the products of the grain of wheat, and that that article 

 was being sold here and abroad under the name of flour, greatly to 

 the injury of those who were in competition in that business and did not 

 so mix their flour. So Congress, in placing that tax upon mixed flour, 

 proposed this: simply that whoever sold flour should sell what the 

 world commonly called and understood to be flour. The main object 

 of the Government was to prevent people from being swindled in buy- 

 ing flour which contained ingredients that did not belong to pure flour. 

 Is there any objection to that kind of legislation? 



Mr. TOMPKINS. I see no objection to that kind of legislation. 

 Neither is there objection to legislation which requires that people who 

 make butterine or oleomargarine or butter should brand it for exactly 

 what it is. The fault in the case you speak of, Senator, was not that 

 people might not mix their 10 per cent of starch with 90 per cent of 

 the product of wheat, if everybody who bought it so understood. 



Senator DOLLIVER. It appears here that 32 States, including the 

 great commercial and industrial cities of the country, have prohibited 

 the manufacture and sale in their borders of oleomargarine made in 

 the imitation of butter made so that it looks like butter. Neverthe- 

 less, it would seem, from what is said here, that the business goes on 

 thriving, often best in those great cities that are located in States that 

 have made that prohibition. The testimony here seems to show- 

 speak more particularly in respect of the retail trade of Chicago that 

 this article is sold to the public for butter at a price which ought to 

 command the genuine article. What objection is there to some scheme 

 of legislation that would utterly prevent that, so that everybody who 



