OLEOMARGARINE. 529 



Senator DOLLIVER. It would seein to indicate that it was univer- 

 sally disreputable in itself. 



Mr. TOMPKINS. Another thing about it is 



Senator DOLLIVER. If you put up an article that a man is ashamed 

 to have on his table it seems to me there would not be much sale for 

 that article. 



Mr. TOMPKINS. Suppose an attempt were made to put an honest man 

 in the penitentiary and put the stripes on him, don't you think he 

 would object? You can put marks upon anything in this world that 

 will create prejudice. In fact, this question of color is a question of 

 sentiment or prejudice, and nothing else. 



Senator DOLLIVER. If a man without stripes were honest, but still 

 fought everybody and shunned society, it would seem to indicate that 

 there was something constitutionally defective about him. 



Mr. TOMPKINS. But this is not that case. You propose, in the case 

 of butter, to permit them to make this very distinction you talk about, 

 to the detriment of the reputation of oleomargarine, as though it were 

 marked by the Government exactly as a man would be marked by 

 stripes in the penitentiary. 



Mr. JELKE. I want to answer Senator Dolliver. In Chicago oleo- 

 margarine has the stripes of condemnation on it, in consequence of the 

 sentiment created by a partisan press, and promulgated throughout the 

 country, and the statement was made in one instance before the com 

 mittee, but afterwards they wanted the statement stricken out. 



Senator ALLEN. What would be the objection to using carrots in the 

 manufacture of oleomargarine for the purpose of giving it color? 



Mr. JELKE. This bill would not allow it. 



Senator DOLLIVER. It all looks to me as if the oleomargarine busi- 

 ness, by this fight against State and United States laws, had invited 

 a lot of opprobrium, which I believe should not attach to the business. 



Mr. JELKE. There has not been any fight against United States laws, 

 as shown in the statements of every internal-revenue collector and the 

 Commissioner, or otherwise. 



Senator DOLLIVER. But we had on our table yesterday a dozen 

 packages upon which the United States law had been dodged. 



Mr. TOMPKINS. If you make a law of any kind relating to butter it 

 will be dodged. You can not make any kind of a law that will not be 

 dodged more or less. We have the testimony, by telegram, of an 

 officer of the United States Government that he does not believe that 

 the law is being dodged in one large and important commercial city of 

 the Union. There is no reason why it should be done more anywhere 

 else than it is there. It is simply a question of proper regulation. 



Senator HANSBROUGH. You recall the statement of Secretary Wil- 

 son yesterday, I think it was, in regard to the conditions of Denmark, 

 where 3 per cent of butter substances was oleomargarine, and that it 

 was uncolored? 



Mr. KNIGHT. Three and a half pounds per capita. 



Senator DOLLIVER. And that they found a ready market to that 

 extent in Denmark? 



Mr. KNIGHT. The public taste is educated easily. I ate white butter 

 for four weeks in England, and in fact got so used to it that when I 

 returned to this country yellow butter was repulsive. 



Senator HANSBROUGH. I make that statement to show that it is not 

 the purpose of Congress to injure the oleomargarine business as an 

 oleomargarine business. 



Mr. TOMPKINS. Then don't put any bill on the country that is dis- 

 criminating in its terms and in favor of butter. Kevise and reconstruct 

 S. Rep. 2043 34 



