OLEOMARGARINE. 551 



Senator MONEY. What is the finest grade of butter worth in your 

 market? I mean the creamery butter, not that fancy stuff that comes 

 and is sold, as you say, at $1. 



Mr. PAUL. A fancy creamery butter has been selling in the neigh- 

 borhood of 26 to 28 cents all winter. The last two weeks we have had 

 a slump in the market and prices are down to 23 or 24 cents. 



Mr. KNIGHT. What was it a year ago? 



Mr. PAUL. I think about the same price. 



Mr. KNIGHT. Twenty-three or 24 cents? 



Mr. PAUL. I think it was higher than that, 26 or 27 cents 5 but the 

 proportion of oleomargarine sold then was larger than it is at the 

 present time. 



Mr. KNIGHT. I presume that is true. I do not know what the sta- 

 tistics are. 



Mr. PAUL. Yes, sir. Whenever butter is high, we are selling more 

 oleo. Whenever butter is low, we are selling less oleo, so that whenever 

 they have a low-priced butter they attribute it to the oleomargarine 

 sold in the market, but that is not the case. Whenever there is a good 

 market for butter, we have a good market for oleomargarine. 



Senator MONEY. What you want the committee to understand is that 

 the closer oleomargarine and butter get in price the more the people 

 prefer the butter ? 



Mr. PAUL. Certainly. 



Senator MONEY. But as the difference gets wider, they have to get 

 the oleomargarine because they can not pay for the butter? 



Mr. PAUL. Certainly; that is it exactly. 



Mr. KNIGHT. Is it not a fact that when a man starts in to milk a cow 

 and she is fresh for the year, he has got to go through and milk her 

 anyhow, no matter what the price is? 



Mr. PAUL. Of course they milk their cows. 



Mr KNIGHT. If he goes through one year and butter is only 14 cents 

 a pound, does he not get disgusted and Bay the next year he will not 

 milk cows? 



Mr. PAUL. They do not in our country. 



Mr. KNIGHT. They do out in our country; and the next year, when 

 he quits milking his cows and the supply of butter is short, up goes 

 the price, and he can not get a fresh cow in the middle of the season to 

 produce that butter with. 



Mr. PAUL. Do you not consider the price quoted here as a very good 

 price for creamery butter? 



Mr. KNIGHT. What is that? 



Mr. PAUL. An average of about 21 cents the year round. Do you 

 not consider that a good, paying price? 



Mr. KNIGHT. It has not been that for some time. 



Mr. PAUL. This is the second year. This last year it is higher 

 than that. 



Mr. KNIGHT. We have got the statistics right here for a number of 

 years. 



Mr. PAUL. I will ask you whether you do not consider it a very good 

 price? 



Mr. KNIGHT. I think 21 cents might be a very good average price, 

 but it has not run that way. 



Senator HANSBROUGH. What is there for us this afternoon? Is 

 there anybody else to appear on your side this afternoon, Mr. Scheli? 



Mr. SCHELL. I do not know, Senator. I understood that Secretary 

 Gage had been notified to appear. 



