568 OLEOMARGARINE. 



Mr. SCHELL. If the committee please, I want to read two telegrams 

 which I received last night. The first one is: 



CINCINNATI, OHIO, January 14, 1901. 

 CHARLES E. SCHELL (try Shoreham), 



Washington, D. C. : 



Sentiment of labor unions on Grout bill questioned in papers. Get hearing for 

 Cincinnati representative. 



MICHAEL KENNEDY, 

 Secretary of Building Trades Union. 



With the permission of the committee, I want to wire back to him 

 saying that the hearings are closed, and if he wants to send on a paper 

 it will be printed, but he can not be heard personally. 



Senator FOSTER. I think that had better be done. 



Mr. SCHELL. I have also a telegram from Freidman & Co., of 

 Chicago, the largest handlers of neutral, I suppose, in the country. 

 They are also manufacturers of oleomargarine. Their telegram is as 

 follows : 



UNION STOCK YARDS, ILLINOIS, 



January 14, 1901. 

 C. E. SCHELL 



(Care Senate Committee on Agriculture), 



Senate Chamber, Washington, D. C.: 



We have exerted every effort to sell uncolored butteriue in the States where color- 

 ing is prohibited, and find it absolutely impossible. * 



FRIEDMAN & Co. 



I can say, further, for Friedman & Co. that I am attorney for them in 

 Ohio, and that they do not protect their customers in selling oleomar- 

 garine for butter. 



STATEMENT OF HON. J. W. WADSWORTH, OF NEW YORK. 



Mr. WADSWORTH. Mr. Chairman, I am simply here, in the absence of 

 Mr. Lorimer and at the request of others, to give you what may be called 

 an ocular demonstration of the practical working of the substitute bill 

 offered by the minority of the Committee o.n Agriculture of the House. 

 That is all; I do not care to go into any other points unless the com- 

 mittee wish me to. 



I think we all admit, Mr. Chairman, that the present law, allowing 

 oleomargarine to be sold in large bulk, is perhaps an incentive to fraud. 

 The fraud is not committed by :he manufacturers at all. It is committed 

 by the retail butter dealers. The retail oleomargarine dealer can not 

 commit fraud, because he sells it with his sign up, open and above board. 

 It is committed by the retail butter dealer, and he is tempted to do it 

 on account of the wholesale price of oleomargarine and the retail price 

 of butter. The minority of the Committeeon Agriculture of the House 

 are just as much in earnest in their desire to reduce this fraud to a 

 minimum as are the majority of that committee. There is simply an 

 honest difference of opinion as to the best means of accomplishing the 

 best results. 



After we had examined the thing carefully and found that the proof 

 was that oleomargarine is a wholesome and nutritious product, and is 

 therefore entitled to a place among the food products of the country, 

 we considered one or two measures. We thought the Grout bill was 

 altogether too radical and too drastic, and we did not approve of it. 

 Finally, after consultation with some people in the West, Mr. Wilson, 

 of the Elgin Dairy Reporter, I think it is called, and other people, we- 

 made up our minds that this was the best way of reducing the fraud to 



