574 OLEOMARGARINE. 



way and one-third the other way. That is why I arn asking these 

 questions. 



Mr. GROUT. I can not divide the protection arithmetically. It would 

 be impossible to do so; but 1 may say in brief 



Senator FOSTER. To protect tin public. 



Mr. GROUT. Precisely so, Mr. Senator. It is for the protection of 

 the public. It is for the protection, also, of an honest industry against 

 a fraudulent product. It is for the protection of everybody who uses 

 butter in any form, and for the protection of the hard-working men 

 and women who produce it at small profit. 



Mr. WADS WORTH. Who says oleomargarine is a fraudulent product 1 ? 



Mr. GROUT. I do; it is sold as butter. 



Senator WARREN. You have given it a great deal of attention. The 

 bill does not go far enough, it seems to me, if this is to protect the 

 public. If this is a fraudulent product, and if three-fourths, perhaps, 

 of the oleomargarine that is used is used in cooking, and a man must 

 take it anyway, whether he will or not, it does not seem to me we are 

 protecting the public in this matter. That is what I want to get at. 



Mr. GROUT. I am glad you have asked how it protects. It protects 

 the public in this way, by stripping from oleomargarine the dress of 

 butter, so that it can not longer impose itself on the public as butter. 

 Put this 10-cent tax on the colored article and it will become unprofit- 

 able to color it. Do this and it will no longer be sold as butter, but 

 will go upon the market uncolored, so that it shall deceive nobody. 



Senator WARREN. But it will be used all the more for cooking pur- 

 poses. 



Mr. GROUT. Perhaps so, where it can be concealed ; but where it can 

 not be concealed they will have to use butter instead of oleomargarine. 

 If you call for buttered toast, they will not bring you toast with hogs' 

 fat upon it. They will bring toast with genuine butter upon it, and 

 the color tells you what it is. This will be accomplished by reducing 

 the total profits on the oleomargarine business from $13,000,000 to 

 $3,000,000 annually. Yes, gentlemen, you may laugh, but between the 

 consumer of oleomargarine and the cost of the product there was last 

 year from $12,000,000 to $15,000,000 profit, and there is no escape from 

 the fact. I think it perfectly safe to call it $13,000,000. 



Mr. TILLINGKEAST. There is no foundation for the statement. 



Mr. GROUT. I will make it clear right here in just a moment. This 

 article costs 7 cents a pound to manufacture. 



Mr. TILLINGHAST. How do you know that ? 



Mr. GROUT. On the statement of a prospectus issued by the builders 

 of a new oleo factory in this city ; on the statement also of not Philip 

 D. Armour himself, but a niaii representing his concern, some six or 

 eight years ago, that it did not exceed 5 cents a pound materials are 

 more expensive now in a local investigation up in the State of New 

 York by the New York State Dairy Union. In New York they enforce 

 their color law more thoroughly and completely than in any other 

 State, but still there are infractions of the law there. On the strength 

 of those statements, the last of which was made under oath, I say that 

 it does not cost over 7 cents a pound now to manufacture it, and it is 

 worked off on the public, through the hotel men, the restaurant keep- 

 ers, the boarding-house keepers, and retailers for the price of butter, 

 anywhere from 18 to 30 cents a pound. We may call it on an average 

 22 cents a pound, and that is perfectly within bounds. When I pay $5 

 a day or $4 a day at a hotel where oleo is used, they are selling the 

 stuff to me at the price of butter, ana the great bulk of it is worked off 



