576 OLEOMARGARINE. 



Mr. GROUT. I expect the gentleman knows better about black sheep 

 than I do. All I know is that in the oleo business they are all black 

 sheep. I did not care, however, to be drawn into a general discussion 

 of this whole oleo question. I only sought to reply to the particular 

 points raised by the gentleman from New York in connection with this 

 substitute bill. But if I were to say what I thought about it, I would 

 not exculpate, as the gentleman seems swift to do, the oleomargarine 

 manufacturers from complicity in this fraud. They are as deeply 

 steeped in it as the retailer is. You take up the testimony which was 

 taken before the Committee on Agriculture in the House and you will 

 find that they say to the retail trade in their printed circulars, "Sell 

 our goods and we will stand between you and all expenses, fines, 

 costs, and the like." More than one concern issued such a circular in 

 Chicago. Now, if that does not mean that they are ready to back the 

 retailer in practicing this fraud, I would like to know what it does 

 mean. 



But, as I say, I did not intend to go into that, gentlemen; I have 

 been drawn into it, as you will witness. What I wanted to refer to was 

 this system of stamping this article will not prevent disposition of oleo- 

 margarine through the mediumship which the bulk of it is now worked 

 off upon an unsuspecting public, namely, the hotels, restaurants, and 

 boarding houses, from cutting this up into strips and serving it on the 

 table, and in cooking also, making the guest believe that he is eating 

 a well-seasoned dish, or a dish well seasoned with butter instead of with 

 ordinary grease. That is the only point I wished to answer in the 

 gentleman's statement, and to show that while it may touch, perhaps, 

 the retail trade and contravene in some slight degree the fraud prac- 

 ticed by them. It would not be effectual with them, for what is there 

 to prevent the retailer from packing these 2-pound lumps into a butter 

 firkin and selling it for butter? 



Senator MONEY. You said the only way to discover whether it was 

 oleomargarine or butter was by the color. Do you mean to say to the 

 committee, Mr. Grout, that a consumer of oleomargarine or butter at 

 a table can not discover it in any other way than by the color? 



Mr. GROUT. The color would not ordinarily help. It helped us in 

 the last case I cited, because its color corresponded with the oleo before 

 us and did not correspond with the butter. The oleo was highly colored, 

 and the butter not so highly. Oleomargarine can be detected only by 

 very careful tasting. If one takes it with his food he will not discover 

 whether it is oleomargarine or butter. 



Senator MONEY. I mean if he takes butter on his plate. You do not 

 think the ordinary consumer can distinguish? 



Mr. GROUT. No, sir; it would pass as butter unless you taste very 

 carefully and wait for the after effect in the mouth. There is only a 

 very slight flavor of butter in oleo, and sometimes in the poorer 

 grades none at all, and that is what betrays its character. 



Senator MONEY. If it is wholesome and nutritious and nobody can 

 tell it from butter, what is the difference? 



Mr. GROUT. The difference is that it is not butter ; the difference is 

 that it is foisted upon the people for that which it is not, at an enor- 

 mous profit, and as a counterfeit. The same difference that there is 

 between good money and counterfeit money butter is the genuine 

 article, oleomargarine is the counterfeit. 



Senator MONEY. We have had circulars of the retail dealers in which 

 they offer three grades of oleomargarine, for 11, 12, and 13 cents a 

 pound, and butter from 22 cents up. 



