OLEOMARGARINE. 577 



Mr. OK OUT. Yes. 



Senator MON w Y. Now about tbe digestibility. I know nothing about 

 oleomargarine, because I may have eaten it and I may not; but I have 

 a member of my family who can not digest butter at all, and conse- 

 quently when he is at home he does not eat butter. We can not get 

 oleomargarine in my State. I do not suppose there is a pound of it 

 sold in the State; but when he comes to Washington he hunts up 

 oleomargarine because he can eat it and can digest it. It may be an 

 idiosyncrasy of his stomach, but there must be some digestibility 

 about it. 



Mr. GROUT. Under this bill he could get it for one-half what he gets 

 it for now, lacking the color which the article now has, and color only 

 feeds the eye, anyway. 



Senator WARREN. You were speaking about protecting the consumer. 

 You have, no doubt, given this so-called substitute bill attention. Is 

 there anything in that which makes the hotel keeper liable for serving 

 it as butter? 



Mr. GROUT. That would be a matter of local regulation. We do not 

 attempt to enter into that here; we hardly could do so for want of juris- 

 diction. That is a matter for police regulation in the States. The first 

 section of the bill gives those laws supreme control, whatever they may 

 be, when once enacted. 



Senator WARREN. If I understand you, and I am seeking light, your 

 criticism of this proposed substitute bill is that, while it would cover 

 the family purchaser who goes to a grocer and buys a pound or two 

 pounds, it would not cover the great mass of the people, growing greater 

 all the time, who eat at restaurants and hotels. It would still be in the 

 power of the restaurant keeper and hotel keeper to deceive his guests. 



Mr. GROUT. Yes. 



Senator WARREN. And there is no way to reach him for imposing 

 upon his customers. 



Mr. GROUT. Excepting the law which we prescribe in this bill. We 

 make it unprofitable for him to buy oleomargarine instead of butter. 

 He now pays for it, say, 12 cents per pound. This 10-cent tax instead 

 of 2 would make it cost him at least 20 cents per pound, and he would 

 buy butter. The bill deals with the subject fundamentally. 



Senator WARREN. If I understand you in doing the best you can in 

 this matter, you seek to protect the consumer at the hotel and the res- 

 taurant so far as the butter that is brought to him and placed in front 

 of him is concerned. All others you allow could be protected with 

 other legislation. You do not attempt to reach the use of oleomargarine 

 for cooking, etc. ? 



Mr. GROUT. That would be beyond our jurisdiction. That is a mat- 

 ter of State regulation. The first section of this bill gives the States 

 supreme authority. The States may go on and institute just such 

 methods in the exercise of their police power as they see fit to rectify 

 all those things, and undoubtedly they will do so. 



Senator WARREN. But your direct purpose is to feel sure that you 

 can reach that much of it? 



Mr. GROUT. We reach the whole of it, sir. We claim we reach the 

 whole business, because this bill will take away all temptation to sell 

 it for butter when we take away the profits by putting such a tax upon 

 it as makes it unprofitable to manufacture colored oleomargarine and 

 sell it for butter. Then we take away the dress of butter and correct 

 the evil. It may fall short of it, but we believe it will work the result 

 desired. 



*S. Rep. 2043 37 



