OLEOMAKGABINE. 591 



of a dealer, can be sold at his discretion as either oleomargarine or 

 butter. He need not be susceptible to detection in fraud so long as he 

 confines his dealings to known customers, whom he knows will not 

 spend days of time upon the witness stand to convict him of a fraud 

 small in detail, but enormous in aggregate; therefore, the only safe 

 method for preventing these frauds, so enormous in the aggregate, is 

 to prevent the article being placed in the hands of the trade in such 

 form that it can be used with profit for deceptive purposes. 



Fourth. This policy has been adopted by 32 States, containing, accord- 

 ing to the census of 1890, over 50,000,000 of the 62.000,000 people of 

 this country, each of which has passed a law absolutely forbidding 

 the sale of oleomargarine colored in semblance of yellow butter. These 

 laws have been in force in some States for twelve years, and no State 

 has ever repealed one. 



Fifth. The laws of all these 32 States are continually and system- 

 atically violated, clandestinely in some and in open defiance in others. 

 Oleomargarine manufacturers make no pretense of observing State 

 laws where the legal machinery for their enforcement is not absolutely 

 invincible, and do not hesitate to come before Congress in protest 

 against an act which at best would simply give the States the assist- 

 ance of the National Government in protecting their people as they 

 desire to be protected. 



Sixth. The oleomargarine manufacturers, while openly professing a 

 desire to have their product sold for what it is, secretly sometimes and 

 openly at others, urge dealers to sell it for butter, and circumstances 

 connect a number of these manufacturers with some of the most gigan- 

 tic and widespread swindles ever perpetrated in business affairs. 



Seventh. The only persons who really profit from the sale of yellow 

 oleomargarine are those who practice deception in its sale or are the 

 beneficiaries of such deception ; the color in the article, conflicting with 

 State laws, causes the dealer to hesitate to sell it unless the profit is 

 sufficiently large to compensate him for the injury likely to accrue to 

 his business in case of prosecution. Manufacturers openly assure 

 dealers that there is double the profit in the sale of oleomargarine that 

 can be had from the sale of butter which in itself is evidence that 

 there must be something peculiar about the trade, and they do not 

 hesitate to openly guarantee protection against the efforts of the State 

 to enforce the laws. 



Eighth. The present internal-revenue law, enacted in 1886, has 

 entirely failed in its purpose. In this act Congress placed a tax of 2 

 cents per pound upon oleomargarine, not as a revenue measure for the 

 General Government, but to raise sufficient funds with which to enable 

 the Government to enforce the clause requiring the branding of every 

 package, even to the sale by the retailer to the consumer. This reve- 

 nue has been faithfully collected by the Government. But throughout 

 the entire country but one exclusive inspector has ever been furnished 

 to see to its enforcement by the internal revenue department. Not only 

 does the internal revenue department make no effort to carry out the 

 intent of the framers of the law, but those who have endeavored to 

 secure the enforcement of such clauses requiring branding by the 

 retailer have been led to believe that for the purpose of increasing 

 revenue the various collectors wink at such violations. The law of 1886 

 now does little else than furnish violators of the State laws the defense 

 that their business is "under the supervision of the Government, which 

 provides a complete system of regulation." 



Ninth. A system of regulation, to be effective, must be one which 



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