600 



OLEOMARGAKINE. 



The States and Territories which have not passed laws forbidding the 

 sale of oleomargarine colored in semblance of butter are : 



Population. 



Texas 2,235,523 



Indiana 2,192,404 



North Carolina 1,617,947 



Kansas 1,427,096 



Mississippi 1,289,700 



Arkansas 1,128,179 



Louisiana 1,118,587 



Florida 321,422 



Rhode Island 345,506 



District of Columbia 230, 392 



New Mexico. 



Montana 



Idaho 



Oklahoma... 

 Wyoming . . . 



Arizona 



Nevada . . 



Population. 



153, 593 



132, 156 



84,385 



61,834 



60, 705 



59, 620 



45, 761 



Total 12,604,790 



MAKE NO PRETENSE OF OBEYING STATE LAWS. 



"Why," you will ask, "if you have State laws in these States do you 

 need national legislation?" 



As far back as 1886, when this matter first came before Congress, the 

 States had learned of the impossibility of controlling this traffic through 

 State laws. The article oleomargarine when made in semblance of but- 

 ter is an absolute counterfeit. The dealer himself could not distinguish 

 one from the other should they lose their labels. The retailer carries 

 the butter and oleomargarine in the same refrigerator. When butter is 

 called for by a customer whom he knows is not likely to be an inspec- 

 tor, he can with little fear of detection take the order from the oleo- 

 margarine tub instead of the butter tub. Maybe the strange or 

 uncertain customer will receive pure butter, if he desires to take no 

 chances, but upon those of whom he feels certain are not detectives he 

 can practice deception day in and day out with little chance of detec- 

 tion, and in case of detection it is a very easy matter to plead uninten- 

 tional mistake, and thus at least allay the wrath of the customer, who 

 has no desire to appear from time to time in court in order to punish 

 the dealer for an offense which alone seems insignificant. Then, aside 

 from this condition, the former laws gave no protection to the guest of 

 the hotel, restaurant, or boarding house, who asks and pays for pure 

 butter and is given a counterfeit. 



It was such a condition which provoked the States to an absolute 

 prohibition of the traffic in colored oleomargarine. This was not done 

 until every effort had- been made to enforce the branding laws, and 

 until it was demonstrated that the Internal Revenue Department was 

 giving no attention to that clause in the national law requiring the 

 retailer to brand every package of oleomargarine plainly. 



For a few years these laws forbidding the coloring of oleomargarine 

 in semblance of butter were effective. However, they demonstrated to 

 to the oleomargarine makers one fact, which the majority probably 

 knew before: The success of the oleomargarine business had rested 

 wholly upon the ability of the seller to sell at least a portion of the 

 goods he handled as butter at butter prices, and upon the success of 

 the hotel and restaurant keepers to make their patrons believe they 

 were consuming butter. If they were not allowed to color their grease 

 in such imitation, and its identity was made known through such lack 

 of color, the opportunity for deception and large profits were entirely 

 wiped out. The man who really desired oleomargarine insisted upon 

 buying it upon the basis of values of tallow, lard, and cotton-seed oil 

 instead of paying butter prices. This would result in a business with 



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