606 OLEOMARGARnm 



This is made clear and the whole fraudulent practices of the oleomar- 

 garine makers laid bare by a circular letter sent out April 5, 1899, by 

 William J. Moxley, of Chicago. The letter follows : 



[Willliam J. Moxley, manufacturer office butterine, 63 and 65 W. Monroe street.] 



CHICAGO, April 5, 1899. 



NOTICE TO THE TRADE. 



Inclosed find a color card, which is as near the color of our butterine as the 

 printer's art can represent. Our aim in sending you this card is to aid you in select- 

 ing the proper color suitable to your trade. Mistakes are easily made, but hard to 

 remedy. 



In nearly every section of the country there is a difference in the color of butter, 

 and even in certain seasons of the year there is a change, as you will have noticed. 

 In winter butter is of a lighter color than in summer. In many sections this is the 

 result of the difference in feed or pasture. 



We can give you just what you want at all seasons if we know your requirements. 

 As an example, No. 1 lias no coloring matter; No. 2 a little coloring, and so on to No. 

 8, which is the highest colored goods we turn out. Preserve this card, order the 

 color you want by number, and we will send you just what you want. 

 Yours, truly, 



W. J. MOXLEY. 



Is there any necessity of going further to learn of the reasons why the 

 oleomargarine makers are willing to spend hundreds of thousands of 

 dollars to defeat laws forbidding the coloring of oleomargarine? 



If Moxley can find a market for oleomargarine without color at one 

 season, why not at another? He gives the whole case away in the one 

 statement, that "in winter butter is of a lighter color than in summer," 

 and offers to "color to suit" the shade of butter at any season of the 

 year or for any section. 



Has it ever been claimed that the tastes of the people varied with the 

 season? Would a customer who knew he was buying oleomargarine 

 say in December, " No, we don't like such a high color in winter. Please 

 make it a little lighter? " 



No, indeed. Any departure from the color of butter at any time of 

 year might excite the suspicion that he was not getting pure butter. 

 The manufacturer even provides for the chance of a consumer living in 

 a section where butter is not highly colored becoming suspicious, and 

 advertise to color it " to suit the section." 



Butter has been a staple article of food for more than 4,000 years. It 

 is, as a rule, yellow nine months of the year. It is colored in winter and 

 fall to preserve a uniformity. It would sell just as well as near white 

 as it is ever made, provided it could be kept a uniform shade through- 

 out the year. Trade in all commodities requires uniformity. That is 

 the most exacting requirement of the butter trade. Conditions can be 

 adjusted to fit the degree. If butter were not colored for uniformity 

 to the June shade in order to make a uniform color it would have to be 

 bleached nine months in the year, which would be impracticable or 

 impossible. 



There is no deception in coloring butter. It is not colored to make it 

 look like anything else. The color doesn't deceive anybody into think- 

 ing he is getting a better article than he receives. Everybody knows 

 butter is colored, as they know candy is colored. Some say the highly 

 colored June butter is richer and more to be desired. The high color, 

 however, is not indicative of quality. The season alone creates that, 

 new grass imparting a delicious and desirable flavor just as much to 

 the light-colored butter as to the highly colored. One prominent Sena- 

 tor said, in the course of a hearing in Chicago last summer, "But 



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