OLEOMARGAEINE. f> 1 9 



ing it, but they don't want to quit themselves. They want to live in glass houses 

 all the time, and they want to protect the poor man. We charge 15 and 18 cents; 

 they want 25 and 30 now. What would they get in cold weather in January and 

 February? They want to get 60 cents. They want to protect the poor man. 



Q. If the oleomargarine should be all colored pink, would that affect the sale of 

 it? A. You could not sell a pound of it. 



Q. Why? A. It kills it right there. 



Q. Because everybody would know that it was oleomargarine? A. Yes, sir. Just 

 as I was telling you about the millionaire buying oleomargarine. We will su ppose 

 1 invited you to my house to take dinner, and I had some of this pink butter on the 

 table. Would you eat it? You would say I was a cheap skate, wouldn't you? 



Q. Very well. Then, practically, the oleomargarine has to masquerade as but- 

 ter? A. It has to resemble butter. 



Q. It has to masquerade; it has to assume to be butter? A. Not if you can whis- 

 per to the man ; it is all right. 



Q. That is just the same thing. Now, is it not the plain, palpable fact, that oleo- 

 margarine is a fraud upon the public? A. No, sir. 



Q. In the sense that it is masquerading as butter? A. No, sir, it is not; because, 

 I will tell you why. A man will come in and step up to you, and whisper, and say, 

 11 1 want a pail of oleo." He is not going to go out in front of the push and say, "I 

 want a pail of oleo." 



Q. He is not willing to deceive himself, but he is willing to deceive his friends? 

 A. Yes, sir; just the same as when you come into my house to dinner, and see this 

 piuk stuff on the table. 



Q. If we are all in the same boat, why not throw aside the concealment? Why not 

 simply let it be known, and make a distinctive color distinction? A. Well, sir, it 

 has killed it in other States. 



This man Broadwdl is to-day practicing the same fraud as lie was 

 when called before Senator Mason's committee. The matter has been 

 reported time and again to the internal-revenue collector, and he has 

 been arrested upon complaint of selling oleomargarine for butter, but 

 no conviction has ever been secured, although hundreds of dollars have 

 been expended in the effort. 



The other two called before the committee were Eichard Pollok and 

 August Cliff, both of whom pleaded carelessness in some employee in 

 selling without stamping, and both of them are to-day selling oleomar- 

 garine as butter, Cliff advertising in the street cars and newspapers for 

 victims. 



In his testimony Somes is shown in the foregoing to have stated under 

 oath that the agents of the manufacturers had advised him to conceal 

 the oleomargarine mark, required by the internal-revenue law to be 

 plainly and legibly printed on the outside of the wrapper. 



However, later developments in the Chicago situation brought to 

 light the true policy of the oleomargarine people, as practiced through- 

 out the United States. 



During the month of July, 1899, some 840 retailers took out Govern- 

 ment licenses to sell oleomargarine in the city. As nine out of ten 

 were known to be selling it for butter, and the tremendous increase in 

 dealers forecasted a complete annihilation of the butter business in the 

 city, the Illinois Dairy Union became alarmed and decided to make a 

 desperate attempt to at least stop a small proportion of the fraud. 

 The law forbidding coloring was tied up in the courts through the 

 efforts of the manufacturers of oleomargarine, and any attempt to 

 enforce it would only result in the release of the defendant through 

 habeas corpus proceedings upon the grounds of unconstitutionality, 

 although the same law had been upheld by the Supreme Court of the 

 United States and various State supreme courts, and never otherwise 

 passed upon by a supreme court. 



As a result of our determination, our attorney, Hon. H. Y. Murray, 

 on July 29 sent out the following letter to every retail dealer in oleo- 

 margarine in the city of Chicago who had been licensed the previous 

 year: 



(*37) 



