626 OLEOMARGARINE. 



imposition now being practiced upon the public to show what the 

 men are doing who will appeal to you to spare their industry upon the 

 grounds that while there may be fraud practiced in a small way by 

 some irresponsible retailer, their interests should not be made to suffer 

 therefor. 



We charge that the manufacturers are directly responsible for the 

 fraud; they devise schemes, and instruct retailers in their consumma- 

 tion; but for their law-defying attitude the State laws would be as 

 easily enforced as the laws against any other fraud. 



v Another phase of this question is the position in which the law-abid- 

 ing retailer is placed. 



Where oleomargarine is really sold at reasonable figures it is usually 

 advertised as a "bargain sale in butter." It is used to draw trade for 

 other lines. In some instances honest grocers are hampered by com- 

 petitors who sell 15-cent butterine as butter for 25 or 28 cents, and take 

 the 5 or 8 cents of profit off some other article or articles, thus cheat- 

 ing the consumer on butter when he believes he is getting a bargain all 

 around. 



The following from a circular letter sent out by W. J. Moxley Decem- 

 ber 10, 1898, shows up this side of the question : 



When a woman goes to buy groceries there is one article of goods she must have, 

 and that is butter. She may want sugar, coffee, and other articles, but she wants 

 butter and wants it at a price to suit her means. If you can not supply her don't 

 expect her to buy her coffees, teas, and other articles of you, and then go a block to 

 another grocery to buy four or five pounds oi' " Moxley's Special." If she is a prac- 

 tical woman she will go to a store where all her wants can be supplied. Some are 

 deterred from going into the butterine business through having to pay for a license. 

 This is a mistaken idea. Ninety-five per cent of the dealers who take out a license 

 for one year take it ever after, the other 5 per cent fail in business. Nothing can 

 save them. 



Note again, Mr. Moxley, doesn't say, u there is one article of goods 

 she must have, and that is oleomargarine." Oh, no. She must have 

 butter. And if you don't deceive her into thinking she is getting butter 

 at a lower price than it can be honestly sold, then you lose her trade 

 and fail in business. And there is considerable truth in this. The 

 dealer who is dishonest has an unfair, unjust, and illegal advantage, 

 and such a condition places a premium upon crime. 



.The 10-cent tax will take awa^ this injustice by depriving yellow 

 oleomargarine of its corrupting powers. 



DOES THE EXISTENCE OF OLEOMARGARINE DEPEND UPON ITS YELLOW 



COLOR? 



And now in closing Swift & Co. make a remarkable omission. They 

 say: 



Tenth. It is a well-known fact that the people who use oleomargarine are the 

 intelligent, prudent, and thrifty people of the middle classes, who buy oleomargarine 

 because they prefer it to that which is sold as batter in their markets, and who are 

 too intelligent to be deceived even if anyone wished to deceive them. These bills 

 propose to make it impossible for these people to buy what they wish to buy, 

 although it is known to be absolutely clean, wholesome, and healthful, for these are 

 facts which have been established in courts and by reports of officials, State and 

 national, and by investigations of various kinds carried on in all parts of the country, 

 and the results widely published. 



Oleomargarine, then, has ceased to be u The poor man's butter?" 

 This is a remarkable change in conditions. There is only "one expla- 

 nation for such a change in the claims of the oleomargarine makers. 

 A resolution was presented to the central body at Chicago a few weeks 



