B28 OLEOMARGARINE. 



a four-fifth's majority as being opposed to the existence or commerce in 

 the article we seek, if you please, to discourage by taxation. The legis- 

 latures of thirty-two leading States have declared traffic in oleomar- 

 garine colored to resemble butter to be a menace to the individual 

 rights and welfare of their people. Thirty-two legislatures have thor- 

 oughly investigated the matter and in both branches came to the same 

 conclusions. Our charge of fraudulent similation has been sustained 

 by the representatives of four-fifths of the people of this country, and 

 the high courts have invariably pronounced their grounds well taken 

 and their reasoning sound. It is not a case of Congress oppressively 

 taxing the people, or wrongfully employing its taxing power; it is a 

 case of where the people of practically every State arise and appeal to 

 Congress for aid in accomplishing something which they have sought 

 but failed to do with State laws specially enacted. There can be no 

 protests from the people, because they themselves have sought the 

 legislature as the only practical solution of a condition which is rapidly 

 becoming oppressively intolerable. 



Need any Congressman hesitate to support a measure the intent or 

 effect of which may be to discourage traffic in an article totally for- 

 bidden in his State? Upon the other hand, should he not, as a law- 

 abiding citizen and a representative of his people, endeavor to use his 

 best efforts in Congress to advance the interests of the people of his 

 State? Can a representative in Congress question the wisdom of the 

 policy of the legislatures of the leading States when their actions have 

 been so uniform in the treatment of the subject under discussion? 



And further, what right has anybody in any State where the sale of 

 yellow oleomargarine is forbidden to object to this tax? Where can his 

 interest lie? If he is a law-abiding citizen his interests can not be 

 affected. If he is not a law-abiding citizen, what claim has he upon 

 the representative of his people in Congress? Can a member of Con- 

 gress afford to be influenced by a citizen who has no respect for the 

 laws of his State? 



It is the will of the people of Illinois, expressed by two thirds of the 

 legislature of the State, that oleomargarine colored in semblance of 

 butter should not be sold. Swift & Co. and other manufacturers prac- 

 tically come before Congress and say: 



Now, you see here, this is our fight. We are too big for the State of Illinois, as 

 well as many other States, and we're having things our own way. We don't care 

 for State laws at all, because we can get around them. We are selling more colored 

 oleomargarine now than we were before the laws forbidding its manufacture and 

 sale were enacted. But if you Members of Congress go and put a tax of 10 cents a 

 pound on this stuff it would ruin our business. We can't fight the Government 

 when it goes after its taxes, although the Internal -Revenue Department doesn't 

 bother our retailers by making them comply with the law regarding branding, 

 because the Government doesn't lose any revenue through these violations, but is 

 rather a gainer. You just let us alone and we'll do as we please. What business 

 have the people of the State making laws that will interfere with an industry that 

 produces a healthful article, anyway? Of course, we realize that occasionally some 

 oleomargarine is sold for butter, but why not chase around among the thousands 

 who retail the stuff and punish them if you can catch them? No, gentlemen, we 

 don't care what the States say; our business is such that they can't reach us. But 

 it would be outrageous for the Representatives of these States in Congress to get 

 together and fix up a scheme which would prevent us doing as we pleased in their 

 States hereafter. All we ask is to be let alone in our fight with your people, whom 

 we are forcing to eat our product whether they want it or not. 



WHY SECTION 2 IS NECESSARY. 



The dairy interests of the United States are divided into two classes. 

 One represents the class located in States where the legal machinery 

 has been unsuccessful in coping with this fraud. Statistics of the 



