OLEOMARGARINE. 639 



here passed around among the members of the committee by Mr. 

 Knight.) This, now, is another class of the fraud. This is all marked 

 on the outside, and it is intended as an evasion of the oleomargarine 

 law. You can see the testimony on this point I am speaking of on page 

 31 of this little pamphlet which I have here. 



Mr. ALLEK. Where is the stamp on this package [holding up pack- 

 age in his hand] ? 



Mr. KNIGHT. It is on the outside. If you will hold that up between 

 yourself and the light you will probably find the mark. 



I have here a copy of the revised revenue laws, published June, 1895, 

 five years ago. 



Mr. ALLEN. I still do not see this stamp here. 



Mr. KNIGHT. If you will look long enough, you will find it. Every 

 package I have here, I possess the signed statement of the person who 

 bought it to the circumstances under which he bought it. That wrap- 

 per is used for the purpose of having a wrapper so near the color of the 

 ink that is put on there that the people will not detect the oleomargarine 

 stamp. The stamp is on there, and, knowing that it is there, you can 

 find a faint part of it. 1 want to read this to you from these regula- 

 tions, published five years ago and which shows two things: First, that 

 this kind of fraud has been brought to the attention of the Internal- 

 Revenue Department five years ago; and, second, that there is a ruling 

 against printing the stamp so that the color of the ink with which it is 

 printed shall be practically indistinguishable. The law says that the 

 color of the ink with which it is printed shall be in the strongest con- 

 trast to the paper of the package. 



Mr. BAILEY. Have you ever called the attention of the internal-reve- 

 nue collector to this 1 ? 



Mr. KNIGHT. I should say so. 



Mr. BAILEY. What does he say? 



Mr. KNIGHT. He says it will take one agent for every dealer, to look 

 after each dealer in the retail oleomargarine business. And that is what 

 we say that so long as it is permitted to go out as butter this fraud 

 can not be prevented. 



Mr. BAILEY. I have heard that when they could not put the color in 

 the oleomargarine they would mix it with their butter and sell it as 

 oleomargarine. 



Mr. ALLEN. Then they become manufacturers of oleomargarine? 



Mr. KNIGHT. I have never heard of a case of that, because that would 

 be avoiding the internal-revenue tax, and that is a much more serious 

 matter. 



Mr. NEVILLE. Mr. Henry B. Kemp wrote me that it was true; that 

 they would mix it with butter. 



Mr. KNIGHT. These packages here [indicating several packages oil 

 the table] are another kind of evasion. It is all according to the looks 

 of the man that goes in to buy. If he looks as if he might catch on to it, 

 they don't soak him so heavy. This was bought for the best creamery 

 butter all of these packages were bought for butter, none of them for 

 butterine. There was only the one case where we called for butteriue, 

 and that was just to test that man Broadwell. 



Mr. BAILEY. This was bought for butter? 



Mr. KNIGHT. Yes; the best creamery butter, and was bought from 

 Hughes & Schaick. There is the mark, right here [indicating on pack- 

 age]. It is a pretty faint proposition, but it is there. 



Mr. WILSON. What is the material in them all? 



Mr. KNIGHT. That is a point I want investigated. 



(*57) 



