640 OLEOMARGARINE. 



Mr. DAHLE. I can not see any mark on this package [indicating 

 package he held in his hand]. 



Mr. KNIGHT. Well, it is not intended that you should see it, but it is 

 there. 



I only went into this one place with the reporter there, but I could 

 pile up this sort of thing in any number of places until our money was 

 exhausted. I sent a man out for 72 samples. They were butterine. He 

 went around and got those 72 samples in as many places. 



Now, you hear a good deal about Chicago. I will tell you why. It 

 is because, as we want to show you, the manufacturers are the men who 

 are making this fight, and they are the people who are backing these 

 dealers up, and it is right in Chicago that this fraudulent practice is 

 being backed up. 



The CHAIRMAN. Eight on that point, Mr. Knight. You make the 

 statement that the manufacturers are backing these people up in this 

 fraud? 



Mr. KNIGHT. Yes, sir. 



The CHAIRMAN. How do you know thatt 



Mr. KNIGHT. I know that by their letters, in which they say that 

 they will defend anybody who is prosecuted under the State laws, copies 

 of which letters are published here, and the originals of which I showed 

 at a meeting of this committee. 



The CHAIRMAN. Do you mean to say that they told them to violate 

 the law? 



Mr. KNIGHT. They tell them in this letter, which is an answer to a 

 letter that we sent out, in which we told them that we would prosecute 

 them if they sold butterine for butter, that they will protect them or 

 back them up if they are so prosecuted. 



The CHAIRMAN. Where are those letters? 



Mr. KNIGHT. Copies are right here, and I have the originals in my 

 office. 



The CHAIRMAN. And when were they written? 



Mr. KNIGHT. One of them was written August 2, 1899 ; the Braun 

 & Fitz letter was written practically the same date. 



The CHAIRMAN. You stated at the last hearing that a bank of judges 

 declared theoleo law in Illinois unconstitutional? 



Mr. KNIGHT. Not the law we prosecuted under. We have two 

 cases that come under that decision of the bank. The third one gave us 

 the best decision we have ever had. 



The CHAIRMAN. It was a bank of judges that decided against the 

 law? 



Mr. KNIGHT. We have three laws in Illinois. 



The CHAIRMAN. And that one you speak of was the only one you 

 ever operated under with any success? 



Mr. KNIGHT. No 5 we never operated with any degree of success 

 under that one. 



The CHAIRMAN. I simply want to clear up the statement that these 

 men a.re backing or encouraging the violators of the law. They merely 

 say to them to go ahead and sell their product and they will back them 

 if they are prosecuted. Now, they have the decision of this bank of 

 judges of which you speak stating that the law is unconstitutional. 



Mr. KNIGHT. Yes; that is what they try to hide behind. 



Inasmuch as Mr. Lorimer has tried to raise this question, I should 

 like to say that two or three years ago almost three years ago an 

 anticolor law which we had passed in the session of the legislature 

 of 1897 was held by a bane of judges to be unconstitutional, although 



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