OLEOMARGARINE. 671 



Mr. OLIVER. It is worth more to-day. It was, until two or three 

 years ago, a drug on the market, and it was then discovered that paraffin 

 was the best insulator that could be had for electric light wires and 

 tubes, filling the tubes with paraffin, and its present value is two or 

 three times what it was several years ago. 



Mr. HAUGEN. You stated a while ago that this legislation grew out 

 of politics, and that the politicians had been bulldozed and hoodwinked. 

 I will state for your information that you are mistaken. I happened to 

 be a member of the legislature of Iowa when such legislation was 

 passed, and I will state that it received the support of Populists and 

 Eepublicans and Democrats by nearly a unanimous vote, and I do not 

 believe they were all representatives of the moonshiners. As I under- 

 stand you, if this matter is left to Armour and the other large manu- 

 facturers, there is no danger of their violating the law, but if it should 

 pass into the hands of the farmers they would violate the law. 



Mr. OLIVER. They are violating the law to day. 



Mr. HAUGEN. You say they are violating the law now? 



Mr. OLIVER. I know personally from seventeen years ago, when I 

 knew a man at Paterson, N. J., who was mixing oleo oil in his churn on 

 his farm, and churning it in to butter, and selling it as natural butter ID 

 the country back of there. 



Mr. HAUGEN. There is at present of course a tax on it. 



Mr. OLIVER. There is a tax of a dollar and ten cents a gallon on 

 whisky, but, are you collecting it? 



Mr. HAUGEN. I think so. 



Mr. OLIVER. You are not collecting one tenth part of it. 



Mr. HAUGEN. I want to know what the objection of the opposition is 

 to this bill. As I understand it now, you say it is safer to leave this 

 matter in the hands of the Armours and other large manufacturers than 

 to leave it in the hands of the farmers because the farmers are all dis- 

 honest. That is the principal objection ? 



Mr. OLIVER. No, sir ; it would throw it in the hands of the farmer. 



Mr. HAUGEN. That is your principal objection ? 



Mj. OLIVER. No, sir; it would curtail the use of cotton-seed oil, and 

 finally, in the end, curtail the use of it in the countries of the Continent. 



Mr. NEVILLE. Is not it a fact that this law aims to do away with the 

 infringement with a tax, and that it may be sold uncolored without 

 tax? 



Mr. OLIVER. Yes, sir; provided you do not color it. But why should 

 not genuine butter pay a tax when it is colored? It is not genuine 

 butter when it is colored. Oleomargarine has been colored from the 

 first, and butter has been colored, since the introduction of oleomar- 

 garine, universally. I say, why should the butter have a monopoly 

 of it? 



Mr. HAUGEN. That question was asked and fully answered before the 

 committee the other day. 



A MEMBER. Do I understand you to say that the oleomargarine that 

 is made consists of from 25 to 40 per cent of cotton- seed oil, depend- 

 ing upon the temperature and the weather at the time it is made and 

 sold? 



Mr. OLIVER. Yes, sir. 



Mr. HAUGEN. And 50 per cent of it is milk and cream? 



Mr. OLIVER. Yes, sir; about 50 per cent. 



Mr. HAUGEN. That leaves only 10 per cent 



Mr. OLIVER. No, sir; you can make it without any cotton-seed oil. 

 It is made with neutral lard oil, exclusively, but I believe the most of 



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