672 OLEOMARGARINE. 



the manufacturers make a combination. They have to use stearin, or 

 some such substance, in order to hold it properly. 



Mr. DAHLE. Do you think a large percentage of butterine is made in 

 this way? 



Mr. OLIVER. In what way? 



Mr. DAHLE. Do you think about all the butterine is made in the way 

 you say? 



Mr. OLIVER. In what way? 



Mr. DAHLE. Do you believe that 40 per cent of oil and 50 per cent of 

 milk and cream 



Mr. OLIVER. Its basis is about 50 per cent of oil of some kind, not 

 all cotton-seed oil, and not all oleo oil, and not all neutral oil, or peanut 

 oil, if they are making it, which is used largely in the business, and 

 about 50 per cent is from butter and milk. 



Mr. DAHLE. Do you know this to be a fact? 



Mr. OLIVER. Yes, sir. 



Mr. DAHLE. And there are more farmers, the small farmers that are 

 making butter now they are the ones that are asking for this law, 

 rather than the larger farmers patronizing the creameries? 



Mr. OLIVER. It is my honest belief that a large part of the interest 

 taken in this bill is for the sake of throwing it into the hands of the larger 

 farmers to-day. 



Mr. DAHLE. It is not the creamery men? 



Mr. OLIVER. No, sir; it is the small dairymen. 



Mr. DAHLE. Do you know that? 



Mr. OLIVER. I say that I know personally that seventeen years ago a 

 man was doing that out there near Paterson, N. J., and from what I have 

 learned and heard, I should say that can be done and is being done 

 to day. 



Mr. DAHLE. Suppose that we members get letters asking for this leg- 

 islation. Do you believe that these letters, judging from your experi- 

 ence, come from this kind of people ? 



Mr. OLIVER. Some do. 



Mr. DAHLE. A large pe' centage? 



Mr. OLIVER. I believe that a large percentage of humanity are hon- 

 est. 



Mr. DAHLE. Do you believe a large percentage 



Mr. OLIVER. I do not know whom you have letters from, for or 

 against. 



Mr. DAHLE. No, I do not think you do, according to your statement. 



Mr. ALLEN. I understand that you do not undertake to speak for the 

 farmers of the United States generally, but so far as your knowledge 

 extends in your locality. Is that it the dairy fanners ? 



Mr. OLIVER. No, sir; I do not think the dairy farmers of North 

 Carolina and South Carolina are doing an illegal oleomargarine busi- 

 ness any more than anyone else. It is only here and there now that it 

 is being done; but I think it would be done almost universally, or at 

 least one fourth or one-half of the farmers would make oleomargarine 

 and sell it for butter if this tax was placed upon it. 



Mr. NEVILLE. How would that affect the cotton seed oil? 



Mr. OLIVER. I do not know that it would affect it, except that it 

 would be sold to men that would carry it back into the country secretly. 

 The chances are that they would try to get all the oil they could use 

 from their home market. 



Mr. STOKES. I think Mr. Oliver, as I understood his presentation, so 

 far as related to the reasons why certain legislatures have passed such 



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