702 OLEOMARGARINE. 



provided for special taxes as follows: Six hundred dollars poi annum 

 for a manufacturer, $480 per annum for a wholesaler, $48 per annum for 

 a retailer, and as a protection to prevent fraud in sales, the manufac- 

 turer is required to keep a book, in which entries must be made in trip- 

 licate of daily sales, giving name and address in full of each purchaser 

 and number of packages and pounds sold. The original and duplicate 

 of this report is presented monthly to the collector of internal revenue in 

 the district in which the factory is located, with an affidavit certifying 

 that it is an accurate and complete record of all business done during the 

 time specified. The same method applies to sales made by wholesalers. 

 Special tax stamps of required values are furnished to the manufacturer 

 by the collector of internal revenue, which are affixed to the outside of 

 each and every package, and thereon canceled as the law directs. There 

 is also a caution notice attached to each package, warning the public 

 against using the package again as a container for oleomargarine. The 

 law also provides for the manner in which a retailer shall make sales. 

 That the goods shall be sold by him from the original package, in quan- 

 tities not to exceed 10 pounds, and when so sold shall be packed by 

 him in new wooden or paper packages, with his name and address, the 

 number of pounds in the package, and the word oleomargarine in one- 

 quarter inch letters, plainly stamped thereon, so that the purchaser 

 may be advised of the contents of the package. Heavy penalties are 

 fixed for failure to comply with any of these provisions. 



The Government is also authorized to confiscate any oleomargarine 

 that in its judgment is impure, unwholesome, or in any way deleteri- 

 ous to health, and it is further provided that the Commissioner of 

 Internal Revenue is authorized, with the approval of the Secretary of 

 the Treasury, to make all needful regulations for the carrying into 

 effect of this act. This bill was given careful consideration ; was finally 

 amended by striking out the 10 cent per pound tax and substituting in 

 lieu thereof a tax of 2 cents per pound, after which it became a law, 

 and the lobby that was instrumental in securing its passage were cor- 

 respondingly jubilant. The prediction was freely made that oleomar- 

 garine had received its quietus. But the manufacturers, recognizing 

 the merit in their product, accepted the new condition of things and 

 inaugurated a campaign of education. To educate the public as to the 

 merits and use of an article is not an easy task. This is particularly 

 true when the producers and agents of a rival product resort to ques- 

 tionable and vicious means to prevent that end. To educate the public 

 to the use of oleomargarine has required a vast amount of energy and 

 the expenditure of large sums of money annually. In Chicago alone, 

 the center of the manufacturing industry in this line, thousands of dollars 

 is spent monthly in displaying large artistic sign posters troin 20 to 60 

 feet long and 10 to 20 feet high, extolling the merits of oleomargarine. 



Demonstrations of the product can be seen in the largest concerns in 

 every market, and tons of it are given p^ay yearly to bring about a 

 true realization of its merits, and how well it has succeeded is demon- 

 strated in the increase of sales since 1886. The first fiscal year of 

 operation under the then new Federal law, the total sales in the 'United 

 States were about 21,000,000 pounds, while this year the aggregate 

 output will be in the neighborhood of 100,000,000 pounds. Could any 

 better object lesson be used to convince you, gentlemen, of the merits 

 of oleomargarine, when it is borne in mind that every new convert to 

 the ranks as a dealer in it immediately becomes the target for persecu- 

 tion at the hands of the butter trust and its agents? 



One of the old charges against oleomargarine, in days gone by, was 



(*120) 



