716 OLEOMARGARINE. 



Some years ago I had the honor, in part, of representing a govern- 

 ment whose health officers made an extensive inspection of the dairy 

 herds of a famous butter and cheese district. As a result of this 

 inspection this competent officer found that more than half of the cows 

 then in service were infected with tuberculosis in one stage or another 

 of that dread disease. No government in the world exercises greater 

 precautions than did that one against cattle disease or paid greater 

 attention to the condition of its dairy herds. I refer to an Australian 

 government. Our own milch cows have not shown a better character 

 tli an the above. 



Mr. ALLEN. Do I understand you to use " oleomargarine " and 

 "butterine" as synonymous? 



Mr. HOBBS. Yes, sir; they are the same. It is simply a variety of 

 expression. 



So well established is this fact of the existence of the disease in milk 

 and in the cows which furnish it in Europe that the pasteurizing of 

 cream intended for human consumption, whether in butter or other- 

 wise, is insisted upon and, in most quarters, enforced. 



I feel that most well informed men must admit the above as facts. 

 If so, then, logically, butter needs more getting after and legislating 

 against than does oleomargarine. That sort of legislation is needed in 

 the interest of the public health. Butterine is harmless. There is not 

 an unhealthy thing in oleomargarine, while butter from unpasteurized 

 milk is a hygienic problem, infested with tubercules and other fatal 

 germs. 



THE BUTTER TRUST. 



Does Congress desire to form and weld together a butter trust t 

 What are the market conditions? Creameries now get higher prices 

 for commercial butter than ever before in the history of the industry; 

 this, too, in the face of the fact that methods are cheaper to work out, 

 machinery is cheaper, milk is no dearer butter however is dearer. 

 The milk farmer gets about $1.10 per 100 pounds of 5 per cent cream 

 milk. About 15 cents worth of milk makes 1 pound of butter, for 

 which the grocers have paid as high as 30 cents per pound wholesale 

 this year. It is lower now. The grocer sold it for 32 cents per pound, 

 paying rent, hire, and other trade burdens to do so. The creamery 

 folks made 15 cents per pound, and the grocer only got 2 cents per 

 pound even after a lot of the water, for which he paid 30 cents per 

 pound also, had evaporated after the butter reached his store. No 

 wonder the butter factory doesn't wish to let the grocer sell butterine! 

 This retailer is what is vulgarly called a u cinch " for him. Will Con- 

 gress step in on top of all this, put the requested 10 cents per pound 

 additional tax on butterine, wipe the product from the market, and 

 thus cement the structure of the butter combine? The good sense of 

 Congress is not yet ready, I feel, to mark up prices to the consumer, to 

 mark up still higher the steep profit of the butter factory and in doing 

 so imperil millions upon millions in legitimate fields affected by oleo- 

 margarine and the manufacture of it. 



A FORTY PER CENT FRAUD. 



A butter legislator has been pleased to talk about circulating counter- 

 feit money. How about poor winter butter as a counterfeit and a fraud 

 upon the consumer in the guise of rich summer butter and at the price of 

 it The winter butter of any cow is 30 to 40 per cent poorer in butter fats 



