OLEOMARGARINE. 717 



than is the product from her rich summer cream. Butter color is used 

 instead of grass to cover up the difference in rich quality. By this sim- 

 ple dyeing process the low grade, whitish, winter- waxy stuff is made to 

 look like the superior summer substance and to sell for the same price. 

 Cold storage is utilized to distribute the product evenly in the produce 

 market. So this 40 per cent counterfeit is painted up and shoved out 

 into the current of trade as the Simon pure virgin article. It is a fraud. 

 It is poorer than even "blind tiger" butterine, and no better than much 

 of the Western "real butter," which conies East from the dairies stuffed 

 with commou hog lard not leaf lard even in its untreated state. 



UNDER COLOR COVER. 



Housewives know that oleomargarine is colored. They do not know 

 that butter is artificially colored. On the contrary, they believe that 

 real rich creamery butter is sold in its natural color and that the com- 

 plexion of it as seen in the tub is that given to it by the cream of the 

 cow. I ascertained the truth of this for myself in New York City. I 

 interviewed more than 300 housewives in that city on their reasons for 

 purchasing butter of such and such color. All but 8 of them purchased 

 butter of certain colors because they thought that hue was given the 

 substance by the natural richness of the cream; these generally pur- 

 chased butter of lighter color because they feared that the others were 

 artificially colored, Thus, in no instance, did a grocery shopper buy a 

 butter which she thought was artificially colored. Yet all of these 

 butters were artificial in color. Was the woman in each case deceived? 

 Butteriue is the same quality, whether colored or not. that is not true 

 of butter when a 60 per cent tallowy white stuff goes masquerading 

 under the color of a 100 per cent pure article selling at the same price. 

 If the light buff summer product its natural color were placed along 

 side of the white winter wax on the same counter the housewife would 

 severely let the poor white stuff alone. Yet some people ask Congress 

 to tax a pure and a wholesome product that the dairies might get 

 higher prices for their deceptions. 



The few noisy dairymen, and others that are not really dairymen, 

 who go to form what is swung in under the high-sounding name of 

 " The National Dairy Union," are a curious lot. They come together as 

 a combine in convention and protest as a crowd ; they go home and pro- 

 test again as separate concerns; then they stand out by themselves and 

 protest as businesses; finally, they write individual protests to Con- 

 gressmen. If you add them up, it is a big noise, but it is all done by 

 the same 3,000 who claim to represent the 50,000 dairymen in this coun- 

 try. The absence of the other 47,000 looks bad for the cause of these 

 agitators. It may have been noticed in all of this noise that the public 

 have not yet asked to be protected against oleomargarine. The chem- 

 ists refuse to condemn it, and the grocers desire to sell it. 



You can not make oleomargarine very inferior. The low-grade ingre- 

 dients will not mix. Paraffin is unnecessary in it. It would be foolish 

 to use this substance when stearin, the natural component of butter 

 and butterine, is much cheaper than paraffin. 



I will close with a statement of Chief Chemist Duff: 



The constituents of which butterine is made are each manufactured with the pur- 

 pose of obtaining pure an.d cleanly products. As the animal products are obtained 

 from Government-inspected cattle and hogs, there is, first, no question as to the 

 healthfulness of the lard, and oleo oil or neutral lard suitable for this purpose can 

 be made successfully without scrupulous cleanliness in the entire course of its man- 

 ufacture. 



The cleanliness and healthfulness of cotton-seed oil is beyond question. 



(135) 



