OLEOMARGARINE. 719 



it up. It is a factory where butter ine was made out of crude products, 

 where butter was reworked, and other ingredients put into it, and 

 where the produce dealer had some duplicate tubs. I gave that state- 

 ment to Senator Mason's committee. But that is a piece of villainy for 

 which oleomargarine is not responsible, any more than butter me is 

 responsible for the renovated butter, or the lard that is dumped 

 into it. 



Mr. ALLEN. Now, as to the retail merchants? 



Mr. HOBBS. That was a retail merchant. I have found no disposi- 

 tion on the part of the retailers to do that. There are very few in New 

 York that sell it, but in New Jersey I went over there, and there may 

 be more there. There is very little disposition to deceive the public. 

 There seems to be more of a disposition to educate the public into the 

 idea of the value and qualities of butterine as a just as good product, 

 and to sell it as such. I made the discovery of this fraudulent fellow 

 by finding him selling Elgin creamery butter at 21 cents a pound, when 

 I knew that it cost 27 cents, and I tracked him. I made him give me, 

 under the promise of secrecy, the name of his produce dealer. The 

 retailer, I believe now, was perfectly innocent. 



Mr. ALLEN. Do you know anything about what has been said with 

 regard to the Elgin butter people? Do you know whether they are 

 making any objection to the selling of oleomargarine, or making any 

 particular fight against it ? 



Mr. HOBBS. We only examined butterine to see how it is sold. The 

 produce papers would have more interest in the produce of the Elgin, 

 butter people. 



Mr. ALLEN. Do I understand you that there is no complaint from 

 the consumers of butterine? 



Mr. HOBBS. I find none where we have made investigation. 



Mr. ALLEN. To what extent have you made that investigation? 



Mr. HOBBS. I told you that I interviewed three hundred women in 

 New York City. I suppose they are about the same as anywhere else, 

 as most people are made up mostly of human nature and dirt. 



Mr. ALLEN. Have you any interest in oleomargarine? 



Mr. HOBBS. No, sir ; not a dollar I must qualify that, too. I believe 

 1 have inherited an old plantation in South Carolina, which I pay out 

 money for every year. It has cost me ten thousand dollars, and I 

 haven't gotten anything out of it. It was all run down by the war. 



The CHAIRMAN. Do you know anything about this renovated butter 

 business? 



Mr. HOBBS. Do you mean the prices, or the business itself? 



The CHAIRMAN. Prices first, and the business secondly. I wish you 

 would give us a short statement about it. 



Mr. HOBBS. I will hand you in a statement which I have written, 

 and which appears in my paper. The butter is melted and the acids 

 are freed, and it is worked over and packed, and it lasts about five 

 days and then goes bad. 



The CHAIRMAN. I have introduced a bill for making the provisions 

 of the oleomargarine legislation apply to renovated butter. There is 

 some complaint on the part of the dairies about making that legislation 

 apply to it, and about its being a good thing. 



Mr. HOBBS. I will send you down a statement giving laboratory 

 analyses of renovated butter. 



The CHAIRMAN. Yes, we would be glad to have it Just send it to 

 the committee. 



Mr. HOBBS. Very well. 



(*137) 



