7 40 OLEOM ARG ABINB. 



South Omaha is the third largest live stock market in the world. 



For the year ending December 31, 1899, there were 540,502 cattle 

 slaughtered and, for the same period, there were slaughtered 2,188,779 

 hogs. The makers of oleomargarine create a demand for oleo oil which 

 is made from the choice fats of the beef and which is worth, for butter 

 purposes, 10 cents per pound. If these choice fats were not utilized in 

 the manufacture of butter, they would have to be sold as tallow, which 

 is worth about 5 cents per pound. A steer will yield forty to fifty 

 pounds of oleo oil ; therefore, should the butterine industry be destroyed, 

 each steer would depreciate in value at least $2. Now, the same is 

 true of hogs. Leaf lard, or neutral, being used in the manufacture of 

 butterine, is worth 8 to 9 cents per pound; lard is worth about 6 cents; 

 a hog will yield about 8 pounds of neutral, and if there was no 

 demand for neutral as a butterine ingredient, it would have no greater 

 value than ordinary lard; hence each hog would be worth about 20 

 cents per head less than present price. Upon this basis the loss to 

 the producers of cattle and hogs during 1899 in South Omaha alone 

 would be 



On 540,502 cattle, at $2 $1,081,004.00 



On 2,188,779 hogs at, 20 cents 437,755.80 



Total 1,518,759.80 



The total number of beef cattle and hogs in the United States is a 

 matter of stati tics, which has doubtless been presented for your con- 

 sideration, or, if not, can be easily obtained. 



The probable loss to the beef producers of this country, should this 

 measure become a law, has been estimated by different persons to 

 be about $100,000,000, to say nothing of the confiscation of about 

 $15,000,000 invested in the manufacture of oleomargarine and butter- 

 ine and the loss of employment to about 25,000 men. 



The butterine business of 1890 was 2.6 per cent of the total amount 

 of butter made in the United States. These figures are taken from the 

 records of the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Agricultural Depart- 

 ment. For the year ending June 30, 189U, there were 83,000,000 pounds 

 of butterine manufactured in the United States, and, according to the 

 estimate of Mr. Wilson, editor of the Elgin Dairy Eeport, Elgin, 111., 

 there were something over 3,000,000,000 pounds of butter made in the 

 United States for that year. Figuring on this basis, the amount of 

 butterine manufactured as compared with the amount of butter made 

 is 2J per cent, showing that the make of butterine has decreased, in 

 comparison to the make of butter, in the past ten years to the extent of 

 one tenth of 1 per cent. The Government received, for the year ending 

 June 30, 1899, about $2,000,000 from tax and license on butteriue. 



From experience it has been proven that uncolored butterine is unsala- 

 ble; therefore, if the proposed legislation in Washington should become 

 a law, it would practically kill the butteriue business. 



There are in the United States about 44,000,000 cattle, one-third of 

 which are milch cows, the other two thirds being meat products. In 

 legislating for the cattle industry, it would hardly be fair to protect 

 and foster the small minority of one third against the large majority of 

 two thirds. 



That is, being two-thirds of the whole number of cattle or beef 

 products, while one-third are dairy -producing products. 



While Nebraska is chiefly a meat producing State, we also have more 

 or less, dairy interests and we know of no conflict between the two 



(*158) 



