OLEOMARGARINE. 751 



an obscure manner that it can not be seen. In some general stores we 

 have peculiar complications arising from this condition of things. For 

 instance, I recall a case which came into the office the other day where 

 the goods of a particular store, including coffee and a pair of small 

 pants for a boy, were all marked "Oleomargarine," because the man 

 said, "Now, I want this to be marked oleomargarine, and in order that 

 there may be no mistake about it, just take down that lot of brown 

 paper and mark every sheet of it 'Oleomargarine.'" That is simply an 

 illustration of the condition of things that prevails. 



My judgment is that the amount of this material that is known as 

 butter is not nearly so large as some people believe; and my judgment 

 is that there is not nearly so much viciousness as is commonly supposed 

 in the sale of that which is not marked. I make a distinction, in other 

 words, between that which is sold as butter and that which is handed 

 out in a passive way, without its being indicated whether it is butter 

 or oleomargarine. I do not think there is as much of that which is 

 actuated by gain as has been represented. 



A large portion of this product is sold by various small dealers, 

 impecunious, poor people. In handling that sort of cases we follow 

 the same rule that we follow with reference to any other tax law. The 

 Supreme Court has said to the Internal-Bevenue Bureau, " This is a 

 tax law, and you must enforce it as such." The judge in Philadelphia 

 the other day, in passing sentence on a man over there who has been 

 rather notorious in some of his transactions, quoted from the Supreme 

 Court upon that question, and said that the law which provides inci- 

 dentally for marking packages of oleomargarine must be treated as a 

 tax law. 



We have had considerable complaint from some of the dairy associa- 

 tions about the failure to enforce this law. In all cases where such 

 complaints have come to the office, instructions have been given to the 

 collectors that where dairy associations or other interests outside of the 

 internal-revenue force bring complaints to the collectors that the law 

 has been violated with respect to evading the tax, or selling the product 

 for what it is not, those cases ought to be accepted with the same 

 solemnity and confidence that any other cases are accepted, and treated 

 in the same way. The statute provides that all such cases shall be 

 reported by the collector to the district attorney, with his recommenda- 

 tion that they be prosecuted or not prosecuted, giving his reasons 

 therefor. I have said to collectors that in all such cases they should 

 follow the same rule with respect to information received from the dairy 

 associations as if their own deputies, or the internal-revenue agents, 

 discovered the case; and I think that rule has been observed. When 

 that is done, the matter is in the hands of the district attorney; and 

 I have said also to the collectors that where the district attorney 

 recommends a prosecution no proposition for compromise can be enter- 

 tained. 



Now, some of these cases have been compromised, and some complaint 

 has been made of the Internal- Revenue Bureau with reference to that 

 policy. We are not as liberal with respect to compromising oleomar- 

 garine cases, considering the amount of tax evaded, as we are with some 

 other lines of internal revenue violations. Under no circumstances is 

 an oleomargarine case ever compromised unless it involves the favorable 

 recommendation of the deputy or agent who discovered it, the collector 

 of the district, and the district attorney. Unless all of those recom- 

 mendations are made we do not do it. But when the local force which 

 has made the discovery and investigated it, backed up by the district 



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