752 OLEOMARGARINE. 



attorney, comes forward and says that a particular case ought not to be 

 prosecuted for such and such reasons, then the Internal Revenue Bureau, 

 as a rule, accepts the advice. 



Representative ALLEN. You stated a while ago that you thought the 

 imposition of this tax would defeat the manufacture of oleomargarine. 

 I understand you to mean its legitimate manufacture. 



Commissioner WILSON. Yes. 



Representative ALLEN. What do you say with regard to its illicit, 

 "moonshine" manufacture? 



Commissioner WILSON. We have not any. 



Representative ALLEN. What would happen if this prohibitive tax 

 is placed upon the product, in your opinion? 



Commissioner WILSON. If it operated in the same way that a high 

 ad valorem tax does upon distilled spirits, it would result in the manu- 

 facture of "moonshine oleo." But I think it would drive it out. 



Representative ALLEN. You think it would abolish the industry 

 entirely? 



Commissioner WILSON. Yes, sir; I do not think we can have "moon- 

 shine" oleo. There has never been any evasion of the law with respect 

 to paying the tax on oleomargarine, except in a very incidental and 

 limited way. Neither the special tax (although it is high) nor the 

 2-cent pound tax have ever been evaded. We have no trouble in col- 

 lecting them. 



Representative ALLEN. Under the present law you have the right 

 to inspect and investigate and have an analysis made of this product, 

 I believe. 



Commissioner WILSON. Yes, sir. 



Representative ALLEN. What has been your experience, and what 

 has been the result of any work you have done along that line? 



Commissioner WILSON. There has been a very limited amount ot 

 what might be called a general investigation made. In a very brief 

 way I will recite the history of that investigation; it will not take more 

 than a minute or two. You will find it all recorded in Senate Document 

 No. 2346. There is one very short paragraph which I want to read 

 from the testimony of Professor Morton. I was here when this legisla- 

 tion was passed, and was present at a good many of these hearings. 

 Congress never made such a research, so far as I have any knowledge, 

 with respect to the propriety of passing a law, as it did before the pass- 

 age, in 1886, of this internal-revenue law. It was a most protracted 

 and searching hearing, as will be found by any of you who examine this 

 document, which Congress had in order to find a foundation upon whir.h 

 to place their feet if they did pass the law; and they found it. It is 

 contained here in a dozen-line paragraph the whole foundation on 

 which the Internal-Revenue Bureau stands with respect to these inves- 

 tigations. 



Representative ALLEN. What is the page of that document? 



Commissioner WILSON. This is page 47 of this hearing. I read from 

 the testimony of Professor Morton : 



In the first place, I have found, as a matter of observation, that fat which is to 

 he used in the manufacture of oleomargarine, if it is in the slightest degree tainted 

 before the manufacture begins, if it is not strictly fresh, if it is not taken almost 

 directly from the slaughtered animal, if it is allowed to stand in a barrel for a few 

 hours in ordinary weather or in cold weather, if put in a barrel with any animal 

 heat, in a few hours, then an incipient change begins, which in the succeeding 

 processes is exaggerated, so that an utterly offensive material is produced which 

 could not be used for any such purpose. 



That doctrine is sustained by all the scientists who testified during 

 the course of that hearing. Following right after the enactment of the 



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