OLEOMARGARINE . 763 



the condition of things from what exists now; there is no question about 

 that, because I think the sale of oleomargarine, not for butter, but the 

 sale of oleomargarine blank, is largely induced by the purchaser. 



Representative WILLIAMS. He simply does not want his neighbor to 

 know that it is oleomargarine that he is buying, although he knows it 

 very well? 



Commissioner WILSON. That is it exactly. 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. As to the coloring of butter and oleomarga- 

 rine, you put the two on the same basis, as I understand? 



Commissioner WILSON. Oh, coloring accomplishes the same thing 

 for each. 



The ACTING CHAIRMAN. Do you think it as necessary for butter to 

 be colored as for oleomargarine to be colored and what difference 

 would you find in that respect, as between seasons, in butter? 



Commissioner WILSON. There are certain seasons of the year, you 

 know, when butter is nearly white; and there are certain seasons of the 

 year when, by reason of the food consumed by the animal, the butter 

 is almost the color of the commercial product. Indeed, I think (though 

 I do not want to say much about it, because I do not know much about 

 it) the dairyman can feed his cows so as to color the butter. I may be 

 wrong about it, but that is my impression. 



Representative WILSON. As a matter of fact, are not butter and 

 oleomargarine both colored for the same purpose? 



Commissioner WILSON. Oh, yes; that is my understanding of it. 



Representative HENRY. You would make this distinction, would 

 you that one is a natural color, and the other is entirely artificial? 



Representative WILSON. But one is a natural color for a very short 

 while only, of course. 



Commissioner WILSON. They can feed the cattle so as to get the 

 desired color in the butter, I think, but not so uniformly, and in a 

 state so pleasing to the eye, as by using coloring matter in the butter. 



Representative HENRY. The demand for that uniform and pleasing 

 appearance to the eye, to which you allude so pathetically, is largely 

 an originated taste, an acquired taste, is it not? If people were accus- 

 tomed to use white butter or white oleomargarine, there would be no 

 necessity for the use of coloring matter. 



Commissioner WILSON. I say, if you commence and educate again, 

 yes, sir; most certainly. I do not think it would hurt me at all. I 

 could eat white butter. I have eaten it many a time. I have churned 

 many a churning of it myself. 



Representative HAUGEN. You stated a while ago that these special 

 taxes added 50 per cent, I believe, to the cost of the oleomargarine. 

 Did 1 understand you correctly? 



Commissioner WILSON. Well, my recollection is that the special tax 

 receipts would not be that much. Twice 8 is 16. The pound tax from 

 oleomargarine last year must have amounted to about sixteen or seven- 

 teen hundred thousand dollars, or somewhere along there. 



Mr. KNIGHT. It was $1,660,000. 



Commissioner WILSON. You see, there is between three and four 

 hundred thousand dollars of special taxes. The number of special 

 tax-payers has been doubled in the last year. We had a little more 

 money to use for that purpose, and we have done a good deal of work 

 along that line. The result has been that we have doubled the number 

 of retail oleomargarine dealers in the country. 



Representative HAUGEN. That would not be much over 2 cents a 

 pound, would it ? According to those figures, the cost of manufacturing 



