OLEOMARGARINE. 819 



Chicago some time last year. I am familiar with the gentleman's name, but I have 

 not put it hi here. I will vouch, however, for the condition, and prove it to you, 

 .but I merely read it as an introduction: 



"During the past twenty-two years I think I have worked in nearly every first- 

 class grocery in Chicago, and I can truthfully say that eight out of every ten have 

 been and are still selling butterine for pure butter. I recently was employed in one 

 of the largest groceries and markets on one of the most prominent streets of the city. 

 During the time I was employed there we never sold one pound of butter, for we 

 never had it in the house to sell. We clerks would talk among ourselves about it, 

 and would often compare notes with other clerks, and to satisfy myself I made quite 

 a canvass of all the stores in the mile and found only one that did not impose on its 

 trade." 



Gentlemen, from experience I can vouch for the accuracy of that statement, and I 

 want to give you a little experience and I propose to demonstrate it right here. 



And on page 469 the following, in a letter written me by J. H. Mon- 

 rad, assistant food commissioner of the State of Illinois, will further 

 substantiate what this clerk says: 



DEAR SIR: In reply to your inquiry, I beg to say that it is my impression that 

 about 75 per cent of all the oleomargarine retailed hi Chicago is sold as butter. 



After having heard these statements before your committee, certain 

 oleomargarine makers questioned their accuracy in the public prints 

 of Chicago, whereas the matter was taken before the Chicago Butter 

 and Egg Board, an organization of the wholesale butter and egg inter- 

 ests of Chicago, and the following conclusions mailed the writer, which 

 appear in full on pages 554 and 555 of the printed report: 



CHICAGO BUTTER AND EGG BOARD, 



Chicago, January 12, 1901. 



At the regular meeting of the Chicago Butter and Egg Board, held January 12, 

 1901, the following statement was presented by George W. Linn, president of the 

 Illinois Dairy Union, and generally discussed by the members of the board, and by 

 a unanimous vote it was declared to be the sentiment of the individual members, as 

 nearly every member has been familiar with the unfair and unlawful methods pur- 

 sued by the dealers in oleomargarine for years. 



JOHN W. Low, President. 

 CHARLES E. McNsiLL, Secretary. 



The statement alluded to follows, and was signed by eighteen leading 

 butter firms of Chicago: 



CHICAGO, January 12, 1901. 



Whereas we are informed by newspaper reports and other sources that the 

 manufacturers of oleomargarine are inclined to deny the assertion of the officers of 

 the National Dairy Union that the retail trade sell oleomargarine almost exclusively 

 as butter; and 



"Whereas from our long experience in competition with this class of goods we have 

 repeatedly and continually been brought face to face with the fact that fully 75 per 

 cent, and possibly as high as 95 per cent, goes to the consumer as pure butter, we, 

 as an organization and as individuals, desire to go on record as corroborating the 

 statement made in that particular by the officers of the National Dairy Union. 



The following will be found also on page 555, from the Daily Trade 

 Bulletin, the official price current of the Chicago market, for January 

 12, 1901: 



It is generally admitted by dealers that the demoralized condition of the butter 

 market at present is due to the use of butterine. Dealers estimated that at least 75 

 per cent of the retailers are selling butterine. 



Such has been the condition in Chicago for years. State laws had 

 proved wholly inadequate, but during the summer of 1899 your orator, 

 as secretary of the Illinois Dairy Union, concluded to make an extreme 

 effort to stop some of this fraud, and employed Mr. Hugh V. Murray 



