OLEOMARGARINE. 82 7 



emphatically deny such statement. The wholesale dealers may, as the United States 

 Government compels them to, but the retailers sell it any way just to sell it, because 

 they are protected by the wholesale dealers, who pay their fines if caught. We 

 know it is sold as butter from personal observation. We also know that the retail 

 dealer is protected in selling it, as our customers tell us when they take out licenses 

 that they have no fear, as the wholesale dealers pay their fines if arrested. If no 

 check is put on this fraud or imposition on the consumer, it is only a question of 

 time when the dairy interests will be overwhelmed. 



A fourth has this to say: 



The wholesalers guarantee the retailers protection and pay their fines. If the 

 Government does not pass the Grout bill, butter will soon be a thing of the past, as 

 honest dealers in pure butter can not compete with fraud. Some of the retailers 

 make no effort any more to sell for oleo, as the wholesalers pay the fines. There is 

 nothing too mean or low for the oleo dealers to do. 



And another says: 



This butterine is sold here by retailers, grocers, market hucksters, and everybody 

 else, and is palmed off to the trade for butter. The wholesalers here have told us 

 that they charge one-half cent a pound advance, and lay that money aside to fight 

 the food inspectors. Every time a man is arrested, and from 5 to 20 a week are 

 arrested for palming off butterine for butter, these wholesale men protect them. 

 They come up and pay the fine and the retailer sells it again. 



A sixth writes: 



If I am informed rightly, you want to know if oleo is being sold for butter. It is 

 not sold for butter by the wholesale dealers, but the deception practiced by the 

 retailers is where the mischief is done. Every now and then a raid is made on these 

 dealers. They are arrested, fined $50 and costs, which is paid by the wholesaler who 

 furnishes, and in turn he charges one-half cent extra on the oleo for this protection. 



And a seventh: 



DEAR SIR: I learn from some of the members of the produce exchange of our city 

 that a committee of oleomargarine men have reported in Washington that oleomar- 

 garine is sold as oleomargarine only in our city, which is false in its entirety. I 

 know positively that there is sold daily thousands of pounds of oleomargarine for 

 pure butter, and that the food and dairy commissioners are either powerless or are 

 indisposed to antagonize. 



While there are some arrests being made, it seems to be on account of local petty 

 jealousies among dealers, and not touching on the main offense. The oleomargarine 

 dealers have a corruption fund with which they encourage the retail dealers to sell 

 oleomargarine for butter. 



The following extract from the testimony on page 163 gives the esti- 

 mate of Hon. J. C. Blackburn, food commissioner of Ohio, of the pro- 

 portion of oleomargarine which ultimately goes to the consumer as 

 butter in his State: 



Mr. ADAMS. I would like to ask you what percentage of oleomargarine, in your 

 judgment, in the State of Ohio is sold for butter at retail stores, or finally sold upon 

 the tables of hotels, restaurants, and boarding houses, as well as to the ordinary con- 

 sumer? 



Mr. BLACKBURN. I would have to guess at that, Mr. Adams. My judgment would 

 be 75 per cent of it. 



In speaking of the condition which prevailed in Philadelphia a short 

 time ago, Mr. Luther H. Kauffman, attorney for the pure butter pro- 

 tective association of that city, said before your honorable committee, 

 as shown on page 238: 



We found again, in February of 1899, with this same United States law still in 

 force, not a dealer in oleomargarine in the city of Philadelphia but who was selling 

 oleomargarine as and for butter; and the detectives went out and paid butter prices 

 for it, paying as high as 40 cents a pound for oleomargarine bought as butter. 



I have the cases here. There [exhibiting paper] is the list of cases, with the date 

 of purchase and the name and address of the party. These are purchases made dur- 



