828 OLEOMARGARINE. 



ing that time by this association. There they are, right straight along, page after 

 page more than 500 cases of purchases of oleomargarine in the city of Philadelphia. 

 I am going to give you a summary of them. There are in this list more than 500 

 cases of purchases of oleomargarine in the city of Philadelphia. The detectives, in 

 every single case, without exception, asked for butter; and they got oleomargarine 

 at butter prices, without any indication from the seller that it was oleomargarine. 

 There you have a fraud directly upon the purchaser. 



Now, let me give you a summary of these cases. How many were marked? There 

 are 508 cases here. I have the details there. I am not talking about supposititious 

 cases. Every case is there, with the name and date and the result. These detectives 

 went into these places, places kept by men who were supposed to be selling oleomar- 

 garine and who had paid revenue taxes. They asked for butter. Five hundred 

 and eight purchases were made. Of those 508 purchases, 49 were butter and 459 

 were oleomargarine. 



Gentlemen, I have heard a great many theories, but one ounce of fact is worth 

 tons of theories. That is a fact. There was not a single case of oleomargarine sold 

 as oleomargarine. Of this large number of purchases there were marked surrepti- 

 tiously, marked on the packages inside, marked with the word " Oleomargarine" 

 turned down, perhaps 50 cases. Oh, if I were to go on to tell you the trickery, the 

 fraud, the schemes resorted to to deceive the purchaser, I could talk to you here 

 for two hours. But I will not go into such detail. The simple statement of the mat- 

 ter is that every one of these purchases was made as butter, while out of 508 pur- 

 chases only 49 were butter and the balance were oleomargarine. 



* * * No law or regulation can be made to prevent the sale of colored oleomar- 

 garine as and for butter. I do not care what your penalties are. Therefore, because 

 of the impossibility of selling colored oleomargarine under restrictions, we ask that if 

 colored oleomargarine shall be sold at all the manufacturer shall pay 10 cents a pound 

 tax upon it, so as to make the expense of the article so much more. 



In relating his experience with oleomargarine, Mr. John J. Habacker, 

 one of the delegation of buttermen from Philadelphia, who appeared 

 before this committee, said, as shown on page 217: 



Now, I personally went into the butter business hi 1878. I stood behind the 

 counter and retailed butter to the amount of $35,000 a year, and I have yet the first 

 person to come to me and ask me for oleomargarine that is, a private individual. 

 My experience in the business all through is that oleomargarine is a fraud from the 

 beginning to the end; that it is made in the semblance of butter and is sold for 

 butter. 



And the statement which follows, printed on pages 224 and 226, was 

 made by Mr. W. F. Drennen, one of the most substantial of Philadel- 

 phia's wholesale buttermen, who also appeared here personally: 



We used to handle oleomargarine many years ago. We handled it largely up to 

 the time the first law was enacted, and we have handled it pending the decision on 

 the constitutionality of our State law. After it became a settled fact that we could 

 not handle it without violating the law, we quit it. * * * After being in the 

 commission butter business over twenty years I can call to mind only one instance 

 in which a consumer ever admitted that he bought it willingly or bought it for what 

 it was. That may seem very strange to you, and yet it is true. I repeat that I can 

 recall but one instance in all my lifetime where any person admitted that he bought 

 it knowingly for what it was because he wanted it on his table. 



Now, then, I think the facts will bear me out in that. As chairman of the executive 

 committee of the Pure Butter Association, we were compelled two years ago to enforce 

 our State law through the medium of what money we could raise on the street and 

 through appointing our own attorney and our own detectives. After having pur- 

 chased about 161 samples and having them analyzed, and having those purchases 

 recorded in a book where we could have access to them, the question came up: "How 

 many purchases were made in which the vender gave them to the purchaser for oleo- 

 margarine?" Butter was asked for, of course. Out of 161 cases, one was sold for 

 exactly what it was. The 160 were sold for butter and at practically butter prices. 



* I have enough knowledge of the oleomargarine business to know that it 

 is not sold for what it is; that there is no wholesaler who wante it sold for what it is, 

 and that in fact there is no manufacturer who really wants it sold for what it is, for 

 the reason that he can make a great deal more out of it and sell a great deal more of 

 it through having it sold for butter. 



