OLEOMARGARINE. 841 



And on page 118 Judge Springer says: 



While I can not say, and no other man can say, just how much the price of cattle 

 would be depreciated by destroying this industry, or how much it would be appre- 

 ciated by repealing the restrictive State laws and letting oleomargarine go free, as 

 other food products do, vet I know it would depreciate animal fats in the one case, 

 and it would appreciate in the other very largely if this article should be left in the 

 same condition that other food products are left. 



Hon. James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture, answered questions 

 as follows, on page 418, upon the subject of damage to live-stock 

 interests: 



Senator ALLEN. Have you inquired into the effect the passage of this bill will have 

 upon the value of animals raised for food purposes; not for dairy purposes? 



Secretary WILSON. Very carefully. 



Senator ALLEN. What will be the effect of the passage of this bill on that class of 

 animals? 



Secretary WILSON. I tried to reason that in my short paper which I have read. 

 There is a little oil furnished by cotton-seed people, and a little by the people who 

 grow steers; but the old-fashioned steer that had lots of fat in him is not the steer 

 that is used to-day. The young beef, under 2 years of age, put into the market and 

 prepared for the shambles, is not an animal that produces much body or intestinal 

 fat. That is the animal that is wanted to-day. 



The old-fashioned steer that was 3 years old before he got to market had a large 

 amount of fat, running up in some cases to 150 and as high as 180 pounds. 



Now, then, the tendency in the South, where they have destroyed the lands by per- 

 petual cropping, and the tendency west of the Missouri, in the semidry belt, where 

 they are destroying the grazing lands by injudicious overgrazing, is to take greater 

 interest in the dairy cow than In the steer, and in the case of settlers who want to 

 raise families out west of the one hundredth meridian the interest grows every day 

 on behalf of the dairy cow, and with regard to the production of steers east of the 

 Missouri River on the farms there is no comparison whatever. The small amount oi 

 fat from cattle that commerce calls for in making oleomargarine is infinitesimal in 

 value compared with the injury that the growth of this bogus industry will inflict 

 upon legitimate agriculture that requires a dairy cow. 



And the following is an excerpt from the printed testimony on 

 page 425: 



Senator DOLLIVER. I received a telegram from a cattle dealer in Iowa stating that 

 this bill was likely to very greatly damage the value of beef cattle. 



Secretary WILSON. Yes; he does not know what he is talking about, that same 

 cattle dealer. 



The following representations are made by the National Live Stock 

 Exchange, as shown on page 185: 



The "butter fat" of an average beef animal for the purpose of making butterine is 

 worth $3 per head more than it was before the advent of butterine, when the same 

 had to be used for tallow, which increased value of the beef steer has been added to 

 the market value of the animal, and consequently to the profit of the producer. 



And by the Kansas City Live Stock Exchage (page 72) : 



That the bill above referred to, if it become a law, will reduce the value, to the 

 farmers and raisers of cattle, an average of $4 per head and a corresponding decrease 

 in the value of hogs. 



The basis of the Kansas City Commercial Club's opposition to the 

 Grout bill is shown on page 62 to be the following: 



This measure, if passed, will build up one industry at the expense of tearing down 

 and ruining another industry, and will in effect amount to the giving of a monopoly 

 to the industry sought to be benefited by such legislation; that the bill above referred 

 to, if it becomes a law, will reduce the value to the farmers and raisers of cattle an 

 average of $2 per head and a corresponding decrease in the value of hogs. 



