866 OLEOMARGARINE. 



the courts to inquire into the motive of an exercise of the taxing 

 power. 



First, regarding their claim of a united public sentiment, I will 

 request the committee to exercise those means of knowledge which 

 Senator Dolliver says the members possess to a larger degree than any- 

 one else and ascertain to what extent the various communications with 

 which the Senators have been favored have been actually good-faith 

 representations of the senders, and to what extent they have been the 

 results of requests emanating from lobbyists or from dairy and cream- 

 ery journals, whose means of support consist largely in selling gold 

 bricks to their subscribers and who create discontent among the farmers 

 and then get employed to correct the evils at whatever contribution 

 they can levy, from 50 cents up. (House Hearings, p, 62.) 



I will also call attention to the analysis of the authorized representa- 

 tion of record of the gentlemen standing most prominently before the 

 committee as favoring this measure, as shown at pages 279, 282, 283, 

 and 304 of the hearings before the Senate committee. Also, to some of 

 the means by which these various letters have been brought about, as 

 shown in the statements at page 198 of the House hearings. Also, to 

 the statement of Mr. Knight, on pages 44 and 45 of the House Hear- 

 ings and pages 472, 473, and 519 of the Senate Hearings, in which he 

 told how he obtained indorsements from Cincinnati butter men, and 

 how he had aimed to get the labor organizations arrayed on his side 

 of the question, and after having promises from some of the members 

 of a certain labor union his first notification of the results of his 

 efforts was a resolution in which the said union had opposed the pas- 

 sage of the bill. This ball set rolling by himself, so far as there is 

 any record, without any other incentive than the fact that the subject 

 was before Congress, has been the means of the protest of hundreds 

 of thousands of laboring men all over the country, the representatives 

 of some of whom appeared personally (Senate Hearings, pp. 307, 310, 

 350, and 508) and in other instances your committee has been memo- 

 rialized, and in numerous instances of which I know no steps have 

 been taken other than to merely pass condemnatory resolutions. The 

 workingmen as a class, as well as every consumer of whom there is 

 any evidence in the record, are unanimous against the passage of this 

 bill. I asked repeatedly during the hearings if any case had ever 

 been brought on complaint of a consumer, but no case was cited nor 

 was a single protest from a consumer presented. 



The allegations of fraud in the sale of the product have been sweep- 

 ing. According to Governor Hoard, "The business is based from 

 manufacture to sale on wrong and illegitimate methods." The dealer 

 is accused of selling practically all of the oleomargarine he handles for 

 butter to a long-suffering public; the manufacturer and wholesaler are 

 accused of furnishing to him all sorts of encouragement and financial 

 backing in carrying out his fraudulent undertaking; but the only testi- 

 mony that is worth a moment's consideration that has been offered in 

 connection with this wholesale claim of fraud was the evidence from 

 Philadelphia, which would probably have stood the test of investiga- 

 tion, but which was brought about by the peculiar condition of the 

 Pennsylvania laws and the Philadelphia situation. The few cases from 

 Chicago wherein retailers did not comply as closely as they should 

 with the revenue provisions were no evidence of the true condition of 

 things in Chicago. The charges were confined to one section and 



