234 THE BUTTER INDUSTRY IN UNITED STATES [458 



as a legal standard for good butter. Some of the states 

 have adopted the federal rulings as to a butter standard, 

 but most of them have adopted a standard of fat content. 

 The percentage of fat required by the various states ranges 

 from 80 to 83. 1 The District of Columbia requires 83 

 per cent of fat in butter, thirteen states require 82.5 per 

 cent, and eight require 80 per cent. 



THE MOVEMENT FOR OLEOMARGARINE LEGISLATION 



The first oleomargarine factory in America seems to have 

 been established in New York City in 1873. The product 

 began to appear upon the market in large quantities a few 

 years later. All dairymen and farmers over the country 

 soon became thoroughly aroused and organized a vigorous 

 movement that had for its object legislation that would pre- 

 serve their industry from the ruinous onslaughts of oleo- 

 margarine production. The effect of the rapid introduction 

 of oleomargarine was most harmful to the dairymen and 

 creamerymen. The product displaced butter on the market 

 because it could be sold for much less. A great many re- 

 tailers dealt in oleomargarine because the chances for profits 

 were greater than in butter. It was testified before the 

 New York Senate Committee on Public Health, 2 which in- 

 vestigated oleomargarine frauds in 1884, that some men 

 were " retailing oleomargarine at twenty cents per pound, 

 ethers are charging as high as thirty cents ; and still others 

 tell me that they are selling butterine at thirty cents, thirty- 

 five cents, and even forty-five cents, all out of the same 

 tub ". Before the same Committee, commission men of 

 New York City testified that 75 per cent of the wholesale 

 dealers dealt in oleomargarine, but that there was a ten- 



1 Vide, table in Agricultural Yearbook for 1913, p. 487. 

 J Report, p. 103. 



