459] ADULTERATION AND OLEOMARGARINE 235 



dency for oleomargarine manufacturers to deal directly 

 with the retailers and thus hurt their entire trade. 1 It was 

 the producer of butter fat and the manufacturer of butter 

 that most severely felt the introduction of oleomargarine. 

 Greater quantities of the cheaper grades of butter were on 

 the market then, than now, and these cheap grades of butter 

 were in direct competition with oleomargarine. Good oleo- 

 margarine is of course much better than poor butter. At 

 times when prices of the best butter are unusually high, oleo- 

 margarine also displaces good butter, or at least has the 

 effect of lowering high prices. It was to be expected, there- 

 fore, that the movement seeking suppressive oleomargarine 

 legislation was organized by the class of property holders 

 or business men that suffered most through the unbridled 

 production of oleomargarine. This class was the dairy 

 farmer. 



Most laws are an expression of the economic motive of 

 certain groups of society. These groups, whose income is 

 at stake, take the initiative in creating a public sentiment, 

 favorable to their cause, and bring direct pressure upon 

 legislators. The consumer is usually unorganized, but when 

 there is a strong organization to lead the movement, he is 

 ready to take sides. In the movement leading up to oleo- 

 margarine legislation the aid of the consumer was easily 

 enlisted because he was daily defrauded and was made to 

 believe that he was endangering his health. The aid of the 

 sympathetic social reformer was also readily secured 

 through the spread of stories of wholesale adulteration and 

 the use of deleterious chemicals. Geo. F. Angell, President 

 of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty 

 to Animals, Vice-President of the American Humane Asso- 

 ciation, and Director of American Social Science Associa- 



1 Report, op. cit., p. 123. 



