250 THE BUTTER INDUSTRY IN UNITED STATES [474 

 THE CASE OF SCHOLLENBERGER V. PENNSYLVANIA. 



As has been pointed out, the prohibitory principle of 

 the oleomargarine law of Pennsylvania was tested in the 

 case of Powell v. Pennsylvania and upheld by the highest 

 tribunal of the land. The beginnings of the Powell case 

 go back to July 10, 1885, which was over a year before 

 Congress enacted the federal oleomargarine law. The 

 federal law, approved Aug. 2, 1886, made an important 

 change in the constitutional status of those state laws 

 that completely prohibited the manufacture and sale of 

 oleomargarine. This law required rigid inspection of 

 the manufacturing process and provided for the produc- 

 tion of a wholesome food product. In as much as the 

 national government through the operation of this law 

 recognizes oleomargarine as a wholesome product, the 

 argument that the question of wholesomeness was still a 

 matter for the state legislature to determine had now 

 very little force. In the Powell case the question turned 

 upon the fact as to whether or not the prohibitory law 

 of Pennsylvania was in violation of the Fourteenth 

 Amendment. The U. S. Supreme Court then declared 

 that the Fourteenth Amendment was not designed to 

 interfere with the exercise of the police power by the 

 state for the protection of health, the prevention of fraud, 

 and the preservation of public morals. 



The constitutionality of the prohibitory principle was 

 now to be tested in the case of Schollenberger v. Penn- 

 sylvania (171 U. S. 1) on different grounds. The fact 

 that Congress provided for the regulation of the manu- 

 facture of oleomargarine and imposed an internal revenue 

 tax on the product, caused the U. S. Supreme Court to 

 hold that the federal law of 1886 recognizes oleomarga- 

 rine as a lawful article of commerce. The validity of the 

 Pennsylvania law in the Schollenberger case, therefore, 



