483] OLEOMARGARINE LAW AND ITS DEVELOPMENT 259 



means of highly colored oils used as nutritive ingredients 

 in the product. Such oils are peanut oil, soya-bean oil, 

 soy-dean oil, mustard oil, etc. 1 These are sufficiently 

 neutral and, as they are also nutritive, they can be used 

 as regular ingredients. The real purpose of their use is 

 of course to color the oleomargarine, in semblance of 

 butter. Oleomargarine thus colored is not artificially 

 colored within the meaning of the statute, and can not 

 be taxed, therefore, at the rate of ten cents per pound, 

 but must be taxed at one-fourth cent per pound. It is 

 perhaps not erroneous to say that this evasion of the 

 spirit of the law played an important role in increasing 

 the production of oleomargarine. 



The history of the manufacture and sale of oleomar- 

 garine since the passing of suppressive or regulative 

 laws, dating back as far as 1877, is full of evasions of the 

 law. Behind these evasions the enterprising manufacturer 

 is nearly always visible. He has plenty of capital at 

 hand to engage the best legal talent in the country and 

 to pay the fines of the dealer that gets into trouble with 

 the state or federal authorities. 



The census of 1900 gives the cost of materials in the 

 manufacture of oleomargarine in the United States for 

 that year at $7,639,501, and the value of the product at 

 $12,499,812. Not taking capital costs into account, this 

 shows a profit of over 50 per cent, which is of course 

 enormous. This high profit is responsible for the insid- 

 ious and persistent efforts of the oleomargarine interests 

 to manufacture and sell their product. 



The dealer, however, also frequently takes the initiative 

 to adulterate or in various ways to defraud the public or 

 evade the law. These methods are recorded in the 



1 Vide, Report of the U. S. Internal Revenue Commissioner for 1911, 

 p. 18. 



