OLEOMARGARINE AND BUTTERINE. 9 



to be what it is not for pecuniary gain. ' The difference is in the degree and not in the essence of 

 the crime. Both are crimes crimes against the community. Both make something seem to 

 be what it is not for gain. 



"The challenge is defiantly thrown down by organized capital against unorganized 

 labor. The only way to effectually meet it is by State, county, and town organizations, for the 

 purpose of electing State legislators and Congressmen who are in sympathy with the people, 

 ;and willing in their behalf to confront the mercenary hosts of the counterfeiters. Interrogate 

 every candidate of whatever party, and of all parties, and cast your votes for none who are 

 not willing to squarely pledge themselves to vote for the necessary measures to suppress and 

 prevent all frauds on the dairy. Act at once. If your State Legislature is in session, circu- 

 late a petition among your fellow-citizens, and have these frauds upon the dairy interest at- 

 tended to by State legislation." 



Attached to the address is a form of petition asking tbr Legislature, first, to prohibit by 

 law the sale of butter or cheese of any substance not the unadulterated product of pure milk ; 

 second, to enact suitable penalties for the violation thereof; third, to appoint a Dairy Com- 

 missioner for Iowa charged with the enforcement of the law, and appropriate ample funds for 

 this purpose. This petition has already been numerously signed, and will be presented at the 

 next session of the Legislature. 



Among the States in which the movement against oleomargarine is daily gaining strength, 

 is Minnesota, where the sale of the article is altogether prohibited, and a fine ranging from 

 $100 to $500 is the penalty for violating the law. Here the manufacturers are making persis- 

 tent efforts to make the trade and the public believe that the State anti-butterine kxw is uncon- 

 stitutional, and that oleomargarine is a healthful food and product. In a recent communication 

 to the Minneapolis Evening Journal, Assistant State Dairy Commissioner H. C. Howard 

 says, over his own signature : 



" It is not necessary to enumerate any of the names of the countless numbers of living or- 

 ganisms found in butterine to prove its deleterious effects on health. Last spring Mr. Lambert, 

 of stall 20, St. Paul city market, used a large carving knife for three weeks to cut butterine 

 from the tub as he sold it, and the acids not only destroyed the silver plating, but actually ate 

 into the steel blade of the knife and turned it black. The knife can be seen any day at stall 

 60, city market. The eating of butterine made of the above-named materials will destroy the 

 digestive organs of the stomach and cause the early decay of the teeth." 



A letter received recently by a dealer in legitimate dairy products from a correspondent in 

 Cincinnati contains some interesting facts with regard to oleomargarine and its allied com- 

 pounds, and the legislation demanded in Ohio and Iowa, both large butter-producing States. 

 This letter gives the Cleveland Leader as authority for the assertion that a phosphate factory 

 located near a stock yard buys animals that die in transit. The bodies, it says, are placed in 

 ovens and the fat extracted. The first grade of the fat thus extracted is sold to the makers of 

 bogus butter. So much for the product itself. 



As to the legislation in Ohio, the letter says that the Ohio Dairymen's Protective Associa- 

 tion, formed expressly to counteract the machinations of the oleomargarine men, has rapidly 

 grown in numbers, and is now an acknowledged political power. Through the influence and 

 labors of this association several members of the Legislature were elected last fall on pledges 

 that they would use their best efforts to suppress the traffic in bogus butter. Encouraged by 

 their success last year, the dairymen, who feel assured of the support of all lovers of fair trade, 

 will redouble their efforts in this direction next year, and have hopes of electing representatives 

 who will see that their interests are not ruined by the manufacture and sale of sham butter. 

 The oleomargarine interest in the Ohio Legislature is a powerful one, so powerful indeed, that 

 dt succeeded last year in procuring an amendment to the law providing that butter made of 

 "-pure suet or oleomargarine, oils and milk, " could be made and sold. This effectually de- 



