16 OLEOMARGARINE AND BUTTERINE. 



now selling for forty-one cents, and the butterine men went out to Elgin, famous for its but- 

 ter, last week and boomed the price up to its present figure. Their object is as plain as the 

 nose on your face. They want to make the higher grades of butter so costly that those of 

 moderate means will be compelled to use their imitation, or eat their bread dry. 



"Then, again, they decry the agitation of the butter question, and say that their object is 

 to educate the people up to the point at which they will fully appreciate the purity and whole- 

 someness of their filthy product. The people, they claim, would be glad to use cheap imita- 

 tion butter but for the outcry raised by sensational newspapers and jealous dairymen. At the 

 same time, they take good care to pack their butter in tubs and firkins modeled on those used 

 by legitimate dairymen, color it to imitate the real thing, and sell it to retailers who they 

 know will dispose of it as genuine butter. 



" The depreciation in dairy products in the four Western States that are noted for their 

 butter, caused by the sales of this unwholesome stuff, has been enormous. In Illinois, Iowa, 

 Wisconsin, and Minnesota there are 4,000,000 cows. The value of each of these has been re- 

 duced at least $10 by butterine and kindred counterfeits. This alone represents a total depre- 

 ciation of $40,000,000. Throughout these States the rentals of dairy lands have fallen off 

 fully $i an acre from the same cause. Do you suppose that the farmer is recompensed for 

 these immense losses by the increased consumption of lard and tallow in the manufacture of 

 these imitations ? The fact is that, in spite of the great consumption of lard in making but- 

 terine, hogs are cheaper now in Chicago than they have ever been before." 



Dealers in legitimate dairy butter claim that the manufacture and sale of the counterfeit 

 product is doing incalculable damage to the dairy interests of the country, and that not only 

 does it injure the domestic trade, but ruins the reputation of American dairy products abroad 

 and thus cuts off the United States from its legitimate share in the export trade. As an in- 

 stance of this, they point out the fact that England annually imports $50,000,000 worth of 

 butter, of which only ten per cent., or $5,000,000 worth, comes from America. Besides this 

 she imports $25,000,000 worth of cheese, seventy-five per cent, of which comes from coun- 

 tries other than the United States. The exports of butter from the United States, they say,, 

 amount annually to about 28,000,000 pounds, while of oleomargarine there are exported 250- 

 000,000 pounds. But for the exports of oleomargarine, they argue, the annual exports of 

 butter would be between 50,000,000 and 60,000,000 pounds, for American butter and cheese 

 are equal to any in the world. Inasmuch as the dairy interests of the country nearly equal 

 in value the other agricultural interests combined, these merchants hold that it behooves 

 our government to take such action as will effectually prevent injury to products which form 

 so large and so essential a factor in our national prosperity. 



The State Legislature of 1884 passed an act to prevent deception in the sale of dairy pro- 

 ducts and to preserve the public health, one section of which prohibited the manufacture " out 

 of any oleaginous product, or any compound of the same, other than that produced from un- 

 adulterated milk, or of cream from the same, any article designed to take the place of butter 

 or cheese produced from pure unadulterated milk or cream of the same, or to sell, or offer 

 for sale, the same as an article of food." A violation of this section was declared a misde- 

 meanor, and was punishable by a fine of not less than $200 nor more than $500, or not less 

 than six months, nor more than one year's imprisonment. 



A decision of the Court of Appeals declared this act unconstitutional, and there was much 

 jubilation and gun-firing indulged in by the oleomargarine manufacturers in celebration of the 

 event. But they counted without their host. The first law totally prohibited the sale of oleo 

 margarine as butter, but at the last session of the Legislature another act was passed, prohib- 

 iting the manufacture or sale of any oleaginous compound when made in imitation or sem- 

 blance of natural or dairy butter. This knocked their legs from under them, and it is not 

 deemed likely that any court in the land can be found to declare that this provision is uncon- 

 stitutional. Under this act the fine and the term of imprisonment were reduced. ' 



There has been considerable bitterness between the dairymen of Illinois and the State 



