24 OLEOMARGARINE AND BUTTERINE. 



by the shrewd lawyers employed by the oleomargarine interest, but I did not think that his 

 testimony was impaired. 



" I only quote this as proof that certain acids are used in the oleomargarine processes that 

 are injurious to health. If they were strong enough to ' eat through to the bone,' as this wit- 

 ness swore, and to eat into his boots, what must their effect be upon the human stomach ? 

 Mind you, this man was handling the product prepared for the market. It was in one-pound 

 and two-pound rolls (to imitate merchantable butter), each roll being wrapped in a cloth. He 

 packed the rolls in tubs, and the mere handling of them produced the results stated. 



"There is plenty of such stuff as this coming to this market from the West every day, and 

 yet these manufacturers have the impudence to say that their product is wholesome. I tell 

 you that there is very little honest oleomargarine made in these days. I use the word ' hon- 

 est ' advisedly, for when the product first came into vogue it was honest, inasmuch as it was 

 sold for what it was, and not for natural butter. But of late years a class of unscrupulous men 

 have gone into the business, which realizes enormous profits, and by using cheaper processes 

 and material that is not fit for human food, have brought it into general disrepute." 



With regard to the wholesomeness of butterine and other sham butters, an essential point, 

 there are wide differences of opinion. Leading chemists pronounced oleomargarine, when it 

 was first introduced, as wholesome, but it is a question whether they would commit themselves 

 to a similar opinion with regard to the product as at present sold, in view of the tremendous com- 

 petition among manufacturers and the temptation to use materials that are impure and cheap. 

 Col. Robert M. Littler, secretary of the National Butter, Cheese, and Egg Association, said 

 recently: "Anybody who says that butterine is healthful and wholesome either does not know 

 what he is talking about or else lies. Why are there so many tapeworms and so many cases of 

 Bright's disease since butterine came into use ? The embryo tapeworm exists very freely in leaf 

 lard. This lard must be cooked if you want to destroy the animalculae. It is not cooked ; it is 

 only warmed in the manufacture of butterine. I can show any one, by the use of the microscope, 

 the animalculae. When a hog has them bad it is called measly. No matter how carefully it 

 may be prepared, butterine contains acids that are not to be found in butter. There is a very 

 easy way of proving this. Put calomel into butterine and you have corrosive sublimate. The 

 Lord only knows how many people have been mysteriously poisoned by taking a dose of calo- 

 mel after they have eaten butterine. In many instances the process of deodorizing lard ren- 

 ders the product a deadly poison, and the only reason why fatal results do not immediately 

 follow is because it is taken in such small quantities. 



RUINING THE EXPORT TRADE. 



The following from The New York Star of January 5, 1886, comes from one of the leading 

 butter merchants of the country, and is the expression of the views of a practical man of busi- 

 ness who has been prominently identified with the anti-oleomargarine movement since its 

 inception : 



"You can hardly mention an interest in onr country, " said ex-President James H. Seymour, 

 of the Mercantile Exchange, who is also well known in the butter trade, " that is not protected, 

 save that of the farmer. The only tariff protection that agriculture receives is the duty on 

 wool, and that applies to comparatively few farmers. Iron, silk, and dozens of other articles 

 that could be mentioned are protected by heavy impositions on foreign goods, but what the 

 farmer produces is unprotected. The dairy interest is one of the largest and most important 

 industries of our country, and represents a large portion of the income of a majority of our 

 farmers, especially in the State of New York, which cannot compete with the West in the pro- 

 duction of grain ; and yet our national rulers seem loath to take any action looking to its pro- 

 duction. It seems to me that if this traffic in counterfeit butter, not only at home but in 

 foreign lands, where it makes the name of America a byword and a reproach, were properly 



