OLEOMARGARINE AND BUTTERINE. 27 



realizing handsome profits, but in spite of thij we persisted in refusing. Then he predicted 

 that in the course of time we would be forced, in self-protection, to do as others were doing. 

 That was more than five years ago, and we have never had occasion to change our course yet. 

 Sometimes we receive orders from country dealers for small lots of oleomargarine, and these 

 \ve fill, but we buy it from the factory and send it directly away, so that we may truly say that 

 no bogus butter ever enters our store. I believe that oleomargarine, as it was originally made, 

 and as it was sold when it was first introduced, was wholesome; and I would not object to its 

 sale now, always providing that it were sold as oleomargarine, and not as butter. I believe, 

 too, that much of the bogus compound that is now sold is not wholesome, since it seems to be 

 reasonably well established that the competition in the manufacture of the product has prompted 

 unscrupulous men to make use of materials that are not fit for human food, and to employ pro- 

 cesses in the manufacture that are dangerous to public health. 



" If the manufacturers would agree to allow their product to be sold on its merits, to have 

 .it placed before the consumers as oleomargarine, or if they prefer the name as artificial but- 

 ter, there would be no opposition on the part of legitimate dealers. But this they will not do. 

 All their efforts seem to be directed toward deceiving the consumer's. If they are honest in 

 what they claim, that their product is equal to most dairy butters and superior to the lower 

 grades, why do they send it to market in packages designed to imitate those used by legiti- 

 mate dairymen and creameries ? Then again, although they sell the stuff as oleomargarine or 

 as butterine, or under any of the names that the compounds have assumed, they must know 

 that the retailers whom they supply dispose of it in most cases as natural butter. They indi- 

 vidually comply with the law, in that they sell their sham product for what it is ; but do you 

 for an instant suppose that these bright, enterprising business men, who keep themselves well 

 informed in all matters concerning the trade they are interested in, are not aware that they are 

 accessories to the violation of the law ? Do they not know, as you and I do, that not one out 

 of a thousand of the consumers of butter in this city would buy artificial butter when it was 

 presented to them in its true colors ? As far as we are concerned, we will have nothing to do 

 with this artificial stuff. We look upon butterine the latest name of the swindle as one hun- 

 dred times worse than the original oleomargarine, and as far as we are concerned we shall de- 

 cline to deal in imitations of any kind." 



" Do you think there is any great quantity of oleomargarine or butterine sold in this city 

 .at present ?" 



" I have no means of knowing definitely how much is sold, but any dealer in butter will 

 tell you that his sales have fallen off, that the prices have been reduced, and that the business 

 is in a bad way. I know of houses in this city where the same grade of oleomargarine is sold 

 from different tubs as fine or medium dairy butter at from twenty-five to thirty-five cents a 

 .pound, and yet, notwithstanding the difference in the retail price, the stuff sold is the product 

 of one factory." 



Mr. Benjamin F. Smith, of Washington Market, who is one of the oldest and best known 

 dealers in the butter trade, said that, so far as he knew, no bogus butter was now being sold 

 in the market. " The fact is," continued Mr. Smith, "that all the dealers are bitterly op- 

 posed to the traffic and keep a sharp lookout for violations of the law. If any dealer tried to 

 retail the stuff he would get into trouble, and so for the past year or so the traffic has been sus- 

 pended. Of course, if people come to us and ask for oleomargarine or butterine, as they occa- 

 sionally do, we get it for them, but the understanding is that we sell it for what it is." 



" The oleomargarine men claim that they do not imitate butter, but that their product is 

 intended as a substitute for that of the dairy. In what shape does oleomargarine come to 

 market?" 



" You might just as well ask me in what shape dairy and creamery butter come, for there is 

 scarcely a package used by the dairies or creameries that is not imitated by the manufacturers 

 of the bogus compounds of beef and hog fat, nitric acid, and other choice ingredients. Here I 

 .have some Western creamery. You see it is packed in layers in ash tubs. In the trade they 



