28 OLEOMARGARINE AND BUTTERINE, 



are called Welsh tubs. Well, I can get you oleomargarine and butterine that is put up in ex- 

 actly the same way. There is a half-firkin tub of State dairy butter, a famous medium brand, 

 and next to it stands a tub containing State creamery butter. These, too, are closely imitated, 

 and if a dealer is not an expert and able to judge he is liable to be imposed upon. Some of 

 the fancy priced butter conies in one and two pound rolls, stamped and covered with linen 

 cloth, and arranged in a box on sliding shelves. This style, too, the oleomargarine men imi- 

 tate, and the average consumer, who too often takes the package as an index of the contents, 

 is very often deceived." 



" Do customers ever ask you whether your butter is genuine ?" 



" Our regular customers know us, and do not need to ask; but transient customers very 

 often inquire whether our butter is genuine or dairy. I have never tried it yet, but I believe 

 that if I put some sham butter on my stand and offered it to my customers as they came io 

 make their purchases, taking care to inform them exactly what it was, there is not one out of a 

 hundred that would buy a pound of it. You can put it down as a fact that only the cheap res- 

 taurants and boarding nouses buy oleomargarine on its merits. They purchase it largely, and 

 know exactly what they are buying ; but, when the average consumer invests in the stuff, it i? 

 because he is led to believe that he is buying the genuine article." 



Mr. H. Rohr, grocer, of No. 574 Seventh avenue, a leading member of the Grocers' Retail 

 Union, said: "This infamous traffic in bogus butter is rapidly ruining our trade, so far as 

 dealers of moderate capital and of recent establishment are concerned. Many customers that 

 formerly bought butter from the grocer in the neighborhood now prefer to go to dealers of es- 

 tablished reputation, such as Acker, Merrall & Condit or Park & Tilford, for instance, of 

 whom they are morally certain to obtain nothing but the genuine article. In the last three 

 years, owing to the lack of public confidence caused by the almost universal sale of these vile 

 compounds, the retail trade in butter has fallen off fully 33 per cent., and if some action is not 

 taken soon by the authorities I fear that the falling off in the future will be greater still. While 

 my own business, taking the sales of sugar and other standard groceries, has increased proba- 

 bly 50 per cent, in the past four years, my trade in butter has decreased nearly as much, and 

 I suppose there are hundreds of other reputable retail grocers who will tell you the same story. 

 My only transaction in bogus butter occurred about a year ago, and illustrates very aptly one 

 phase of the traffic. One day an old lady, who kept a boarding house in my neighborhood, 

 came to my store and asked me if I ever sold oleomargarine. I told her that I did not deal in 

 it. She asked me whether I could get her some as a special accommodation/ I went to a fac- 

 tory and bought a single tub, of which the old lady purchased fifteen pounds. Soon afterward 

 she visited me again and asked me to enter the oleomargarine on my bill as butter, explaining 

 that if her boarders complained of the stuff and asked any questions she wanted to have my bill 

 to show. ' Don't you see, madame,' I answered, ' that that would render me amenable to the 

 law ?' Well, the old lady refused to buy any more, declaring that she would go to the factory 

 in future for her supply, and I sent back what remained in the tub to the manufacturer. I have 

 no doubt that many grocers are furnishing boarding houses with butter on the terms proposed 

 by the old lady to me, but I could not afford to do it. I am willing to sell oleomargarine if a 

 customer asked for it, but I will only sell it as oleomargarine." 



HOW THE EXECUTION OF THE LAW IS OBSTRUCTED. 



The appended interviews with counsel of the State Dairy Commissioner will serve to show 

 how the violators of the law resort to all possible subterfuges to evade the penalties it 

 imposes, and also give some important information as to other statutes governing this nefari- 

 ous traffic : 



" There has been considerable misconception among retail dealers as to the status of the 

 laws regarding the manufacture and sale of oleomargarine," said Mr. Frank Oliver, the coun 

 sel in this city for the State Dairy Commisioner, " and for some time after the announcement 





