32 OLEOMARGARINE AND BUTTERINE. 



hooped half- firkins called 'Delaware,' and of others in varnished iron-bound Jamestown 

 tubs packages that are all used by popular and reputable dairymen. Some have even gone 

 so far as to make their product into rolls, packed in barrels, to simulate what is called roll 

 butter. If, as they say, their dealings are honest and above board, why do they resort to such 

 subterfuges ? The fact of the case is that the manufacturer makes a good counterfeit butter, 

 and the grocer shoves it. Of the profits of the former I cannot speak authoritatively, but I 

 know that the grocer makes a bigger profit than the 'shover of the queer,' to use the slang 

 -of the police, and runs considerable less risk. 



" What we need is law requiring that oleomargarine shall be placed on the market in its 

 true form, in which the veriest tyro could never mistake it for dairy or creamery butter. It is 

 of a chalky white, while good butter invariably has a yellow or golden tinge all its own. Thus 

 far most of our prosecutions have been for selling oleomargarine as butter, but the law specifi- 

 cally forbids its sale when it is artificially colored to resemble butter, and that is the only form 

 .in which it is marketable." 



CONGRESSIONAL ACTION. 



The recent agitation of the oleomargarine question has had the effect of awakening Con- 

 gress to the enormity of the traffic in imitation butter throughout the country, and already 

 several bills intended to curb and regulate it are pending in that body. Among these is one 

 that was introduced by Hon. A. J. Hopkins of Illinois, December 21, 1885, was read 

 twice, referred to the Committee on Ways and Means and ordered to be printed. It is en- 

 titled : " A bill to amend title thirty-five, entitled ' Internal revenue,' of the Revised Statutes 

 of the United States," and provides that every manufacturer of adulterated butter or cheese 

 shall furnish to the collector of the district a sworn statement containing the address of his 

 factory, and shall give a bond of not less than $5,000 not to attempt in any way to defraud the 

 government of any tax on the product he manufactures ; that he shall stamp all goods manu- 

 factured by him before he offers them for sale, and before they are removed from the factory, 

 and that he shall post in a conspicuous place a certificate, to be obtained from the Internal 

 Revenue collector, setting forth the capacity of his manufactory. This section (No. 3,4063) 

 concludes with these words : "And every person who manufactures adulterated butter or 

 adulterated cheese of any description without first giving bond, as herein required shall be 

 fined not less than $100 nor more than $5,000, and imprisoned not less than three months nor 

 more than five years. Any article or compound manufactured, in whole or in part, out of any 

 oleaginous substances, pleomargarine, suine, butterine, beef fat, lard, neutral, vegetable oil, 

 or other foreign substances other than that produced from unadulterated milk or cream from 

 the same, and designed to take the place of butter or cheese, or to be sold or offered for sale 

 as an article of food, shall be held to be adulterated butter or adulterated cheese under the 

 meaning of this chapter, as the case may be." 



The next section provides that every manufacturer of these products shall display a sign 

 with letters not less than three inches long, giving his full name and the nature of his busi- 

 ness. A violation of this section entails a fine of not less than $100 nor more than $500. 



Section 3,4o6d will prove of special interest to the retail dealers who persist in violating 

 the State law, and should this law pass, will be an effectual means of destroying the unholy 

 traffic. It reads : 



" It shall be the duty of every dealer in oleomargarine, suine, butterine, beef fat, lard* 

 vegetable oil, or neutral or material used or to be used in manufacturing adulterated but- 

 ter or adulterated cheese, on demand of any officer of internal] revenue, to render such officer 

 a true and correct statement, under oath, of the quantity and amount of such oleomargarine, 

 suine, butterine, beef fat, lard, vegetable oil, or neutral, or materials sold or delivered to any 

 person named in such demand; and in case of refusal or neglect to deliver such statement, or 

 if there is cause to believe such statement to be incorrect or fraudulent, the collector shall 



