OLEOMARGARINE AND BUTTERINE. 37 



oughly convinced of the need of it, they will enforce it ; otherwise it will be dead upon the 

 statute book. We see this illustrated almost every day. Where public opinion is strongly in 

 favor of a strong prohibition law, it is enforced; where public opinion is against it, it is not en- 

 forced. So with other laws. The people are the government, and have a more direct power 

 in enforcing than in making laws. If public opinion were strongly in favor of the oleomargar- 

 ine laws, those laws would be enforced. But the farmers, to begin with, exhibit no interest 

 in the matter. They are sure of the butter they eat, for they make it themselves ; and they 

 fail to see that oleomargarine diminishes the amount realized for their surplus butter. The 

 dairymen are too weak in numbers to enforce the law themselves ; they must have the sup- 

 port of farmers, and this they have not. The wise course to pursue is not to clamor for more 

 stringent laws, but to awaken the farmers to the fact that the sale of oleomargarine is inimical 

 to their interests, as well as to the interests of the dairymen. And 1T the city consumers can 

 be made so thoroughly disgusted with oleomargarine as to join the farmers and dairymen the 

 present oleomargarine laws will be found sufficient." 



THURBER, WHYLAND & CO. ON BOGUS BUTTER. 



In an interview in June last Mr. James H. Seymour, ex-president of the Butter, Cheese, and 

 Egg Exchange, and one of the leading men in the trade, made public the following letter from 

 Mr. F. B. Thurber, of Thurber, Whyland & Co., which sufficiently indicates the attitude of 

 that great house as regards the illicit traffic in counterfeit butter. It should be mentioned here 

 that Mr. Thurber has long been noted as a determined enemy to anything like deception in 

 trade. The following is his letter : 



NEW YORK, June 18, 1885. 



James H. Seymour, Esq. DEAR SIR: Referring to our recent conversation, I would say 

 that I have always been opposed to the fraudulent sale of oleomargarine, and have contributed 

 perhaps as much as any one person to compel its honest sale. There has been a great deal of 

 misrepresentation of my position regarding this subject. It has been represented that I was 

 largely interested in oleomargarine patents, and in the manufacture and fraudulent sale of the 

 article, when the fact is I have never had any interest in either. My brother at one time did 

 have an interest in a small oleomargarine factory, and owing to his influence our firm at one 

 time acted as selling agents for the Commercial Company, which was then the largest factory; 

 but we always sold it as oleomargarine, and never in any case as butter. This agency, how- 

 ever, ceased nearly three years ago, and shortly after my brother's retirement from the head 

 of our firm we stopped selling oleomargarine. And now, notwithstanding that the law pro- 

 hibiting its manufacture and sale has been declared unconstitutional, I wish to say that my 

 firm will never sell it again, unless it should become such an article of commerce, commonly 

 sold on its merits, that we would be compelled to keep it. I do not think it wrong to sell pure 

 oleomargarine for what it is, for I have always taken the ground that I could not see why an 

 article that was as much a farm product as either beef or butter should not be sold for what it 

 is, providing it is wholesome. And of the thousands of pounds consumed I have never heard 

 of any ill effects resulting from its use. But our other business in magnitude is as a thousand 

 to one to any interest we ever had in oleomargarine, and I do not think it is our duty to com- 

 bat the public prejudice which has been justly evoked by unscrupulous dealers selling it as 

 butter. I have worked long and earnestly to improve the quality and enforce the honest sale 

 of food products. I believe that all articles should be sold for precisely what they are, and 

 I am heartily in accord with you in your opposition to the fraudulent sale of oleomargarine 

 and butterine, which are sold, not on their merits as substitutes for butter, but as butter 

 itself. Yours, very truly, 



(Signed) F. B. THURBER. 



