OLEOMARGARINE AND BUTTERINE. 39 



boasted that sections 7 and 8 of the law, which cover this subject, would be declared unconsti- 

 tutional ; but Justice Learned's opinion in the Cipperly case, indorsed as it was by the Court 

 of Appeals, will be likely to open their eyes to the fact that their confidence is misplaced. I 

 hope that the Dairy Commissioner will now proceed actively against all classes of violators of 

 the law, irrespective of their wealth or their business standing, and that the minor courts will 

 support him. I am convinced that this conviction will have a more decided and widespread 

 effect than any of those that have preceded it." 



Out of eight cases tried in the Court of Special Sessions, New York, January 20, 1886, 

 there were five convictions, two acquittals, and one postponement. This was an encouraging 

 result as compared with former experiences. In nearly all these cases the violators of the law 

 were defended by counsel employed by an association formed especially to protect grocers ac- 

 cused of this crime. Comment is unnecessary. Without going into the details of the trials of 

 these cases, which would not be interesting to the general reader, it may be said that every- 

 thing that ingenuity could devise was done by counsel to save these men from the punishment 

 they so richly deserved. 



THE WORK OF THE DAIRY DEPARTMENT. 



" The oleomargarine manufacturers, who do not relish the work done by this department," 

 said Assistant Dairy Commissioner Van Valkenburgh yesterday, " assert that the experts we 

 employ are spies, and insinuate that the work we do is not worth the money we get for it, 

 To disprove this I will give you a resume of the work done by one of our experts in the year 

 that has just closed, and when you hear it, and find that his salary is $80 a month, I think you 

 will frankly acknowledge that his office is no sinecure. You should remember, too, that to be a 

 butter expert requires years of training and experience. This man worked 277 days out of 

 the 365, and in that time bought 1,387 samples in different parts of this city and Brooklyn. 

 Of these he delivered thirty-five, supposed to be spurious, to a chemist for analysis. He ap- 

 peared in court during the year 1 79 times, his- attendance taking in nearly all the police courts 

 from the Tombs to Harlem and those in Brooklyn, and practically devoted 121 days of the year 

 to prosecuting the frauds he had helped to detect. His purchases of samples were made in the 

 evenings for the reason that retailers would have suspected him had he visited the stores in 

 daylight. Thus you see, what with the pur-chasing of samples, the attendance in court, and 

 the working up of evidence for prosecutions, his time was well occupied. This expert caused 

 26 arrests, and paid 1,720 visits to 518 butter and grocery stores. This is a fair sample of the 

 work done by the whole force. My own opinion is that the department should be strength- 

 ened so that the whole State could be efficiently covered. As it is, only the salient points, 

 such as New York, Brooklyn, and Buffalo, are provided with inspectors, and in many parts 

 of the State violators of the law can pursue their nefarious traffic without much fear of official 

 interference. Of the hundreds of cases that have come under my personal observation, at 

 least 98 per cent, have been sales of these unwholesome compounds for and as butter. And 

 yet, in a majority of them, the defendants declare under oath, either that they sold the stuff 

 without knowing that it was oleomargarine, or that they told the purchaser what it was. 

 Many of our inspectors reported that on their first visit to a store they failed to obtain the imi- 

 tation butter, but that on the second or third they seldom failed. We can do nothing with 

 the manufacturers, for while they are morally responsible for the sale of the stuff they evade 

 legal responsibility for selling it for what it is ; and if we ever proceed against them, it must 

 be under that clause of the law which forbids the coloring of their food product to simulate 

 dairy butter. We must confine ourselves, therefore, to the retailers." 



Since the above interview was printed a manufacturer in Brooklyn has been convicted, the 

 rulings of the Court being based on the decision in the Apperby case (which is duly detailed 

 in the chapter on decisions), and now there is every probability that manufacturers will be 

 vigorously prosecuted, so far as New York is concerned. 



IMPORTANT DECISIONS. 



The following are the most important decisions thus far rendered as to the constitu- 

 tionality of prohibitive laws. The decision in the first case mentioned that of The People 

 against Morris Marx, was seized upon by the dishonest dealers as a pretext for continuing 

 their swindle, but subsequent action by the Courts convinced them that they had acted pits 

 cipitately and a number of convictions under other sections of the act persuaded them thai 

 the law was still in force. 



