396 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



the superior court. One case was called in May, and the 

 judge, on consultation with counsel on both sides and such 

 of his associates as could be seen, decided that furnishing 

 yellow oleomargarine to be used on bread as a part of a meal 

 does not constitute a sale of the oleomargarine in the same 

 sense that furnishing milk as a part of a meal constitutes a 

 sale of milk. The minimum fine in the restaurant cases is 

 only $10, while in the other class of cases it is $100. 



We yet hear occasional criticisms of the anti-color law, 

 especially by persons who have not had opportunity to in- 

 vestigate it ; and the remark is sometimes made that, if 

 butter can be colored, there is no good reason why oleomar- 

 garine cannot be sold in imitation of butter. This is sophis- 

 tical. Admitting, for argument's sake, that coloring butter is 

 indefensible, it does not make right the selling of a counter- 

 feit. As has been frequently explained in previous reports, 

 the law is demanded in the interests of commercial honesty. 

 Colored oleomargarine is a fraudulent article ; when sold, it 

 is usually sold dishonestly, and not only sold dishonestly, 

 but at an exorbitant profit. Experience has proved this. 

 In instances where we have found it on sale, where people 

 had taken their chances in violating the law, we have found 

 the retailer getting a profit of 60 or 70 per cent, to say 

 nothing of the swindle of palming off lard and tallow on 

 persons who supposed they were getting real butter. Such 

 cases would be multiplied enormously and indefinitely, were 

 it not for this law. Hence the law is in the interests of con- 

 sumer, producer and dealer in honest butter. 



During the year an attempt has been made in a number of 

 States to create a sentiment in favor of increasing the national 

 revenue tax on colored oleomargarine, in order still further to 

 throttle a counterfeit. It has been shown that this might en- 

 danger the constitutionality of the anti-color law by recogniz- 

 ing colored oleomargarine as an article of commerce, should 

 the supreme court follow the logic of the recent Pennsylvania 

 case. In view of this fact, an effort is to be made first to 

 secure a law in relation to food products similar to what has 

 already been enacted in relation to intoxicating liquors, — to 

 wit, that food products, especially dair}'^ articles, shall be 

 subject to the laws of the States into which they are im- 

 ported. This will clinch the question of constitutionality. 



