No. 4.] REPOET OF DAIRY BUREAU. 223 



Board of Health should be unhampered in its health work. 

 An increased appropriation will not mean necessarily 

 increased burden on the tax payers, because much will be 

 returned in fines. At present nearly half of our appropria- 

 tion goes back to the public in that way. If we are given 

 more funds for enforcing the dairy laws, there will be more 

 fines. We have expended all our appropriation this year, 

 and yet have seen much which ought to have been done, but 

 which we were obliged to omit. We recommend that the 

 amount be increased to $7,000. 



Colored Oleomargarine " an Offence against Society." 



The great event of the year has been the decision of the 

 national supreme court that the Massachusetts '* anti-color" 

 law " is not repugnant to the commerce clause of the con- 

 stitution." The court said: — 



It is within the power of a State to exclude from its markets 

 any compound manufactured in another State which has been arti- 

 ficially colored or adulterated so as to cause it to look like an article 

 of food in general nse, and the sale of which may, by reason of 

 such coloration or adulteration, cheat the general public into pur- 

 chasing that which they may not intend to buy. The constitution 

 of the United States does not secure to any one the privilege of 

 defrauding the public. The deception against which the statute 

 of Massachusetts is aimed is an offence against society ; and the 

 States are as competent to protect their people against such offences 

 or wrongs as they are to protect them against crimes or wrongs of 

 more serious character. And this protection may be given without 

 violating any right secured by the national constitution and with- 

 out infringing the authority of the general government. A State 

 enactment forbidding the sale of deceitful imitations of articles of 

 food in general use among the people does not abridge any priv- 

 ilege secured to citizens of the United States, nor, in any just 

 sense, interfere with the freedom of commerce among the several 

 States. 



The judiciary of the United States should not strike down a 

 legislative enactment of a State — especially if it has direct con- 

 nection with the social order, the health and the morals of its 

 people — unless such legislation plainly and palpably violates some 

 right granted or secured by the national constitution, or encroaches 

 upon the authority delegated to the United States for the attain- 

 ment of objects of national concern. 



