152 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION, 



ADDRESS. 



BY D. W. WILLSON, ELGIN, ILL. 



I have been in the fight for pure butter and cheese many 

 years, coming from the east and landing in Elgin some twelve 

 or fifteen years ago, when the fight was on regarding oleomar- 

 garine. I have done what I could with my voice and pen and 

 helped to secure through our National Legislature the Oleomar- 

 garine Law by which oleomargarine is placed under the control 

 of the Internal Revenue Department. We thought we had 

 pretty well squelched the matter, but the greed of man still 

 came forward and instead of this stopping it I believe it made it 

 worse, because it made criminals of men who formerly had been 

 honest. We have had all sorts of experiences in trying to 

 enforce that law and to regulate the sale of oleomargarine and 

 filled cheese and I have been in that fight right along. We had 

 built up a strong national sentiment against the fraudulent 

 article. 



The next fight that I was engaged in was in the legislature 

 that was elected in 1894 to go down to Springfield to make 

 laws for the people of the State of Illinois. We had supposed 

 up to the last moment of the last session that we should secure 

 a. vote on a bill prohibiting the coloring of oleomargarine in the 

 semblance of butter and providing for a dairy commissioner to 

 execute the law, but we never could get it to a vote before the 

 Senate. 



The fight was taken up along the same lines in the next 

 session of the Legislature and last year we secured the passage 

 of a law of that kind, but unfortunately no provision was made 

 for a dairy and food commissioner and I want to leave for your 

 consideration the suggestion that there will be an election in this 

 year of 1898. for representatives to the Legislature of the State 

 of Illinois, and it must be your business to see that only such 

 representatives go there as will work against the adulteration of 

 food and will help to secure the passage of a bill providing for a 

 dairy and food commissioner. The farmers are the food pro- 



