FORTY-FIRST ANNUAL CONVENTION 87 



methods of color determination and to register all those in the 

 office there and to designate that sample by a certain number 

 and then to write this bill that should designate that oleomarga- 

 rine shall not be of a higher color than sample number so and so, 

 registered by the Bureau of Standards at Washington. It may 

 be before this matter comes to a head that they will have some- 

 thing more definite to offer, but at present that seems to be the 

 best that can be done. 



It seems to the directors of the Dairy Union that the dairy- 

 man as a whole should realize that the color proposition is where 

 it really hinges, and get solidly behind the Dairy Union in the 

 fight to establish a color standard for oleomargarine beyond 

 which they may not go. 



It is possible to produce a very high color in oleomargarine 

 by the use of certain blanched oils and ingredients, such as pea- 

 nut oil, cocoanut oil and such things, and the Government has 

 brought suit against various manufacturers who have been 

 using them, thus producing a very high color and evading the 

 JO cent tax. The Government has taken the ground that it is 

 artificially colored when they use blanched oils and other in- 

 gredients intending to give the oleomargarine color of a shade 

 of yellow, and they have made good on their contention, so that 

 it seems that it ought to be an easy matter to estiablish that 

 color standard. 



That has been done in Europe, where they have the oleo- 

 margarine question pretty well settled, and I don't think there 

 will be any difficulty in enforcing such a standard in this coun- 

 try. 



The present law, you know, puts a tax of lo cents on col- 

 ored oleomargarine. The oleomargarine interests, by clever 

 press work, have been educating the public, particularly the 

 working classes, the labor unions and such .organizations, to 

 think that this lo cent tax is class legislation and is a tax on the 

 poor man's butter. As a matter of fact, if the poor man wants 

 to buy oleomargarine at oleomargarine prices, it wants to be 

 uncolored. When they introduce color the oleomargarine is 

 sold at a higher price than the uncolored product. In Pennsvl- 



