ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



Yoli have iivOt followed with the same degree of interest the 

 war that has been waged between the dairymen and the manufac- 

 turing of oleom.argarine as if you had been in the same condition 

 we were in. If you had watched with the same degree of interest, 

 you today would be sitting on the anxious seat just the same as 

 we are, not knowing whether to build new creameries and ad- 

 vance any further the dairy interests, or not. We are standing 

 waiting for a decision of this question from the Supreme Court, 

 which to the dairymen mean everything. You, as milk produc- 

 ers, are equally interested with us in this question. The fact is, 

 if the oleomargarine people are successful in the suits that are 

 pending today in which they knock out the law that has protected 

 us for over two years, we have either got to quit dairying for but- 

 ter purposes of go to turning our milk into condensers the same 

 as you do. 



The first that attracted the attention of the dairymen to this 

 question was about six years ago. At one of the meetings it was 

 said there had been an article that had been sold as a product of 

 the dairy. I wish to make myself plain to you. We haven't got 

 today any quarrel with the manufacturers of oleomargarine, nor 

 we never have had, if they w^ill manufacture and sell their pro- 

 duct for what it is. That's all w^e have asked of them. We ask 

 them not to sell their product for our product of the dairy, but 

 for what it was, and it is their business just as long as they do 

 this. It is as legitimate as butter. 



But the fact is this. They manufacture their product to look 

 like ours and sell it for our product. When I tell you that up to 

 three years ago, the output of this product w^as 123 million of 

 pounds, or one-fourth of the entire product of the dairies of the 

 United States, you wnll understand. If it was one-fourth of the 

 product, it certainly must have depreciated the value of butter one- 

 fourth, that is fair and natural to conclude. 



The National Dairy Union, of which I have the honor of 

 being the head, was formed for the purpose of counteracting or 

 compelling these manufacturers to sell this product for wdiat it 

 was, and I w^ant to say this to you to show you what show a 

 dairyman would have. Armour himself, when investigating the 



