10 ILLINOIS DAlRYMEN^S ASSOCIATION. 



nounced constitutional; and the reports come from that great center to-day 

 that there is very little if any adulterated butter sold in that market, whereas 

 a year ago forty per cent, of the butter sold there was either oleomargerine 

 or suene— bull butter or sow butter, as a gentleman said last night. Little 

 Vermont, where almost the entire state stands upon end, has adopted a law, 

 — the finest that has ever been adopted by any legislature — imposing a fine 

 of $10,000 on the manufacturer, and the wholesale dealer must secure a 

 license, and the retailer must also have a license in order to sell this spurious 

 product to the people. Everywhere their attention has been called to it, 

 provision has been made to protect the health of the people and to protect 

 the products of their farmers. But what does Illinois do? At the last session 

 of the legislature an effort was made on behalf of the dairymen to prevent 

 the sale of adulterated products, but our law-makers, in their wisdom such 

 as is hardly to be found in this country, have added a clause which would 

 allow any man who has the hardihood to do so, to come out and manufacture 

 this spurious stuff providing he does not hesitate to swear in the courts that 

 he did not know he was violating the law. Let us read the clause : " No 

 person shall be convicted under any of the foregoing sections of the act if he 

 shows to the satisfaction of the court or jury that he did not know that he 

 was violating the provisions of the lav/, and could not by reasonable diligence 

 have obtained the knowledge." Now, I affirm that if a man will wilfully 

 counterfeit an article he can just as readily swear that he did not know he 

 was violating the law, and consequently the law we have upon our statu te 

 book to-day is not worth a picayune because any man can violate it under 

 that provision of the law. 



But when the legislature meets I hope our efforts will be brought to bear 

 upon that subject, so we shall secure a law w^hich, if it does not require them 

 to pay a tax, it will require that every ounce of adulterated butter that is 

 put upon the market shall be labeled from the time that it is manufactured 

 until it reaches the table of the consumer. If we can secure that, we shall 

 be doing very well. I hardly dare hope for anything better, but I do hope 

 that we shall secure that; and I do hope that this Association, aided by the 

 wisdom of the people in this section and other portions of the state, will put 

 in operation here machinery which will accomplish the end and enable the 

 farmers who are producing milk to make a little out of it. It is a fact that 

 in this state the law is inoperative, that anybody who desires to break this 

 statute can do so at their own sweet will. 



The merchants in the city of St. Louis tell me that they have a splendid 

 law. They could find use for all the butter made in Illinois, yet just across 

 the bridge tons and tons of butterine are sold, and the consequence is that 

 good creamery butter in that city can hardly be sold for twenty-five cents per 

 pound when it ought to be worth thirty-five cents, by reason of the immense 

 amount of adulterated butter in that market. I ask you if such a state of 

 affairs ought to exist in this state, where a large portion of our state is en- 

 gaged m the production of milk, and whether we ought not to have a law 

 which will give us some protection from these men who will counterfeit food 

 articles and endanger our health thereby. And it seems to me that if the 

 people and the legislators of this state do what they should, that we shall 



