190 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



Dayton would be about 60 cents per hundred pounds, so the 

 cost actually would be 7.01 delivered there. 



With these facts before you, I will now undertake to give 

 you a short history of the legislation undertaken in both State 

 and Nation to prevent this unfair competition between the 

 imitation and the real article. In many of the States laws 

 were passed that seemed to fully meet the requirements, re- 

 quiring the goods to be labeled, marked, stamped and branded 

 with the proportion of the various articles that enter into their 

 composition, and that the seller should give the buyer a state- 

 ment to the effect that the article was counterfeit, and the pro- 

 portion of the ingredients that enters into the composition. 

 Unfortunately, in most of those instances the laws were left 

 for general execution. No individual or commission was au- 

 thorized to execute the laws, and the old rule that ''what is 

 every one's business is no one's business" is very clearly 

 proven in this case. The adulteration and imitation continued 

 to be made and sold without let or hindrance in all parts of 

 the country, and the eastern manufacturers of butter became 

 alarmed and joined forces with the western brethren. It was 

 thought best to secure National laws that would cover the 

 whole country, so that the article would not be placed upon 

 the market excepting for what it really is. War waged from 

 1883 to 1886, when what is known as the National oleo law 

 was passed, compelling the manufacturers to take out licenses, 

 stamp their packages and a pay a tax of two cents a pound, 

 which, at that time, was thought to be sufQcient to almost pro- 

 hibit its manufacture. This law was fought by all the means 

 and money at the command of the large manufacturers, but 

 through the personal and persistent work of the late Colonel 

 W. H. Hatch, President of the National Dairy Union, it be- 

 came a law early in 1886. The provisions were very rigid, 

 and the execution of the law was placed in the hands of the 

 Internal Kevenue Department. The Commissioner of Internal 

 Revenue was authorized to adopt and promulgate such regula 

 tions as seemed necessary to compel compliance with the law 

 by the manufacturers and dealers. 



Many, in fact all of the small dealers, soon went out of 

 the business, and it was leit in the hands of a few large dealers 

 in large centers like Chicago, Kansas City and some of the 



