Qass S F'^SS Book X)S IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. Statements made hefore ike. Committee on A(/riculture and Forestry of the United States Senate in regard to the bill {S. 1837) to prevent the iller/al sale of all imitatioms of dairy products, and for other purposes. Washington, D. 0., April 28, 1886. The committee was called to order at 10.30 o'clock a. m. The Chairman (Senator Miller). This is a hearing granted to the representatives of the dairy interests of the country who, being present in Washington, desire to be heard now rather than to wait until the Senate shall receive the bill i'rom the House, if it does receive it. We have a stenographer here Avho will take down all that is said, and we hope that our frieiids will make their remarks as concise as i)ossible, and give us facts and data as well as they can. The president of the American Agricultural and Dairy Association of the United States wiil make a preliminary statement before calling upon the other gentlemen who are present to state what they have to say. Mr. JOSEPH H. KEALL, president of the American Agricultural and Dairy Association, addressed the committee as follows: Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, we appear on behalf of the measures introduced by the chairman of this committee in the Senate and by Mr. Scott in the House. The bill in the House was referred to the Com- mittee ou Agriculture, and has been unanimously agreed to by that committee. lu behalf of tiiat measure we have this morning present gentlemen from New York engaged in trade, representing the dairymeu as well as the mercantile interest; the president of the Orange Couuty Milk Association of New York; tlie president of the Holstein Breeders' Association; delegates from New England, representing the New Eng- land States; five delegates from Baltimore, Md., and a number of other representatives of the dairy interests, who, with your kind permission, Mill present to the committee the grievances of the dairymen. I appear before you myself in behalf of the most important measure to the farmers ever brought before Congress, and than which no ques- tion of equal importance has been so unanimously favored by the mem- bers of the Natioual Legislature. The Committee ou Agriculture of the House have unanimously agreed upon the measure i)roposed by the American Agricultural and Dairy Association, placing the manufacture and sale of imitations of butter under the control of the United States Department of Internal Kevenne, imposing a license fee upon manufacturers and dealers, and taxing the compounds 10 cents per pouud. The bill that will be reported by the Hon. W. H. Hatch, chairman of that committeej meets tlie wants of tbo 17007 OL 1 2 IMITATION DAIllY PRODUCTS. VXS producer, protects the cou^uiucr, and is Dot unjust to tbe few interested in manufacturing artificial butter. Directly, and tlirougli various organizations, I have tbe great honor and grave responsibility to represent five million dairy farmers, whose lands and cows are depreciating in value day by day, and three millions of their brothers engaged in other branches of husbandry who sympa- thize with them and are indirectly affected. I also represent that great body of consumers in the cities and in the Southern States, comprising over half our entire population, who pur- chase their butter, and who, rich and poor alike, suffer the grossest im- IDOsition in this important article of food, chief among whom are the laborers and mechanics who can least aftbrd to be swindled in their purchases. After having brought a noble industry to the verge of destruction and imposed upon the consumers of butter for years, the manufacturers of artificial butter now raise the cry that they have long harped upon, for fair ti'eatment. Driven t,o the last ditch they begin to appeal for mercy. Seeing that the dairymen have arisen in their might, and that Congress is in full sympathy with their demands and anxious to afford them every relief and protection, these enemies of honest industry, de- moralizers of public morals, and robbers of the people ask for quarter. They offer to accept without oi)position all of our bill except the tax. But while thus admitting their dishonesty in the ])ast, they do not offer to reimburse the dairymen for their loss, nor could they do it with all their millions if they would. They do not propose to return to the con- sumers the millions of dollars out of which they have defrauded them. They do not suggest bringing back tolife the innocent people they have killed with the poisonous drugs they have used, nor restoring to health the thousands who now suffer from the diseases they have entailed. If our measure has a fault, it is in being too merciful. It is a serious question whether or not i)ublic ])olic3", public health, and public morals do not require the total extermination of imitation butter. For myself, I believe they do; and if my earnest advice in this direction had beeu followed when its manufacture began in America twelve years ago, un- told loss to the farme's would have been saved, and millions of dollars to the country. But we want to be absolutely fair, and therefore ask only the adoiJtion of our moderate measuie. It is not alone the direct loss from which the dairy farmer suffers, nor can the effect be measured by the profits of the nuiiuifactur'er. All branches of agriculture suffer through this fraud, for they each sym- pathize with the other in depression as well as iu j)rosperity, and the inilueuce is extended to all branches of commerce and industry. It has depressed our farming lauds and the value of our cattle. It has injured our foreign markets for daily i)rodncts and created a suspicion against all our exports. It is curtailing a healthy consumption of ibod by alarm- ing the consumers. It sets an'^xample of morals before our people that, if followed, would make every man a scoundrel, and this phase of the question, though least considered thus far, is the most important of all. The general pursuit of the practices of those who sell imitation butter would make us a nation of robbers entitled to the curse of God and the disgrace of mankind. The iniquity of the business cannot be charac- terized in words, nor can the train of evils following in its wake be enu- merated. If, after selling their stuff' for butter for ten years, as the manufact- urers admit over their own signatures, and by deception obtaining the price of butter ifor it, they cannot stand a tax of 10 cents per pound, ••**•• AUG 19 1^07 D. ofD. IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 3 "which, added to the low cost of pi-oduction, makes their stuff cost less than it does to produce butter, they had better convert tiieir factories into some respectable employment, such as soa])-omking, for which many of the fats they use would be more api)ropriate. The countiy can find use for the tax that may be realized. It can be used in building up our Navy, creating a coast defense, improving our rivers and harbors, i)romoting poi)ulaT education, establishing agricult- ural experiment stations in the different States and counties, extend- ing the benefits of the signal service to agriculture, creating and con ducting a department of agriculture of the national Government, and making a like department of labor and commerce. The threat is made that the law we propose will not be sustained by the courts on constitutional or other grounds. Give us the law ; the courts will sustain it. The first State laws on this subject were excepted to by the courts, but subsequent enactments of even stronger tenor were declared valid under stronger public sentiment. There is a senti- ment behind this measure representing the conservative farmers of America that would sustain any law based on right that the State or nation would enact. In conclusion, allow me to quote a little paragraph that appeared in yesterday's Washington Star, which says: "The elaborate legal argu- ments brought forward in the House against the right of Congress^ to defend the American people against vile food adulterations are not g(!- iug to be allowed to settle the question forever by any means. What- ever technical difficulties may be grubbed up to obstruct the operation of a measure founded in righteousness and common sense, the Commit- tees on Agriculture in both houses seem resolved to do their duly just the same. The Internal Revenue Bureau is lending its aid to the good Avork in an advisory capacity, and before long the question will be laid before Congress on its merits. Then we shall see how many memliei.s are willing to go on record as opposing the plain demand of the yieople for honest tiade in dairy products, and for the taxation of a noxious compound whi(;h, if it cannot be wi])ed out of existence altogether, can at least be crippled by a tax which will render its manufacture less profitable." Mr. L. I. SEAMAN next addressed the committee as follows: Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, since the foundation of the Government it has been the practice of citizens to call upon the governing powers for protection whenever they have felt that their in- dustries have been assailed, yet I do not know that I have ever read or heard of an industry similar to this one being assailed. In speaking of this subject I will first refer to the geograi)hical loca- tion and advantages that nature has provided the United- States with for producing dairy {)roducts. There is a dairy belt extending from the New England States on the Atlantic to the westward, confined luinci- pally within latitudes 41 and 44, although diverging southerly in a few instances as far as latitude 40. That range extends from 125 to loU miles in width, and is about 1,800 miles long, running to the westward, so far developed. We have in the United States lauds particularly adapted to the raising of cotton, other lands particularly ada]>ted to the raising of sugar, others to the raising of corn, others to the raising of wheat, and so I might go on and name other i)roducts to which our soil is adapted. But this belt of country to which I refer seeuKs to be particularly adai)ted, as can be proven without dispute, to the success- ful operatiou of dairying. 4 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. This section of tbe country also has for its watershed the river Saint Lawrence, Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, Lake Su])erior, and the Lake of the Woods, in Northern Minnesota. Then u]} in Canada a little ways there is a watershed which is a tributary to some of the northern sections of Minnesota and Dakota. Let me c&ll your attention to this section of Canada called Manitoba, Avhich is attracting so much interest. That has a watershed in three large lakes immetliately north of it that is watered the same as our country is l)y the lakes and rivers that I have named. The three lakes watering that section are Lake Winnipeg, Lake Manitoba, and Lake Winnebago — three large lakes. In addition to this is this section of the W^est which has been so largely' devoted to grain, and which has re- cently developed into a dairying section, which is watered by the Mis- sissippi, while Minnesota has the Missouri River running through the center of it. And let me say here, gentlemen, that in Central Minne- uesota, which has been producing the best wheats that we have had for many years, wo find there that the wheats are running out, as they did in the Genesee Valley some years ago, and farmers there are learning that those lands are as well adapted to dairying as they have been in past times to wheat growing. I will not strive to tell this committee in the short time allotted to me how many acres of pasture lands there are in this vast belt, or how many milk-cows there are grazing thereon, or how many millions of inhabitants are dependent upon this industry for a livelihood. Suffice it to say that there are many millions of people engaged in it, many millions of dollars invested in this industry, and that is the industry which is assailed by these manufactured bogus goods, in regard to which not only myself but a number of gentlemen here present have heard retailers confess that they could not sell them if they represented them honestly to the people who purchased them. This manufacture can be pi^oduced by a handful of men and hj a few manufacturers in as great quantities as can be produced by any of the largest dairying States within this Union. The production of butter is an adjunct to the crop of grass produced, one of the most important crops, as is admitted by learned men with whom I have talked, that there is raised, because grass i)roduces our butter, our cheese, our milk, our beef, and our mutton, and is the food for man's helpmate, the horse, and an injury to either one of these products aflects in some degree the whole. Now, a word in regard to our exports. It is a misfortune to have these bogus goods manufactured here, because they harass and annoy our trade in every sense, and particularly our export trade. It has been particularly annoying within the last jieriod of several years, because we have made great ])rogress in the manufacture of butter by manu- facturing it on wliat is called t he creamery plan. Everybody wlio knows anyl hing about it at all knows very well that the system of manufactur- ing it on the creamery principle has imin'oved tlie average quality of the product so largely that we are on the eve of building up a larger trade in butter than ever before known. But the tact is that instead of doing so we have barely held our own. The exports of butter from the United States amount to about $5,000,000 per annum in value. The exports of cheese, let me say, l\y the way, are very much larger, be- cause it was found that adding the oleo oil, the lard oil, either one, to the cheese, injures it so that it does not stand the transit across the ocean. Tliere is something about the hold of a vessel that injures the clieese, and they foiiiul that wIhju it got over there it was impaired iu IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 5 value very <2reatly, and they Lnd to discontinue tlio adulteration of the cheese. But for that our cheese trade would have been injured and (hunaged as much as our butter trade has been. While we are exporting tive million dollars' worth of butter per annum, let ine call your particular attention to France, a smaller country, with less than two-thirds of the poj^ulation of this country, which exports nearly nine millon dollars' worth |)er annum. Also to a very uiuch smaller country, Denmark, which exports eight million dollars' worth per annum. These figures have been computed and handed to the State Department by the American consuls who are located abroad iu these dif- ferent countries. England imports about forty million dollars' worth per annum. Jv^ow, see what a paltry proportion of it she takes from us. Eng- land also exports a large i)ortion from her shores. Denmark, as I say, a small country, exports eight million dollars' worth of butter annuadly, and she looks uyon the butter business as one of the most important industries of the country; and I learn that those who are engaged in that line of trade there, in that lirie of manufacture, give as much atten- tion to it as it is ])ossible for them to do, mm when a ])ackageis braiuled "Smith "or "Alaska," or any other name which jnay be on a i)ackage of butter, it is meant to represent the precise quality of it, and thej^ are very i)articukir to ])ut precisely the same qualities of butter under these different brands, as each man is anxious to sustain his reputation and name in this connection, while in this country we hfive no control over the matter in any manner whatever. By the Chairman (Senator Miller) : Question. Can you give us the actual figures showing the amount of butter exported during the last three or four years, stating the amount exported each year ? — Answer. The amount was over four million dollars, but scarcely reaches five million dollars, and we cannot give the exact figures for this reason : There is no law on the statute books of the United States to ])rotect importers in other countries from these imita- tions of butter. In other words, the people here cau export goods under any name that they choose. The only law which could i)ossibly i)revent that is the law which relates to correct clearances of vessels. After a considerable effort some years ago I succeeded in calling the attention of the (xovernment to that fact, and they issued orders to the proper officers iu New York not to ])ermit any vessels to be cleared unless they had correct clearances. Q. Is oleomargarine exported abroad under the name of butter iu the clearances? — A. Yes, sir; it is. Q. And you cannot determine how much is butter and how much oleomargarine? — A. No, sir. By Senator Blair : Q. Of this $5,000,000 worth exported annually, some portion, then, may be oleomargarine "? — A. Yes, sir ; unquestionably a large percent- age of it, at least 20 per cent, of it, is oleomargarine. Allow me to say right here that the United States Government is em|)loying, at a vast expense of money, a large number of clerks to keep the statistics of ex- ports and iraports of the United States Q. What is the average co.jt of this stuff at the manufactory? — A. At present it is about 9| cents a pound. I was about to remark that the United States Government was spending a large amount of molu'y to give us the statistics of the exjiorts and imports, and also (he ditfer- ent exchanges in the principal cities are spending a givar deal of money for the same purpose. But there being no guard whatever upon the IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. ^Yny-billill.!:l• aiul sliippirig of g-oods niider those Dames, tlio statisticians' iei)oits are iinvvoitlJy of credence in any form ; tbat is, so far as regards dairy jirodncts. In regard to the uuwholesomeness of these goods, I will say, withonfc fear of snccessfnl contradiction, that scarcely any of the families in the United States will knowingly bny thenij. They are largely v sed on the tables of hotels, lestaurauts, and boarding-houses. The ])hysicians on Blackwell's Island, in the harbor of N^ew York, or, rather, in Long Island Sound, will not permit their use in the hospitals or in the insane asylums. Physicians generally decline using them in their^^'^n fam- ilies, because, to use the terms they employ, they do not assiniilhift* with the system as butter does. Butter is made of little giobulesr**?if^tinct and separate, like living globules, while oleomargarine anun«led to the gentleman who preceded me, and thiidc 1 probably may be able to clear up some of the diffi- culties that surround the question of a State law. Our Maryl.ind law was passed in 1876, and at that time we thought it comprehensive enough to deal with this subject. But the trouble is that we did TU)t at that time forecast the future success of oleomarga- liue. We thought it was just siin[)ly an innovation that would probably die out in a very short time, and we had a line attached to the violation of the law, but did not thitsk of having an imprisonment clause. Now, this bill that is before you is so comprehensive that it will take in everything in the nature of oleomargarine. At that time oleomar- garine was considered to be just simply the substance on which Mr. Mege received his patent in Paris, in which it was jnovided that he should make it of the caul of fatted beeves. No one supposed it would assume the hydra-headetl projjortious it has developed into within the last ten years. Now it is umde of everything almost. And before I leave this part of what I am saying, I want to state that it would be impossible even under the strict surveillance of the Internal Revenue Department for any one to detect some of the articles now made. It is my province as president of the Produce Exchange of Baltimore to be the chief prosecutor of offenders under the law of Maryland, and to analyze, before I put it into the hands of the officers of the law, all the compositions that are brought before me. Latterly there has ap- peared a case which has puzzled me to this extent that I cannot find ]>roper occasion to have this man prosecuted, for the simple reason that the article in question is not butter and is not oleomargarine. It is some gelatinous compound that can be made even cheapei than oleomargarine, and when we ])ut it in the testing tube, instead of showing the color of oil or butter, it shows this opa(iue fluid, and we cannot say it is anything that has been ])reseuted to us before. I have heard it testified to before the House committee that there are two factories in Chicago which solid- ify substantially this oilj" matter and produce an oleomargarine which is sold at 7, 8, or 9 cents a ])ouud. But this cheap compound presented to me was the cunning product of some German, who has found out that he can solidify milk. He has there a gelatiue or butter, and is working on the old theory that a gallon or more of milk can be cou verted into 10 or 12 pounds of butter, and he is doing that, and it is one of the most IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 11 attractive things you have ever seen. All the lines are well defined ; he brings it in in ice, and it is as pretty as print butter. It is absolutely sweet, attractive to the i)alate and to tbe olfactories ; aiul what are we going to do in snch a case as that unless we have some comprehensive law like this to carry it out, some zealous organization like the Internal Eevenue Bureau ? Our State laws are incompetent to deal with this thing. Since I have been prosecuting in Maryland I suppose we have had more than tifty — yes, one hundred — people arrested for selling oleo- margarine. What is the outcome of it"? The fine is paid gladly and that is all, because they make more in a week for selling it than they have to i)ay in fines in two weeks. We have had persons who have been indicted four times within a year, and the ofiticers will not take hold of the matter with any spirit at all. Therefore we ask the Internal Eevenue Bureau to take hold of it, because we know they are a zealous organization, and you cannot get it under the control of the Internal Eevenue Bureau unless you put a tax on it. Why should they interfere if they gain nothing by it ? You can brand it oleomargarine, if you please, and they will not care ; but put a tax of 10 cents a pound on it, put it in the proper |>lane of competition, and let the Internal Eevenue officers come and collect their tax, and I guarantee there will be none sold, except as oleomargarine, from that time on. The farmers deinand the passage of this law. This interest was exist- ing at the time of the Christian era, and people made and sold butter then. It is an artificial taste I will'a'dmit. But if you throttle this measure you will kill one of the greatest industrial interests of this country. I claim here that it is the mainstay of the farmer. The man- ufacture of butter is his sole dependence in times of drouth when other cro])s fail him 5 and, furthermore, after his land has been worn out, as described by my friend, Mr. Seaman, of Kew York, after this natural dairying tract has been worn out, he has no way of recuperation what- ever, unless you give him the dairy to recuperate with and upon. Laud that is worn out for farming purposes and is useless for grain can be used for dairying interests; it can recuperate and be put to farm work again, and the farmer can get support from it. The claim of the oleomargarine manufacturers that they are the poor man's friend is false from the beginning and a delusion. They have held that up every time they have appeared before legislative bodies. They say, "We appear for the poor man. We want to make butter cheaper. The laboring men want cheap butter, and we are their friends." What is the fact in the case? I defy any living man to say that he ever saw a housewife or a man or child go to the market-house or store and ask for a i)ound of oleomargarine. I never did, and I defy any man to say that he ever did. But what are the facts? The facts are that tons of it are being sold daily in our city, tons and tons are being sold, and when we have these men arrested— which we can seldom do, because, as a gentleman has stated to you, we have all sorts of difficul- ties thrown around us — they say, "Are you willing to swear to this and that? Are you willing to conduct the prosecution?" And wheu we go to the State's attorney and ask him to come down to the station- house with us he says, " It is not my business ; I am not paid to go to the statiou-hou e. Make your charge and have it sent before the jury as best you can." State laws are powerless to deal with this subject. It has to be a national law, otherwise we are left to the mercy of these people, who are seeking to destroy the dairy interest for their benefit. The fact has been i)resented to me since I came here that nineteen creameries located on one short road in Iowa have had to suspend be- cause of this unhealtby and illegal competition. 12 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. These s'entlemen liave only touclicd upon the violations of the law iu their discussion of the subject. That is really one of the gravest con- sitlerations for you, Senators, to consider in this matter. Take themau in Baltimore or elsewhere who has a dread of the law, of the fine and imprisonment — because we have a s])le)idid law in the State as far as it goes. That man will not lay liimself personally liable at all. He goes out and hires little boys and little children and girls, if necessary, and ]>laces them on the outskirts of the markets and the outskirts of the city with baskets "f this print oleomargarine, and when they are arrested, they do not know who put them there. How can they inform upon anybody ? But if they are not arrested, along comes the employer, and says to them, " How mucb did you sell; what amount"?" And he takes the proceeds of what they have been selling of " this pure country but- ter which my mother made out in the country where we keep nothing but Alderney cows," and they are as rural and innocent in their ap- pearance as anybody could hope for. That is the unpleasant feature of the thing; they do not do it honestly at all. Another thing that we fear, if this thing i* not taken hold of by the strong arm of the National Government: we fear there will be a total discontinuance of the use of butter, I admit it is an artificial taste, as I said before, but peojde who have been fooled time and again do not want to place themselves iu that position so many times, and so they say they cannot get any butter, there is no use to send to the markets or stores for it, and they conchide they will discontinue the use of it. What are the facts in relation to that ? They are, as I can point out, that many of my acquaintances have no butter on their table; they have ceased using butter, and every pound that is taken away iu that form is that much of a blow at this great agricultural interest, and there is no interest iu this (country that can apj)roach it in niagnitude. You may take the combined sales of the dairy and its correlative the poul- try yard, and everything that belongs to it, and you will find it amounts to more in value than the wheat crop, more than the corn crop, or more than is received from the sale of our pork or almost any product you choose to mention. Cotton is no longer king when compared with the results obtained from the dairy, and that is a fact which cannot be con- troverted. When this matter of oleomargarine was first presented to us we thought we would let it go, and see if we could not starve it out by making good butter. But they do not allow us to accumitlate enough good butter for the simple reascm that these men are very shrewd, and where they appear at the points of production they put up the price of the tine butter upon us andtake th ebulk of our tine product and do not let us have that at all. What is the consequence? The consequence is that they not only put up the price of this creamery butter, but buy this fine creamery butler to use in their compounds, and that makes it so scarce that we are forced to ask a fictitious value for it, and poor peo- l)le and everybody else are driven from the consumption of creamery butter, and are compelled to buy oleomargarine, which is presented to them iu an attractive form and which they say is " good enough for us." I do not wish to occui)y your attention any longer. I could talk on the subject for two hours, but it would simply crowd out other people who wish to speak. 1 thank you for your attention as far as 1 have gone, and hope I have touched on some salient points of interest to you in the consideration of this bill; and I urge upon you the import- ance of this matter, and hope and pray that these gentlemen who are to address you will show the necessity of the action that is sought. There IMITATION DAIRY PKODUCTS. 13 IS oue tbing which 1 thiuk iis iu poiut, however, which 1 will speak of before closing, and that is that if you will tax auy compound that seeks to imitate butter, it will give us all that we require, aud will put the sale of oleomargarine ui)on a proper plane of competition. We do not ask to shut it out entirely, but we ask that you will place such a tax upon it that it will be brought in proper competition with butter — that is, a tax of 10 cents a pound. With such a tax upon it, we will try to make creamery butter all over the laud; and if you will give us that advan- tage, we will make butter and compete with them on that level. But we cannot get along in that eifort without the tax. The balance of the bill is good in every particular, but the tax is absolutely necessary; it is essential to the prosperity of this great industry. I thank you for your kind attention. VICTOR E. PIULLET, representing the State Grange of Pennsyl- vania, then addressed the committee. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I hardly know where to begin, or how to introduce the brief remarks that I sup])ose I ought to make belbre this committee. 1 am here with the worthy master of our Stale Grange organization to represent the iarmers of Pennsylvania. Perhaps it would be projjer to state that we have within a fraction of 800 town- ship organizations — subordinate granges, we call them — and some 40 county granges, and a State Grange, the membership of which is ^com- posed of the subordinate granges. We number about 40,000 members in our State, and the whole purpose of the organization is to take care of agricultural interests. We are very anxious, indeed it is a matter of importance to the whole country, that this counterfeit butter be exterjuiiuited and driven out. There is no room for diiference of sentiment in our State upon this question. We have a law in Pennsylvania, that has been ])ronounced constitutional, that prohibits the manufacture or sale of these articles ; but we labor under this difficulty: When we made our cpointing any commissioners. We have been "counnissioned " in all directions until we have not enough money to pa^' for the numerous commissions authorized, and we interdicted them. Therefore we have no process of executing this law except the ordinary one through our constabulary and distiict courts. But the proper source of this power, as we think, is the is^a- tioual Legislature. 1 presume that the statistics in regard to this subject have been re- counted to you, and I need not go through with them. The extent of the dairy interest of Pennsylvania is second to that of Xew York only, and is one of the most important industries. We are forced to go into market and sell our product in com[)etitiou with these hog and mule dairies that have been established in our princi]>al centers of i)oi)ula- tion, aiid it is an unfair contest. I am not one of thoce who advocate the establishing of the creamery system for the making of butter. The best butter that was ever made is to be found in the cellar of the farmer. We 'have now one very important improvement, and that is sub- merging the milk at a temperature of 38 to 40 degrees, which gives us all the cream within twelve hours, and gives us the sweet milk by which we can raise the offspring of our cows. And 1 want to say to you gentlemen just here that there is one very important reason for the interdiction of the counterfeit butter, or for ph^cing it in such a posi- tion that the couimuuity shall know it under all circumstances, and those who make it shall be under the same surveillauce that nyc are wheu 14 IMITATION DAIKY PRODUCTS. we distill onr fruits or grains or dispose of our- tobacco. %ff'lK' ^reat point is this : if this is not arrested, the fear is that (here will be a- wholesale adulteration of butter all over the country. 1 myself dairy on three farms; have al)out seventy-hve cows. 1 rear all the ottspring- on the milk mixed with a little oil cake meal, which is about as .i^ood as whole milk. There is nothin,!'- to prevent me from standin.y this inqiorted grease from Italy er this deodorized grease from Chicago in my cellar, and adding from 15 to 30 per cent, to it as we churn ; there is nothing to i)revent it, and even if I did that I would make a great deal better product than those who put in 10 per cent. If this is allowed, wont it drive the whole dairy community into the adulteration of a i)roduct ■which is of great imi)ortance to this country as one of its exports? Shall we be able to hold the business where it used to be before these counterfeits were made? The Chairman. I understand that the oleo is produced in Chicago and elsewhere, and sent out in barrels to farmers? Mr. PiOLLET. Yes, sir; certainly. I can put a cask in my cellar and use 30 to 40 i)er cent, ot it. I have resisted that, and no man who makes butter on his farm but what is i)roud of it. I care more for my butter than for most anything else. We are scru])ulous in having everything neat and clean and in subsisting our cows upon the very best material. The ])ortions of Pennsylvania in which I live borders on the State of New York, and it is a well-known f.ct that the whole tier of counties on either side is capable of producing the very best butter. We have water and grass that make extra butter and we get extra prices for it. But we are injured by this counterfeiting of our ])roduct, and, gentle men, we are simple enough to think that we have just the same right to have our products protected by the Government that men have who are handling thii currency of the country or the coin of the country. Why should not Congress institut<^ laws to punish a man who counterfeits butter as eflectually as you would punish a man who counterfeits money! Any one who has ]>aid any attention to that subject is certainly aware of one fact, that there is no compound of which this bogus butter is made that does not show in its process that it contains ingredients which are injurious to ])ublic health, and so persistent is the effort now made all over the country to adulterate human food that there must be some stop i)ut to it. The manuracturer is protected in his trademark, the banker in his money, and the Government sends out its constabulary, its whole police force, to ferret out the man who is counterfeiting money, and, when dis- covered, it destroys all his processes. Now that is just what the Go\ - ernment ought to do in regard to these fellows who are making butter out of hog grease and mule grease; who are making it out of dead sub- stances throughout the country, putrefying substauces even, that they can deodoiize and palm ofl' as butter. I come here before you at the instance of our farmers all over the State. The gentleman who is with me and myself left home yesterday at 3 o'clock, and we are here in the hope that we may be able to say a few words that may intlneuce the action of our national legislature. AVe want this compound taxed. You tax our rye $1.80 n bushel; that is, 1 believe the tax on alcohol is $1.80 a gallon, and a bushel of rye will make a gallon of alcohol certainly. Our tobacco is also heavily tax*^d, and I think that this i)r()duct ought to be heavily taxed as well. 1 think it should be taxed Id cents a jtonnd, and ihe whole execution of this law should be i)la(;ed under the same nnichinery that you have in- Btituted to protect the revenues of the country, and iu that way it will IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 15 not add aiiytbiug to tlie oxpeuse of the Goverument, but will be of great service to the publie. Certainly it will lielp the dairy interest. Our exports, as you Icnow, have fallen ofl' very greatly because of the man- ufacture of these fraudulent substances and imitations of butter. By Senator Blair : Q. Is oicoiiiari::!riiie and tliese other articles of a similar character inauufaetured to any extert abroad? — A, They have for many years in those thickly-settled countries been using substitutes for butter, as near as I can learn. Q. What has been the effect in regard to public health; has there beeu any actual demonstration of its effect! It seems to me that much depends on the i)rimary question of whether it is detrimental to the public healtli. — A. From all I can learn about the matter in foreign countries, I understand they are taking steps to suppress it, and to prevent and discourage its manufacture. I do not think that on the other side of the water, however, they care very much about the health of the people. Senator Blatr. I do not care so much abont their health over there, but I wanted to get at the effect of it upon our health over here. The Chairman. I do not know that this gentleman wishes to speak on til at part of the question. Senator Blair. He seemed very intelligent in regard to these mat- ters, and I thought he would know^ Mr. PioLLET. 1 can answer you as far as I know, but it would only be my own view of the case. Senator Blair. I asked you the question because I thought you seemed to know about it, and 1 supposed >ou had some knowledge whether this oleomargarine, or tliese varions compounds, contained in- gredients which are recognized as actually deleterious in use. Mr. PiOLLET. They do, and analysis shows it, and they are becoming numerous. The sul[)huric acid that is used now in the making of glu- cose, according to my observation, has produced all these kidney dis- eases that are becoming so prevalent. I am an old man now, but when I was a young man such diseases were hardly known in all the region of country where I live, or in my State for 300 miles up and down the Susquehanna Eiver. 1 was intimately acquainted with the people, and such a thing as diabetes and these kidney complaints was raix^ indeed, and now they are very common, and I attribute it to the use of sulphuric acid in our sweets, and I think that these coiupounds used in the place of butter are equally injurious. I did not come here with a prepared analysis, but that will be presented to you in proper form, so that you will see what it is composed of and how they make it, and you will be shown, as a matter of course, that it is injurious to the public health. The Chairman. We nnderstand that yon intend to produce testi- mony of that kind before us, but that you yourself appear only as a dairyman. ]\Ir. I*ioLLKT. Yes; I appear as a practical dairyman to represent the farmers of our State, and I want to say to you that they feel they have the same right to be protected by the National Government that any other class of people engaged in any other business have. The busi- ness of banking is a very extensive business in this country, but its magnitude and Ciipital is not equal to that employed in our vocation of dairying, ssot only that, but this lU'otectiou will assist in increasing the exportation of our products. Our exjiort i)roducts, as you know, are chiefly agricultuia]. Last year 79 i)erce!.it, of them were agricultural 16 IMITATION DAIRY PEODUCTS. products, and we feel that we have a right to receive some attention at your hands. It is true that we are not represented as a chiss in Congress, but we are making some attempt in that direction and think we shall have men wlio who will represent us in the future, and we shall be organ- ized hereafter in such a way that we shall be heard in ])erson, if we can- not be through attorneys. We feel that Congress ought to step in and ])rotect us against this counterfeit imitation of our product that is as iu- juiious to us as the counterfeiting of coin or bank bills is to the banker. We feel that we have the same right to protection that he has, and that the aegis of the law should step in and protect our industry- as it does his. Senator Blair. I see you have been misled by my question. What you say is very true, it seems to me, but there is another question upon which I desire information, and that is as to whether oleomargarine or these other compounds are hurtful and detrimental to the jniblic health. If so, not only should this manufacture be taxed and regnlated, but it should be absolutely prohibited in the same way you would de- stroy the manufacturing of counterfeit money ; that was the only point. I wish to guard you against misunderstanding. I think I know as much about farming as almost anybody of my age. I have done as much hard work on a farm up to the time when I left it as any one, and 1 know what these gentleuien say about the condition of farms in New Hamp- shire is true. I ride by those desolate places every year of my life, and I have seen in some cases where the buildings have rotted and gone to waste by reason of the competition in this industry, which has grown up under these circumstances which have been detailed here. J also know that the best butter I have ever seen in my life was made on these New Hampshire hills, and that the industry has very largely disap- peared. Mr. PiOLLET. I do not admit your last statement about the quality of butter. I think you have to come to my place to get the best butter. Senator Blair. No; the very best butter was made at Campton, N. H., where I was born. Mr. PiOLLBT. We all know that a better quality of butter is made in Pennsylvania thap in any other part of the United States. Senator Blair, You may sncceed in competition with us in some other articles, but your butter does not comjiare with ours. Mr. PiOLLET. I do not know that I have anything more to say to the committee, except that I want to impress you with the idea that we have discussed in our subordinate granges. I do not know whether the com- mittee understands the purposes and objects of these granges, but they are organizations composed entirely of men engaged in agricultural pur- suits. The Chairman. You need not spend any time upon that point ; I think the committee understands it. I will not go into a dissertation upon what I know about farming at ])resent, but will leave that for paivate conversation. Mr. PiOLLET. In our weekly meetings we have talked this thing all over, and we think it is not unreasonable that we should ask the national legislature to give us some protection similar to that given to those engaged in banking and other pursnits. You all very well know that if you protected the maiuifacture of counterfeit money that it would be very apt to get into circulation, and therefore the most strin- gent means are taken to prevent its manufacture. And although we would be aatisljed uow with a 10 per ceut. tax upou it, yet we thiuk IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 17 tbat in other respects the Government sbould control its manufacture and sale. When I am traveling- about I do not eat any of tbe butter 1 find at tbese hotels because these compounds are so largely sold every- where that there are hardly any of these creameries but what get more or less of this stuft'in them. The pure butter is to be found on the farms, and it is made by our wives and daughters, and they want to be protected, and it is that class of our people who should make the butter of the country. Beyond this, I do not know that I have anything to say. I have gone into this matter of the analyses that have been made of the mate- rial used in suine and oleomargarine and these butter substitutes, but I will not detain you by relating them. I simply come here rejjresenting forty thousand farmers from my State,who have talked this thing all over, and who feel that at the hands of the national Government tliey have the right to ask protection to the same extent that any other class of l)eople are i^rotected by the laws of our country. Mr. W. H. DUCKWORTH, of New York, then addressed the com- mittee. 1 do not want to frighten you, gentlemen, by exhibiting the papers I have in my hand, but I hastily got together some of the facts relating to this subject, and jierhaps I can answer some of the questions that members of the committee have asked. I have noticed that at almost all tbese assefublages or meetings it seems to be a great point \vith parties representing the dairy interest to state that they represent the farming community. Now, I am a com- mission merchant of the city of- New York, but I can also claim to be a farmer, inasmuch as I have a little place in Iowa, where I have a dairy of about 150 cattle, only 25 of which are milch cows. But in regard to this question of the manufacture of oleomargarine it is unnecessary to go into the history of it more than to say that when it was first intro- duced it was supposed to be made from the caul of fat beeves. To-day it is made of hog oil or lard rendered at a temperature of 110. degrees, mixed with vegetable oils, such as cotton-seed oil, sesame oil, and a friend of mine made the assertion once, or rather inferred that horse oil had been used, and there is more truth than poetry in that, although there is one link missing to carry it right straight out so that we can ab- solutely prove it. In speaking of the operations of his department recently State Dairy Commissioner Brown, of New York, said: The venders aud dealers in bogus butter have deliberately and persistently repre- sented in every possible way that there is now no law in our State to prevent the open manufacture and sale of these adulterated goods in face of the fact set forth in the opinion of the court of appeals in the Marx case that there are several unrepealed statutes relating to this subject, besides our i^resent law, which the conrt more than intimates is operative and constitutional. That decision in the Marx case repealed one section in our law^ and a few words in another section, and there was a great deal of money sjient by the oleomargarine men in sending pani])hlets out, claiming that the law had been entirely repealed in the State of New York. In Ohio there is a strong move made to protect the dairymen there against fraud, and they claim there, as they say in tlieir adtlress: Oleoujargarine, butterine, suine, and other com))Ound,s fraudulently sold nnder the name of l)utt(^r, have made an investment in land and cattli^ <>( over |'200, 000,000 de- voted to dairy jinrposes aud an annual i)ro{Uiction of $')CiO, 000,000 per yenr almost valueless, not by honest comjielition, ))ut by deception of the most criminal kind, while the cunsuiner has been swiutlled correspondingly, 17007 OL- 2 18 IMITATION DAIRY TRODUCTS. Tbe Chairman, Allow me to suggest that as our time lias nearly ex- ])ired, if you will tell us briefly, as representiugtlie trade of New York, liow this nffects the i)roilnce trade iu New York, or anything in regard to the export trade, we .shall be glad to hear it. Mr. Duckworth. One of the committee asked a question in regard to the subject of the effect of these compounds ui)on the public health. 1 can read an extract upon that subject which will answer that point The Chairman. Y^ou need not go into that at this time. I under- stand Mr. Eeall will ])roduce a chemist and other people who can speak upon tbat subject, and as we are limited for time, if you will speak of the effect of the sale of these articles upon the produce trade of New York, we shall be glad to hear you. Please confine yourself to that subject at ])reseDt. Mr. Duckworth. On that point 1 will state that by the reported ex- ]!orts from tlie year 1880 to the year 1885, according to the figures which 1 have in detail here, it is shown that the export of butter has decreased 18.0(19, 1!7() pounds, and oleo has increased over 17,(tO(),(]00 pounds. Now^ in regard to the receipts in the city of New York, the great loss may be api^roximately shown by the following reports of receipts and value of butter at the city of New York during the years ending No- vember 30, 1882, 1883, 1884, and 1885, The total receipts in the year 1882 were 70,864,840 jwunds, at an estimated value of over $23,000^000. In 1883 the total receipts were over 90,000,000 pounds, Viilued at $22,027,579.00. In 1884 tbe total receipts were over 88,000,000 i)ounds, valued at $20,342,000. In 1885 the total receipts were 93,566,850 ])Oun(ls, valued at $19,502,977, These figures show that while iu 1885 the receipts were 13,702,010 pounds in excess of J 882, yet the market value was $3,522,313.05 less. Taking the receipts of 1885 at 93,.566,850 pounds at the same value as iu 1882, we have $26,793,723,25, and deduct the value of the product of 1882, amounting to $23,025,295.05, and it will show the ditierence in compared value of $3,708,428.20, or a loss to the whole United States of over $40,000,000 })er annum. Or, taking the receipts of 18S5 at the average price of 1882, it amounts to $26,793,723.25, and deducting amount actually received, which is $19,502,977, it leaves a balance of $7,290,746.25, or one-tenth of the whole United States, and the differ- ence shows a loss to the United States alone in butter of over $70,000,000. I want to say in regard to this niatter of jmblic health that it is a thing that cannot be proved as to whether it is healthy or unhealthy by chemistry. That is a physiological question. If I had time 1 could read from some authorities upou this subject. The Chairman. We shall have to ask gentlemen to confine them- selves to one particular branch of this subject. I understand tbat Mr. lieall will produce some testimony upon tbat subject at another time. Mr. Duckworth. Very well ; 1 will not trespass further upou the time of the committee. Mr, JAMES H, SEYMOUR, of New York, then addressed the com- mittee : Gentlemen of the committee, I was informed yesterday by a merchant of our city that the honorable cbairmau of this committee said to him over three years ago that the oidy way to regulate this bogus-butter ooanRO, as you say, it will not <]igest as ra])i(lly as butter f Mr. Van Valkenburgh. I do not wisli to make any statement ou that point. I am simply making a statement of wliat Mr. Brown claims in liis annual report. vSeuator Plttmb, I want to get at all the facts about it. Mr. Van Valkenbi kgh. I will read yon a few words about what Proiessor Clark, who has studied this nmtter, says : " In view of the di- gestive and micros('()])ical expoiments made for the dairy commissioner by Professor Clark, of Albany, and detailed in his report, this is likely tO])rove an up hiU task. Professor ('lark made a specialty of the phys- iological features of his subject, making experiuients in digestion and microsco])ical investigations, and in other ways showing the imi)ortance of ])ublic health by a thorough knowledge of what enters into any food product. As a residt of his researches h# arrived at the conclusion that oleomargarine is nnwholesorae and dangerous to health for four reasons. First, because it is indigestil)le ; second, because it is insoluble when made from animal fats ; third, that it is liable to carry the germs of dis- ease into the human system ; and fourth, that in the eagerness of man- ufacturers to produce their si)urious compounds chea])]y, they are tempted to use ingredients which are detrimental to the health of the consumer." Those are the })oints he has made in an interview. The Chairman. That will be brought out more fully, no doubt. Oui time has ex])ired, and we shall have to adjourn in a short time. Ml'. Van Valkenburgii. There is one question I would like to ask Senator Blair. He sjjcaks of the difliculties in taxing these compounds unless they are ])rovcd unwholesome. Senator Blair. 1 say, if you concede it to be a healthy food, the ])eople of the country might find fault if we put a tax upon it. But our policy has always been to tax luxuries and hurtful articles. Mr. Van Valkenburgh. We only ask to have these goods taxed to cover that ])oint of fraud. We can and have demonstrated to a cer- tainty that these goods are retailed at a profit of from 10 to 20 cents a pound, and theretbre the public are not benefited by them. Senator Blair. Is not that the reason for their being sold under false pretenses f If you remove the false pretense and you concede it is a healthy tbod, why should it not go into the market for what it really is, a healthy food ? Mr. Van Valkenburgh. Because it will not be taken and eaten as nealthy food. The i^eople will not take it. and it will require more ma- chinery to enforce the law to have it where it is than Senator Blair. I do not wish to press it upon you. You do not see the point I make, but it is in my mind that this evidence you speak of will bo important evidence to sustain that law before the country, you will find. The Chairman. We will give the gentleman from New York, Mr. Miller, five minutes to state his views, and then the committee will have to adjourn. Mr. H. K. MILLER, of New York, then addressed the committee. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, five minutes is a very short time in which to speak upon this important subject, but questions have come up hero in regard to the healthfulness of this commodity, and I will simply say a few words upon the subject. I will not detain yon long. I recollect when I was a boy that our shoemaker told me that instead 24 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. of usiug tallow to grease my boots with, to have my mother give me some fresh butter without salt to put on them, and he said my boots would last as long again. He said the impurities of the tallow helped to rot the leather. If you take this stuff that is made from these com- modities, of course it is full of impurities. I speak from experience and have the means of knowledge after being thirty-four years in the commission business in New York. We have sold a great deal of tal- low, and that tallow would sometimes be moldy and not fit for any- thing but soap as a general thing, and that is what we sold it for. But that day has gone by. We do not get any tallow now, because it is picked up by these people who work it into this bogus butter. There is no question about it; I know it to be the fact. Not only that, but they take all our grease butter. Within the past two months I have sold a large quantity to a house for 4^ cents a pound. I did not know what I was selling it for, but4t was not tit for anything but soap. That went into one of these mills and has gone into oleomargarine. Now can anybody say that that is a proper article to put into anybody's stomach, or that it can be a healthy article of food f Of course, it is very injurious and should not be used in that way, especially after it has gone through the cooking })rocess. iSeuator Plumb. You think the cooking of the tallow is what makes it injurious"? Mr. Miller. Yes, sir. My boots would wear as long again after 1 adopted that ])lan 1 mentioned as before. I think it is unhealthy. Then, again, in regard to this lard that is used, I believe that very much of the hn'd ])roduced is unhealthy, and In fact pork itself. 1 know a fam- ily living at not a great distance from me who are troubled with scrofula, and in my opinion it is chieiiy caused by their using pork as a principal article of diet. Therefore I say it is an injurious compound when lard oil is used in this way. I want to say one word in regard to the exporting of butter. We ex- ]>orted about $5,000,000 worth of butter during the past year. In the report of the Chamber of Commerce it says that we exported 3,450,000 (?) and some odd pounds during the past year, and I have every reason to believe that two-thirds of that amount was oleomargarine. Now, when we strike at anything like the dairy interests of our coun- try, the agricultural interests of our country, which we all know is the wealth of our country; when we impoverish the farmer, we impoverish the whole body-politic. I cannot find a man in New York who would not rather pay 40 cents a pound for butter than 10 cents a pound, or $10 a barrel rather than $5 a barrel for flour, when he takes into ac- count the general prosperity of the country. I hope the members of this committee Mill give this subject their most attentive consideration, and that you will press the matter home to your brother Senators, so that they will pass this bill and give protection to the agricultural classes of our country. We need protection. As I go up through Che- nango, Broome, and Delaware Counties during the past few years Itiud that such a man who has had his farm partly i)aid for has had to give it up, as this competition has been too much for him to contend with. Therefore, I say, the farmers need whatever protection you can give them in this matter. I will not trespass further oti your time. The Chairman. The committee will have to adjourn now, but there will be a meeting to-morrow morning at 10 o'clock to hear further state- ments upon the subject. IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 25 Washington, D. C, Thursday^ April 29, 1886. The committee was called to order at 10.15 a. in. The Chairman: Mr. Richardson, of New York, the president of the Orange County Milk Association, will address the committee. Mr. W. P. RICHAEDSON, of Goshen, Orange County, New York, said : Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I propose at the pres- ent time to show you the injury that has been caused to a specific indus- try by the manufacture and sale of oleomargarine, butlenne, &c. And in order to do that I desire to explain the condition of the milk business of Orange County and the surrounding counties. Seventeen out of fifty-one counties in the State of New York are engaged in this busi- ness more or less. For fifty years it has been a leading industry in Orange County, but for a number of years prior to the year 1883 busi- ness had been depressed, from the fact that the men with whom the farmers were dealing were sharp and unscrupulous in their business ways and had succeeded in reducing the prices of milk to a figure that made the business uni)rofitable. In 1882 we formed an organization of the producers of milk for the New York market, an organization of farmers in that particular section, for the pur[)oseof mutual protection. We succeeded in 1883 in forming a strong association of some eight hundred members, and became an incorporated body, and succeeded by the withholding of milk, or by what was known at that time as the Orange County Milk War, in increasing the price of milk to the farmers of our county so that they received in the years 1883 and 1884 nearly a million dollars more for their product than they had received prior to that time^ — t hat is, in Orange County alone — or in the entire district nearly three million dollars. We held our prices during 1883 and until the latter part of 1885, when we found we were liable to be swamped. And it is at this i)articular moment that I desire to refer to the effect that the sale of oleomargarine and butterine had upon our business. The prices we were obtaining had placed all our farmers on theroad to prosper- ity. They were paying their debts, repairing old buildings, and putting up new ones. The farms in the adjoining counties which surrounded this milk district were devoted to the production of butter, and many persons found that we were obtain ingji rices much better than they could obtain in the manufacture of butter. They therefore turned their at- tention in this direction and commenced in 1883 and shipped a small quantity of milk to the cit}-, in 1884 a much larger quantity, and by the year 1885 they had begun the shipment of milk to New York in such quantities that they completely swamped us and reduced the prices we were obtaining until we are to day selling milk upon a poverty basis. I will give at this time a few facts and iigures to back up the state- ments I have made in regard to this depression. The amount of milk shipped to New York from Orange County, and also sold to the cream- eries there, amounts to about 400,000 quarts a day. The difference in ])rice obtained between the year 1883 and the year 1885, caused by this depression in the butter counties, amounted to two-thirds of a cent a quart, which, multiplied by 400,000 quarts, amounts to $2,006 a day, or for a year it amounts to over $!>73,000. Taking the whole amount shipped to New York from the entire seventeen counties, which amounts to an average of 15,000 cans a day, and taking the amount held back in the creameries and used in the condensers, it amounts altogether to 1,100,000 quarts a day produced in this district. That amount of milk, at a re- 26 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. ilnetimi of two -thirds of a cent a quart, amounts to a total of $2,776,545 for the entire district a year. That is the amount of depression that has taken phice in this territory from the eftect of the 4)attei' etition, which we have no ho])e of ever being reached, although State laxys have been tried,! say this business has been depressed until the farms have depreciated in value and there is a feeling of dei)re8sion whiclj I cannot liken to anything else thanthatof a community seized with a contagious disease from which they think there is no possible escape, and it is sim- ply submitting to a fate that is worse than ers. I will state that in regard to butter coming from the Boston market in bond, ship]»ed in bond, we have to get a landing cer- tificate in Scotland or England before our bond can be canceled in Bos- ton. But the law is different in Canada. The clearance i)apers of a steamer clearing from Montreal or Quebec will cancel the bond, so that they do not need a landing certificate from the other side to cancel that bond. The Chairman. They cannot tell, then, iu Edinburgh or Liverpool that the butter came from the United States, because there is. nothing • to show it on the other side ; it passes for Canadian butler. Mr. HiBBARD. It is shipped from there, and is supposed to be Cana- dian butter. In regard to this matter of fraud, I wish to say a few words. I have drawn a little diagram to illustrate what I have to say upon the sub- ject. We have a State law in Massachusetts which provides that oleo- margari^ie shall be sold for what it is. One of our Boston detectives was notified that a certain party was selling oleomargarine or imitations of butter, and was sent out to detect him. He saiJ he went in a store and saw the man, a retail grocer, selling these goods. In one part of the store was a tub marked " oleomargarine," and near by was a tub of ordi- nary dairy butter. In one place was a sign reading, " Oleomargarine, 15 cents a pound," and on the other side the sign, "Y^our choice of this butter at lio cents a pound." He stood there and saw several persons come in and taste of the different kinds, ainl they would select one or the other of them, and the grocer would get apieceof i)ai)er marked "oleomargarine" on it in small letters, and he would wraj) it up in that paper and they would take it away. And the detective stood there and saw that thing going on, and he said he could not touch them. The tub was branded '•oh'omargarine,"and it was donc^ uj) iu apri)er marked "oleomargarine." I asked the grocer, he said, " Don't tliose people suppose they are get- ting pure l)utter!" "Yes," he said, "they do; but they are getting imitation butter." Now, that is the condition our State law is in ; it fails to reach them. This bill, as I understand it, proposes to tax oleomargarine and these other com|)onnds 10 cents a pound. It costs 9 to 12 cents a ])ound to manufacture it, and that brings the price of it right up to that of aver- 30 IMITATION DAIRY PEODUCTS. age butter. Under the provisions of tliis bill there would be no induce- ment on the i)cirt of the retailer to deceive people. He could not afibrd to retail it any less than he could retail butter, and there would be no fraud practiced, and if this article is what they claim it to be, it will stand on its merits and be sold for what it is, and if people want it they will pay for what they buy and know what they are buying. That is my ground for taxing it. I do not (;ome here asking that special legi slation be enacted to pro- tect me in my business alone, but I ask that the community may be protected from this fraud, that the dairy interest of our country may be protected from it. I bear with me a circular letter addressed to the representatives and members of the senate from Massachusetts, and we state in that letter our grounds for making this appeal. It is signed by seventy-seven ])ersons engaged in our trade, and every one who was asked to sign this letter signed it except three, one of whom was inter- ested in the manufacture, and the other two said they had become tired of trying to legislate on the subject, and did not care to do anything about it. Many of those are dealers. Before coming on here Mr. Chapin and myself went to see them to ask them how much of that butter they supposed was retailed as imitation butter, and how much as pure butter, and they said that from 80 to 90 ])er cent, of it was sold as pure butter. Talk with the retailers and they will tell you that they cannot and do not sell it to anybody but boarding-house keepers, restaurant, and hotel-keei)ers for what it is. They sell a large amount of it, and if tliey are caught and fined they make it up by their profits before (Saturday night comes around. I think our friend from Chicago covered tliis ground pretty well when he said that the manufacturers of oleomar- garine had stolen the livery of heaven to serve the devil in. I believe that every conceivable grease of the very filthiest kind in our country is manufactured into imitation butter and sold to cousuniers. Large ])ork dealers in Boston tell us that all their scrap fats are sent back to ('hicago. If they come in occasionally, as they do, with 4 or 5 dead hogs in the cart, they are not given to the soap-dealers, as was formerly the case. In 1880, while at one of our largest hotels at Xautasket Beach, where I was then stopping, there came out a lengthy article in one of our daily ija])ers in regard to the subject. It was when they first commenced to manufacture butterine. I think it was in 1880. As we understand it, butterine and suine are lard pioducts, while oleouiar- garine is the term ap])lied to tallow ])roducts. As I liai)|)ened to be the only dealer in butter stopping at the hotel, of course I was assailed eontinnally for several days in a. joking way by people, and tbe hotel- keeper afterwards told me tliat the consum[)tion of butter for one month after that article appeared dropped off 50 per cent, in his hotel, >Si)eaking of myself personally, I have been troubled a great deal with scrofula, and have ))aid a great many doctors' bills, and the doctors have positively forbidden me to eat pork in any form whatever. What am I going to do? I am a butter dealer and regard myself as a pretty good judge of butter. But, as our friend from Chicago says, they injitate this l)e]lectly, so that I cannot always tell the genuine from tlie counterfeit, and when I am away from home, or am at a hotel or restaurant, and have ])laced beibre me what is supposed to be buttei', but which is probably three-quarters lard, and I think that the hog from which it was made may have died of sonu' disease, it is not ^'ery pleasant, to say the least. We sell to a I'arty who sn]>i>lies the homeopathic hospital with butter, and I asked him why Ihey did not use oleomaigarine there. He said there is nut a hospital in Boston that would use it, and he did not be- IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 31 lieve there was one in the Uni>;:^(l States, and there ought not to he one in the world tliat would daie to nse it. 1 Invve had a great many physi- cians tell nie that they believe that ^»right's disease is produced to a very large extent by the adulterations used in the manufacture of imi- tation butter. I do not know how true that may be, or how far they may go, but still I believe it. I do not believe it is ]30Ssible to do any- thing' in the way of legislation that will suj)])ress or stam]) this thing out that is going to injure but a very few people who are making money, and making' it with a knowledge that they are deceiving ])eople. In all our legislation — and I think all the gentlemen })resent will bear me out in this — in all our State legislation since this question came up, and I have spent days and days at our state-house endeavoring to get a State law, these mauufactureis have been there in a body o])posing every step we have ever taken. Why ? Because they wanted the privilege of sell- ing their comi)Ounds as ])ure butter. My associate from Boston, Mr. Chai)in, alluded yesterday, in his re- marks, to a particular creamery that had been on our mai ket — the Good Luck Creamery. They had a representative iuour market this winter, and 1 heard of it a good many times. People Lavf^ said, "Do you know al)Out the Good Luck Creamery ? It is a fine article, being sold here exclusively." After awhile it was found out that it was butterine, but there had been thousands and thousands of ]!Ounds of that product sold as ])ure butter. The i)arties were arrested and fined $100, and I have no doubt they had made $5,000 during the time they haaratively, because they are using these artificial goods. Last week 1 received a letter from a customer in New Haven and filled his order of five small packages of fresh butter. I wrote to hiai and said I was glad to receive his order and hoped it would soon be larger. The next day I received a letter saying that he had received the package of but- ter and at the same time he had received forty-two packages of Chicago luitterine. 'Jhose parties are selling two or three hundred packages of butter a week. 1 v/as born in Saint Lawrence County, New York, and spent the first nineteen years of my life on a/farm. 1 spent the next four years in the Army of Ihe United States. I have not been in Washington since I left the Army until this year. My father is a farmer, and my mother and sisters are farmers' wives. One sister is a farmer's wife in Jeffer- son County, and one sister is a farmei's wife in Dakota. My sister came down lo Watertown yesterday, no doubt, with aoOpound tub of butter which she ]irobably sold at 15 cents a pound, and is obliged to sell it at that j)iice because the Jews of New York turned out last week six thousand ]M>unds of oleomargarine, at a cost of 9 cents a ])Ound. A million farmers to-day find their business depressed and taken from them for the sake of putting money in the pockets of a few manufact- urers. The benefit to the country of the purchases of thefaruiers who make our butter is ten thousand times greater than that of these manu- facturers of oh'oniargarine. The farmer buys all the products of the man ufacturer of New England. And yet it was impossible for me to get the car of a New England Senator yesterday because he was listening to the debate on the subsidy bill, and also expected to have the Chinese affair come up. We think as business men that the best subsidy is that gained by encouraging our commerce. One of the arguments used on the lloor of the Senate yesterday was that this subsidy bill would enable our people to export two or three hundre ou can make it a personal affair with all these other Senators, and explain tiie matter to them, we feel that we cannot get any favorable action. This committee does not need iiistrnctions from any of us. Yon an- better posted than we are. But unless this committee, which is interested with us in tliis matter, l)rings it personally to the attention of these other Senators, we shall not be able to get this bill parsed. But if you will do that, and take h(»ld of it as heartily as you take hold of other questions that come up in this body, the bill will be i)asi'ed. Unless it is passed, my peo|)le who are in the northern ])art of the State of New iTork, and wiio are in Dakota, have got to succumb. My brother-in law )>urchas(^d a. farm eight years ag(\ but has found it utterly im|>ossible to pay for it since the depression of dairy prices, and has lost his farm; and it is utterly im]»ossible for any young man to day to purchase a farm anywhere in the daily belt and pay for the farm by the labor of his hands and what lie can [»roduce from it. He cannot do it. Farmers do not get more than 15 cents a iioundon the average in the United States for their but- ter. They did not get 9 cents a pound on the average in the United States during the last year. They could have gotten 20 cents a pouud for that whole product if we had U(»t been forced to the wall by these imitation i)roducts. Within three weeks live thousand ])ackages of Chicago butterine have come into the market in the city of New York, and at tiie same time they were flooding all the N-ew England towns with it. We were selling new dairy butter at 25 to 28 cents a i)ound. We were getting under way when they flooded us, and that broke the price in ten (bus' time 10 cents a i)ouud. We were i)aying farmers in Northern New Yoik 22 to 25 cents a pound for their dairy ])roduct. To-day I utterly refuse to buy butter for 15 cents a pound, because I don't know but what 1 might have to put it down to a shilling a pound. Now these young men cannot make farming pay under these circum- stances. They will be driven from their farms. You ask why don't the young men stay on the farm. Why don't I stay on the farm — you ask me that question. I could not stay on the farm and get a living, and to day no youugman who undertakes to buy a farm and pay for it from dairying (^an succeed in doing so; he will go to the poor-house unless be is protected. •i advocate this tax because I want to Bee my people protected from the sale of these fraudulent goods. I believe that legislation that pro- tects the greatest number results in the greatest good. I believe that is what we shoidd do. 1 have no symi)athy with those people who say that we should not legislate in the interest of the farmer, that it is class legislation, and that we should not tax a few manufacturers. Why, you can count all the manufacturers of these goods on your two hands to-day. Armour with his millions stands behind them, because it pats more money in his i)ocket, while our brothers and sisters are co;n[)elled to mo barefooted, wear coarse clothing, go without carpets on their floors, and work from tive in the morning until nine at night to gain a bare subsistence. I hope the members of this committee will make this a personal affair. The facts are before you all, before you. Senator Miller and Senator Blair, and all the rest of you, and I hope you will exjjlain thent to those Senators who do not understaud the matter as you do. The Chairman. You probably understand that the Senate cannot originate a tax bill like this, but that it must first pass the House of Kej)- reseutatives before we cau act upon it. 17007 OL 3 34 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. Mr. Martin. I understand that. The Chairman. We granted tliis hearing as a preliminary matter so that we could be ready to act in ease the House of Representatives passes such a bill. Mr. Martin. The gentleman who preceded me called your attention particularly to the injury done to the daii'v interest, that is the great injury that conies to the farmers. 1 notice by the ])ai)ers that you had a big meeting in this city the other night, which was jiddressed by nearly all the prominent men in Washington, symiiathizing with the Irish ]i( (i])le. We shall haM' a class ol peasantiy in the United States worse (iff han the peasantry of Iieland in tive yeais' time, if we allow our daily interest to be driven to the wall. Go to the New England States today, where we can produce the best butter in America, and you will find the land there growing uj) into bushes jind bminbles. The old farm of my father in Vermont is nothing but a wilderness to day, and his taiin in Jeffeison Counl.v will be a wilderness in ten years more if he is not protected, but is diiven to the wall. Tiiat is why we want this tax imposed. If we do not have the tax we cannot have anything. Mr. J. H. Keall. Allow me to make a suggestion as to why more farmers aie not here to addiess th<^ committee. I wish to say that the gentleman who has last spoken is one of the largest dealers in the coun- try. He handles the goods for the farmers, from which he gets a profit of frotn 3 to 5 ])er cent. He comes here to represent the farmers and butter ])roducers from all sections of the country. The farmers have not the money to s})are to pay for the exjx uses of their coming here. I want you to regard yourselves as representing the farmers of the whole countrv ; thev are vour direct constituents. Mr. LEONARD RHONE, of Pennsylvania, said: Mr. Chairman, as stated by Colonel Piollet yesterday, we are here as a committee of the Pennsylvania State Grange, representing an or- ganization of farmers, with a membership of j)robably over forty thou- sand. The people connected with this organization are engaged in ag- riculture. Some are dairymen, others are stockbreeders, and others again are engaged in the cultivation of cereals. Perh;ips in no State in the Union is agriculture so diversified as in ours. Consequently our interests are varied. It is but seldom that farmers come to the National legislature to ask for legislation, and I think if you will look over the records of the history of legislation at Washington, you will find fewer committees appearing here from the agricultural class than from any other class in this country. There are several reasons for this. Farmers have always been the pioneers in every country. Be- fore it was possible for towns and cities to be built, before governments existed, and belore manufactures could be established, lands had to be cleared of their forests and brought under cultivation to make it possi- ble for those industries to exist. Thus by long training have they be- come self-reliant, and they would not be here to-day were it not that their industry is imperilled by a fraudulent counterfeit that proposes to take the place of their products. It takes months and years to build up a dairy farm. It cannot be done in a day, and when you have it properly stocked it is an expensive operation. But it is much easier for capital to combine and establish a manufactory to make this coun- terfeit product and throw it upon the market, and they can do it at a very much lower price than it can be done by engaging in agriculture or in the dairy business. With these preliminary remarks, I simply want to lay before you the memorial which we have been instructed to present to you. As Colonel IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 35 Piollet made an elaborate argumcut liefore you yesterday iu behalf of our committee, I do not i»ropose to detain you or burden you with any lengthy argument. As I have stated, we come here duly authorized to address your honorable body, and we respectfully petition you for the adoption of some measure that will suppress the inanufactnre of imitation butter, oi- protect our dairy interests by plaiting the manufactnre and sale of all imitations of butter under the control of the Commissioner of Internal Keveuueof the UnittMl States and taxing it ten cents per pound. The reasons wiiicii impel us to ask your lionorablc comiiittce to approve such legislation may be brieliy siimiiiarized as follows: . ur exports of butter have fallen off in the last five years from 40,()0(),(K)0 i)ounds to 'Jl,000,()(Kt pcmnds, while the exports of imiJ^atious ha\e exceeded 37, 000, 000 pounds. This decline, sour i)etitio ers are satistied, is dne to the destruction of public confi>e — oftentimes deodorized soap grease flavored with butyric acid — that costs the manufacturer from five to seven cents per pound. They started in here by paying the butchers seven cents a pound for their grease. Today they are ])ayiu!^ 2^ cents for suet and two cents for mutton tallow, that after being; manipulated with chemicals they offer the poor man at retail, at from, twenty to thirty cents per pound, an advance above first cost of raw ujateiial of 1,000 jicr cent., and then have the audacity to claim to be his friend. They first took suet from the farmer's beeves, at 7 cents per pound. They now pay 2i cents per pound, and yet claim to be the farmer's friend. They quote in their circulars from some twenty diftcrent chemists in favor of oleoujargarine, all of which ]»roves nothing, as most of the opinions were given years ago on a good article of oleomargarine, a very different thing fr(Mii the compounds sold to day as butteriue. The i)rc- fessors sjx'ak of an article such as was once sold by the Thurbeis and the Seymours, but which, owing to the disgustiui': materials now used and the injury to the dniry business, has caused those gentlemen to> quit selling any kind of imitation butter and biought them into the Iront ranks of those who are waiting war on this bogus article. This circular winds ujj with Prof. C. Grilber; Wheeler, who closes a» most extravagant eulogium of in)ilation butter, by s.iying '-The state- ments that acids are used in its m;niufacture is absurd, as there can be no {)0>sibleuse fcr such chemicals.'" I have procured from the Patent Ofltice coi)ies of nil the patents granted for making imitation butter, or purifying aniujal fats for this purpose. Nineteen are for making artifi- cial butter, eleven for treating animal fats, two for purifying butter, two for coloring mattei-, one for artificial cream, and one for artificial lard. T have made a few excerpts from some of these patents, whicli prove that the professor is not very well posted on the bogus butter question,, to bolster up which he has loaned his eminent name. First, I quote from Patent No. 2(»3,199, granted to Mr. Nathan J. Nathan, of New York, August 22, 1882. iM<\ssrs. N. I. Nathan & Co. are the firm that recently doiiated several tubs of butteriue to sundry whole- sale produce dealers here, accompanied with a circular (the same that was lecentiy published in the Star), in which they say their butterine is made under the said Nathan patent. Alter giving a long and minute descrijition of his jirocess, Mr, Nathan closes by saying, " W' hat I (daim is: The within-described i)rocess of auinufactnring artificial butter by uniting oleomargarine with leaf lard, the latter having been previously cleansed, fused, strained, and subjected to washing action in a solutiou of water, borax, and nitric acid, then rewashed, and the united mass- heated and subjected to the ordinary churning operation, all substan- tially in the manner described." Mr. Nathan uses no butter in making- his compound, as is evident he could not, for he only asks 10 cents per pound for it, but he uses borax and nitric acid, thereby giving the lie to Professor Wheeler. Here comes another who uses neither butter, cream, milk or butter- milk. Patent No. 236,483 was granted to Otto Boysen, of Buffalo, N. Y., January 11, 1881. Mr. Boysen describes his invention as follows: I Hist separate tlip olein and margarine from tlie stearine by any known metliod — for example, by luincinji ami meltinj;- the fat and then pressinjf it in l)aojs of opeu texture. I next i.hiee the oleomargarine thus obtained with an alkaline solution. 38 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. ])riff'i :i''ly in tlio f.>]lo\viiig projtoi tions : To PO pounds of oleomargarine 20 i)onii(l8of water and 8 ounces of bicarbonate of soda. I next agitate the oleomargarine and the alkaline solution togetlier until the oil ghibnles of the former are thoroughly mixed with the alkaline solution and jiarlly saj>onitied by the action of said alkali. I then add to the oleonuirgarine thus i)artly saiionilied a small quantity of butyric acid, preferably in the jirojiortion of 1 dram to every 101) pounds. This gives to the aiiicle such a tine tla\(>r that even an ex])ert can sciii'cely distinguish it from excellent dairy butter. Of course the butyric acid thus added may be vaiied to suit the require- ments of each pariicular aiticle, or the tastes of certain classes of jiurchasers. This process, as above described, avoids the use of milk, and consequently the use of caseiue. It will be ohserved that Mr. Boyseii hides a ]»ait of his ])iocess from ordinary readers under the hijih-sounding' word "saponified." What is the meaninj^ of that word ? "Saponitied," according to Webster, is the conversion of grease into soap. Mr. Boyseu's meaning, when stated iu ordinary English, would read about as follows : " I then add to the ohio- margarine, thus partly made into soai», a small quantity of butyric acid. This gives to the article partly made into soap such a fiiH:^ flavor that even an expert can scarcely distinguish it from excellent dairy butter." What is " butyric acid ?" W»4>ster descril)es it as "an acid found iu butter; an oily, limpid fluid, having the smell of rancid butter, and au acrid taste, with a sweetisli after-taste like that of ether." Mr. Boysen, it would seem, joins Mr. Xathan, in giving the lie to Professoi- Wheeler. It does seem as if the great Patent ( )tflce migiit be in better business than granting patents to men for such an abominable luixtuie as is described above— the conversion of soaj) into butter by means of an acid obtained from rancid butter. There is no "-"^o i)er cent." of pure creamery butter here, or even an ounce of butter, cream, milk, or even buttermilk. Nothing but fat, water, l)icarbonate of soda, and butyric acid. I'atent No 26583:5, granted to Henry Lanfertz, of New York, October 10, 1882, consists of treating ten gallons milk with six ounces prepared sal-soda and 200 ]iounds oleomargarine oil, with 8 oui.ces [)repared sal- soda, then chuining them together with coloring nmtter. The cost of this mixture would be about as follows : 10 gallons milk, at 4 cents ))er quart |1 <'0 20U ])onnds oleomargarine oil, at (i cents per pound 12 00 14 ounces ]irepared sal-s"da. say 14 Coloring matter 26 Total cost 14 00 As the ])rei)aied sal-soda thickens the milk so that when churned with the oil there can be little, if any, loss in weight, the added ingredients should weigh about 'M)0 pounds, making the cost, exclusive of labor, about 4| cents ])er ]»ound. Where is the "35 per cent, of pure cream- ery butter" our butterine friends say so nnch about! It (lon'i appear here. It sh Id be stated that Mr. Lonfeiiz was granted a patent for making oleomargarine on the 19th of September. 1882, in which he seemed to think he had reached the climax of perfection in the making of artificial butter, but in twenty-one days new light downed upon him, the residt of which was the birth of the inventi(»n I have cited. Patent No. 173591 was granted to Garrett Cosine, of New York, Feb- ruary 15, 1870. Mr. Cosine makes a bid for immortality by presenting to a wondering wojld the following: "My invention," he says, "relates to the manufacture of butter for table use from oleine and margarine, as obtained froni animal fats, fruits, and vegetable nuts, with lactic a<;id and lopi)ered cream or milk." IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 39 After jriving his process for obtaining oleomargarine oil, wbich lie calls No. 1, Mr. Cosine proceeds as follows: To obtain the vegetable oleine and margarine I nse any of tlie following articles of -commerce, viz: Oil jieannts, oil sweet almonds, and oil of olives. To prodnce the lactic acid I take 14 jiarts cane sngar, GO parts water, 4 parts caseine, and f) )iart8 •chalk. This mixtnre is kept at a temi)eratiire of SO to i).') Fahrenheit for eight or ten days, or nntil it becomes a crystalline ])aste of lactate time. Tliis is pressed in a €loth, dissolved in hot water, and tiltered. Tlie solution is then concentrated by separation. The acid is taiued from the lactate by treating it with the equiva- lent fniantity of snlphnric acid, and tiltering from the insoluble gypsum. Tlie st)hi- tion of lactic acid I make as follows: One dram of lactic aciil and 16 oiinces water. The solution of lactic acid assisis digestiou ; it jtrevents the product from becom- ing deteriorated hefoi'e use, and it assists also in giving the j»roduct a l)nlyraceous cart lop])ere«l cream or milk. I then cause the same to l)e rapidly agitated with a rev(dving skeleton l>e.afer, nntil the whole assumes the consistency of butter, after which ad their black tlag over the Center Market, is astounding. It seems a little singular that the Washington Market Company sLould allow these counterfeit goods to be sold in the nuirket in compe- tition with pure goods, and against men who have been jtaying rent to the cosed ? We only have the word of the seller as to tbe ingredients of what he is selling. The certiticaies of learned pro- fes.'-ors amount to nothing. They have not examined the butterine be- ing sold in this city to-day. It may be made from the fat of ma hotel, boai ding-house, or restauiant to set before their guests imitation butler or to use it for cooking purposes, as is being done in this city to-day. More than one ( ongiessman eats butterine every day. Those hotels who do not use tbe vile stuff in any way owe it to themselves and their guests to come out with a card to the public aL-d say so. In traveling these days, one is in constant anxiety on this subject. Many will not touch butter when traveling, from fear of being imposed upon by tbe counterfeit article. In conclusion. I wouhl say that I have no personal feeling in this matter towaids any one. I know none of the manufacturers and but few of the dealers in bogus butter. 1 am sorry to see so many respect- able men engaged in such disrei)utable business. I will not deal in bo- gus butter, and intend to do all in my power to prevent others from making it or selling it. IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 41 There are two or tUree other ])oint.s which, if there is time, I would like to call attention to. In regard to the exports of oleomargarine. I noticed in taking up a New York paper a day or two ago, what sur- prised me, that in one manifest there were one hundred and ten pack- ages of oleo oil imported into this country. It seemr it is ex[)orted as butterine and iini>orted here as oleo now. In regard to hotels, boarding houses, and restaurants in this city, I find oleomaigaiine is used every wln're, and I have been utterly surprised in sending men aiound to the hotels in this city with the report brought back of their finding butterine in the store rooms which was used for cooking ])urposes. They factory trying out this grease for which they pay 2 and 2i cents a iKUiiid, and shipi)ing it away. Now, the butchers will tell you that they deliver them in tlie summer season suet that is all alive with maggots, and that it is actually put in and tried out there. There is another matter more serious than this, and that is this dead animal business. Formerly they were buried, but now proposals are invited, and they are auctioned oft' every year to the lowest bidder. The man who gathers up the dead animals, the dead dogs and mad dogs in with the rest, whenever they have a dog killing they send him notice ami he goes and gets the dogs. He told me that himself. He takes them to his l)oiling establishment and skins the dogs and all the other animals, sells the hides, and sells the bones for fertilizers, and the grease is all tried out ami barreled up and shii)ped away and sold to dealers in grease in other cities. I asked him if he put any special mark on it, and he said he did not; that it looked well and smelt as 42 IMITATION DAIRY PR(3DUCTS. ■well as any other grease. ]S"ow', what becomes of the grease ? Who knows but what it finds its way back here as bntterine ? Where does it goto? There is the difticulty with this question. We do not know what this article is made of. They say in tln^ market that it is made of such a per cent, of pure butter and so much suet. But you will find if you read these patents 1 have spoken of that most of them say that they take oleomargjuine oil, whi(;h is now a commer(;ial article, which can be obtained in any city, and combine it with other things so that we cannot tell what tiiey are really using, and do not know anything about it. They take that oleomargarine oil to tlieir factory and manip- ulate it and tlavor it and then shi]) it to us as bntterine. Dr. THOMAS TAYLOR, Microscopist ot the Department of Agri- culture, addressed the committee. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, about ten years ngo I accidentally be- came acquainted with the fact that boiled butter on the cooling became crystalized. I observed its general ap[)earance with the micioscope at that time, but failed to look into it very closely as to its s ructute. But sometime after that, the oleomargarine business (;ame up, ivnd it became necessary for me to make a close examination of the subject of both as to the general character of butter and oleomargarine. I was called upon by the oleomargarine j^eople in Baltimore frequently to give analyses of their ))roduct to ascertain its condition. They were very anxious to show that it was a pure article. Th y brought me many samples of it. and 1 assured them at that time that it was full of the tissues of animals, bloodxessels, and other filthy material. They were very much surprised at this, but acknowledged it was so. They after- wards, by more careful manipulation, by taking and skimming ott' and leaving in the tanks about 2 inches of the settlings, were able to get pretty well lid ot these coarse materials. They then made it so very fine that they sui)posed they could deceive me, and really it was a very difticult thirrg to defiru^ the difference betweeir oleomargarine and but- ter just for a little while. But two samples were sent up from the Com- mittee on Labor of the House to Commissioirer Le Due to see if I could decide what the substance was, whether butter or oleomargarine. I was not informed at the time where the material came from. I simply received a little paper from Commissioner Le Due on which the words "buttei' or oleomargarine" were writterr. I then found I was in a criti- cal position, because it was a test of my skill. 1 had said before this that I could at all times decide between oleonrargarine aird butter. But here was a case in which of coui'se my very official head, 1 might say, depended upon my correct diagnosis of the thirrg. I gave it a full con- sideration, and concluded to test it in this way. I attached a prism under the microscope here [indicating] and another prism over it, aird by putting some of the butler itr position 1 found 1 had an exhibition of all the (iolors in the rainbow — that is. the juismatic colors. 1 also knew that ])oor butter would not show the prismatic color's, as the oils in it have not the power to give these i)rismatic colors. I reasorred this mat- ter out first before I comrrrenced my exi>eriments, and, after i)r'eparing for them, I found I had instantly, as I supposed I would have, two sam- ples of the colors of the rainbow. I had more than that ; 1 had the crys- tals of the respective fats of which it was made. I fourrd it was made of beef fat — at that time they were using beef fat — and that the crystals of beef fat were well defined. 1 also found that the beef fat cr-ystals looked like l)eautiful flowers in a group ; whereas pur-e butter w^hich has been boiled will show a St. Andrew cross on ever^y crystal, and after a IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 43 time we will get a crystal, in the center of which i.s a body of a roseate character, and this roseate character will float off, and the entire held will be covered with this roseate or similar color. Those are the char- acteristics which belong to pure butter. This is iio exaggeration at all. The colors are just as beautiful as they (;an be. Swine's fat, of which bntterine is niad^, is composed of a star-like object, is blue at the top and bottom, and red at the side. (Dr. Taylor then exhibited to the committee some enlarged diagrams showing the location of these vaiious colors, and continued :) If upon an examination through the microscope 1 find the material contains a crystal of that character [indicating], I say it is a beef crystal, and if, on the other hand the crystal is of this description [indicating], I know it is a butter crystal. These cases are frequently submitted to me, and I am called ujyoii to give my opinion before courts and juries, and the result in every case has been a conviction on the e\idence I have been able to give; and it is remarkable that in every case the parties themselves have acknowledged that the evidence I gave was C( rrect ; that they knew they were selling these counterfeit comjumnds for butter. The chairman asked a question of one of the speakers, if there was any oleomargarine made in Canada. I have received a letter from the assistant secretary of agriculture on that very subject. There is no oleon)argarine manufactured in Canada, but there is a company being formed, with a capital stock of $500,000, at the ]>resent time, witii the expectation of manutacturing it. There has been a discussion in the Canadian Parliament ui)on this subject, and I think a tax is ])roposed of 10 cents a ])Ound by one side, ami a lesser tax by the other side, and it wouhl certainly seem as though they were going to in pose a tax upon that produ(*t. The Chairman. I wish you would state whether you have made any experiments or have any knowledge in regard to the healtlitubiess or unhealthfulness of these various compounds, and the i)Ower of the stom- ach to digest and assimilate them. Dr. Taylor. In regard to that, it is laid down in our medical books, in all the standard works, that solid fars are less digestible than butter. Buttei', however, may be called a solid fat, inasmuch as it stands up or doe's not fall down like oil, but it is a product, an oil, and when placed under the n icroscope, it is transparent, not translucent. Before a fat of a solid character is absorbed into the system it has to be dissolved in the digestion by the action of the bile, by which the fat is converted into a soa]), and in this condition it is absorbed. But it cannot be ab- sorbed until it has passed through that conditicm. That is evident from the fact that nature supplies oil globules in milk. Persons who have weak digestive powers, such as elderly persons, cannot of course supply that amount of digestive solvent to dissolve the fats that might be necessary. One thing is certain, that in the case of oil, it is absorbed without any chemical agency. It is v^ery evident that pure butter is much more digestible. In fact, you may say, it is uot digested at all, but is absorbed as i)ure oil at once into the tissues of the body. With regard to bacteria, it is laid down by the most scientific authoriry, that it consists of vegetable s])ores, and they are no doubt in some form or other in every substance that is undergoing decomposition. There are certain contagious spores found in the fats of swine, and doubtless in the fats of dogs in the case of rabies; but what the effect of those may be upon the human system has not yet been develo))ed. For my own i)art, from my knowledge of the nature of bacteria, which is one of the constant studies of microscopists, I would be afraid to take an oleo- 44 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. margarine made from the fat of animals — say of bogs which have died from liog cliolera — for this reason, that it is a matter of importance to those who manufactnre oleomargarine and butterine to melt their fats at the lowest i)0ssible tem]>eratnre. They told me at Baltimore, where they were mannfiictiiring oleomargarine, that it was important for them and a necessity to melt (jiot boil) their fats at the lowest temperature, because when the temperature got iiigh it gave it an odor which they could not get nd of, and tlien they had to sell it to tallow chandlers to make caudles of. With regard to butterine they do luit boil it, but melt it at a temperature of 104, and combine it with fats which are heateared, so that it could not be transmitted from animals into the human s.ystem ? Dr. Taylor. No, sir. In tyjihoid fever, all medical men agree that the sjjores clonic from drinking water containing the typhoid germs. There are certain other contagH)ns diseases that may be taken into the system by the breath, and it is necci-sary in others to obtain them throuiih inoculation. You might swallow nuniy infectious forms of sjiores along with your food without doing harm. But there are others again, like typhoid fever, which are communicated by drinking water. You may go into a room or hospital where typlioid fever is and remain there for weeks without injury, and cannot possibly take the disease. But if you should drink water in that room, you would be very apt> to contract the disease; while in another contagious disease you might drink water under the same circumstances and it would not aifect you, because in that case it requires to come in contact witli the injury and to be absorbed in the system in that way. The Chairman. Your statement, then, would lead to the (;onclusion that the use of these comjtounds would be very injurious to children, or to ])eople who are diseased or weak in constitution ? l)r. Taylor. I have no doubt of it that it is not a pro])er food for them. It is a subject which has not been discussed in that light. I was invited to the Academy of Sciences in I*hiladeli)hia to attend a lecture on the subject of butter and fats, and Dr. Hunt, at the close of the lecture, spoke to me on the same matter and agreed with nie that it was not a proi)er food. Senator George. Are you a medical exjiert, a doctor of medicine? Dr. Taylor. lam. Senator Georgk. Have you ever known of any injury done to any one by the use of oleomargarinef Dr. Taylor. No, sir. Senator George. It is a ])ure theory, then, that you go on, in suppos- ing it to be injurious to health? IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 45 Dr. Taylor. I Lave not supi)()-sed it to be injurious; there has been no theory about it. I have simply been stating some facts without theo- rizing. I said it was possible or might be possible. Senat<)r George You do not assert the fact on your opinion as a medical expert that it would be injurious to health ? Dr. Taylor. Xo, sir. Senat(U' George. You know nothing on that subject! Dr. Taylor. I am speaking of bacteria. I do not make it a question of theory, but of fact. Senator George. I am speaking of oleomargarine. Dr. Taylor. I say it is not so digestible as butter, and 1 say that distinctly, and every medical man \\ iil agree to it. Senator George. Y^ou say it is less digestil)le "i Dr. Taylor. Yes. SeiKitor George. Is that the only ground you have for supposing that it would be injurious lo health ? Dr. Taylor. So far as supposition is concerned, I think it misht be injurious to health it it containcnl injuiious sjtores, beciiuse it is not brought to a high temperature enough to kill them. Senator George. You ha\e no medi(^al statistics on the subject, and there are none, so far as you know, to show that the use of eleomar- garine has proved deleterious to the health of the i)erson using it? Dr. Taylor. No, sir; 1 do not thiidc there are any statistics of that kind. Mr. Keall. Will the gentleman allow me to answer that (jiiestion ? Tlie Chairman. It is not necessary to do so at this time. The mat- ter will be br« light out tully before we get through with it. Dr. Tay- lor is telling us precisely what there is in that fat, what he has found, without any theory at all, simpl.N the actual facts as to what the micro- scoj)e shows to be contained in these fatty substances. He has not undertaken to offer any theories concerning it. He is telling that certain substances which everybody knows to be injurious are found in it. That is as far as his observation has gone, as I understand it. 1 will inquire whether there are any deleterious sul>stances found in butter injurious to health — I mean in good butter obtained from a country dairy. Dr.TAYLOH. No, there are not. TheCHAiiiMAN, The elements of butter are perfectly healthful, I un- derstand. Dr. Taylor. Yes, sir; 1 speak of normal butter. The Chairman. I understand that. I was si)eaking of butter made from the milk of the cow. Senator Blair. Let me ask you whether this bacteria from which the germ of disease springs is to be found ever in healthy grease that is taken froui the animal while living or immediately after death, from aii animal killed for the i)urpose by a butcher in the ordinary way! Dr. Taylok. Bacteria is found everywhere, in the blood of every tis- sue of the body. Senator Blair. But it is never found in good butter. Dr. Taylok. So lar as that is concerned, the fact is there has not been that investigation made with regard to butter, because it is gen- erally sup|>osed that butter is made from healthy cows. But in the ease of butterineaiid oleomargarine we do know and can testify and can give you evidence from Department reports that large amounts of money, $30,000 at a time, have been spent within the last month for the pur- chase of dead hogs that died of hog cholera. Senator Blair. That informatiou is in possession of the Department ! 46 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. Dr. Taylor. Yes, sir; and we have the information direct from the statistician, Mr. Dodge, that 130,000 has been })aid for tliat purpose. He got that information initidentally from a coriespondent. The Chair- man of the Committee on Agricnlture sliowed me a letter hist week which stated that a hirse number of sheep haroceed^, if any Senators desire to ask him questions, of course they will do so. He may make his stateme.'t in his <»\vn way first, if he desires to do so. STATEMENT OF PROF. HENRY MORTON. Prof. Henry Morton, of the Stevens Institute of TecliiH»h)yy, Ho- boken, N. .1., said : 1 appear at the request of Mr. Coudert to state facts within niy own knowledge cliietly in regard to this matter, and it may not be improper for me to state, in the tirst i)lace, how it comes that 1 should know about it. Senator George. That is not material, if you will just tell the facts. Professor Morton. The subject is one which has been of great inter- est to all scientific men from the time of the original discovery by Mege, which was made, as you are aware, during the siege of Paris Many persons have been interested in it and have fullowes; tliat wits the original idea ; but when it came to be used extensively it was found that consumers objected to it, es- pecially at some seasons of the year, in that there was a lack of the pe- culiar stickiness, if you might call it so, of butter; that it was a little more granular. It would break ; in cutting, it would fracture ; and in eating it there was not exactly the same smoothness that is found in butter. It was tound that by adding a certain proportion of lard, that this gi eater smoothness was given to it, and accoidingly it became common in manj^ places — I do not know that it is universal at the jueseut day — especially in the winter, to add a certain proportion of lard which had been prepared in substantially the same way, with proper care as to its purity, and fcr the same reason that the slightest carelessness utterly ruins the product. If the fat from the pig is allowed to stand any length of time and get in the slightest degree sour, or is not treated M'ith extreme care and cleanliness, and the whole ])rocess conducted with scrupulous care, with uothing offensive left about, it is utterly ruined. It has been found that all fat has a wonderful property of absorbing odors of various kinds. Many of you are doubtless familiar with that fact. You cannot lea\e food with it in a small place in close proximity, without its acquiring the smell. If a ])at of butter is pu tin a refrigerator alongside of a herring, and you take it out an hour afterwards, and eat it, you will think you are eating herring. It is the same way with fruits. If you put butter in a refrigerator with a basket of strawberries, in a sboit time it will liave a strong strawberry flavor. IVlany of our delicate perfumes are extracted in that way. The pure fat is spread in layers and then the leaves of flowers are s])read over it and allowed to remain for some time, then they are taken away and other leaves are spread m the same manner aiul the fatty substance will absorb the odor of the flowers. When the fat so charged with the smell of these delicate flowers, like lieliotroi)e, gera- nium, &c., w hich cannot be extracted in any other w ay, is treated with alcohol which washed out from the fat all these delicate essences, and this alcohol is used to make the fine perfumes, such as jockey club, »&c., which we buy in bottles, are produced in that way, the flavoring having been absjjrbed by the fat and then again taken out by the ali ohol. That indicates how delicate a substance fat is when exposed to anything un- clean or offensive. The Chairman. Will you explain to the committee the difference, scientifically, between the fat of the hog and the fat of the beef? Professor Morton. Scientifically there is just the same difference as tbere is between beef and mutton fat. The fat of mutton contains a great deal of stearine comi)ared with the other compounds. Beef fat contains an intermediate proportion, and hog's fat a greater proportion of palmatin and olein. Otherwise they are identical, excei)t that in each case there is a very minute quantity of different flavoring sub- stances, a matter which has never been thoroughly studied or examined 54 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. into. I do not know exactly what it is, it is in sucli niinnte quantities, but it enables ns in raw fats, by the smell, to tell which one it is. But it is almost like the ]ieifnme of the flower — evanescent. Otherwise all fats are the same, or diiier only in the proportion of those three ingre- dients. The Chairman. In the manufacture of oleomargarine, the stearine, you say, is nearly all extracted. Professor Morton. A considerable amount of it is extracted. The Chairman. If so, and the result is that it is firmer and harder than that which is produced when a large auiount of lard is used, why is it necessary to use lard in order, as you say, to soften the material ? Why is not the result of the stearine when oleomargarine is inade as full and comjdete as from lard ! Professor Morton. For two reasons: First, it appears by this pro- cess, in the ])ractical way of working it (we might if we could work at it with a great deal of time and care, but not in practical work), we can- not get the stearine out as perfectly as would be necessary to bring it down to the consistency of butter. There is too much stearine left in. I had no intention of saying it was all removed; that would be incor- rect. The proportion of stearine left is quite a large one. But the in- tention is to remove it so as to get it down to the consistency of butter ; but that intention cannot be practically carried oat, and the oleomar- garine oil as prepared contains a little stearine above that of butter, and the addition of lard corrects this. It also appears that there may be slight difference in the ultimate structure of the fat globules, in their physical structure, by reason of which one of them is more tacky than the other — has a little more stickiness. One is more plastic and the other more friable, just as in the mineral limestone we find some in a more friable condition than another. But there is no difference beyond this that science can reach. The Chairman. You state that all this fat in the animal is main- tained in its position by minute fibers surrounding globules of fat, and that all that hbroiis matter is removed from the oil by straiiiiug it. Is that straiuing through clotlis, sieves, or how is it done ? Professor Morton. I did uot intend to say that it was all removed by straining. It is removed by the process of rendering in this way: The fat is hashed up very tiue indeed, then it is heated, and this heat does two things — it melts the fat and it dries these little fibers. The result is that the fibers which inclose the fat shrink in drying. There is also a quantity of salt thrown in during the melting, and this tends to ab- stract the water and to dry these fibers and to load them with salt — to salt them, and salt to a very slight extent only is soluble in fat, but is freely soluble in water and in the aqueous liquids which pervade this film. The result of that is that there is a shrinking, and it is made dense and heavy and sinks down to the bottom of the tank, and this tiwik being allowed to stand, it settle-! into two layers, one into salt water, holding in it all this fibrous animal matter, and on top of that is a layer of oil, which, after it has stood a little while, is just as clear as olive oil. That is carefully drawn off into a clean tank and allowed to stand for several hours more, so that it may be perfectly certain that every atom and particle of fibre settles, and in the drawing off the drawing is managed by a strainer with minute holes in it, and that is placeared ? Prolessor Morton. In about six factories. Senator Jones. Is the plant and machinery of this [u-ocess expeu sive ! Professor Morton. It is rather expensive. Senator Jones, ('an it be manufactured in a small way and by small establishments prolitably ? Professor Morton. Not with profit. It must be done, I should say, on a fairly large scale to be profitable. Senator Jones. Have you any idea how many establishments of this kind there are in New York and Philadel[)hia, for instance ? Professor jMoRton. I have only heard of one in Philadelphia, and in New York, at present, I only know of four. Senator Jones. In those which you iiave examined are there any tricks of the trade resorted to — if i may use a vulgar expression— by which a cheaper product is made which is more deleterious or objection- able than a product honestly made? Professor Morton. None whatever. There is very little temptation to do such a thing. In other words, anything that will cheapen the product sjioils it. Y'^ou can only make a good iiroduct. Any attempt to use fat that is really old and stale is unprofitable. An ounce of stale fat put into a ton of good fresh fat will spoil the whole thing before the 60 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. process is conipletod. So that so far from their being: any temptation to use anything- impure, the object is to use the very best material, in order to make a good sahible product. The Chairman. Do you think the lard is used because it is cheaper than beef fat? Professor Morton. iSTo, sir; I think the motive is to improve the structure. The Chairman. What would you say of oleonuirgarine which con- tained 90 per cent, of lard and 10 per cent, of oleomargarine? Professor Morton. I should say it was a very poor article. Of course, it may hapi>en that some man may make a foolish experiment, thinking" he is going to make it cheaper, but he will find out that he has cheated hinjself. He conld not make a good article that he could sell twice to the same customer, unless he is honest and cleanly in the manufacture. Senator' Jones. We have been told about the vile compounds that are used in nuiking the oleo — the fat of cats and dogs and animals which died of disease. Professor Morton. To an^^one who knows about it these stories are simply absurd. It is utterly impossible to do any «uch thing. As I have said, if the auinuil has been dead a short time the fat cannot be used. For iu.stance, you could not use fat from the meat which is hung up and exposed for sale in market for the pur])ose of making oleomar- garine. Although such meat is not hnrt for ordinary use, and can be cooked and eaten, the fat of it would be utterly ruined for the ])urpose of making oleomargarine. The ex])osure of the meat in the market would give the ])roduct a strong tallowy odor, different from a i)utrid one, but the moment you tasted it you would say that it was not butter. No one would eat it. It would not have a butter taste. The very same taste in beef to which we are accustomed would be considered offensive if observed in butter. The very same flavor that I have defined as tallowy does not offend us at all in connection with cooked meat, be- cause we are used to it in that connection. But if you try this experi- ment — if you take froni a piece of beef you are eating a piece of the fat and chop it up fine and mix it with butter which you have on 3'our table, and taste it, you would say it was very bad butter. It tastes good enough as beef fat, because you are accustomed to it in that way, bat you object to that flavor in butter. It is just the same way with cheese. If you know you are eating a piece of Swiss cheese with its peculiar odor, your sense is not offended. But if a piece of that cheese gets on the side of the table or on your coat, and you smell it, you think there is something very nasty about it. Senator Jones. Then you think that aniuuils which have died a nat- ural death coald not be used in this way, because a putrefaction would be produced in the manufacture ? Professor Morton. Yes, a change would be produced which would render the product tallow and not oleomargarine. Senator Jones. That you say would be unavoidable"? Professor Morton. It would be unavoidable. It could not be helped. Senator Jones. You do not think you could make good oleomarga- rine out of a dead cat or dog ? Professor Morton. I will stake my reputation on that — that it could not be done, because I have tried an analogous experiment to that very thing. I have taken fat which was put in a barrel and left over night, and in melting it down I found that the product was perfectly offensive and could not be used for one moment. IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 61 Senator Blair. I want to ask you a question in another direction. As I understand you, the object of this complicated i)rocess you have described is to produce something as much like good butter as possible f Professor Morton. It is to produce something that shall be an effi- cient substitute for butter, that people can use as they do butter. Senator Blair. To make it as much like it as possible and get a healthy food f Professor Morton. Yes; that is the idea. Senator Blair. You have spoken of various coloring matters .put into butter as well as into oleomargarine — and right here I will ask you if you use the soft g in the word " oleomargarine"? Professor Morton. Yes, sir ; I do. Senator Blair. I understand you that none of these coloring matters are either expensive or hurtful ? Professor Morton. That is true. Senator Blair. They are used in candies, butter, and various other articles f Professor Morton. Yes, sir; used in confectionery. Senator Blair. What difierent colors are there used for the puri>ose of distinguishing articles one from the other"? You have red in candy and yellow in butter. What other colors are used in that way ? Professor Morton. In candies they use very nearly every color, such as blue, red, green, and so on. Senator Blair. This is the point 1 desire to make : Is not the one great difficulty about this thing that the man who eatsitdoes not know whether it is butter or oleomargarine — I mean the consumer, the man who puts it on his piece of bread and eats it. I am not talking about the i)urchaser, the hotel kee]>er, or the landlord. But the consumer does not know what he is doing ; he understands that he is eating but- ter. Now, suppose the law should require all oleomargarine to be cov- ered with some red substance and that all oleomargarine not of that particular color should be forfeited. It never could be mistaken for butter then, could it ? Professor Morton. No, sir. Senator Blair. Do you see any reason — 1 observe nothing of the kind in this House biil — but do you see any reason why oleomargarine, if it is to be nmnufactured and sold, should not by law be required to be of some detinite color which nobody could mistake for the color of butter, so that it could never be mistaken for butter unless butter was colored like oleomargarine. Can you see any reason why that should not be done f Professor Morton. I see uiany reasons w^hy it would not be ])roper. Senator Blair. That could be left to those who make the laws on the subject; they could deal with that. But is there anything in that sug- gestion by w^hich any harm would be done to any article of food, not oleomargarine alone? Professor Morton, It wouhl not affect its wholesoujeness, but it would affect it greatly as an article of food in the manufacture and sale of it, because the value of an article of food depends agreat deal ui)on the idea of the person who purchases it, and such a requirement would tend to disgust the purchaser with the article. Senator Blair. But if I want to eat butter and have all these i»reju- dices in favor of butter, do you think it is right that anybody should come along with a substitute which 1 think is butter and comi)cl me to pay for it: and eat it as butter. Is that right! 62 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. Professor Morton. It is not right that no guards should be thrown around butter, so that you do not ivuow what you are eating. Senator Blair. For instance, you are goiug to sell me oleomargarine and I am going to eat it. You can paint that oleomargarine red, or the color of the violet, or any color but tiie color which has been appropri- ated to butter ever since it was made the buttercup color. You can make it any color you please and appropriate that color to oleomarga- rine by law and it will be just as wholesome as before. Professor Morton. It would be just as wholesome, of course, but it would be destroyed, almost, as an article of food. Senator Blair. But if 1 am the man to consume this product and pay for it, whether it be butter or oleomargarine, is it not fair that I should know what I am eating ? Professor MoRTON. I think so — if you wish to. Senator Blair. Is it fair for an oleomargarine man to put into it the color of butter when he can use anything else, and so sell me the i)rod- uct as butter ? Professor Morton. As regards that single point that is correct. Senator Blair. That is not one that means simple dollars and cents. Professor Morion. I cannot quite agree with you about that. Senator Blair. In what way will it interfere with the cost of the manufacture and the consumption of oleomargarine to paint it red and not allow it to be made of any other color ? Professor Morton. By creating a prejudice and disgust in the minds of many men against it. Senator Blair. Why should not oleomargarine tell the truth f Why should it be allowed to lie itself into mj^ stomach ? Should I pay for it under those circumstances ? Professor Morton. No, sir. Senator Blair. That is all I want to ask you. Professor Morton. It should certainly be sold for what it is, and every guard should be put around it so that everybody may know what it is. Senator Jones. But the man who chooses to eat it ought to be allowed to have it of the color of butter, if he finds out what that is. Senator Blair. Y^es, if he chooses to eat it himself; but if I want to eat lutter, has he any right to make this article like butter so that I cannot tell the difference, and say it is butter so that I pay for it as butter ? Professor Morton. That assumes that the artificial color does make it so that it cannot be distinguished from butter. Senator Blair. What is the object of putting the color in ? Professor Morton. To give it the same general appearance. Senator Blair. Y^^u tell me in the first place that the object of the coloring process and everything else is to produce a healthy article of food just like butter to, take the place of butter in the market. Professor Morton. Yes, and if you color it differently it will not take the place of it. Senator Blair. But it will be just as good and wholesome as an ar- ticle of food f Professor Morton. Yes, aside from the influence upon the imagina- tion. Senator Blair. That prejudice will pass away very soon. Professor Morton. Not in the present state of affairs. Senator Blair. Suppose butter had always been red, would we not have the same prejudice in favor of red butter as we now have in favor of yellow butter f Professor Morton. I suppose so. IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 63 Senator Blaie. Suppose you do sell the oleomargarine for jnst wliat it is, the pnblic do not know that they are eating oleomargarine; they think they are eating butter, and one reason is because it is yellow like butter. Suppose you made it red or violet, or appropriated some })ar- ticular color to oleomargarine, or let it go without any color whatever, then it would not be mistaken for butter. Professor Morton. All that might be possible if started judiciously; but after all the statements tbat have been made about it and the pub- lic prejudice which has been worked up for years and years, it will take ten years to overcome it perhaps, and by that time the mischief is al- ready done. Senator Blair. But after all should not every product sell under its own color f Professor Morton. I do not think so. We have ice cream which is of the same color as butter, and candies also. Senator Blair. But we never understand that we are eating butter when we are eating ice cream. Senator George. I have been requested to ask several questions by some gentlemen present. You have probably gone all over this subject and therefore you can answer these questions without making much ex- planation. I am requested to ask you first to state your age, residence, and occupation. Professor Morton. I am 49 years of age ; I reside in Hoboken, New Jersey, and am president of the Stevens Institute of Technology in Ho- boken, an institute of mechanical engineering. Senator George. What attention have you given to the study of chemistry, and for how long a time"? Professor Morton. For over twenty-five years it has been my partic- ular life study. Senator George. What knowledge have you regarding the manu- facture of oleomargarine and relative substitutes for butter, as carried on in a commercial scale in this country ? Professor Morton. From the time the process was first invented and the product first came to this country I was informed about it, and have been called upon to examine various patents and processes continu- ously from year to year. Hardly a year has passed where something- has not come to me to be examined and reported upon in connection with that subject. Senator George. What is your opinion in regard to this material as a wholesome article of food ? Professor Morton. I consider it perfectly wholesome. I eat it my- self without hesitation and have it often in my house. Senator George. Is it true that this product can be or is made of improper substances or injurious substances, and that chemicals ar^ used in its manufacture? Perhai)s you have already answered thai. Professor Morton. It is not true. It is utterly impossible to make it of tainted materials, and no chemicals are used in its manufacture — that is, nothing in the usual meaning of that term, such as violent corrosives or other injurious materials. Salt, which is in one sense a chemical sub- stance, is used. Senator George. Has any injurious substance been found in any specimen of oleomargarine by yourself or chemists of standing and re- pute, to your knowledge 1 Professor M(jrton. None whatever ; there is no evidence of any such thing. Senator George. Is it in your opiniou probable or even possible 64 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. under the normal conditions of niannfacture, that any germs of disease could be introduced into oleomargarine ? Professor Morton. I do not believe it is at all possible or probable. Senator George. Wbat are the comparative risks of the introduction of disease germs into oleomargarine and pure butter? Professor Morton. They aie considerably greater in i)ure butter. It is easier to getgermsiuto milk, and milk is never heated in the making of butter, so that nothing is done to protect it. The risk of introducing the germs of consum])tion from cows suffering with that disease would be far greater in the mauutacture of butter than in the manufacture of oleomargariue. Senator Gibson. What is the point of temperature to which oleomar- garine is raised in the process of manufacture f Professor Morton. The individual particles of it come very nearly to the boiling poiut of water; just to a good cooking temperature. Senator Gibson. Would that destroy the germs necessarily ? Professor Morton. It would destroy them under almost all circuia- stauces There are cases, but very rare ones, iudeed, in which germs will resist very high temperature, and in such cases they would not be destroyed by ordinary cooking. Senator George. What is your opinion of the relative digestibility of oleomargarine and butter? Professor Morton. I think they are substantially identical. If there is any difference it is only the difference, as I said before, between one variety of meat and another. Senator Gibson. How did this product or compound get the name of oleomargarine? Professor Morton. Because at one time the intermediate fat between stearine and olein, now called })almatin, was called margarine from ' margaiis, a pearl. But it was afterwards found that it was really a mixture, and when the various substances were separated a new name was given to it and it was called palmatin, because it is similar to palm oil. But at the time it was first made public the old name was used. Senator Gibson, Does the name in any degree indicate the elements of which the substance is composed? Professor Morton. Only the proximate elements — that it mainly con- sists of olein and uuirgarine, which is another name for palmatin. Senator Gibson. What is the popukir name by which it is known to the trade ? Professor Morton. It is known to the trade as oleo. Senator Gibson. How is it designated in commerce, for instance in a bill of sale, when it is sold foi' consumption and distribution ? Professor Morton. I have heard it called oleomargarine and butter- ine. Those are the only names J have known. Senator George. What is the difference between oleomargarine and butterine ? Professor Morton. There is no real difference. The name ''butter- ine" was introduced in England and the name "oleomargarine" was in- troduced in France. I do not know that there is any recognized differ- ence between them in the trade. Senator George. I have beard that the difference is that after oleo- margarine was made it was mixed with butter, and that w-as all. Professor Morton. Perhaps, among dealers. I do not think there is any difference. SenatA)r Gibson. Those are the names by which it is known to the trade — oleomargarine and butterine ? IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 65 Professor Morton. Yes, sir. Seuator Gibson. Do you kuow whether it is mauufactured in foreign countries at all ? Professor Morton. It is, very largely, and is regulated there by the Government. It is sold in great quantities in Euglaud. In Massachu- setts it is sold under State regulations under its own name. Senator Gibson. And it is sold on the Continent, in France, Germany, and Italy ? Professor Morton. Yes. I do not know about Italy, but I know it is in England and that a great deal of it is made in Holland. Senator Gibson. Do you know what quantity is manufactured in the United States ? Professor Morton. I ortauce liere. Professor Chandler. I do not tbink yon coubl unless in tbe case of sucb milk as tbe Paris board of bealtb lias just excluded or jtroposed to exclude frou) Paris. It is found tbeie tbat in tbe case of cows sufteriug from tuberculosis or consumi)tion tbe milk is cbarged witb tbe germs of consumption, according- to a recent statement 1 bave seen. If tbat is tbe case, 1 bave never seen any sucb; tbose germs would get into tbe butter and one could take tbem into a laboratory and cultivate tbem and inoculate tbem and in tbat way migbt detect tbe presence of tbose germs, ])rovided tbey are alive wben tliey get to bis bands. Tbe Chairman. Don't you tbink tbe salting i)rocess in butter would kill tbose germs tbe same as you admit it would tbe germs found in oleomargarine ? Professor Chandler. -I was talking about tricbin.Te worms tben, but tbe germs in tbe case I S])eak of are not so easily killed. Tbe Chairman. Do you desire to make any furtber statement! Professor Chandler, I tbitdc of notbing furtber at i)iesent. Tbe Chairman. Tben tbe committee will stand adjourned until to- morrov\" morning at 10 o'clock. Tbe committee tben adjourned. WASHiNaTON, D. C, Wednesday, June 10, 1886. Tbe committee was called to order at 10.15 o'clock a. m. Tbe Chairman. 1 bave received no information from the gentlemen who desired to be beard to-day as to bow many of tbem desire to speak, or bow much time tbey wish to occupy. If some one will give me tbe names of tbe parties who desire to be beard this morning, we will call them in their order. I suppose they bave selected among themselves those who are to s[)eak and whom they wish to have heard. STATEMENT OF JAMES F. BABCOCK. Prof. James F. Babcock, of Boston, Mass., then addressed the com- mittee: I am a chemist by i)rofessiou. At present I occupy a position which our statutes require all mayors of cities to fill by appointment, namely, that which is called wnth us in Boston inspector of milk. By our stat- utes, inspectors of milk are also charged with the enforcement of the laws in regard to butter and some other food products. I have been asked to state to tbe committee what facts bave come to my knowledge and observation in tbe i)rocess of carrying out the laws which we bave in Massachusetts, and more especially as applied to Boston. Tbe committee doubtless are familiar in general witb tbe character of tbe law which we bave in Massachusetts, which, I will say in brief, is simply one which provides tbat oleomargarine, butterine, imitation butter, and sucb goods shall be sold in marked tubs, and sold at retail in marked papers. In pursuance of the execution of tbat law, our plan in Boston has been this — but I will say before I come to IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTSl. 83 Speak on that subject, that the city of Boston, in the hist year and the present year, has ajtpropriated a very aenerDus sum of money lor the carrying on of this department, for it is made a department in the city government. They have ai)proi)riated $9,i)()(). Tiu'y furnish us a well equipped laboratv^ry, we have four assistants, two of whom remain away employed constantly upon the street, a part of their time in re- gard to matters relating to milk and a ]>art of their time in regard to butter aud oleomargarine. These men are called collectors of samples. They make daily reports. They not only take samples of milk, but they visit places where oleomargarine and butter are sold, to see that the l»arties selling those goods comply with the law. They make a written rejjort in every case, upon a blank which is provided for that purpose, giving the date, the time of the day when the inspection was made, the I>roi)rietor\s name, i)lace of business, «&(•., whether he keei)S butteriue or not, and whether it is i)roi)erly marked. A leciord is made of all these inspections. In the case of retail dealers, grocers, and provision men who sell these goods at retail, we tind that some of them do not have the papers marked as the statute requires ; that is, the^' have no !)apers at all. We find almost universally tliat the tubs are marked upon the top ami side as required by the law. We find that to be the case with the wholesaler almost universally. There have been some exceptioiss and some prose- cutions have resulted, but the great majority ol tne ping-paper ])rinted with tlie word "oleomargarine" or "butteriue"' on it, which he has to put on tiie arti- cle when sold! Professor Babcock. Yes, sir. The Chairman. Is it not possible that the retail dealer, having- both butter and oleomargarine m the same shop, could constantly sell oleo- margaiine to a customer without putting the paper on it, and as but- ter? Professor Babcock. He ceitainly could. The Chairman. Without being caught by the consumer at all ? Professor Babcock. He certainly could; he miglit. The Chairman. And any law that would more ert'eetually guard and prevent that condition o! affairs would be desirable, would it not ? Proiessor Babcock. Any law which wonhl more effectually prevent the sale of oleomargarine for what it is not I should be glad to have passed by the national legislature or by our State legislature. The Chairman. Your inspectors, of course, do not stay in every re- tail dialer's s1k>p to see that every pound of oleomargarine is put up in an olecmaigaiine paper? Profet-soi Babcock. ]So, sir. But there are certain dealers that we regard with suspicion. We take means to see whether or not the goods are sold in the.'-e ])iip«rs by eni])loying- ])eisons lo occasionally go into such stores on Satniday nights wlien there is a rush of business, when, if ev< r, they aie .'■elling these goods iraudulently, and buy a pound or two jiouuds, or whatever small (juantity is desired, and carry it away, and we have found that in the great majority of cases these goods are marked. It must be admitted that there are some persons who violate the law, but they will always do it. The Chaikman. The tem| tation would be very great to sell it at a pr( fit of 10 or lli cents a pound ? IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. , 87 Professor Babcock. For a dishonest uiaii, yes; for an honest man, no. There are people wlio will sell you a piece of cloth to-day, and who will say it is all wool, knowing that it is not. They will tell you it is all wool, and they get the price of all-wool goods. The increased price is a temptation, and as long as these goods can be bought at or 10 cents a pound some dishonest man will take the risk and chance of sell- ing the goods for what they are not. A man will sell you a piece of American silk and tell you it is a foreign siik, if he thinks you have a prejudice against American silks. The Cdaieman. Any law that more thoronghly gnards that retail sale, then, is desirable, I suppose? Professor Babcock. Yes; I shonld be strongly in favor of that. Senator Blaik. You are an inspector. Have you any means of ob- taining data which you could give to the committee which would be a guide to it as to the amount of oleomargarine that is consumed in your vicinity, or within your jurisdiction as an inspector, and as to the rela- tive amount as between that and butter? Professor Babcock. Yes, 1 can do so a]>proximately. In a report which I have here, and which I will hand to committee, you can obtain some idea of the character of the work which is done in Boston. I have given an estimate of the amount of butter and oleomargarine, based on the most reliable figures which I could obtain, sold in Boston. I will say in regard to these figures, however, that from such informa- tion as 1 have received since the publication or the printing of this report, which was on the 1st of January of the present a ear, J have reason to believe that the figures I have given in tliis report as to the amount of oleomargarine received in Boston and from there sent out, not only through the State of Massachusetts but to adjacent States, is some- what o\ erestimated. The amount is, probably, considerably less than the figures I have given here. But the figures which I did give in this report are ti^ follows: The total number of pounds, estimated, was 9,94.5,725 of oleomarga- rine. In this calculation, let me say, [ was assisted l)y a member of the Produce Exciiange of Boston who is not favorably disi>osed towards oleomargarine, so that this .statement doubtless is high rather than low as an estimate. You will find the details of these tigures in the rc[)ort. As I say I believe these figures are too high, but the value of that amount of oleo, at the average wholesale value of IH cents a pound, was -$1,143,758.37. The total number of pounds of butter was 24.400,111, which, at the average wholesale [)rice of 20 cents, amounts to $4,880,022.20. Senator Blaik. Those figures cover what territory ? Professor Babcock, They represent the quantity received in Boston at the Produce Exchange and from there distributed. Senator Blair Where did it come from ? Professor Babcock. I got those figures from the books of the Pro- duce Exchange so far as they are capable of giving the figures, and a part of them are estimated. Senator Blair. When you say "oleo" you mean "oleomargarine"?" Professor Babcock. Yes, sir. Senator ]^>LAiii. And from what points is that amount collected ? Professor Bab(;ock. In Boston we have two factories. There is a factory in Providence which sends goods to Boston, and the Western factories send their goods there. Senator Blair. Can you give us an idea of the proportion in which these several localities furnish you oleomargarine tor that market ? 88 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. Professor Baecock. Yes, sir; approximately. Tliere is made in or near Boston abont 150,000 packages. Senator Blair. How much is contained in a package ? Professor Babcock. At an average of U5 pounds to the package. Tbe rest of it comes from other sections; from the West and from New York. Senator Blair. But butter is mainly, I suppose, collected from New England ? Professor Babcock. No, sir; a good deal of Western butter comes to Boston. Senator Blair. From how far west? Professor Babcock. As tar west as it is produced — from Wisconsin and Iowa. New England does not ])roduce butter enough to sujiply her own needs. Senator Blair. Hardly enough tONnpi)ly her own rural regions — the smaller cities and villages. Professor IJabcock. 1 understand that to be the fact. 1 will say one single word in regard to the nnitter of testimony taken before this com- mittee at a former session, which I I'cad from the stenographic rei)ort which has been i)rinted. .v gentleman from Boston stated that the law was not ejiforced in Boston, and he relates certain circinnstani;es which, I think, the committee ought to know occurred some live or six years ago, so that what he said does not api)ly at all to the present condition of things. You may remember that it was stated that he sought to have ceitain ])arties comj)lained of. and that the then milk inspector, Mr. Griflin, di-clined to make a prosecution because there was no money to pay for it. Now the lacts in that case were these: There were four complaints, which were instigated by members of the Produce Ex- change. They came to the then milk inspectoi'; samples were taken; and at that time 1 was doing the chemical woik for the oftice, and I made an analysis. I ai)i)eared before the grand jury; true bills were found, and when it was discovered that true bills were found against certain people who not only sohl butterine quietly, but occasionally bought some butter also (f members of the I'roduce Exchange, these gentle- men came before the district attorney, and at their rei)resentation those cases were put on tile. That is ihe reason tiiey were nor [)rose- cuted then. There was a_ party in Boston whom I had occasion to presecute this spring for selling goods not marked as lequired by law, which came from the >tate of Wisconsin. Some gentleman here may know the goods. 1 think they were marked "Eureka Creamery," and the "Horse-Shoe Creamery" isanotlieronewhich we know peilectly well. They are both high grades of butterine. They aie made and intended to be sold by these people there as a substitute for butter, and the l)eople who have them do not mean to mark them if they can hel[> it. The Chairman. You mean they are intended to be sold as butter? Professor Babcock. Yes, 1 think they are. Senator Blair. Where is that butterine made? Professor Babcock. 1 do not remember where the HorseShoe Cream- ery is made, but *.he Eureka Cieamery is nuule, 1 think, in the town of Eureka in Iowa or Wisconsin ; I think Iowa. A party had some of those goods. The membeis of a tirm were complaiiu-d of and they paid their tine the next day and marked all the goods they wanted to keej), and the rest they shipped back. One of the gentlemen who bought some of these goods from this tirm was complained of, and he came to me through a friend, a member of the Produce Exchange who does not believe in oleomargarine at all, with this proposition : He says this party — we will IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 89 call bim Mr. B. — did not eare aiiythiiiiu^ abont tlie fine, but be was a dea- con of tbe cburcb, and be did not want it to appear tbat be bad been convicted of selling tbese goods. He said: ''Yon know we bave been contribnting money to pay tbe expenses of counsel and otber expenses towards baving tbis matter investigated at Wasbington. but if you would consent to bave Mr. B.'s case put on file, Mr. B. would be willing to con- tribute 8100 to tbat fund." 1 said : " 1 do not know anytbing about Wasb- ington, but we bave a State law and Mr. Batcbelor — tbat is bis name; 1 (iid not intend to give it, but it bas i«lii)ped ont — Mr. Batcbelor bas violated tbat law and be ougbt to jiay tbe penalty," and be did. Tbe Chairman. I do not tbink your jHlministration of affairs bas been questioned before tbe committee, but tbat is all rigbt. Professor Babcock. 1 desire to bave tbe committee know tbat tbere is at least one sjiot on tbe face of tbe eartb wbere oleomargarine is sold, in tbe great majority of cases, for wbat it is; and wbat is done in Bos- ton can be done in every city of tbe country if tbe macbinery of tbe law is providtd. Senaior Joines. Has it been any part of your duty to determine wbetber tbese snbstitntes foi' butter are injurious to bealtb or not? Professor Baecock. It bas not been a pait of my duty to determine tbat. Senator Jones Have .^ou investigated tbat matter? Professor Babcock. I bave. Senator Jones. Wbat are your conclnsions on tbat snbject ? Pro1es>oi- Babcock. My conclusions are tbat wbat is perfectly good on tbe side of a b«e1steak is ])erfe(tly good wben it is melted out and mixed witb salt anaiatiou of oleomargarine for food to be sold to the consumer, of a yellow tint or hue. You may take all the other colors of the rainbow, but let butter have its pre emi)ted color. What harm is there in that, so that the man who eats it can understand what he is eating. Professor Baucock. It is simply unftiir. If you can aiake it one color you can make it another. Senator Blair. Select your color. Professor Babcock. I think that some who might favor such a plan as that would be in reality aiming a blow at the article itself, rather than guarding the people. As I say, if you can color it one color you can another. Senator Blair. Set aside the question of motive. Here is a collisiou of motives between these two great interests. Each wants to get the better of the other, of course, naturally. It is a mercantile comj>eti- tion. But set that all one side. Is not the man who consumes the but- ter, or who consumes oleomargarine, entitled to know what he is eating" and what he is i)aying for? Professor Babcock. Yes; certainly. Senator Blair. And is he to be left to the mercy of the hotel keeper and the boarding house keeper and compelled to pay 50 cents a pound for this article by reason of this false color by which it is imposed upon him as butter, when it is really worth and costs, and ought to be sold for less than, 20 cents a pound ? Professor Babcock. There is no reason why he should not know what he is eating-. Senator Blair. These colors exist in nature; they are in flowers, aud in the laudscai>e in every form. The fat has a color when you extract the tallow. ISTow, why should not the oleomargarine i)eople choose some color, a white or a chocolate color, or a reddish hue, whatever they see tit to select, and then, as the article is very much cheaper, as it is as wholesome or more wholesome, as you claim, than butter, will not the people very soon under your instruction, become consumers of oleo- margarine rather than of butter! Professor Babcock. In time, undoubtedly. Senator Blair. Aud in a short time. Professor Babcock. No, not in a short time. Senator Blair. You eat it now as readily as you do butter? Professor Babcock. I suppose a chemist will do very many things that the general public will not do. The public are always very slow in such matters, and it will take a good many years for people to over- come the prejudices in regard to oleomargarine. I say, in short, that I think the coloring of oleomargarine by a distinctive color would be unfair. Senator Blair. Well, I have drawn out your opinion, and I will not consume more time. Senator Jones. I think you said, some time ago, that you had exam- 9G IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. ined this substance to determine its quality as an article of food, whether it was healthful or not. Professor Babcock, Yes. . Senator Jones. And you believe it to be entirely healthful ? Professor Babcock. Yes. Senator Jones. There is a statement made on high authority in a pa]ier that I have marked in pencil, and I would like to have you look at it and tell me whether, from your examination as a chemist, you be- lieve that tliose substances enter into oleomaigarine and butter to anj- large extent, and if so, to what extent [handing a paper to the pro- fessor] ! Professor Babcock. I should be pleased to go over this list in detail if you desire it, and state in regard to every s|)ecific article what it is. Senator Jones. I would be glad to have you do so. Professor Babcock. In the first idace, I see on this list nitric acid. I do not believe that that has been or is used in the nmnufacture of oleo- margarine. It doubtless occurs as an ingredient in the sjiecitication of some person who has taken out a ])atent for doing something or other, such as the refining of some sort of fat. Senator Jones. It could be detected if i)resent in this substance? Professor Babcock. Yes. Senator Jones. Have yon ever detected it ? Professor Babcock. ISJo, sir. The next article here is sugar of lead. That is poisonous. Senator Jones. Would that diminish the cost of the manufacture of oleomargarine? Professor Babcock. ]Vo, sir. Senator Jones. Is there anv reason why it should be used if it could be! Professor Babcock. I do not know of any reason why it should be used. Sugar of lead is a poisonous substance, and I never heard of its being used in any food product whatever. Sometimes salts of lead have been detected in wine and vinegar, but what possible use it would be, or how the manufacturer could make use of sugar of lead in the making of oleomargarine, I do not know. The next article is sulphate of lime. That is what a man drinks a great deal of when he drinks any water found west of the Alleghany Mountains, especially in the far west. I do not know that it has ever been used in the manufacture of oleomar- garine. I cannot conceive of any purj)Ose for which it should be used in such manufacture. Senator Gibson. Is it not used some in the manufacture of sugar? Professor Babcock. Sulphuric acid is used to manufacture starch into glucose, and then lime is added for the purpose of neutralizing the acid in that manufacture, and that leaves a little suli)hate of lime in glucose. Senator Gibson. It is not deleterious to health ? Professor Babcock. No, sir; not at all. Butyric acid is named here. Well, that is a normal constituent of butter; that is legitimete. Gly- cerine is a normal constituent of butter, not as such, but glycerine in a modified form exists in butter. That is, glycerine exists in a modified form in all fats. " Cai)sic acid" is a mistake. It means capric acid, which is another of the acids natural and peculiar to butter. Commercial sul- phuric acid. I do not know of that having been used in any way in the manufacture of these goods. Tallow. That is confessedly an ingredi- ent. Butyric ether. That is a natural product which is developed from butter when it becomes rancid. The butvrine forms what is called an IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 97 ether. Castor oil. I do not know why a man should use that. Cer- tainly an oleomargarine manufacturer making a product that he sells at 9 cents a pound would not make use of an article that sells for a dol- lar or two a gallon ; I do not know what the exact price is. Castor oil is a high priced article. You go to the druggist and buy a little bottle of it for the baby, and you pay him a quarter for it. No manufacturer would use that in making an article to sell for 9 or 10 cents a pound. Caul. Well, that of course is one of the articles used, the caul fat of the animal. Gastric juice. lu some of the earlier patents for making oleomargarine — I think in the origiualMege process, the French process — that a preparation made from gastric juice— what is called pepsin — was an ingredient. That we all to-day regard as a valuable remedy. It will cure dyspepsia quicker than almost anything else. It is the digestive principle of the animal, and is made from the hog's stomach. It is perfectly good and pure, and recognized as a valuable remedy by physicians. This paper refers to gastric juice. It is a reference, I suppose, to some preparation derived from the hog for digesting and dissolving the animal tissues which are found in fat. Curcumine. That is the active property of curcumsa root, or turmeric, which we are glad to have in our curry-powder. Curry- powder is colored with curcumine. If it is good there, it may be in butter. Chlorate of potash. I never heard of that being used for this purpose. If used, however, it is perfectly harmless. Peroxide of mag- nesia means black oxide of manganese. I do not know how it could be used iu the manufacture of oleomargarine. Nitrate of soda is harmless, but I never heard of its being used in that way. It may have been used in some process of salting. Some of the pork that comes flom Southern countries, and indeed some of our pork that is salted here, is salted with nitrate of soda. It is another form of saltpeter. Dry blood alburnum. That is perfectly legitimate. Not only dry blood album um, but fresh blood is used by all the sugar-houses in the country, and if a man should want to create a newspaper prejudice against pure white sugar some day, he could write up an article on dry blood, bone-black, burnt bones, and all those things used in refining sugar — facts that would discount the articles on oleomargarine 100 per cent. I should have no trouble in disgusting the people by an enumeration of the processes used in the manufacture of sugar. Saltpeter. That is harmless. Borax. That also is harmless, and so is orris root. Bicarbonate of soda is used in bread. Cajync acid, sulphite of soda, pepsin, lard, caustic potash — I never heard of that being used, and so on. I will not take up the time of the commit- tee in going over the rest of them, but if there is anything else you de- sire exijlained, I will do so with pleasure. I characterize that statement as an ignorant and prejudiced statement which no person would intelli- gently make. Undoubtedly those articles have been found in specifi- cations of patents relating to the manufacture of oleomargarine, but I do not believe that any manufacturer today uses any of those things. Senator Gibson. Could he use them ? Professor Babcock. I do not know for what purpose. Senator Jones. If they were used, as I understand you, they would be used not as a constituent part of the product, but might be used in processes adopted for the purpose of purification ? Professor Babcock. If used at all, they would be used, most of them, iu the process, and not as constituent products. But with very few ex- ceptions, I cannot conceive that they would be used at all. The Chairman. Could these various acids be used without there being danger of some portion remaining in the product? 17007 OL 7 98 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. Professor Babcock. Yes ; they might. The Chairman. There is no danger of their remaining in the product at all ? Professor Babcock. If used, there would be a certain danger of their remaining in the product — I misunderstood your question. If they were used, traces of them might remain in the product or might not. If they did so remain, we should find them. The Chairman. Your statement was that you had no knowledge of any of these articles being used. How many oleomargarine factories have you investigated, so as to be familiar with their processes ? Professor Babcock. Cnly two; we have only two in our vicinitj'. My personal knowledge of the actual practical manufacture of oleomar- garine is much less than that of many other gentlemen present. . The Chairman. You do not believe that nitric acid or any of those other deleterious substances are used at all by any manufacturers, I understood you to say? Professor Babcock. I do not believe they are. The Chairman. Do you know anything about the factory of I:^. I. Nathan & Co., in New York, and of the process used by them ? Professor Babcock. No, sir ; I do not. The Chairman. 1 hold in my hand here a letter headed " N. I. Na- than & Co., manufacturers of butteriue, under patent granted to N. I. Nathan," which reads as follows: New York, March 30, 1886. Sirs : We have taken the liberty of forwarding to you per P. R. R. one 10-pouud tub of our creamery brand of butterine, which we claim is the finest in the market, for which we do not charge you anything. We guarantee uniformity in quality at all times, and our present price for the same is 10 cents per x>ound net, F. 0. 13., New York, in the following packages, viz : Half firkins, 10, 20, 30, 40, and ^6 pounds Welsh tubs ; 1 pound rolls, 30, 40, or 50 in a tub ; 60-pound tubs, catch- weight rolls; 1 pound round prints, 40 in a case ; 1 pound square prints, 52 pounds in a case. If the quality and price are satisfactory, we would be pleased to receive your valu- able orders. Very respectfully yours, N. I. NATHAN & CO. The Chairman. I also hold in my hand a business card which reads as follows : "N. I. Nathan & Co., manufacturers of butterine, under pat- ent granted to N. I. Nathan." I have also here a copy of a patent granted by the United States to N. I. Nathan, of New York, for a process of making artificial butter. After going on about preliminary matters, it says : The lard which has passed through the sieve is then subjected to the action of cold water, to which has been previously added and thoroughly stirred a quantity of bo- rax and nitric acid, about in the proportions hereinafter specified. By treating the lard in this solution, composed of water, borax, and nitric acid, the effect is to fur- ther cleanse the lard and make it partake of or assume a clear white color, free of all odor, and almost perfectly tasteless. After being subjected to this treatment, the mass is removed and thoroughly rewashed in cold water, preferably in a separate and distinct vessel from that pi'eviously employed, whereby the product become.s a purified or deodorized leaf lard, its characteristic being that it is of a beautiful color, a clear white, perfectly odorless, remarkably solid and free from the disagreeabl'e taste usually present with lard. Arriving at this stage of the process, a certain minute quantity of nitric acid is added to the water, and incorporated with a cer- tain quantity of the purified or deodorized lard to further strengthen the solution, and this mode of treatment and addition of nitric acid are continued as mass afier mass of the purified or deodorized lard is prepared, the ojieration being continued until the product assumes a clear white color, void of odor and taste. The product thus obtained is mixed with oleomargarine, which is then a commercial article and readily obtained in the market, and when all is thoroughly mixed, the mass is sub- jected to heat, &c. And he goes on and describes the amount of nitric acid used. IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 99 Professor Babcock. What was your question, sir? The Chairman. You stated that you had no knowledge of anything of this liiud being used, and did not believe it was used. Now, I ask you what you have to say in regard to that process ? Professor Babcock. 1 should like to see the whole of that patent first. I do not think because a man has a patent, and because his letterhead says that he works under a certain patent, that it by any means follows that his goods are so made. The Chairman. What do you mean by that? Professor Babcock. I mean to say that a man to day may make a certain kind of goods, and may say that he has taken out a patent for that purpose, and that his goods are made under that patent. But it does not follow that he does so. There are numerous patents taken out not worth a cent, and it is done merely to give a mau the right to put that on there, and he does put it on. The Chairman. Mr. Nathan says, under his letter-head of March 30, that these goods are manufactured under a patent of the United States, and I have here a copy of tlie patent. Professor Babcock. I understand that he says so. But I say in the first phice, it does not follow that because he has a patent, or because he refers to it in his letter-head, that he makes use of it. The Chairman. It follows, then, that he misrepresents the facts as to the making of itf Professor Babcock. I should say that in that case it might be so. The Chairman. Then you do not believe Mr. Nathan's siatement, that that is made under his patent? Professor Babcock. I did not say that; I did not say what I did not believe. I said this: That in the first place I was not aware of any manufacturer using nitric acid. It appears- that Mr. Nathan has a patent, and he says that he uses it. I admit tliat that may be true. But I say it does not follow that it is true because he has a ])atent and refers to it in his letter heads. But if he does use it — which 1 do not know, and which I am thankful to have received information concern- ing — what of it '? It is not a poison in the manner in which it is used, in any way, shape, or form. The Chairman. In answer to another question I understood you to say that it was a poison, and that if it was used a portion might re- main in the resulting product, and therefore it might be injurious. Professor Babcock. Let me explain that. If you take nitric acid in the strong form in which you buy it in a drug store it is a caustic. It is not a poison per se, but a poison because corrosive. But in a diluted form it is not a poison unless taken in large quantities. In the same manner salt is a poison. If used at all it is used in that patent for the purpose of oxydizing certain materials, so as to remove color, probably. As a chemist, I doubt very much whether Mr. Nathan uses any such thing. I do not believe he can use it. I do not understand how a man is going to work nitric acid in that process. Senator Jones. He says in his patent that he uses it in extremely small quantities, or words to that effect. The Chairman. The patent goes on and gives the proportions to be used for a gallon of water, and so forth. Senator Blair. What are they? The Chairman. Three ounces to a certain mixture here. Professor Babcock. I wish you would let me see that patent. The Chairman. I understood you to say some time ago that the bad odor which comes to the tallow or fat of any kind after it has been lying 100 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. exposed to tbe atuiosplicrc for a short time can iti uo way be removed. Do you ijieaii to be uuderstood as broadly as that"? Professor Babcock. Of course it is a question of degree. In making oleomargarine you need perfectly fresb fat. Tbe Chairman. That is to say it makes tbe product better. Professor Babcock. I do not think you can take any fat material which is tuinted and use it successfully. Tbe Chairman. I judge from the nature of that i)atent that nitric acid and other chemicals that were used there were for the purpose of deodorizing the fat. He speaks of deodorizing the mass by tbe use of nitric acid, borax, and \\ater. Professor Babcock. He says, also: "In practicing my invention I purchase in open market fresh leaf lard." He does not take refuse ma- terials and work them up, but he starts with fresh leaf lard. Tbe Chairman. If he starts with fresh leaf laid what is tbe object of deodorizing it"? Professor Babcock. To make it still better and to remove the last traces of tbe animal. It is to carry it another step. This nitric acid, if used according to this patent, is intended for removing tbe last traces from tbe fresh leaf lard, which be admits he uses. He does not use re- fuse fat any way. Tbe Chairman. But might he not use refuse fat and still state on bis letter beads that be works under tbe patent, and that use of nitric acid, would that not apply to lard as well as the other thiugs ? Professor Babcock. I do not believe that he can use refuse fat. Tbe Chairman. What knowledge have you on that subject? Professor Babcock. I know something of tbe difficulty of refining fats. I have made that a special study — the matter of oils and fats — and I know that if you have a iat that is tainted, and you want to refine it to a degree so that you can make oleomargarine of it, you have got something which chemists have not yet been able to accomplish, in my judgment. You have got to start with the best fat you can procure and then you have to carry that on by carefully treating it all the way through, and tbe object of the various patents which have been gotten out has been to accomplish that in some other way than by tbe original method which was covered in the Mege patent. The Chairman. There is uo use of nitric acid, or any suggestion of the necessity of it, in the original process of Mege. Professor Babcock. I think not. The Chairman. The fact of finding it in the patent would suggest, would it not, to every one, that the object of using it was to deodorize fats which bad contracted an odor so that they could not be used with- out it. Professor Babcock. I think not to any intelligent person who would read that whole specification. When a man says, "In practicing my invention I purchase in open market fresh leaf lard, and after having thoroughly washed it, cause it to be cut up and minced in a suitable machine," it indicates that be buys fresh material and tbe best he can get. Tbe Chairman. Further down it says he uses nitric acid and borax. Is that not a process of deodorizing? Professor Babcock. Certainly it is. The Chairman. Why should be deodorize it if it is in tbe condition in which Mege intended it should be — fresh and without odor? Professor Babcock. He wants to get tbe odor perfectly out of it and to make an absolutely neutral fat. IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 101 The Chairman. Yon thiuk that can be done only in fresh fat, and that fat not absolutely fresh cannot be deodorized at all"? Professor Babcock. It cannot be practically deodorized. In a chemical laboratory I will not say that it could not be done by the use of chemicals so that a man could get a patent and sell out to some com- pany if he wanted to. But it is not practical, because it would cost 30, 40, or 50 cents a pound. The Chairman. I will ask you one other question right on that point, as you have given your opinion very positively. We will suppose that a fat is not perfectly fresh; that it has been removed a short time from the animal and has become slightly tainted by being exposed to the av mosphere. Do you not believe it possible under that patent, or some other patent, by the use of chemicals, to so far deodorize it that it could be used for making an article of oleomargarine, and that whatever odor was Ipft could be concealed by the use of flavoring materials like bu- tyric acid or other matters. Professor Babcock. I do not think that any fat which had become in any sense offensive or unpalatable could be so treated. The Chairman. You mean after it has become putrid or partially decayed ? Professor Babcock. No, sir; not so far as that. I mean fat not per- fectly fresh — fat which is not more than 24 or 36 hours old. You cannot take old fat and work it. The Chairman. For how long a period after fat is taken from an animal can it be used ? Professor Babcock. I would not undertake to express an opinion in regard to that. I frankly say I do not know. But I say the fat must be relatively fiesh. Now a single word on a matter which 1 think is quite clear, about this purification of the pure leaf lard. If you take water from a well or pond, you saj^ it is pure, nice water, that it has only five or ten grains of solids to the gallon, and you use it for drink- ing purposes. But for certain manufacturing purposes it is necessary to get absolutely pure water, and so, at a great deal of trouble and ex- pense, so that it costs you 12 to 15 cents a gallon, you take that water and distill it, and it is absolutely pure. That is what this is. It is pure- leaf lard that he starts with. The Chairman. One other question about the color. Mr. Nathan produces as a result a color which is a pure dead white. That is of course the natural color of butterine or oleomargarine uncolored. Why not leave it right there? Why not provide that no coloring matter shall be added to it, but that it shall be left in its natural form — not compel it to be colored pink or any other color, but leave it in its natu- ral color? Professor Babcock. For this reason : In that way oleomargarine could not be distinguished from lard or tallow, and if the goods were uncolored in that way, in three or four years some people might come before a legislative committee and say, "Here are people who are sell- ing tallow and lard for oleo — lard unpurified instead of oleo." How are you going to provide for that "? The Chairman. They could be distinguished by the taste and flavor. Professor Babcock. No, the lard might still be purified so as to be a lard without flavor. Senator Blair. Why do they not sell lard for butter now, on that theory 1 Professor Babcock. For the reason that it is not adapted to the Xmrposes of butter; it is too thin, too fluid. 102 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. Senator Blair. Would it uot be just as useless for butter then as now ; it would be lard still. Professor Babcock. It would be lard, but it would be purified. I will say in regard to this matter of color that it is done to please the eye and to make it resemble an article which it is confessedly made for the purpose of resembling as a substitute for it. If a man was going to make a substitute for butter he would not want it black or pink or •duy other color, any more than he would want to make a substitute for ebony any other color than black. The Chairman. You do not think it would injure its commercial value to color it ? Professor Babcock. I think that for a number of years any other color than that people are accustomed to see in the goods used for the purpose of butter would create a prejudice which it would require a number of years to overcome. That would be the effect. Senator Jones. Do you think there is any difficulty practically in enforcing a properly-guarded State law to insure the public against the l)urchase of oleomargarine except where they choose to buy it? Professor Babcock. I think there is no difficulty in enforcing a properly guarded State law, a local law. If you have a law i)roviding that such and such things shall or shall uot be done, and you have no- body to look after it, it is not going to be enforced of course. You must have officers to execute it. Senator Jones. You think there would be no difficulty in executing a law with proper machinery and a properly framed law"? Professor Babcock. I think there would be no practical difficulty in executing it. The Chairman. How would you reach every little town and village in Massachusetts and every wayside grocer — by an inspector? Professor Babcock. I should make the attempt in the same way that I should try to enforce the law against rum or anything else of that nature. You have a law about this, that, or the other thing, but it is not enforced in every little town. STATEMENT OF GEORGE H. WEBSTER. Mr. George H. Webster, of Chicago, then came before the com- mittee. The Chairman. Please state in what behalf you appear ? Mr. Webster. I am a member of the firm of Armour & Co., of Chicago. Senator Jones. In what business are you engaged I Mr. Webster. We are slaughterers of cattle and hogs, and pack and ship the product. As a preface, I wish to say that it is my desire and intention to cover the ground fully, in order that this investigation may be as exhaustive and comprehensive as possible under the circumstances. If, therefore, any points should be omitted about which you desire to be informed, it will give me pleasure to be interrogated, and, if unable to furnish im- mediately the information desired, I promise to obtain it. We have nothing to conceal that will tend to enlighten you on this important matter. As I have stated, 1 am a member of the firm of Armour & Co., of Chicago. We are slaughterers of cattle and hogs in Chicago to quite a formidable extent, having killed last year 330,000 cattle and 1,200 000 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 103 Logs on our own premises. We send the products to all parts of the world, and as an element of this business we are jjroducers of oleo oil and neutral, as well as the much abused products known as oleomar- garine and butterine. The testimony to which you listened yesterday and this morning from Professors Morton and Babcock and Chandler was altogether scientific. It is my privilege this morning, as a mer- chant and manufacturer, to present the matter to you from a commercial standpoint, having noticed yesterday that several questions propounded to those gentlemen regarding the cost and selling value of the articles were not satisfactorily answered. The methods for j (reducing the several products were so minutely described to you by Professor JMorton, that I promise to be very brief in alluding to them again. The product which is most afiected by this bill, and which is the more far-reaching in its extent, is that which is commercially known as "oleo oil," the manufacture of which enhanced the value of the cattle slaughtered iu Chicago alone, during the past year, to the sum of fully $4,000,000. This I mention as appertaining to Chicago only ; my iriends who are present from the cattle districts of the West will have something to say concerning this product and the interest they have in it. The method of producing oleo oil is as follows: The selected fat is taken from the cattle in the process of slaughtering, and after thorough wash- ing is placed in a bath of clean cold water and surrounded with ice, where it is allowed to remain until all animal heat has been removed. It is then cut into sniall pieces by machinery, and melted at an average temperature of 150 degrees until the fat in liquid form has separated from the fibriue or tissue, and then settled until it is perfectly clear. Then it is drawn into graining vats and allowed to stand a day, when it is ready for the process. The pressing extracts the stearine, leav- ing the remaining jiroduct, known as oleo oil. It is this article which, wheu churned with cream or milk or both, and with sometimes a small proportion of creamery butter, the whole being properly salted, gives the new food product oleomargarine. Each animal yields an average of about 40 pounds of oleo oil, and the quantity produced iu the United States during 1885 was about U00,000 tierces, equal to 75 millions of pounds ; of this about one third is used in this country, the remainder going to various i)arts of Europe, but mainly to Ilolland, where the manufacture of oleomargarine for shipment to England is one of the i)rincii)al indus- tries of the Kingdom. The average market value of oleo oil, over that of common tallow, for the past three years has ranged from 5 to 8 cents per pound, and figuring it at 7 cents per pound, gives approximately $3 per head which beef cattle are benefited by its manufacture. Of the total quantity mentioned, Chicago and vicinity produce about one-half. This oleo oil is manufactured to a large extent in Austria, France, and Germany, over 40,000 tierces, equal to 15,000,000 of pounds, finding its way into Holland alone during the year 1885. With this large pro- duction abroad the United States has to compete, and if oleo oil used in this country is taxed, which is one of the propositions of the bill, it will throw just that additional quantity on the foreign market and lower the price correspondingly, which, at a low estimate of two cents i)er pound, would amount to $1,500,000. Does it seem right or just, from any standpoint, that any portion of your fellow-citizens should be de- prived of their own home market for so valuable a product, and forced into an unprofitable export outlet as being the only one open to them, and simply because it is the principal component part of a clean and wholesome food i)roduct whose only sin is that it is competitive with 104 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. another? Has not an American citizen as mucji right to make butter from oleo oil as another American citizen has to make it from cream and milk, and has not the consumer as much right to buy and eat it if he so desires? There is no doubt, however, that the consumer should be made aware of what he is buying, and this can be easily accomplished and regulated by proper State police surv-eillance, but onerous prohib- itory taxation is unnecessary and opens the doors for endless troubles in the future. I have now described oleo oil and oleomargarine and their relations to each other, but there is another product, called butteriue, to which allusion was made yesterday, but no satisfactory description of it was given, for the reason that very little of it comparatively speaking is made in the East or in New York, from which city the two gentlemen came. The difference between oleomargarine and butterine is this: In making butterine we use neutral lard, which is made from selected leaf lard prepared and rendered in a very similar manner to oleo oil, except- ing that no steriue is extracted. This neutral laid, which is a beauti- fully white and odorless product, is cured in salt brine for 48 to 70 hours at an ice-water temperature. It is then taken and with the desired pro- portions of oleo oil and the finest creamery butter is churned with cream and milk, producing an article which, when properly salted and packed, is ready for market. We use the same coloring that is used by all butter-makers, and which has already been fully described. The but- terine is generally made of two qualities, differing only in the propor- tions of the ingredients used. In cold weather a little salad oil, made from selected cottonseed, is used in both products for the improvement of their texture. We get an average of about eight pounds of raw leaf lard per hog, which render net about five to six pounds of neutral. This neutral is worth from two to three cents per pound over ordinary steam-rendered lard. Therefore figuring five pounds per hog as a min- imum, at two and a half cents per pound, adds twelve and one half cents per head to the value of every hog slaughtered in the large cities. There were slaughtered in Chicago during the past year 5,000,000 of hogs, which at 12J cents ])er head makes an enhanced value from neu- tral alone of over $500,000. This article is seldom exported, and there- fore if this bill should go into effect the industry of its manufacture would be entirely crushed and destroyed. The proportions of the com- ponent parts used in i)reparing these several articles of oleomargarine, creamery butterine, and dairy butterine are approximately as follows: Oleomargarine is mainly made of oleo oil exclusively, but sometimes 5 per cent, of the finest butter is added, which is churned with the cream and milk to improve the flavor. Creamery butterine is usually composed of 25 per cent, creamery butter, 40 per cent, neutral, 20 per cent, oleo oil, and the balance milk, cream, and salt. Dairy butterine differs from creamery only in the ijroportions. It is a cheaper product, and its proportion of butter about 10 per cent., neu- tral 45 per cent., and oleo oil 25 jDer cent., the balance being made up of cream, milk, and salt. The average cost of these products respectively is about as follows : Oleomargarine, 8 cents per pound ; dairy butterine, 10^- cents per pound ; creamery butterine, 13 cents per pound; and the average selling prices, taking our own as an index, are: Oleomargarine, 9 to 9^ cents; dairy butterine, 11.J to 12 cents; creamery butterine, 14^ to 15 cents. Senator Jones. Do I understand you to mean by oleomargarine, as IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 105 you use tbe term tbere, the oleo oil, or oleomargarine as prepared in imitation of butter ? Mr. Webster. What I have just stated about the cost and selling price related to oleomargarine — the prepared product. Senator Jones. Prepared as a substitute for butter 1 Mr. Webster. Yes, sir ; it is made mainly from oleomargarine oil. On special occasions, and in order to meet competition, wehave sold the product at one fourth to one half cent per pound over actual cost, all showing that the business in itself is competitive, and done at best on very limited margins of profit. In Chicago there are thirteen manu- facturers in all, but the business is principally confined to about half that number. The manufacturers in the whole country, east and west, as far as I can ascertain, number about thirty. The manufacture of these products furnishes employment to probably two thousand men, while the production of oleo oil neutral furnishes employment directly and indirectly to at least three times as many more. At the last Ameri- can fat stock and dairy show held under the auspices of the Illinois State Board of Agriculture in Chicago, in November last, the butterine manufacturers were allowed, after much dissentiou, to make an exhibit of their products, and the effect was M^onderful in turning popular preju- dice into poi)ular favor. The butterine men, in order to show their sympathy and sincerity at that time, otfered two thousand dollars in premiums for the best display of fine creamery butter at the next ex- hibition, to take place November next. I hold a letter in my hand, re- ceived by my firm only a few days ago, which I will take occasion to read, if you desire, as it shows how the butterine-makers' premiums are appreciated by the Illinois State Board of Agriculture. We, as manufacturers of the component parts of oleomargarine and butterine as well as of the products themselves, respectfully urge that you recommend the appointment of a committee to visit the places of the principal manufacture of these articles, and to make a thorough investi- gation of all the methods anrice? Mr. Chapin. Yes; the price. I am chairman of the committee on market reports of the Boston Chamber of Commerce, and have been on that committee every year, with the exception, I think, of two or three years, since the old Produce Exchange, which was finally merged into the Chamber of Commerce, was first organized, and I claim to have some knowledge of the market value of the goods. It is my duty every day while I am at home to make up a list of prices to telegraph to the principal markets of the world — that is, in the United States and to Liverpool. Senator George. You refer to the wiiolesale prices? Mr. Chapin. Yes ; to the wholesale prices. 1 am somewhat conver- sant with the retail prices, but not so much so as the wholesale, for I have a brother wiiio is in the retail business, and I supply him with the most of his goods except oleomargerine and butterine. That he buys of our neighbors generally. Professor Chandler, I think it was, stated that the wholesale cost of oleomargerine was, 1 think, six or seven cents, or per- haps eight conts. Senator George. The cost of manufacture? Mr. Chapin. Y^es, sir; and that it was put on to the market at the price of nine and a half to ten cents. I will admit that from the testi- mony I heard yesterday, and that which I have heard since I came to Washington, I am perfectly demoralized, and I am not really in a fit state to make a statement here to-day. And that is caused by hearing such a difl'erent statement of facts from what we have been educated to and what we have learned from our daily experience, so that I am not able to meet those statements as they ought to be met. We did not come here prepared to meet any such testimony. We came here to give you the practical view, not the scientific view. We have no one here that I know of to give you the scientific principles in regard to the man- facture of these goo«ls. The Chairman. That is not what we are inquiring after now; it is the comoiercial view of it that we want. JNIr. Chapin. I notice the i)rice of butter has been given at 80 cents a pound; I did not hear any other price named during the giving of this testimony. Now, as regards the 80-ceut butter, I will say that right opposite where I live is the old Peter C. Brooks estate, an estate which 124 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. has been iu possession of one family for many, many years, and I un- derstand tbat they have made dairy butter for some of their Boston friends and charged them $1.10 a pound. But in our business we know nothing of such prices at all. It is like comparing the gold stud which I wear in my V)osom with a diamond worth a thousand dollars. I want to say a word with regard to the execution of the law. Pro- fessor Babcock says that the law is executed in Massachusetts as well as it can be. Senator George. Do you mean the law prohibiting the sale of oleo- margarine for butter? Mr. Chapin. No, not prohibiting the sale of it, but the law regulating the sale of it. The law requires every dealer in oleomargarine to brand his butter with a half inch letter on the cover and also on the side of the package. They testify that that butter comes to Boston without any mark on it whatever. Even if it is branded every butter dealer iu Bos- ton is supposed to have what we call a scratcher and a stencil or brand which he can get for twenty tive cents, and I know that the brands on that butter are scratched off and the brand reprinted after it reaches Boston — I mean oleomargarine. I testified before this committee on the 28th of Aprilthat aparty told me — that is, he was selling a certain butter, and I gave you the brand of it at that time. He was selling from 500 to 700 packages a week under that brand and was selling it for butter. I bought ten packages of him, and requested him to brand it butterine before he sent it to my place of business, and he said there was no necessity for it; he said : " We are selling 500 to 700 packages a week just as It is." He told me they were agents for a Chicago firm. As it is not customary here to mention names, I will not mention the name unless some member wants it. Senator George. Oh, let us have the name. Mr. Chapin. I refer to Fairbanks & Co., of Chicago, A brand of but- ter was mentioned here yesterday ; that is one brand ; I will not say that Fairbanks & Co. make the brand that was mentioned by Professor Bab- cock yesterday, the Eureka brand, but that was one of tlie brands I was talking about. There is also another one which people attribute to Fairbanks «& Co. The Chairman. That is branded simply as " Eureka Dairy" or "Eu- reka Creamery," without the words butterine or oleomargarine. It does not contain the words oleomargarine or butterine, but simply " Eureka Dairy." Mr. Chapin. That was all there was on it. Senator Jones. Was that scratching of these packages you spoke of just now a violation of the law ? Mr. Chapin. Yes, sir. Senator Jones. Did you report the people who were guilty of that violation of the law which you say you knew about ? Mr. Chapin. No, sir ; I did not. Senator Jones. You knew, then, of a violation of the law which you did not report ? Mr. Chapin. Yes, sir. Senator Blair. Are such violations generally reported by those who know of them ? Mr. Chapin. No, sir; they are not, because a man does not want to get into trouble with his neighbor. Senator Blair. Do you mean that the law is practically a dead let- ter"? IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 125 Mr. Ohapin. Yes, it is practically a dead letter. Once in a while there is a prosecution, just enough to keep in mind tlie fact that there is a law in the State of Massachusetts to that effect. Perhaps Mr. Babcock does his duty as well as he can ; I have uot a word to say in regard to that. Bnt I do say that when ]Mr. Babcock makes the state- ment that he can detect oleomargai'ine or butterine by the looks of the package, or by thehoo[)8 0u the package, it is preposterous. There is uot a butter dealer in Bostou who would dare to stand up here and make that assertion. There is not a butter dealer in Boston who could detect it every time or one time in live by tasting of the goods; and 1 claim to be an expert. I have been in business thirty-four years, and make no use of tobacco or intoxicating lace in small towns. Senator Blair. I would like to hear the discussion he was going to repeat. The Chairman. Very well, if he will confiue himself to a statement of the facts. Mr. Chapin. There were half a dozen merchants in my place of busi- ness talking this matter over, and some of them were in favor of it, those who deal in the Blackstone market; and one of them said I ought to be hung for the part I had taken in this discussion ; and there was a labor- ing man, an Irishman, who stood near by, whom I have been acquainted with several years, and I turned to him and said, " Henry, have you ever known one of your people to go into a grocery store and call for a pound of oleomargarine ? " He said, " Mr, Chapin, never in my life." He said, " Those are the men who eat oleomargarine." Senator Sawyer. I do not think it is necessary to spend any more time on that portion of the subject. The Chairman. Just give the committee your opinion as to whether the Massachusetts law compelling oleomargarine to be sold for what it is is generally carried out and enforced, and to what extent. Mr. Chapin, Mr, Babcock referred to certain prosecutions under the law. The Chairman. You need not repeat anything Mr. Babcock said, I ask simply for your opinion, as chairman of the committee of the Chamber of Commerce of the city of Boston in regard to the enforce- ment of the law. Mr. Chapin. I cannot make my statement in any other way except by illustration. ' The Chairman. I ask you whetlier you believe the law compelling oleomargarine to be sold in the State of Massachusetts for what it is is generally enforced 1 xMr. Chapin. Mr. Senator, I want to ask you the privilege of proving my assertion. In the first place, I say it is not enforced. Il^ow, I want to prove it V)y Mr. Babcock. The Chairman. You say it is not enforced. Why do you say it is not enforced ? IMITATION DAIRY PKODl'CT.S. 127 Mr. Chapin. Mr. Babcock said tlieie were four persoii.s (under tlie administration of Mr. Grifiiu, I tliinlv be said) wbo were couiphnued ot for selling oleomargarine contrary to tbe law of Massacbusetts, and at a certaiu stage of tlie ijrosecution some of tbe dealers fouud out tbat tbose men were their customers, aud tbey tben asked for tbe warrants to be put on file. Now tbe party wbo asked that privilege of the deputy sberiff I think is in this room. I think be is connected with tbe manu- facture of oleomargarine. To illustrate : Knowing tbe fact tbat one of my neighbors is selling oleomargarine — that is, I mistrust tbat be is — I go to the milk inspector aud inform him that I think m^' neighbor is selling oleomargarine contrary to tbe laws of tbe State. He sends bis deputy and makes an inspection to tbat effei-t, and if be finds they are selling it in that way, why, of course, be enforces the law. ];!yow 1 will state another fact. A gentleman came into my place one morning aud said, " One of yoiir customers has been i)ros('cuted for selling oleomar- garine contrary to tbe law of the State. Now,'" be says, "if you will see Mr. So-and-so (I may as well mention bis name; it is Noyes «Sc Son), if you will tell Noyes to put $50 in a sealed envelope somebody will be in here and ])ick it up and that will be an end of bis suit." I said that that was a rascally j;iece of buciness and 1 would have nothing to do witb it. But I understood afterwards from good authority that the money was put down somewhere and picked uj), and tbat was tbe end of bis i)rosecution. Tbat was before Mr. Babcock's administration. I think it was done under tbe board of health. Senator Jones. How long ago did that happen f Mr. Chapin. About three years ago. Senator Jones. And in regard to these other cases you spoke of ? Mr. Chapin. Tbey were dropped, aud tbe indictment quashed right there. Senator Jones. I would like to ask one question in this connection. Wben you take so mucb interest in this matter at your place of busi- ness, which you say is a kind of headquarters for i)eople wbo are inter- ested iu this matter, and you yourself take such a lively and deep in- terest in tbe suppression of this traffic, why, tben, do you not report some of those people wbo violate the law to tbe officers of tbe law, whose business it is to prosecute them ? Mr. Chapin. 1 did not say that I bad informed against any of them iu particular. Senator Jones. 1 understand ; you said you bad not. But you said you knew of parties wbo violated the law. Now I want to know why a good citizen of tbe State of Massachusetts, as you are, does not prose- cute the violators of the law when tbey tbey are doing things against tbe public interest and the public bealtb ? Mr. Chapin. I do not wish to be understood as saying tbat I never did inform against any of them. But I do not wish to get into trouble witb my neighbors, and tbat is tbe reason other people have, I suppose. One of my neighbors has said 1 ougbt to be bung, and I do not want them all to think so. The Chairman. You have a State inspector whose business it is to look after tbe matter, have you not ? Mr. Chapin. Yes, sir ; we bave a State inspector. Senator George. If a State law cannot be enforced in Massacbusetts, bow can a Federal law be enforced ? Mr. Chapin. Because tbe goods will then be under cbarge of United States officers. Senator Jones. But it might be tbat people wbo did not want to get 128 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. Oil ba«l terms with their neighbors would not inform the United States officers, either ? Mr. Chapin. If it passes out under the hand of the United States "with a tax of 5 cents a pound upon it, we will risk it. The Chairman. If it is put under the United States law and branded and stamped in the factory where it is made, there is no danger of its being sold for what it is not ? Mr. Chapin. We will try and compete with the goods with a five cents' tax. Senator George. Then your idea is that the remedy for this evil is to have a United States rather than a State law? Mr. Chapin. Yes. The Chairman. Do you know anything, of your own knowledge, in regard to the collection of fat in your city for the manufacture of oleo oil? Mr. Chapin. Yes, sir. The Chairman. State in regard to that as briefly as you can. Mr. Chapin. Mr. Armour's partner testified yesterday that they used but very little kidney fat, nothing but the caul, or something to that effect. The Chairman. But Mr. Webster has made his statement plain this morning. Mr. Chapin. The reason of that is because they ship their goods to Boston by refrigerator cars. It takes some time for these goods to arrive at their destination, and after being received in Boston the goods are hung up in refrigerators and kept there until the meat is called rii)e, and then it is thrown down on the block and separated into three differ- ent parts. A man comes in and wants a pound or two of steak, and it is cut down irom the sirloin to the kidney, and that part is left and re- mains until there are but 3 or 4 pounds left, and then that is sliced off and thrown into a barrel near by. That is allowed to remain there twenty-four hours, the kidney fat, which is i>robably ten days after the creature was killed and sometimes longer than that. Then the team calls around once a day, in hot weather and cold, and gathers that fat from what we call the meat-men in the principal markets. The wagon stands at the door of the market and the man goes in and gets his basket of tallow and throws it into the wagon, and at this season of the year there are thousands and hundreds of thousands of flies covering those goods during the process of loading that team. It is then carried from there to the manufactory, and we do know it to be a fact that these fats are gathered in that manner. Cue manufacturer admitted that some- times they only called once a week at his i)la('e and collected the fats. That would make an average of about two weeks after the creature was butchered before the fat was collected. Senator Jones. You say that is the fact, and that the fat is used in the nianui'acture of this oil! Mr. Chapin. Yes. Senator Sawyer. How do you know that ; are you in the business "? Mr. Chapin. o^o, sir; I am not in the business, but it comes under my sui)ervision. We see the teams back up to the establishments, &c. Senator Sawyer. Do you regard that information sufBcieutto enable you to say that it is worked into this article, or are you guessing at this thing ? I do not want any guessing about it. Mr. Chapin. We never have followed it up from the time after the team has j)icked it up from the establishment. Senator Jones. Can you give me the name of a person who uses the at in t'hat way f IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 129 Mr. Chapin. The i)arties I refer to are John Eeardou & Sons, and the Clommercial Butter (.-ompauy. Senator Jones. They get this stale fat and work it into oleomarga- rine, yon say ? Mr. Chapin. I have not used the word "stale." Senator Jones. Well, then, this fat that has been kept at least ten days after the animal was killed, and make it into oleomargarine ? Mr. Chapin. Yes, sir. Senator George. If it is not stale, what is the matter with it; is anything the matter with itf Mr. Chapin. 1 liave not said anything about that. 1 have not said it was stale. Senator George. Was it bad in any way "? Mr. Chapin. 1 have not examined it thoroughly to see whether it was or not. Senator George. You do not know whether it was perfectly good fat or not ? Mr. Chapin. I do not doubt the fat is sweet. Senator George. Sweet and good ? Mr. Chapin. I presume so — that is, I could not say whether it was or not. Senator George. It had not been very long from the steak from which it was taken ? Mr. Chapin. I could not answer that. Senator George. Did it not come off the steak ! Mr. Chapin. Yes, but it remained exposed in that way two hours afterwards. Senator George. But with that exception, it had been there no longer than the steak "? Mr. Chapin. That is all. Senator George. And people ate the steak and it was good ? Mr. Chapin. Yes, I presume so. Senator George. You cannot say whether this fat was good or bad ? Mr. Chapin. I could not. Senator Jones. Does this Mr. Reardon make tallow iu his establish- ment at all ? Mr. Chapin. I think he does. Senator Jones. Can you state whether the fat of this character which is collected goes into the manufacture of oleomargarine or tallow! Mr. Chapin. I could not say ; I never followed the team any farther. Senator Jones. Then you do not know anything about it ! Mr. Chapin. No, sir. The Chairman. You simply know that the teams of these men col- lected that fat and took it to his place? Mr. Chapin. Yes, sir. Senator Sawyer. I do not see why this committee should ask any- thing further about it ; he does not know what is done with it. The Chairman. That is what the committee wants to know about. The statement has been made here repeatedly by experts and manufact- urers that no fat can be used in the manufacture of oleomargarine which has been out of the dead animal more than twenty-four hours, and that it is under no circumstances used. The testimony of Mr. Chapin is sim- ply to this effect : That he does know that the wagons of certain oleo- margarine manufacturers in Boston collect fat which has been killed ten or twelve days, and carry it to their factories ; what they do with it he does not know. 17007 OL 9 130 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. Senator George. And that these same oleomargarine manufacturers are tallow manufacturers also. The Chairman. There are in all large places tallow manuiactories. Senator George, And that the same men whoss wagons get that are tallow manufacturers. Is that not so ? Mr. Chapin. As to the Commercial Manufacturing Comi)any, I could not say wherhei- they manufacture tallow or not; 1 do not know. But the other tirm makes soap. I want to say that Keardon & Sons are honest men. Senator George. The long and short of it is that you do not know what becomes of that fat. Mr. Chapin. No, sir; not after the teams back up to the establish- ment. Senator Jones. You testify to the honesty of Reardon & Sons. Do you believe they would put a disgusting and filthy article of fat into anj thing used lor food ? Mr. Chapin. From my knowledge of Reardon & Sons I should say they would not. Senator Blair. You say there is some bad oleomargarine. How is that made ? Mr. Chapin. I could not tell you. Senator Blair. The testimony of the exj)erts was to the effect that itAvas necessarily made of most excellent materials all the way through. I would like to know how, under those circumstances, there could be bad oleomargarine ? Senator Jones. And I would like to have you state whether it is made bad or became bad after it was made f Mr. Chapin. I know of one instance where we had some from the Commercial Butter Company, and it tasted so strong of saleratus that we had to send it back. Senator Jones. You do not know where that saleratus got in ? Mr. Chapin. No, sir; but it was supposed it was put in to clarifj'^ the tallow. The Chairman. We have had all the facts about that. That will do. Colonel Littler is here from Chicago, representing a large dairy in- terest in the West, and the committee will hear him. Mr. Chapin. I want to add that 1 know nothing against the Com- mercial Manufacturing Company' which would lead me to think that they would not also make honest goods. STATEMENT OF R. M. LITTLER. Col. E. M. Littler, secretary of the Chicago Produce Exchange, then addressed the committee. The Chairman. Please state to the committee your name and posi- tion. Mr. Littler. My name is li. M. Littler, and I am from Virginia originally; a farmer's son, a boy who drove the cows in the pine hills of Virginia nearly sixty years ago. When my country called for sol- diers to go to Mexico, I shouldered my musket, though but seventeen y-ears of age; and when the Government gave me my land warrant, I located it in the West and enjoyed the pleasures of the ague and living in a sod house, and have remained in that glorious country ever since. But although 1 live in the West, I love old Virginia yet. Well, the war is over. I know" no South, no North, no West, no East; nothing IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 13t but a coininoii country. I am at this time, after having lived upon at farm in Iowa for nearly thirty years, the secretary of the Produce Ex- change of Chicago, having been honored by the city of Chicago in being, chosen to that position. I am now u[)on my third year of service, and while other gentlemen may come here as })rofessionals, who have had! all the advantages that education and wealth could give, 1 beg that you will indulge me by allowing me to give you a few plain facts in &. plain way; and as [ am now pretty well on to the jumi>ingoff place irtj life, I shall endeavor to tell the truth. I almost dread, gentlemen, coming before this committee, because there was a gentleman here yesterday, a scientific man, who came and saidi that he had read all the literature and all the science; he knew it alU You have heard from two or three men who are paid to come here andl traduce and villify agriculture. They have come here under the Dome- of this Capitol and have dared to make assertions of such a kind tbat it would not have astonished me if Columbia, the goddess upon the lH>me, had come down and shed tears of blood to think that people couM be^ hired to make such statements. 1 have enjoyed the privilege of ibear- ing the bark of the prairie-dog and have lived in a sod house,^ aiMl H want to sajf to you, gentlemen, that I think in this examination many- questions have been put that have no bearing ui)on the case. 1 ams addressing .\ou also as a representative of the Xatioual Dairy Associa- tion of this country, which represents a product larger than any siugle'. product which is growMi. I am an Iowa farmer and a brevet Chicago man, and I come here to say to you that it does not require elaborate arguments or very keea moral perceptions to see that the manufacture and sale of a counterfeit article as genuine is highly demoralizing to all in any way engaged inj the business. The dealer who sells it for what it is not, and places something that is unhealthful in the place of something known to be- healthful and desirable, may try to quiet his conscience with the thought that somebody else would sell it if he did not, and he might as well have the profit as another one. But that is very poor logic, the farmer- thinks. Certainly his customers would not be imposed upon if he did not impose upon them. But the temptation is too strong, the price of the fraudulent article so cheap, that he yields as a matter of necessity^ and he soon becomes as hardened and conscienceless in the matter as. the worst of his brother dealers. He has thrown down the bars, and the devils of dishonesty will pass over in troops until he becomes so> conscienceless that he cannot be honest if he would. Soon he ceases to care about honesty, and the old superstition of selling one's soul to the devil becomes practically verified in his case. Said it is, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, tbat the^ service of mammon in this world pays better in worldly riches than tbe honest i)ursuits of duty in the interests of humanity and the higher moral virtues. And right here let me say that in the city of Chicago we have sixteen firms which manufacture this stuff, where it comes in direct competition with the men I represent. Therefore I claim the right, after having come 800 miles, not to go home until this matter is presented to your consideration fairly and honestly. I have the highest appreciation of the dignity of the Senate of the United States ; no one more so. You gentlemen occupy that proud position, and we look to you and feel that in your hands we are safe, and we only ask you to solve one conundrum, and that is this : Where in the name of Heav^eu does any man get the right to force upon the community a counterfeit article while they think 132 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. tbey are getting a genuine one '? Is tbeie anything in any State law, national law, or in Holy Writ that wonkl allow a man to make a counterfeit i)roduct to compete with an honest one? Men can be found, as you have seen here, gentlemen, during the ses- sions of this committee, who will do anything tor money — and 1 am only sorry that I rotection from this imitation butter. The State of Illinois has jiassed a law also; they have given the guii and -cartridge box, but have given no ammunition, and the law is a dead letter. The merchants of Water street laised several thousand dollars rfor the purpose, and some of the gentlemen here in this room subscribed to that fund. They had a detective that ran up and down the stieets; "they found these men; they arrested them, and they were bouml over, but then you know if there is anything unceitain in this world it is the decision of a jury. Why, they tired us out. They could legislate and ibeat us every time. I will tell yon that when men are killing about 90 per cent, of all the cattle killed in the country, if tliere is any kind of a anargin, they can afford to be liberal to their friends. If a substitute for butter is good, it will go under its own name. The fact that imitation butter is n.ot so put before the pul)lic is ])ioof con- 'Clusive that they have no faith in it as an honest sulistitute. Hence they resort to deception and fraud. These b(»gus butter men are not only •dealing in a fraudulent article but the arguments they use are frauds. They claim to be making a cheap, pure article for the poor. They say they are the i)Oor man's friend — in disguise. They want the i)oor man to i)ay a butter i)ricefor their lard and neutral. Why, for heaven sake, .-gentlemen, we won't deny the right of any man under the Constitu- tioji to eat tar if he can i)ersuade his stomach it is made of molasses ; Ihe has that right. But, in heaven's name, give a man the right if he nvants to eat butter and lard, to mix it to suit himself. I do not want ;;vou to mix it for me; let me mix it to suit myself. If -A farmer sells a horse as being sound, kind, and true, and he i)roves tx> l)e a kicker, the farnur is mulcted in damages to the injured party. -If a druggist's clerk, with large experience, puts up a i)rescriittion with- out a license he is tineuMished. But a few "wealthy manufacturers of bogus butter can pat tVom 50 to SO i)er cent. «of Jard in my creamery butter, label it with the same brand that is on any own tub, and I must not say a word. If I do, I am personal. I Ikuow that in the city of Chicago they copy the biands of good sub- stantial creameries in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, and only the day before I left home the Jefferson Creamery, of Iowa, sent to Chi- IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 135 cago some butter in tubs which was bought and shipped after it was mixed, without scratching the brand oft" the tubs, to Minneapolis and sold there. It was received, and the man who received it was arrested, and he came back on the creamery man, and it was proved that he sold it as good butter. The Chairman. You mean to say that the tub in which the creamery butter came to Chicago was filled with oleomagarine and sent out again ? Mr. Littler. Yes, and I have the letter to show it, so that any gen- tleman on the opposite side can inform himself about it. The case comes up for trial in Minneapolis under the State law. The arrest was made by the assistant superintendent of the dairy commission in Min- nesota. The Chairman. Have you any other information of a similar nature ? Mr. Littler. No, sir; I have only the knowledge that I obtain as I pass up and down Water street and 8eesn)all tubs of 9 pounds marked "Eosebud Creamery, Best Dairy," «&c. They claim that the word "cream- ery " and the word "dairy" belong as much to them as to the butter men ; that Is what they claim. I think 1 know what I am talking about when I say that these men steal the liveiy of Heaven to serve the devil in, and ])ut on the market daily nud weekly more of this fraudulent comi)ound as daiiy and creameiy butter than is made of genuine butter in all the dairy States of the Northwest. Now what is the result ujjou myself t My ]>ro])erty has shrunk in value because of the manufacture of this article. 1 here are fifteen concerns in the city of Chicago which (;an turn out daily /»,0(»0 tubs of imitation butter and can sell it from 3 to 6 (;ents a pound less than the farmer can possibly produce it to-day. Senator Blair. How much in a tub? Mr. Littler. From 50 to 00 pounds. The Chairman. What knowledge have you as to the retailing of this material '? Mr. Littler. It is sold in three thousand groceries within 5 miles of my office. Senator Blair. Are you speaking of the city of Chicago? Mr. Littler. Yes, sir. The Chairman. What do they sell it for ? Mr Littler. The groceiyman knows well enough what it is when he buys it, but it is the innocent child who runs in and says it wants a pound of l)utter who is deceived, and instead of getting 1(5 ounces of sometliing giving strength and vigor, they give a material that contains 2 ounces of butter, ounces of lard, and 8 ounces of neutral, with salt and water, of (H>urse, mixed in ; and these men will tell \ou, if they tell ;sou the truth, that they can nmke this cheaper than the farmer, be- cause they manage to get water enough into their product to pay for manipulating and working it. The Chairman. Have you any knowledge as to what proportion of it is sold in the West as oleomargarine ? Mr. Littler. I believe that the honest dealers of the city of Chicago will tell you that 05 per cent, of all sold to the consumers is sold as genuine butter. Why do they sell it ? Simply because they can bu3" it at from 10 to 14 cents a pouiul and can cut it at 25 cents. We have a grocery on the coiner in our town and they pay their entire running ex])enses on the jnofit of l)utterine that is sold, i guess my friend Mr. Stern will tell you that that is the truth. They will deliver one or two tubs, and if a man does not like it they will exchange it the next day. It is given to them fresh and it does look nice. Tallow is 136 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. a pretty article and will keep, if iced, sixty to uinety days. That is refined tallow, and of course it will keep. I would just like to say here, gentlemen, in respect to this score and a half of butterine makers who are fighting us and fightiugall the agri- cnltural interests of the United States, a few words. But first let me say to my Southern friends, the Seuators, that I hope they will under- stand that the Northwest is not sectional. I believe that Tennessee is going to be the finest dairy region in the country. I have been invited down there to talk to dairymen, and from what I have seen and heard of Central and Eastern Tennessee and parts of Arkansas, and even down in Texas, it is all capable of ])rodncing dairy products. I hope these Senators will see that the dairy interest of the South issomething that should not be overlooked. I claim that these gentlemen have caused 13,000,000 cows to depre- ciate in value about |lO per head. The gentleuien make great boasts of adding $3 to the value of each steer when he is slaughtered and sold. But therearel3,000,000 cows, and putting the shrinkage in value at $10 each we have a loss of $130,000,000. The yearl\ product of butter and cheese has depreciated in value, according to my books, about $75,000,- 000. Senator Geokge. Is it a decrease in the quantity, or in the price of the article 1 Mr. Littler. In both. A great many farmers do not laise their calves now. A calf is sold when it is only worth $2 instead of keeping it for a year when it would be worth $10. Then there is this young stock which is about as much more, which makes altogether $250,000,- 000 of shrinkage in value. And here are tliese families of men, women, id children who are willing to deprive themselves of the culture of society, who go out on the prairies and live in sod houses, who get up at daylight and go to bed at dark with the chickens, and all that kind of thing, and yet these gentlemen come here and say to you, " Gentlemen, do not give us protection." I am talking not only for the farmers of the Northwest, but for the farmers of the whole country. Five hundred thousand agricultural laborers are idle, too, in consequence of this thing. On the Sioux City Kail road between the town of Manchester and Sioux City there are nineteen creameries dismantled because they cannot com- pete with the 0^ and 10 cent butter of these gentlemen who take neutral land and churn it. Senator George. Eight there ; do you propose to suppress it 1 Mr. Littler. No, sir; bnt we would have you gentlemen regulate it so that a man can know what he is buying. Senator George. Do you think that would decrease the consumption of oleomargarine ? Mr. Littler. It would decrease it, certainly. I do not think one person in ten would eat it if they could get anything else. That is my honest opinion. Senator George. You think it would partially suppress the manu- facture to expose the character of the article, because people would not buy the product ; is that your idea I Mr. Littler. Yes, that would suppress it some, but we would like to have you tax it with a small tax and compel the manufacturers to get a license, or do something to regulate it. It is making us a nation of dyspeptics, and as some men say, a nation of tapeworm bearers ; that is what I he physicians tell us. I speak, gentlemen, I say, in be- half of agriculture and agriculturists, that great source of national prosperity. While these persons are growing rich through fraud and IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 137 deception, we are told tbat the farmers and dairymen have no case ; that we must not attempt to obtain an effective national legislation that will at least regulate or check, if it does not relieve us of, this great evil. I see the danger that threatens ray section of country, and I say, as I stand before heaven to-day and under the great Dome of this beautiful Capitol of ours, that I do not think any question ever was presented to the American Congress on which the weal and woe of this nation so greatly depends. I do not excei)t from this remark any question of tariff, public policy, or anything else. Gentlemen, when the plow rusts in the furrow and the farmer's mort- gage is foreclosed, God help America, God help the United States. Murray Hill may shine for awhile; New York, with her summer resorts and her broadcloth, may get along for awhile, but we, gentlemen, who own but one suit of clothes, we men who live and toil upon the prairies, we men who suffer and endure everything and have endured everything that we might have a country and hav^ a commerce, if we are to be crushed by this hideous fraud, then I say, God help America. I thank you, gentlemen, for the attention you have given me. If any man wants to know what the average price of butter has been for the year, here is the report [exhibiting]. I did intend to say something about the unfairness of these men who come and feed their cattle on the public domain out in the Northwest and never pay a cent for it. But they have not got enough. They raise their cattle out on the public domain and never pay a cent for it, and then come in and compete with Eastern farmers and still are not satisfied. They still want you to pro- tect them in making neutral and tallow so that they can compete with the farmers of the older States. I sent to some of you the other day a circular which explains this thing exactly, and I will submit a copy of it as a part of my statement. (Mr. Littler then read portions of the circular referred to to the com- mittee, and it will be found in full at the conclusion of his oral statement.) Senator George. Are you not aware that there has been a general and continuous fall in prices for the last five years? Mr. Littler. Yes, sir ; 1 understand that. Senator George. Do you think the shrinking in value of those prod- ucts to which you have alluded has been greater than in other things? Mr. Littler. Yes, sir ; and I think Bismarck is partly to blame for it. I think if he had not legislated against American meats we might have had a better show and better prices. But here is another thing I think the farmers ought to understand. These scientific men told you about what happened five years ago when they produced their figures. But the farmers and their wives and daughters want to know what is going on now, and what the Senate of the United States is going to do for them now. In 1879 I was honored with a commission to go to Europe to attend the International Dairy Convention, and when I got there I found exactly how our dairy interests were running. We were told to exhibit samples of our butter and cheese, and we did so, and Mr. Thur- ber and other gentlemen in New York built up a large export trade, and we should have it to-day if it had not been for the adulteration used in the manufacture of these goods. Our exports have greatly fallen off for that reason. Senator Blair. Have you anything to show as to the effect of this manufacture upon the amount of production of butter ? Mr. Littler. Of course if these men can make a product that can be sold to the consumer at from 9 to 14 cents a pound Senator Blair. I understand the theory ; but have you any figures 138 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. to show whether the amount of production has been increasing or di- minishing? Mr. Littler. Yes; I have. There has been a great decrease. I will not take time now to hunt up the figures, but I will submit them hereafter to the committee. Senator Blair. I wish you wouhl do so. Senator Jones. In your statement of the export value of the prod- ucts, state separately what each ))rodnct is. Mr. Littler. I will do so. I will tell the truth, the wliolr- truth, and nothing but the truth about it. I have no ax to grind in this matter, and here I want to say, in Justice to myself, that no one pays me a nickel to come here, nor has anybody contributed anything towards my expenses. I have tnken the necessary money to pay tny expenses out of my own hard earnings, and I come here by j)ermission of the body of commercial men whom I rei)resent in Chicago. I am fighting for my home and my interests, and all 1 ask in regard to these men who make this counterfeit article which comes into the market against my goods is, that this great Government of ours shall take the fanners under its protecting wing, as the States cannot rice. The Chairman. Is not yellow the natural color of butter made from grass ? Mr. Littler. Yes, sir ; and the object of the coloring is to try to maintain the natural color of grass butter during the whole year. The following is the circular referred to in Mr. Littler's statement: To the honorable Seiiate of the United States: I notice that the Chicago Livestock Exchange Las adopted a resolntion against the passage by your honorable body of the bill to regulate the manufacture and sale of butter substitutes, known as the Scott bill, which has juet passed the lower house of Congress, and sent a committee to Washington to work against its passage by the upper house. The resolution assumes to speak " in the interest of the vast cattle rais- ing industry of the land, of equal rights to all, and of the millions of consumeis to whom this object of taxation [counterfeit butter] proves a cheap, wholesome, and almost indispensable article of food." Let us see what right these few C4iicago capitalists have to speak for so vast a mul- titude. The '' industry" which they have the effrontery to defend before the honest representatives of an honest people, numbering nearly 60,000,000 souls, is based on counterfeiting the products of one of the oldest and most important industries of this country and fraudulently getting their counterfeit products into consumption. It is safe to say that not 1 per cent, of their counterfeit goods has been knowingly bought and eaten by the consuming public. Like the couuterfeiters of currency, these coun- terfeiters of butter may have sold their manufactures to their jobbing and retail agents for what thej' were, but the retailers, boarding-house keepers, el id genus omne, have imposed them upon consumers for and in the name of genuine butter. Nobody wants to consume their goods. Have they the right to smuggle them down the throats of consumers by giving them a false guise and a false name ? So much for their assumption to speak for the "millions of consumers," who, so far from considering the counterfeit products of the stock-yard gang "an almost indis- pensable article of food," shrink from, shun, and abominate them. The wholesorae- uess or unwholesomeness of the counterfeits does not enter into the question, which is, have a few capitalists the right to counterfeit a leading farm product and fraudu- lently pass it off upon the public to the injury of the farmers and the disgust of the consumers ? Now for the "vast cattle-raising industry of the land" which they assume to speak for. Do not dairy stock and the other stock of the farmers belong to the "cattle- raising industry of the land?" Do the stock-yard gang speak for these? By no means. The owners of the stock in all but a few Northw^estern States and Territories are the men against whom the stock-yard gang are arrayed. Let us see how the in- terests of all not represented by the gang — assuming, for the sake of the argument, that they have authority to speak for the cattlemen per se — compare with those ccwi- centrated in the Chicago stock-yards. We will make no estimates, which may be misleading, but take the census of 1880 as a basis for comparison. According to that the cows in the United States numbered 12,443,120; all other stock 23,481,391. The total was 35,924,511 head, one-third of which would be 11,974,837. So over one-third of the cattle of the country are cows. Let us see what the stock-yard gang have the 142 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. lea&t shadow of claim to represent. We will give them the following Territories and States : COWB. Colorado 28,770 Dakota 40,572 Idaho 12,838 Montana 1 1, 308 Nebraska 161, 186 Nevada 13,319 New Mexico i 12, 955 Texas i 606,176 Utah ., 32,768 Wyoming I 3, 730 Oregon j 59,549 Total ! 983,171 Oxen. 2,080 11,418 737 936 7, 234 765 16, 432 90, 502 3,968 718 4, 132 Other cattle. 315, 989 88, 825 71, 292 160, 143 590, 129 158, 137 137, 314 3, 387, 927 58, 680 273, 625 352, 561 138,922 5,594,622 Here, then, according to this showing, we have scarcely one-quarter of the "other cattle" oft he census represented by the stock-yard gang. Three-fourths of the "other cattle" are owned by those more or less in- terested in dairying as an industry, to say nothing of the millions of consumers who want pure dairy goods and have the right to know what they eat. To further illustrate where the dairy interest lies, and to show that those engaged in it have also an interest in "other cattle," we give the following from the census of 1880: states. Virginia 243, 061 North Carolina .• 232,133 South Carolina 1 139,881 Kentucky 301, 882 Georgia I 315, 073 Louisiana 126, 464 Arkansas 259, 407 Alabama 271, 443 Florida l 42,174 West Virginia ! 156, 956 Tennessee 303, 900 54, 709 50, 188 24, 507 36, 166 50, 026 41, 729 25, 444 75, 534 •16,141 12, 643 27, 312 Other cattle. Total 2,392,374 I 414,399 377, 414 375, 105 199, 321 505. 746 544, 812 282, 418 433, 392 404, 213 409, 055 288, 245 452, 462 4, 272, 183 It will be seen from this that eleven Southern States have only 2,392,374 cows (a little over one-sixth), and only 4,686,582 of the " other cattle," including oxen, which is less than one-fourth. The total number of " other cattle," exclusive of oxen, owned by the Territories and Western States engaged in beef-raising as a main industry, aud by the eleven Southern States, was only 10,015,185 — considerably less than one-half — the balance of "other cattle" and 8,693,341 head of the dairy stock belonging to the dairy States proper. So these Northern States have not only a much larger interest in dairying than the others, but also a larger interest iu beef cattle. IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 143 States. Wisconsin — Illinois Iowa Indiana Kansas Micbifian Minnesota Missouri New York Ohio Pennsylvania Total Grand total . Milch cows. Working ; oxen. 1 478, 374 895, 923 854, 187 494, 944 418, 633 384, 578 275, 545 661, 405 , 437, 855 769,043 854, 156 28, 762 3,246 2, 506 3,970 16, 789 40, 393 39, 344 9, 020 39, 633 8, 220 15, 062 Other cattle. 622, 005 1,5:5,812 1, 755, 343 864, 846 1, 015, 935 466, 669 347, 161 1, 410, 507 862, 233 1, 084, 977 861,019 18, 587, 086 *Oxen Eleven dairy States had in 1880 more than one-half of all the cattle in the United States. It is claimed that the counterfeit business has added to the value of beef stock. We say the market quotations do not justify the claim, while it is an indisputable fact that the value of all dairy stock has been very much reduced — it is believed fully 25 per cent. — while the number of cows in the country has been correspondingiy lessened fiom what it would have been had dairymen had only honest and open competition to contend with. To illustrate the preposterousness of the claim of the stockyard gang that their use of lard and tallow in the manufacture of counterfeit butter has added to the value of beef cattle and hogs, we give the following prices per 100 pounds live weight, taken from the stockyard books: Tears. Native cattle. Range cattle. Hogs. 1882 1883 1884 $4 25 to $9 30 4 10 to 8 25 4 10 to 8 00 3 50 to 6 80 $3 25 to $0 60 3 00 to 6 25 2 65 to 6 25 2 35 to 5 25 $5 40 to $9 35 3 90 to 8 15 3 80 to 7 75 1885 3 10 to 5 35 We give the range of average prices for the years named. The figures thus far this year are certainly no better than they were last. It will be seen that as the counter- feit-butter business has increased the prices of both beef cattle and hogs have de- clined. But, as a matter of fact, for the information of the cattlemen and all inter- ested, not over 10 to 12 per cent, of oleo oil — just enough to give body — is used in the manufacture of counterfeit butter, the balance being prepared from lard. The neu- tral is so prepared by running the melted raw material into a sulphuric acid bath, to remove the smell of the pig-stye and the cattle-yard. Instead of being heated to 150 degrees, as claimed — a degree far too low to cook it or kill the eggs of parasites — we are credibly informed that it is barely melted, rarely running above 115 degrees. But, aside from these comMiercial considerations, is the great question of morality and justice which is involved, and which no Senator can conscientiously ignore. The consuming public have the right to protection against fraud. Men engaged in an honest industry and furuishing to the public honest goods are entitled to protection against the counterfeit of their goods. Men who engage in counterfeiting should not only have their business suppressed, but be punished for the oftense. Men who fraudulently put goods on the market, or connive in any way at their sale to consum- ers for something which they are not, commit an outrage upon the public, which they should not only be restrained from repeating, but for which they should also be pun- ished. Legislation to this end, to cover all cases of the future counterfeiting and fraudulent sale of butter substitutes, is anxiously and hopefully looked for at the hands of your honorable body by a very large majority of the people of the United States. All the dairy interest, nearly three-quarters of the "other cattle" interest, good morals and justice, are against the Chicago stock-yard representation. As to the claim of using a large percentage of fine butter : While we are writing this circular the leading manufacturer of counterfeit butter in Chicago is making a 144 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. product iu which not a particle of genuine butter is used. The only claim it has to he a dairy product is its brief contact with the milkman's milk in which it is churned. This delectable product is sold to the grocers at 9 cents a jiound, and retailed to con- snmers at 'JO cents and upwards. With this statement of facts, which cannot be gaiusai to $4. I will furnish you with figures that they cannot dispute, which will show that that is false, and also will show that not all the fat so used for oleo- margarine oil goes into consum])tiou in this country; more than 75 to 80 per cent, of it goes abroad, which this bill does not touch. They are pulling the wool over the cattlemen's eyes, and you mark it! The farmers of the United States who buy their cattle and farms aud pay the taxes, will not feel very favorable to the cattlemen coming here to defeat this law when they are raising their cattle upon Government land. I do not believe the cattlemen will take that position ; I have not any idea that they will. i>reither do I believe that the cotton-seed oil interest of the South will take sides with the interest whose fraudu- lent practices we are trying to- day to stop. Gentlemen, you must bear in mind that the men who are engaged in the manufacture of this product are not men who are doing it simjily for a livelihood. They are some of the richest men in the country, and we have had one of their representatives who is here to-day stating publicly that they take these goods and color them yellow to make them look like June butter. They acknowledge that they do it with the ob- ject of deceiving, and what can you expect of a manufacturer who does that and carries it through to the consumer ? I will not occupy your time but a moment, but I want to speak of the commercial aspect of this question ; I want to say what I know. I know that every r)erson who is interested in the manufacture of adulterated food products, or in the sale of them, is with these gentlemen and against this bill. Now, gentlemen, the responsibility rests with this committee, and with the Senate of the United States, to say whether that deception in these things — these fraudulent practices — are proper or not. If that is to be the course of this particular business, every dairyman must adulterate his butter in order to cheapen it and to com- pete with this product, or sell his farm, and every merchant must sell these goods, as they are following the business, on a fraudulent basis. I am fighting this business, gentlemen, because of the fraud and de- ception in it. I could have made ten times, yes, fifty times, as much money out of the business of selling the things that these gentlemen have put upon the market in the last five years as I have out of the butter business. But I have never yet stooped so low as to do that kind of business. I handled their product for about two years when we had a law in the State of New York compelling the branding of oleo- margarine and the selling of it as oleomargarine. But soon came the Chicago butteriue, and they branded it " butteriue," which we had no law to cover, and from that day they have not complied with the law in 148 IMITATION DAIRY PEODUCTS. regard to this subject. So that I quit selling it in 1883 or 1884, I know the history of this thing from beginning to end. We leave the responsibility with yon, to say whether these gentlemen are to regulate the code of morals for business practices in the United States, or whether business is to be done on a fair and honorable basis. The Chairman. You have stated that figures were given to show that if this business was stop[)ed absolutely it would reduce the value of fat cattle and steers $3 a head. With that statement you take issue. Can you give the value of the fat, animal tallow, in the New York market, so that we can see what the fact is? Mr. Seymour. I have made an investigation within the last two weeks concerning the largest tallow dealers in the city of New York, who buy tallow all over the United States. When the manufacture of oleomargarine commenced, they were selling their best tallow for 9^ cents. The Chairman. That was when the tallow was made out of the en- tire fat. Mr. Seymour. Yes ; out of the whole product. When the oleomar- garine manufacturers went into the markets of the United States, all the large markets, and bought the best material for making their oil, at that time American tallow held the markets of the world for its snperior quality. When they went in and took out the best of the product and left the culls and inferior grades to be exported, they killed our market, until to-day we are not exporting any tallow for that reason, and Aus- tralia and Russia hold the tallow markets of the world. That is the benefit from the production of oleomargarine upon the article of tallow. The Chairman. What is the market i)rice of ordinary tallow now, that out of which oleomargarine is made"? Mr. Seymour. It is from 3 to3i cents, and the best bullocks will fur- nish, I am told by men who slaughter them and know about the matter, 125 pounds of fat. The Chairman. Do you mean fat of all kinds? Mr. Seymour. Yes, all kinds of fat ; and the poorest bullock will fur nish about 40 pounds, none of which can be used for oleomargarine oil. Out of the 125 pounds, not over 50 to 55 pounds can be used for oleo- margarine oil, and it sells at 4i cents a pound. The Chairman. That is, they pay in New York 4^ cents a pound for the best part of the fat used for oleo ? Mr. Seymour. Yes, sir. The Chairman. What does the remainder of it bring ? Mr. Seymour. From 3 to 3i cents. It makes very little difference. At that rate, 50 pounds to the steer at li cents, will make 75 cents. That will make 75 cents on every steer if all the oleomargarine oil was consumed of necessity. You ship 75 per cent, and consume one-quarter of it here. How nuich does that injure stock-raising ? The Chairman. But suppose the oleomargarine portion, the 50 pounds out of the steer, was put in with the 3 and '6^ cent quality, what would be the value of the product then ? Mr. Seymour. It would not raise it very much for the purpose it is used for, I am informed. The Chairman. But going abroad it would run much higher? Mr. Seymour. Yes, sir; now we have no foreign market for our tal- low, 1 am informed by these gentlemen, because the other markets have taken it. The Chairman. Because the quality of our tallow has been depre- ciated ? IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 149 Mr. Seymour. Yes, sir. Senator Jones. That was ou accouut of taking only the best quali- ties of fat for making oleomargarine. Mr. Seymour. Yes ; that is the reason we lost our hold. Senator Jones. You understand, then, that the oleomargarine man- ufacturers use only the best fat for their products I Mr. Seymour. That is what thej' claim, but I do not know what they use. Senator Jones. You do not know whether they do or not ? Mr. Seymour. No, sir. The Chairman. You take their figures on that 1 Mr. Seymour. Yes; I take their statement for what it is worth. Senator Jones. You do not agree to the statements that have been made that they use refuse and unclean fats for the manufacture of oleo- margarine ? Mr. Seymour. I have been told by these gentlemen that they make different grades of this oil. It has been stated to-day by gentlemen from Chicago that they make different grades. Senator Jones. Has the petroleum product had any effect on the price of tallow "? Mr. Seymour. Yes; some effect. Senator Jones. Can you state what proportionate effect it has had on the tallow market? Mr. Seymour. No, sir; I could not. Senator Jones. You say you have been familiar with the business of selling oleomargarine from the beginning! Mr. Seymour. Yes, sir. Senator Jones. And have known more or less of the condition and quality of the products put upon the market? Mr. Seymour. Yes, sir. Senator Jones. What time do you say the butterine manufacture or mixture of hog's lard was introduced ? Mr. Seymour. It commenced about 1883 or 1884. Before that they tried a mixture of lard and butter, but it did not work well ; the lard flavor exhibited itself until they found that deodorizing process of taking away the lardy flavor and making the neutral which these gen- tlemen have told you about. That takes the lardy flavor away, and with a small percentage of butter you get only the flavor of the small percentage of butter, the other being neutral. Senator Jones. As a healthful product, what is the difference between this butterine product and the oleomargarine first produced ? Mr. Seymour. If I had my choice, I would rather eat pure oleomarga- rine than take my chances on butterine. Senator Jones. AYhy ? Mr. Seymour. Because I do not think chemicals are good to put into one's stomach three times a day, and I do not want to eat them. The best evidence in regard to it, I think, is that they will not eat it themselves when they know what the product is. Senator Jones. But I understood you to say awhile ago that you considered these things wholesome. Mr. Seymour. No, sir; I do not think I said so. I read from a chemist's report about them. Senator Jones. I understood that the chemist stated that chemistry could not disprove they were wholesome, and I uiulerstood you to ex- press the opinion that they were not unwholesome. 150 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. Mr. Seymour. No, sir. Senator Jones. I will ask you whether yoa consider it a wholesome article of food '? Mr. Seymour. I would not dare to eat it or give it to my family to eat or advise other people to eat it until it is declared to be wholesome physiologically. The Chairman. You have not any practical knowledge on the sub- ject, really, whether it is wholesome or not ; you have never experi- mented in that direction ? Mr. Seymour. No, sir. Senator Jones. Then you have no fixed belief whether it is wholesome or not ? Mr. Seymour. I believe this, speaking of it commercially, or so far as I can know about it; I believe they can make it wholesome and they can make it very unwholesome, and I think the competition is where the danger comes in in making it unwholesome. Senator Jones. Has this been your opinion always in regard to the quality of it as a food product ? Mr. Seymour. I sold oleomargarine when it was first made, as testi- fied to by Professor Chandler and others. Senator Jones. You considered it a wholesome article of food at the time you engaged in the trade, I suppose 1 Mr. Seymour. I had the same opinion then that I have now ; I sold it for what it was, and I was contributing money all the time to punish men who sold it for anything else. All my customers who bought it were aware of the fact. Senator Jones. You kept your customers fully advised of what you sold it for "? Mr. SijYMOUR. Yes, sir ; every time. Senator Jones. You say you did sell these products when your cus- tomers knew what they were getting'? Mr. Seymour. Yes, sir ; every time. I never asked them to buy them. They said they wanted to try the new product, and I would send an order for them, and the manufacturers delivered the goods to me in violation of the law then. I had a plate cut in accordance with the law in the State of New York regulating the branding in one-inch Roman letters. I branded them when they delivered them to me with- out having a brand on the top and sides as the law required, and in- variably sold them for what they were. Senator Jones. Why did you receive goods that were delivered to you in violation of law ! Mr. Seymour. E requested these parties to put the stamp on them, and sometimes they did and sometimes not. Senator Jones. It was just an occasional instance, then, where they failed to comply with the law 1 Mr. Seymour. Yes; there were occasionalinstances where they did it. Senator Jones. It was not a persistent attemi)t to do anything of that sort ? Mr. Seymour. Well, if I insisted upon it, or retiuested them to, the^' would put on most any brand. They are the most obliging people you ever saw. The Chairman. You are a wholesale dealer, are you not ? Mr. Seymour. Yes ; and have been since 1807. The Chairman. You wrote me the other day, June 14, and gave me the same figures that you have already stated to the committee in re- gard to the value of tallow exported, the proportion found in the bullock IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 151 and 1 tbink in other respects the figures are the same. With your consent, I will put this letter into the record, as it may be shown a little plainer there than in the stateiiieut you have just made. The letter referred to is as follows : [Office of James H. Seymour & Co., commission merchants. Specialties: Butter, cheese, eggs, &c 159 Chambers street.] New York, June 14, 18H6. Hon. Warner Miller, Chairman Comtiiitlee on Agriculture, United States Senate : My Dear Sir : Your lavoi- of Juue 9 came duly to haud. I have carefully investi- gated the points you mention, and conclude from the best authority obtainable that artificial butter does not contain more than 10 to 15 per cent, oleomargarine oil, and I think it is safe to say that at least 8.5 per cent, of the oleomargarine oil produced in the United States is exported to foreign countries. I am informed by the most reliable and, I think, the largest tallow dealers in this city that up to the beginning of the oleomargarine business in this country our Ameri- can tallow held the markets of the world lor its superior (luality. The price at that time for best tallow was 91 cents. The oleomargarine men went into the tallow markets of the United States and selected the best grades, which left the culls or in- ferior grades for export. The effect of exporting the poor quality has been to demor- alize and ruin the foreign demand for our tallows. Australia and Russia now supply the markets which American tallow held heretofore. The want of foreign markets for our tallow has reduced the price from 9i cents in 187,5 to 3^ cents in 1885 and 188(i. I have also sought the most reliable and disinterested party in New York as to the quantity of tallow taken from a steer or bullock, and find the following result: The finest bullock will produce 125 pounds, and the poorest about 40 pounds. About 50 pounds of the best fat from the best l)ullock can be used for oleomargarine oil at 4^- cents per pound, the balance would sell for 3 cents ]>er pound, and the poorer (Quality or the finer quality would sell for 3 cents, it makes very little difference the price being so low, whether the best quality is taken out or not; thereby, figuring from the basis of the finest quality at 1| cents per pound, it makes 75 cents difference per head on the finest cattle, while on the poorer grades it has no infiuence whatever; therefore their claim that the passage of the bill would reduce the value of cattle $3 to $4 per head, the very most that can be figured on their side of the argument is 75 cents per head on the finest cattle. This is about as near the fact as they ever reach it in their arguments. These facts, which I have obtained from thoroughly reliable sources, are surprising to me, as they donbtle.ss will be to you. If there are any other points that you would like me to look up for you I am at your service any time. I hope to appear before your connnittee some day this week, and should like about fifteen minutes to present a few points. Wishing you every success with your bill, I remain, Yours, very truly, JAMES H. SEYMOUR. Senator Jones. I will ask you why you quit dealing in this article. Mr. tSEYMOUE. Because tbey quit obeying the law. Senator Jones. I understood you to say just now that you frequently received packages in violation of the law while you were engaged iu the business. Mr. Seymour. Yes, sir; and I branded them, too. We had a law of the State of I^ew York, aod I invariabl3' called their attention to it, and they knew it. Senator Jones. That violation of the law did not drive you out ot business. What violation of the law was it that drove you out of the business? Mr. Seymour. The reason I went out of the business was because it got to be so disreputable in selling these goods for what they were not, and the business was getting down upon that basis, and then we started for our State laws, and soon after that we had the only State prohibi- tory law, and the diary comtnission, iu 1884. Senator Jones. I understood vou to say a while ago that vou could 152 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. have made a large amount since 1884 out of these products if you had sold them. Mr. Seymour. Yes, a great deal more than 1 could out of butter, and do as the other gentlemen in the business do. Senator Jones. Do you mean to engage in frauds 1 Mr. Seymour. Yes, if I engaged in selling the goods for butter. Senator Jones. Have you a law in New York against selling these goods under false pretenses now? Mr. Seymour. We have the State dairy law, yes, and the commis- sion. Senator Jones. Is that law violated or enforced'? Mr. Seymour. It is enforced pretty well. In 1884 we had a pro- hibitory law, and goods were shipped in from neighboring States direct to retailers, so that it was very difidcult for the inspectors to find these goods. They would come from Pennsylvania, Illinois, and other States, and go direct into the dealer's hands, and he, knoAving this law existed, would keep them out of sight of every inspector who would come round; and to day they will only sell to those people who come in whom they know and the children of people whom they know. A stranger who goes in cannot get an ounce of it. Senator Jones. Do they sell it for what it is or as butter? Mr. Seymour. Ninety-nine per cent, of it is sold for butter. Senator Jones. Do you know of an instance in your State within a a few months past where a dealer has sold bogus butter for butter'? Mr. Seymour. Not of my own personal knowledge. The dairy com- mission would know. Senator Jones. But you do not know personally of a single instance? Mr. Seymour. No, sir. Senator Jones. Then you do not know that it is done! Mr. Seymour. I know what I read of the evidence taken in the courts. Senator Jones. Where persons have been indicted? Mr. Seymour. Yes. Senator Jones. You do not know of any instance except thaf? Mr. Seymour. No, sir. Senator Jones. Have you any reason to believe that the law is evaded and violated any further than by the reading of these pubjic prosecu- tions, which have been brought to your attention ? Mr. Seymour. No, sir; I have no means of knowing, except what I get through that channel. The Chairman. Your belief is that 99 per cent, of it is sold for but- ter and not for oleomargarine ! Mr. Seymour. Yes, sir. Senator Jones. Is there any sale for it as oleomargarine ! Mr. Seymour. Not to my knowledge ; I do not know, except as I am told by the retailers, and those wlio are familiar with it. Senator Jones. Yet, when you dealt in it you stated you sold a good deal to persons who knew what they were buying ? Mr. Seymour. I sokl to the retail trade, tlie grocers, but not to the consumers. Senator Jones. Did you understand that they sold it under false pretenses to their customers? Mr. Seymour. I never knew that they did. Senator Jones. Do you think they sold it honestly to their cus- tomers ? IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 153 Mr. Seymour. I think so. Senator Jones. Do you not think the same individuals who con- sumed butterine knowingly and of their ov/n choice at that time prob- ably consume it yet ? Mr. Seymour. Yes, sir. Senator Jones. But you tliink all the other butterine sold except this small percentage of one pound in a hundred is sold dishonestly and under false pretenses"? Mr. Seymour. Yes, sir. Senator Jones. Can you give any idea of the amount of butterine or oleomargarine that you sold w^hile engaged in that business in New York ? Mr. Seymour. I suppose I sold less than fifty tubs a month; I can- not state positively without looking at the figures. Senator Jones. What proportion of the amount of butter which you sold was oleomargarine f Mr. Seymour. Not 1 per cent. Senator Jones. But you think that what you did sell was honestly sold to the trade, all of that? Mr. Seymour. I sold it to them and it is my belief that they sold it for what it was. Senator Jones. But you do not think other dealers do the same thing ? Mr. Seymour. Other wholesale dealers? Senator Jones. Yes. Mr. Seymour. I have not made that statement. Senator Jones. I understood you to say that 99 per cent, of the but- terine and oleomargarine was sold under false inetenses. Mr. Seymour. By the retailer to the consumer, I said. Senator Jones. You think it is fairly sold to the retail dealers by the wholesale dealers "? Mr. Seymour. I think so, generally. Senator Jones. And that it is the retail dealers who are perpetrating the fraud ? Mr. Seymour. Yes ; that is, to a large extent. Senator Jones. You seem to have a firm conviction in regard to that. Upon what do you base your opinion 1 Mr. Seymour. From the best knowledge I can obtain of the busi- ness. Senator Jones. What knowledge ? Mr. Seymour. From retail grocers and their organizations and other sources. Senator Jones. Did the retail grocers tell you that they perpetrated these frauds ? Mr. Seymour. I did not go around and ask every grocer about it. Senator Jones. But those you did see told you that they were per- petrating these frauds ? Mr. Seymour. Several have told me that they would have to sell it for butter if they sold it at all. Senator Jones. Did they tell you that they sold any for butter? Mr. Seymour. Yes, certainly they did. 154 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. STATEMENT OF S. P. HIBBARD. Mr. S. P. HiBBARD, of Boston, then addressed the committee. The Chairman. Please state to the committee, as briefly as you can, about the collections of fats, and your conclusions and views as to the law being enforced in Boston in regard to the sale of oleomargarine and whether it is sold for what it is. Mr. HiBBARD. I have in my hand a Boston Herald containing an ar- ticle published last Monday morning, which seemed to be a very candid and clear statement of the question, and a few of us went to the office to ascertain who the writer of it was, and found it was Professor Til- den, formerly of the Agricultural Department here in Washington, and also connected at one time with the Treasury Department in New York. He was also the gentleman who discovered arsenic in the bouquet that was attempted to be given to Guiteau on the morning that he was exe- cuted. I would like to readjust a few lines in this article in regard to the matter. Speaking about the manner in which this article was orig- inally intended to be made, and speaking of Mege, the Frenchman who got out the ])atent, he says : He coQteuiplated usino- only pure animal fats, freed, so far as possible, from other tissues, and in fresh condition. The jiractice in Fiiany places has been very different, and the writer has observed instances^of sickening carelessness, or worse, in the qual- ity of materials used. And he goes on to give the details. I will not read them because the article is here. In another place he quotes Hassell as follows : Beef fat is sometimes prepared on a large scale and made up in imitation of butter, being known and sold as " butterine." This article is mainly the olein of the fat, with only asmall percentage of stearin. When freshly prepared it is sweet and pala- table, in some cases it may be a useful, and therefore excusable, substitute for butter, but it is to be feared that such a preparation would be used in some cases for the adulteration of butter. We know this is so to a very great extent from the admissions of par- ties on the other side, who say they sell it to creameries, and so on. T will now state what I know about the gathering of fats. An oleo- margarine manufacturer in Boston has told me that he used only caul and kidney fats pure ; that he gathered them from the provision dealers every day. The i)rovision dealers use very largely Chicago dressed beef, which has been killed eight or ten days, and sometimes two weeks before it is used. I do not say but what it is perfectly pure and sweet. But when the other side of the house come here and pretend to tell us that they cannot use anything but suet and beef fat taken from the animal within twenty-four hours after it is killed, I do not think their testimony is worth much. Several years ago our firm was approached with an ofler to enter into a company in Boston with the intention of manufacturing this product, and an agreement was entered into as to the amount of capital each one should contribute, what we should call our business, and where we should locate it, and I asked the man who had charge of it, and who was then manufacturing oleomargarine or butterine, where he got his suets. He stated there were already two manufactories in Boston which had probably all that the provision dealers could furnish, and he said that he gathered it from the smaller cities in Maine, Connecticut, and Western Massachusetts once a week in cold weather and twice a week in hot weather, and was making large quantities of it. I asked him what he deodorized it with, and he said with slippery elm bark and IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. * 155 some harmless acids. Those were the facts that the manufacturer stated himself. Senator Jones. Who made that statement ? Mr. HiBBARD. It was the Standard Butter Company. Senator Jones, Who was the individual? Mr. HiBBARD. Mr. Cochrane. Senator Jones. Was he a manufacturer, do you say ? Mr. HiBBARD. Yes, sir. Senator Jones. Is he still manufacturing? Mr. HiBBARD. No, sir; the organization fell through, and he had no capital and ran ot)ly a year or two, and we made up our minds, several business men who contemplated going into it, not to go into it. Senator Jones. He made a poor class of goods, did he nof? Mr. HiBBARD. No, sir; he made as good a quality of goods as is put on our market in that business. But he has been in business several times and has failed. He is not a business man. Senator Jones. Did he have any trouble with his manufactures? Mr. HiBBARD. He did as others did at that time. They had patents. Senator Jones. Did he have any trouble about any deleterious mixt- ures, or handling unhealthy products, do you know, or anything of that sort ? Mr. HiBBARD. Not that I know of. The Chairman. You repeat a simple statement made to you, I under- stand. Mr. HiBBARD. Yes, sir; he was in business there for several years. Senator Jones. Did he produce a class of goods popular on the mar- ket ? Mr. HiBBARD. Yes, sir; he produced an article containing a prepa- ration of tallow and cotton-seed oil. It w^as iutended to take the place of lard used by bakers, who commended it very highly ; but it was soon found that the food made from it became very dry and crumbly, and did not retain its freshness as long as that made with pure lard. Whether it was attributed to the cotton seed or not, I do not know. Many bakers used it and spoke highly of it for awhile, and then gave it up. Senator Jones. Did he sell Ms product for butteriue or oleomarga- rine ? Mr. HiBBARD. He did not sell it for butter at all, because it had the soft substance and texture of lard ; but he made a great deal of oleo- maigarine that he sold as such. Senator Jones. Did he sell it as butter? Did he make a counterfeit butter out of his oleomargarine and sell it as butter? Mr. HiBBARD. He made an imitation butter and sold it as such, as imitation butter. Professor Babcock stated here yesterday that he thought the law in Boston was properly enforced; that he thought but very little was sold in Boston that was not sold for what it was; that thousands of peoi)le went to their grocers and ask«^d for this stulf, and bought it and paid for it as oleo. Since I was here in April I have been over a certain portion of South Boston and the South End, and have made inquiries of a great many families, and I think I have found about one in a hundred families who will admit they are buying it. Fifty per cent, of tlie others think they are buying it as batter, fte told you yes- terday that numy of these stores had a sign u^) and a tub marked "iDut- terine, at 15 cents a pound." 1 have no doubt of that. But at the other end of their ice chest they will have four or five tubs of what they call butter, and half of that is butteriue, and marked as butteriue, but it is 156 * IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. set down in the ice-cliest where it cannot be seen. The other is set up where it can be seeu, and parties come in and aslv for oleo, at 15 cents a pound, and, as I tell you, I believe that of the persons whom I con- versed with not one person in ten wants it or buys it, and yet they do buy it out of the other end of the ice-chest, thinking they are getting good butter. Professor Babcock nuide a statement that he had two detectives en- gaged in the business. I think if those two detectives aud himself gave their attention even to the insi)ection of milk it would take about all their time. He made another statement that he watclied this when it came and could usually tell the tubs from their ai)pearance — the most absurd and ridiculous statement made before this committee. The Bos- ton market desires to have its butter put up in spruce tubs. We have a creamery butter made in the Northwest exclusively for ourselves, and we send these Vermont spruce tubs there and have our butter packed in them, and these Chicago men can uianufacture oleo and do the same, and send to Vermont and get spruce tubs and put theui ui) of the same sized packages we put up our butter in. I deny that any man can tell that stuff when it comes to Boston except by analyzing it, and I do not know^ that you can tell then. I have been iu the business twenty years of my life, and 1 confess that I cannot tell a great deal of this best but- teiine from pure butter. Professor Babcock goes on and states that in January- he made 363 inspections and found 45 parties w^ho were not coraplyiug wdth the law, and sent them a notice. I do not know why he did not prosecute them. I do not know why the gentleman w^as here. He is employed by the city of Boston as our milk inspector to prevent the people be- ing imposed upon, and I do not kuow why he is here associated with these fraudulent butter-makers. But he is here, aud his testimony has been given on that subject, and is all ou that side of the case. He did not know Mr. Chapiu aud uiyself yesterday, but he knows all these gentlemen iu Boston who are dealing in fraudulent butter. He says that in February he made 3(i7 inspections and gave 35 warnings, aud that during the tiuie he has occupied that position there have been a total number of inspections to the number of 3,371, and 294 warnings have been given to people who, as he says, have not complied with the Law. But I believe he says he did not prosecute them, but only sent them notices. Now, the fact is that the second tin)e the ius])ector goes there they know' him, and they are put on their guard. He says one of his methods is to send peo])le into these stores to buy the goods, so that they can be tested. But after a man has been fined once he is very careful. He has a certain class of customers or line of families that he can sell to all the time and to w^hom he does sell this fraudu- lent stuff. One of the largest manufacturers assailed uie after I got home because of some testimouy I gave here in April. I put this question to him : "Why do the retailers sell this stuff' for butter f" He hesitated a moment and said: "Well, my testinujuy is going to con- demn me and my fraternity, but I adunt it as a fact. You have made such a hue and cry about this stuff" being unhealthy that they are com- pelled to sell it as pure butter in order to sell it at all; they cannot sell it in any other way." That is the statement of one of the largest manufacturers 'in Boston, made to me. Senator Jones, Who is the manufacturer; what is his nauie"? Mr. HiBBARD, It is Mr. Bearden ; I think one of the most honorable men we have in Boston. I do not think his house would put out a fraud- ulent article themselves without its being branded what it is. He is a IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 157 very bigb-miuded and bonorable man, but be says it is necessary for tbem to sell it as butter, because tbere bas been such a hue and cry made against it. Senator Jones. Yet be is permitting and defending a fraud? Mr. HiBBARD. 1 claim ail these things are frauds when they color them to look like butter and put the stuff in tubs made just like butter tubs, in perfect imitation of butter. Senator Jones. Do you think a dairyman is committing a fraud when he colors butter at one time of the year to make it look like butter made at another time of tbe year ? Mr. HiBBARD. That is the natural color. Senator Jones. What do j-ou put annotto in it for, if it is the natural color? Mr. HiBBARD. Annotto is only put in in the winter time. Senator Jones. Do .yon tbink it is a fraud for dairymen to put annotto into butter to create the impression that the butter is richer? Mr. HiBBARD. I would be glad to take the ground that butter should not be colored at all. Senator Jones. I ask you if you think that is fair and honest? Mr. HiBBARD. Well, 90 per cent, of tbe consumers understand that winter butter is colored. There was one other point I wished to touch upon, and that is as to the freshness of these fats. Professor Babcock stated here yesterday that the receipts of imitation butter during the year — but I think he must have meant in 1884 — were 9,945,725 pounds, and be also stated that there were manufactured by tbe two manufact- ories in Boston about 150,000 tubs, at an average of 25 pounds each, which would give us something like 3,000,000 pounds of this imitation butter. Mr. Webster, from Chicago, and others stated here yesterday that they got about 35 i)ouuds of this pure oleo and oleo oil out of an ani- mal, which would necessitate a sale in Boston of about 110,000 beeves, and I do not believe that one-quarter of that amount is slaughtered in Boston. Most of the beef consumed there is Chicago beef. I think tbe same thing can be said of New York. 1 do not tbink one-quarter as much beef is slaughtered in tbe city of New York as would be required for tbe oil mnuufactured. Mr. Rearden, in addition to tbe amount of oleomargarine that be manufactures, exports a very large portion of his oil and sbips a greater portion to other points. Senator Jones. Where do you tbink he gets bis fat ? Mr. HiBBARD. From our provision dealers. I tbink they are from ten to twenty days old when he gets tbem. 1 aju perfectly willing to admit that 1 tbink they are pure and fresh — not fresh, but wholesome. But I do not like to have a man come here and say it has to be used within iwenty-foitr hours. If that is their testimony, I do not think their testimony on other points can be worth much. Colonel Littler went into this thing very fully, and 1 indorse every word that man said in regard to tbe farming and dairy interest of this country being ruined. They do not ask for protection from any honest competition. As I have stated before, these manufacturers of oleomargarine take out that ])ortion of tbe oil tbat is nearest to butter out of tallow, take that portion out of tbe lard whicii comes tbe nearest to it, iiavor it, put it into packages, and it was admitted by Mr. Webster after a good deal of quibbling yesterday, that they send it out under the brand of a creamery, or send it out without any mark on it; and I would like to ask any intelligent man what that is for, except to deceive and defraud the public? 158 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. Senator Jones. You state that after yoii were here in April and went borne, you made some investigation to ascertain the number of people using oleomargarine, and I understand you to say that one-half of those using it think they are using genuine butter, Mr. HiBBAED. About 75 i)er cent, think they are using it. Senator George. How did you find that out? Mr. HiBBARD. I do not know anything about it. Senator George. Then how cau you tell anything about tlie percent- age 1 Mr. HiBBAKD. I go to a man and say to him, " Do you buy oleomar- garine"?" He says, "No, sir; I would not have it at all." I say to an- other one, " Are you using it ?" and he says, " I do not know, but I am afraid T am." Seuator Jones. But I want to know how you got the percentage. Mr. HiBBARD. That is my estimate. A kxrge portion of these goods are sold to manufacturing towns. I think that is where the greatest portion is consumed ; there and in South Boston. I want to say one thing more in regard to this Eureka and Clover Leaf or Horse Shoe brand. I heard of them last winter, several months before we came here. We were handling a large quantity of Western dairj^ butter and continually coming in competition with this Eureka and Horse Shoe creamery, and parties would ask about it and how they could buj^ it, and it was sold very largely. I venture to say that that stuff was sold on our mar- ket at the rate of 500 to 600 tubs a week for several months before it was detected, and, then, I am pretty positive it was not detected until the statement was made here by Mr. Ghapin in April ; there were no prosecutions until after that. Senator Jones. What do you base that statement upon ? Mr. HiBBARD. Either that the inspector was thoroughly ignorant or did not want to prosecute. Seuator Jones. I say, what do you base theopiuion on that that was sold before"? Mr. HiBBARD. People told me that they were selling it. Senator Jones. Did they tell you how muchf Mr. HiBBARD. Yes, sir. I supposed it was pure butter all the time, and wondered how they could sell it so cheap. It did not occur to me that a house of the standing of Fairbanks & Co., of Chicago, would do that kind of business. Senator Jones. Did they sell it to the jobbers as butter "? Mr. HiBBARD. They sold it to the jobbers as butter and as oleo both. In some cases we knew nothing about this, but we knew that hundreds of tubs were put on the market as butter. Senator Jones. These parties did not deceive theiii customers ? Mr. HiBBARD. Yes, the most of them. I understand they branded a great deal of it. Senator Blair. Branded it what ? Mr. HiBBARD. Oleo and butteriue, and whatever was asked. Seuator Jones. Were these parties prosecuted ? Mr. HiBBARD. Yes, sir, after we went home from here, and were fined $500, but I have no doubt they have made thousands of dollai's out of it. There are concerns who were doing a limited business a few years ago, and they are to-day wealthy, and the suspicion is they are contin- ually selling this stuff for butter. Senator Jones. Who has those suspicions "? Mr. HiBBARD. I have them. Senator Jones. Do the customers of those people have them '? IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 159 Mr. HiBBARD. Yes, sir. Senator Jones. Tlie people who deal with them have them? Mr. HiBBAiiD. Yes, sir. Senator Jones. Why do they not go to honest dealers? Mr. HiBBARD. Because they are buying it a little less and they make more money on it. Senator Jones. They are willing to take the chances, then, for the diflerence in price ? Mr. HiBBARD. Yes, sir. Senator Jones. Are you a farmer? Mr. HiBBARD. I farmed it until I was twenty-five years old, and since then I have been in the butter business in Boston. The question has been asked many times, if I knew or had reason to believe that the law was being violated in regard to the sale of this article why did we not complain. You must know enough of human nature to know that a man can make himself very unpopular by doing such things, and it does not pay any man to complain of his neighbors, even if he believes they are selling oleomargarine, and that the law is not being thoroughly iu- forced. Only once in the last five years has the inspector come into our place, and the last one who came there went down to the butter cellar and asked me where our oleomargarine was. I said to him that we did not sell it. He said he was the inspector, and turned around and walked out. I claim that the man who will sell oleomargarine for butter, know- ing what it is, will lie about it if necessary. Now, assume that we are selling it for butter, and that inspector comes in and asks where the but- terine is, and we tell him we do not sell it, and he turns around and goes out, what good does it do ? Senator Jones. Perhaps your reputation as business men had some- thing to do with that •? Mr. HiBBARD. I should hope it might. There is another point I de- sire to touch upon, and that is this : The receipts in Boston in May, 1885, were 9,603 packages ot imitation butter, called oleomargarine, and the receipts in May, 1886, were 17,577 packages, an increase of nearly 50 per cent. 1 ask you, in all candor, if this thing goes on five or ten years longer, where the whole dairy interest of the country will be ? The whole Northwest will be grown up to bushes, for they cannot com- pete with fraud. In April, 1885, the receipts were 12,213 packages, and in April, 1886, 18,245 packages. The statement was made here yesterday that about 9,000,000 pounds of this stuff' was received in Boston, and about 24,000,000 pounds of butter was received. But the admission was made by the inspector that the two manufactories in Boston manufactured about 3,000,000 pounds, which, added to the 9,000,000 pounds received, makes 12,000,000 pounds of oleomargarine or butterine and only 24,000,000 pouuds of butter. That shows that one-half of the receipts in the city of Boston, including what is made there, is of this imitation stuff'. And 1 tell you, gentlemen, you cannot find, outside of the boarding-houses, restaurants, and hotels, but very few people who buy this stuff and know what thej^ are buying. I see here to-day a gentleman from Boston whom I under- stand retails this imitation butter, and I shall put a great deal of confi- dence in his statement, and 1 do not think he can tell you that a very large portion of his people buy that stuff", ami I believe that every j)ound he sells he sells for what it is. Senator Jones. You said that a proposition was made to your firm to engage in the manufacture of this article. When was that *? Mr. HiBBARD. It was, I should say, four years ago, perhaps. 160 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. Senator Jones. An agreement was made to go into the business, but you did not go into it; what was the reason yon did not f Mr. HiBBAED. When the product first came out, in 1879 or 1880, we began dealing- in it and kept it for sale for six months. I do not claim to be any more honest than any other man, but when three- quarters of the retail trade would come and say they wanted more of that oleomargarine, and would say they were selling it for butter, I could not stand it, and quit it. Senator Jones. In the wholesale trade, not the retail trade ? Mr. HiBBARD. Yes, sir; and that is one of the reasons, and the great reason, why we did not go into the manufacture of this stuff. Senator Jones. What year do you say that proposition was made to you I Mr. HiBBAED. I think it was in 1883 or 1884; perhaps Mr. Ohapin can tell you when the Standard Butter Company started. Mr. Chapin. I think it was previous to that. Senator Jones. At that time you entertained the proposition and for a time made an incipient organization for the purpose of going into the manufacture of this article ? Mr. HiBBAED. Yes, sir. Senator Jones. Then you did not consider it deleterious or unwhole- some 1 Mr. HiBBAED. No, sir; we did not at that time ; but the fact that it was deleterious or unwholesome has not been with me the great reason why I have not handled the stuff, but the reason has been because of the tremendous frauds perpetrated by the retailer on his customers. Senator Jones. Then the point you think to be reached by legislation is to protect the consumers against being deceived in the matter "? Mr. HiBBAED. Not only to have the consumer protected, but to have the farmer protected as well. I would have the farmers protected against the fraud as well as the consumers. Senator Jones. If the manufacture could be conducted in such away that the contents of every tub would be known, and nobody would be deceived in regard to it, would not that meet the purpose you have in view*? Mr. HiBBARD. Yes, sir; that would meet the purpose, but I think this tax of 5 cents a pound will not injure them at all, and it will raise the ])rice nearer the price of butter, and people can use it if they want to. I think it is a sad state of affairs when scientific men come here and say that oleomargarine is as good as butter, and as the poor man wants yellow grease on his bread it would be unfair and unjust to color it anything else. It does not help the poor man at all. It is iu the interest of the rich man who manufactures it. Senator Jones. Do you think a high grade of butter colored green, for instance, would be sold readily ? Mr. HiBBAUD. No, sir; because it is not the natural color of it. Senator Jones. Do you think it would be a popular batter f Mr. HiBBAED. No, sir ; because it is not a natural color for it. I think the fraud should have its natural color left to it, which is white, if they want it. But I do hope that the Senate will not make any amendment to this bill which will send it back to the House and so defeat it for this year. Senator Jones. A large percentage of the butter is colored, is it not? Mr. HiBBAED. I do not think more than 50 per cent, of it is col- ored during the whole year. I think Colonel Littler stated it too high. IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 161 In the winter time it is necessary to color it unless carrots and yellow corn are fed. I have as much money invested in beef on the plaius as I have in my business. My friend, Mr. Reardeu, says to me, "If you j?et this bill throup:h Cougress, it will take three or four dollars a head from your cattle." One of our largest butter men, who has just been West, tells me that he knows of one farm where they have sixty cows, where they only milk one cow, and he says they can make more money raising beef than in making butter. I tell all these cattlemen that if this bill does pass and this stuff is sold on its merits, that the farmer will know where he stands on the butter question ; that he will get better prices for his butter, and it will attract people to go into the dairy business, and in that way it will help the beef interest. I am as much interested in that as I am in butter. STATEMENT OF W. P. RICHARDSON. Mr. W. P. RiCHARDSO^, of Goshen, Orange County, New York, said : When I appeared before the committee on a previous occasion I took up tliis question in its bearing or effect upon the crude milk industry of Orange County and other counties engaged in the sale of milk only. There were some points I did noc touch upon at that tim^,, which I shall be glad to present to your attention now. I spoke then of the depre- ciation of property in the farming communities supplying milk to New York, from the fact that the butter counties lying farther back, owing to the depression of their prices from the manufacture and sale of oleo and butterine, had turned the flood of their product upon the New York market and broken down our prices. I now wish to call your attention to the simple fact of the depreciation of our lands, brought about by this same business. There are in the districts supplying New York City in New York State about 0,000,000 acres of land. Taking the difference in prices, or rather owing to the fact that the price has changed or been depressed by the sale of oleomargarine, or the effect that it has on the butter coun- ties and their turning their product on our market, it has depreciated, at a fair estimate, every acre of that land at least $10 an acre. I might say that in Orange County the depreciation has been $20 an acre and not exaggerate the matter. But taking it through the entire districts I think that $10 an acre is a fair average. At that rate these 6,000,000 acres of land have depreciated in value $60,000,000, taking that theory alone. Then, on the other hand, take the depreciation in the value of milch cows since this oleomargarine was placed upon the market, and from the very same reasons we find that the depreciation has been at least $20 per cow. There are in that district about 400,000 cows, making an additional depreciation of $8,000,000. 1 offer these facts merely to show the immensity of them. If we take simply the State of New York, with its 241.000 farms and over 23,000,000 acres of land, and carry out this same estimate throughout the State (and I believe that it would be the same in every part of the State), we have a depreciation in value of land in the State of New York alone of about $230,000,000. The value of the farm products in the State of New York, according to the census of 1880, was $178,000,000 and the number of persons engaged in agriculture 351,000. 17007 OL 11 162 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. A statement has beeu made here, I think by Mr. Webster, that the enhanced value of beef cattle, from the fact that a portion of the carcass was used for the manufacture of oleomargarine, was about $3 per head. I wish to call the attention of the committee at this moment to the fact that taking it in our own State, taking- it in the Middle Staters, and in the Eastern and Western States, wherever dairying- is carried on, there is a depreciation in the value of the beef cow, and that is where the farmer, as a last resort, must get his income from when he fails to get it from his milk or butter. That depreciation has been from $10 to $20 per head, without any doubt. In the section of the State which J rep- resent it has been fully $20 per head. So that we have had a deprecia- tion in our lands of at least $10 per acre, a depreciiition in the value of our milch cows of at least $20 per head, and a depreciation in the value of beef cows after they are through with milking of at least $20 per head more. I have an interest, as Mr. Hibbard has said he has, also in the cattle business of the West, and as to the statement made that there has been an enhanced value given to the beef-cattle of the West, all I can say is I fail to find it. I know that in the section where I am interested there has been a depreciation within three years in the value of beef-cattle of from $8 to $10 per head. I agree fully with what Mr. Hibbard has said that if this law was passed, and this production of butterine or oleo was regulated to an extent that would allow the farmer to get not an ex- orbitant price for his butter, but a fair price for it, he would let the raising of beef-cattle go and give his entire attention to dairying, and the raising of cattle in the West and Southwest would be improved, and an enhanced value would be obtained from the beef raised there. The Chairman. Eight there let me ask you a question. Suppose the depreciation you have described goes on in the dairying districts of this country until it is substantially broken down, what must the farmer do with his cowsf Is he going to turn them into beef, or is there any other way to get rid of them '? Mr. EiCHARDSON. In the dairy sections, where the farmer is engaged in the production of butter, this would be the residt: Nature has pro- vided that some cows shall give milk, while others are best utilized for beef purposes. When a cow begins to milk you cannot stop her. You have either to go on and put what you feed her on the rib or in the pail, and, as a result, there is no other recourse left to the farmer — ^— The Chairman. The result would be the turning of the entire dairy districts of this country into fat-cattle j)roducing districts, would it not? Mr. Richardson. Yes, sir ; it would have that tendency. Senator Jones. Do you think that all this depreciation in the value of land and cattle comes from the oleomargarine manufacture ? Mr. Richardson. Ino, sir; I do not think so. But I think I have left a sufficient margin in the figures to cover the effect of the general business depression of the country. I think the statement I have made is sufficiently within the limit. I might say here a word in reply to Mr. Webster's statement. Mr. Webster stated that they could get a certain proportion of oil from the steer, and they must then find a market for the balance of the beef. I want to say to Mr. Webster and these gentle- men that they have found that market, but it has been at the cost of the interests of every farmer who has a milch cow on his farm. That same beef has been thrown upon the markets, and from the very mo- ment that the Chicago beef entered into competition with our cow beef, our prices — it was not the result of several j^ears, but it came within IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 163 two or three months of that time — were depressed from $10 to $15 a head. Senator Jones. You regard cheap beef, then, as a sort of calamity? Mr. Richardson. No, I do not, if that remark means that I take the ground that this cheap beef being thrown on the market is a calamity to the poor man. But I do not believe the poor man ever obtains one penny benefit from it any more than he obtains a benefit from the cheap- ness in the production of oleo when the retail dealer sells it to him for the same price as pure butter. I do not think that the price of beef to the consumer has been reduced in anything like the proportion or per- centage that the price has been reduced of the cost of production. Senator Jones. I did not get the effect of your remark as to how much this depreciation comes from the manufacture of oleo. Mr. Richardson. I said it would not be easy to get at the deprecia- tion in the value of beef cows from the manufacture of oleo, taking Mr. Webster's statement that the balance of the carcass had to find a market, because I remember distinctly the difference I obtained in the price of my beef cows the moment the Chicago beef people located their beef establishment in our neighborhood. I think it reduced the price im- mediately $10 or $15 a head. Our butchers went there and bought beef for so much less than they could get it from us that it stopped the sale and reduced prices immediately. Senator Jones. You mean they sold them beef cheaper than they could buy it from you'^ Mr. Richardson. They sold it cheaper to the dealer than the dealer had been paying us for that same beef. In the New England and in the Middle States and in the Western States until you strike the Missouri River, and perhaps even west of that, the effect of the sale and manu- facture of these goods has been the depreciation of the value of every- thing that the farmer sells, as well as the value of the products of the dairy farm. STATEMENT OF LAWRENCE J. CALLANAN. Mr. Lawrence J. Callanan, of New York City, then addressed the committee : I represent the retail grocers. I shall detain you only a few minutes in the remarks I desire to make. I appear before you to-day as a busi- ness man, not to oppose the manufacture of oleo or imitation butter, for I think it can be made in such a way and of such materials as to make it a healthy substitute for butter. I am here to ask you to report a biil which will place its manufacture under restrictions, and to im- pose a tax which will, in part, at least, restore to the tax-payers some of the money out of which they are defrauded by its sale to them as butter at the price of genuine butter. The fraud commences in its manufacture. It is made to imitate, as closely as possible, genuine butter in color, texture, and flavor, for the simple reason that the manufacturer knows that as oleo or butterine it could not be sold. 1 think I am keeping within the bounds of truth when I assert that at least 95 per cent, of it is sold for butter, and could not be sold as oleo or butterine. A short time since a stand was rented in Jeffer- son Market, in the city of New York, to sell it as oleo or butterine. After a brief career it has been closed ; the cause, no demand. I know 164 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. that the same lot of it has been marked and sold at 20, 25, 30, 35, and 38 cents per pound, from the same lot of tubs. A lady went into a laroe store to buy butter. She asked the price of the best butter they had. The clerk told her it was 30 cents a pound. She said "it cannot be butter, it must be oleo, as my husband told me that the best butter was 38 cents a pound at wholesale," and she left without buying. The clerk reported the fact to his employer, who im- mediately took the hint, marked up the price, and actually sold the same lot, which he had been offering at 30 cents a pound, at from 35 to 42 cents a pound. How can a retailer who sells genuine butter at a profit of 5 cents per pound, compete with a man who sells oleomarga- rine and sells it for pure butter ? The gentlemen who have been stat- ing that they know a great many people who formerly used butter are now using butteriue, 1 think would have trouble in producing such per- sons before this committee ; at least I have not seen any of them who said they ate it since I have been here, though I have not been here all the time during this hearing. The Chairman. The manufacturers state that they eat it sometimes and sometimes use it for cooking. Mr. Oallanan. Yes ; I heard it stated that it was used for cooking by a certain person, but it was also stated that he put butter on his table for his own use. He would not like to eat it without cooking it, I suppose. Now, the retailers of New York, and, 1 think, of the country, do not want to prohibit the manufacture of oleomargarine or butterine ; they simply want the trade regulated in such a way that it must be sold tor what it is. It is a plain, simple question. The gentleman who very eloquently discanted on the farming inter- est I Colonel Littler] omitted one statement that I think he ought to have made. He said the use of these articles was making us a nation of dyspeptics. I claim, in addition to that^ that the manufacture and sale of oleomargarine fraudulently is making us a nation of rogues as well as dyspeptics. A man who will sell oleomargarine for butter and charge the price of genuine butter for it, and do it knowingly, is no better than a rogue, I do not care who he is. We have a law in the State of New l^ork that we have been trying to enforce for a good while, and I notice that in place of helping us to enforce that law the gentlemen who manufacture oleomargarine have all been trying to put as much opposition in our way as they could, in regard to testing the matter in the courts. If they had taken this l^roduct and put it on its own merits, and when they sold it, sold it as oleomargarine, and kept it properly manufactured and branded, I have no doubt they would be selling a good deal of it now; but under the present circumstances I do not think that they can sell it, because there has been a good deal of antipathy raised against it. I think that all retail grocers ask is simply that a law may be en- acted to compel manufacturers of oleomargarine to manufacture it under the supervision of the United States Government. We do not seem to be able to have the State laws enforced as thoroughly as they should be. When the United States has taxed other articles, the law has been enforced and properly carried out, and I think if the Senate passes this bill, and the law is enforced by the United States officials, so that oleomargarine and butteriue are sold for what they are, there will be no complaint from the grocers and farmers in relation to that matter. IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 165 The Chairman. The New York law is directed towards preventing this material from being- sold for butter, and compelling- it to be sold for what it is. You say that the opposition to the enforcement of this law comes mainly from the manufacturers 1 Mr. Oallanan. Yes, sir ; at the time of the arrest of some parties awhile ago, they were going- bail for them, and an association in Brook- lyn gave security to pay the costs for carrying the question up to the courts to test the law. The Chairman. That hardly agrees with their statement that they always want it sold for what it is ■? Mr. Callanan. It certainly does not. The Chairman. Did a number of the retail grocers organize an as- sociation and sign an agreement some time ago not to deal in these goods ? Mr. Callanan. Yes, sir. The Chairman. How many of the grocers signed that agreement? Mr. Callanan. I could not tell yon how many, but a great many of them did. The association is composed principally of the German gro- cers. The Chairman. All the grocers in the city do not belong to that as- sociation ? Mr. Callanan. No, sir ; not all of them. The Chairman. In your opinion how is it usually sold to the consumer by the retail dealer ; so that the consumer knows what it is or as but- ter ? Mr. Callanan. It is sold unquestionably as butter. The Chairman. That is your ojnnion as a retail dealer ? Mr. Callanan. Yes, sir. Senator Blair. I would like to know how you would protect a man who eats it? Mr. Callanan. I would protect him by either coloring the butter or having- it marked in such a distinctive way that he would be able to rec- ognize it. Senator Blair. Which, the butter or the oleomargarine ? Mr. Callanan. The oleomargarine and butterine. Senator Blair. Is there any test that you can think of besides that of color that would protect the man who eats it? Mr. Callanan. I am not enough of a chemist to be able to say. Senator Blair. But can you think of anything? The man who eats it is not a chemist either. How am I going to know what I am eating ? Do you know of any test but color? Mr. Callanan. I do not know of any other. Senator Blair. Have you ever heard any other test suggested which would protect the man who has to eat it three times a day, and in a hurry at that? Mr. Callanan. I have not. Senator Blair. Do you think that the test of color would protect him? Mr. Callanan. Yes ; I think it would. Senator Blair. And you cannot think of anything else that would ? Mr. Callanan. I cannot. Senator Blair. Have j'ou ever heard anybody suggest anything else that would? Mr. Callanan. No, sir ; I have not. Senator Blair. Then what is a law good for that does not contain that feature ? 166 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. Mr. Callanan. I do not think it would be. I will tell you this, that if this law is passed, that will compel the manufacturers to make it under the United States laws, under the supervision of the Government, and to mark it in the way required, with a license attached to it as the law requires, I think that would go a great part of the way in con- trolling it. Senator Blair. But made in that way, it would all look like real but- ter and cost only half as much as butter. How can I tell what it is ? The better it is made the more likely I am to be deceived, if the color is the same. Mr. Callanan. If it is made under the supervision of the Govern- ment it can be more easily traced. Senator Blair. But can I stop and go through with a chemical ex- periment every time I want to eat a meal ? Mr. Callanan. You will not be asked to. If this law is enforced, I will guarantee that within five blocks of me no man will be asked to do that, to find out whether it is butter or not. The Chairman. You mean by that it would not be soldf Mr. Callanan. Yes, sir. Senator Blair. Do you mean that it will not be made? Mr. Callanan. ]So, sir; it will be made, but Senator Blair. All this evidence shows that the best oleomargarine can be made at a cost of not over one-half the cost of butter, and if it is made with the same color as butter it is the more likely to deceive, and it is less in the power of the consumer to detect it. Now, unless the consumers can see a difference in the color, how do all these measures tend to protect the consumer against the imitation butter ? Mr. Callanan. The law as it stands now will not do it. You get it from any manufacturer now, and you will find it is made under no super- vision except his own. Senator Blair. You propose, then, that he shall manufacture it so that it shall be absolutely good oleomargarine? Mr. Callanan. Yes, sir. Senator Blair. But all the testimony shows that the better oleomar- garine it is, the more it is like butter, and you put in a color like butter to make it still more so. Mr. Callanan. Yes, sir. Senator Blair. Then it is all the more difficult for me to tell whether I am eating oleomargarine or butter by reason of that requirement. Mr. Callanan. It will not be more difficult for the reason that the manufacturer would be under supervision of the Government in making it. Senator Blair. The efi'ect of that would be to see that he makes good oleomargarine ? Mr. Callanan. Yes ; to see that he does make good oleomargarine. Not only the manfacturer but the retail dealer is compelled to take out a license under the bill. Senator Blair. But how is the farmer to get any protection, or how is the consumer of the butter to be protected ? Mr, Callanan. The farmer will only get 5 cents a pound protection, and that is not enough. Senator Blair. Do you think it is right to tax the men who eat an honest, healthy food in this country for the benefit of any one class ? Mr. Callanan. I am not here to advocate that. Senator Blair. But that is what you do advocate in efifect. IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 167 Mr. Calt>anan. I am here to distinctly and plainly disavow anything of the kind. I am here to advocate the selling of oleomargarine for what it is, and to advocate this law, simply because under the existing laws we cannot get that done. We cannot get any protection at all. I am here to advocate some protection. Senator Blair. Do you not misconceive what hurts you ? It is not that oleomargarine is Ijad which hurts you, but it is that it is taken to be butter, and therefore the man who consumes it pays twice what he ought to for it, and the man who makes it can ])ut it just low enough to ruin true butter. Mr. Oallanan. (Jur principal cause of complaint is that oleomarga- rine is sold for butter at butter prices. The Chairman. You think if the consumer knew what he was buy- ing- Mr. Callanan. That he would not buy it at all. The Chairman. Or if he did he would get it cheaper ! Mr. Callanan. Yes, sir. Senator Blair. If this testimony we have heard is true, that it is a healthy food, and just as soon as people can get rid of these matters of sentiment and taste, learn that it is healthy food, and it is just the color of butter, they will go to eating it? Mr. Callanan. Y^ou heard my statement that if they had started in and taken it as a healthy food, and put it right straight down all the time for what it is and said "it is as healthy as any butter you can have, but we sell it to you as oleomargarine and not as butter," they would be selling plenty of it to-day, I believe. Senator Blair. I agree with you; I think so too. Mr. Callanan. But the way they have done has created a prejudice against it which is so instilled in the minds of the people that it will take a decade to remove it, so that they will eat it. STATEMENT OF W. S. TRUESDELL. Mr. W. S. Truesdell, of Saint Louis, vice-president of the Mississippi Valley Dairy and Creamery Association, then addressed the committee: Mr. Chairman and Senators, I was so suddenly called to your pres- ence that I came prepared with no speech, and shall just simply make a statement containing a few facts that have come within my knowl- edge as vice-president of the Mississippi Valley Dairy and Creamery Association, representing the Northwestern States and the States of the Mississippi Valley, and as secretary of the local Butter and Cheese Dealers' Association, of the city of Saint Louis, Mo., occupying which positions I have naturally given these matters some attention, and have been quite directly connected with their investigation and prosecution during the past year. Having been absent during the presentation of the case by gentlemen from the other side, I am, of course, without foundation for answer to any arguments which may have been advanced, as I am not familiar with them. But it seems to me, from what I have heard this morning, that one point especially has been presented to your honorable body in a false light, and that is, regarding the article most complained of and chiefly involved in the action we ask at the hands of your committee. The scientific gentlemen who htive presented before you their testi- mony as to the healthfulness of the product under consideration, have told you that samples of oleomargarine investigated by them as pre- 168 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. sented by the mauufacturer were absolutely healthful. They have no doubt told the truth. But I want to say to you, as a man who has handled butter for twenty years, and a bitter enemy of oleomargarine in its i:>resent guise, that I am not here to deny the healthfulness of oleomargarine. But I do say to you, gentlemen, that it is unfair to manufacture a sample article for investigation rather than to present in such investigation the actual commercial article that is consumed day by day in the markets of the country. I want to say to you further that the question of oleomargarine cuts but a limited figure in the manufactured product that we are competing with in the United States. Oleomargarine is an article for export, and if these gentlemen will tell you the truth, as no doubt they will, they will tell you that not 5 per cent, or 1 per cent, of oleomargarine as an article of food is marketed and consumed in the United States. They manufacture an article of oleo oil which, as an oil, is exported, and they put a certain proportion of oleo oil in the butterine compound; but the article of oleomargarine itself, under the Mege system, and ex- amined by these chemists, is not an article of present construction, has not been for the past two or three years, and you cannot find a tub of it on sale in the markets anywhere to-day. We admit that oleomargarine is healthful, and if these gentlemen will confine themselves to the manufacture of oleomargarine alone there would be no question about the healthfulness of it. But I do not ad- mit that the butterine and suine compounds which are now manufact- ured for consumption in the United States aie healthful, and we ask you to legislate for the people of the United States and not for the people of Great Britain or Germany. These articles are manufactured of a dilferent material, require a different process of manufacture, and in their manufacture chemicals are used that were not used and are not found in the samples that these gentlemen analyzed and examined. Now I do say that in the process of manufacture at present that while it can be made, and perhaps is made, the better quality of it, ab- solutely harmless, by reason of the competition already encountered by the original manufacturers, they have been compelled to so reduce the cost of manufacture and necessarily to cheapen the cost of the originaj ingredients in the compound manufactured, that they have been com- pelled to use impure materials, and in the use of impure materials have been comjielled to use injurious chemicals to destroy- the impurity and to prevent its discovery. I want you honorable gentlemen to keep that one fact before your minds when you give proper weight to these certificates as to healthful- ness: that the certificates were absolutely based on an article that is not consumed in the United States, and consequently has no bearing whatever on your judgment in your decision as to whether it is health- ful or not. I do not think that that question should have much bear- ing on your decision in the case any way. As has been well stated, we come before you gentlemen to complain of a fraud, and we ask at your hands simi>ly ])rotection against that fraud. I am not here as an advocate of a lO-cent tax or even of a 5- cent tax upon the manufactured ])roduct, as these gentleman make it to day. 1 say I do not care wnetlier the tax be 10 cents or 2 cents; and if in your wisdom you can discover a process by which the ma- chinery of the United States can be put into force without the imposi- tion of any tax, I am pei'fectly satisfied, if you will give us a law that will stamp the thing for wliat it is, in(le])endent of any tax. I say to you that the people ot the agricultural sections of this coun- IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 169 try, the farmers of the United States, do not come to ask a protective tarift' against the manufacture of oleomargarine. They simply ask that the article shall be placed where these gentlemen tell you they are will- ing to place it as an article of consumption and commercial value in the United States. J understand that assertion has been made. I want to speak of my own knowledge regarding the correctness and honesty of such an assertion as that. They say, '^ We are perfectly willing to come into an absolutely honest and open competition with butter; it is not the tax we complain about so much." But 1 tell you, gentlemen, if you strip the bill of the tax you will tiud the opposition just as strong ou the part of these gentlemen. The trouble is the effort to strip the mask from the counterfeit article and place it before the consumer for what it is. 1 know this. In the grate of Missouri we have a law absolutely prohibitory. It was a mistaken policy in securing its enactment. It is a law which ab- solutely prohibits, under severe penalties, the manufacture or sale of any oleaginous substance made in imitation of butter, and not made from the pure product of milk or cream. We have been striving for three years past to enforce that law, but we have been utterly unable to secure its enforcement ; and it is a fact, gentlemen, that in the hope of improv- ing our position we went before our legislature last winter with a law framed after the manner of the New York State law, with this distinc- tion : that learning that we could expect the passage of no law which involved the exjienditure of a dollar of the money of our State, we pro- vided in that law that a tax uniformly upon the good and the pure, and upon every package of butter received in the State of Missouri should be levied, and from that the expenses of the commissioner and his as- sistant should be paid. They sim])ly required in that act that the goods should be branded, and that. the brand under penalty should nut be re- moved. In other words, we did the best we could to hold its identity until it came to the consumer. What is the result ? Some of these very gentlemen who are here be- fore you today have contributed to a fund of $5,000 now being raised in the city of Saint Louis to defeat a law placing oleomargarine and but- terine upon tbeir merits as a ]»ure, honest, fair competitor of butter, and to hold in enforcement the strict i)rohibitory law that we now have. Why ? Because that cannot be enforced, and under it they can continue to seil their goods as exact counterfeits. We have made a great many prosecutions this winter. We have absolutely proved before our court possession and sale, as butter, of goods that a careful chemical analysis proved to have only from 4 per cent, of butter to 30 per cent, of butter. We have actually analyzed goods that contained 4 per cent, only of butter — " the i)oor man's friend." These goods were not sold at 20 cents, very cheap, to the consumer. The wholesaler paid 20 cents for it and the consumer 25 or 30, and got 4 ])er cent, of butter, some oleo, and some lard. He could have bought the lard and made his own mixture cheaper. In my judgment the necessity of this uniform law we ask at your hands is this : That in the State of New York, if my memory does not prove me false, you have had some thirteen different enactments or at- tempts to regulate and control the manufacture and sale of these goods : and while they have been skilfully drawn, and while they have been faithfully executed so far as the officers were able to do it, they have been utterly inoperative. That has been the experience in every State of the Union where, under a State law, we have 'attempted to make these men sell their goods for what they were. We come to you and 170 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. ask for this national legislation simply because the States have failed to regulate it in their way, because we believe it to be utterly imprac- ticable for them to do it for one reason, and because we believe it a duty that our national legislature should protect the brawn and muscle of this country, the men who have contributed so much towards its greatness and grandeur. I want to say to you, gentlemen, as a man of twenty years' experi- ence in the butter business, and one who has given this matter careful thought and study, that the statement which has been made before you that the people cry for this article and want it, that they crave it be- cause it is so nice and so good and so cheap, is not borne out by the facts. The two largest retailers of butter in Saint Louis, who retail on an average over $2,000 worth each per month, have told me emphatic- ally, in answer to the direct question, that in all their business experi- ence since the introduction of oleomargarine and butterine in Saint Louis they have not had one single solitary consumer of butter come into their stores and ask for it. Tliese are facts, gentlemen.' That tells the story as to how badly people want it when they know what they are asking for. I say to you as a man engaged in commercial jiursuits and trying to make an honest living, that if it be true that the people do want the goods, if it be true that the goods are healthy, give us this law regu- lating their sale, so that we honest men can put them into our stores and sell them as we sell butter, cheese, or anything else, and I will as quickly place it on sale in my store as any man who is or has been before you. But I will not place it on sale until I can show it and say to customers who come into my store to buy it, "T/iereis the oleomargarine, and there is the butter." We want you gentlemen simply not to aftbrd the farmer unfair, unjust protection ; give him that which is his due ; he asks noth- ing more. Surely he is entitled to that — the man who, by the brawn and muscle of his good honest arm, for years has dug from the soil of these Northern States the grandest monuments to commercial prosperity that this country has ever witnessed or that the statistics of this country have ever recorded. Show me any other product of the country, if you can, that has equaled in grandeur the product of the dairy States. What would these gentlemen do 'l They would have you burj^ that grand effort and that grand product beneath a monument erected to their own dishonesty and to their own fraud. It is simi)ly, gentlemen, a question of the protection of the many honest men of the country as against the unfair and dishonest practices of the few. If these gentlemen are honest in their statement that they have no objection to placing their goods upon the market as a fair competitor to butter, and if all they want is open, honest, fair competition, why is it that in my State, in New York State, and in every State of the Union where dairy laws have been passed, these very gentlemen are the men who are advocating against them? These men are the ver^- men who combat attempted measures to regulate the sale of the goods. Why is it? That is a question that I cannot answer in my own mind satisfac- torily. If they are honest in their statements that all they want is fair competition, why are they objecting to this bill ? In regard to the question of the honorable Senator, directed to one or two other gentlemen here who addressed the committee, as to whether this bill in its operation would aftbrd the protection that we seek, I will say this : I think it would ; it would at least to a satisfactory extent. There are offenders against all laws, from the first offender against wise Divine law down to the present time, and no laws have been IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 171 enacted, human or Divine, which there have not been breaches of, and that will be the case to the end of time. But I believe that by the regu- lation that this act provides, by the safeguards thrown around the manufacture and sale of this product, the identity of the article will be established, and so continued and fixed that it cannot be removed until it comes before the consumer. That is all we want; nothing more. If a man wants butterine, if he wants oleomargarine in preference to butter, by all means let him have it. We simply want, gentlemen, that you shall give us a law which will enable him to take his choice, know- ing that he is having his choice and is not being imposed upou. Senator Blair. Allow me right there to ask you this question : As- sume the enactment of the law and its honest administration, and that you and I are at a hotel together, and you have no more technical knowledge of the subject than I have. I may be paying $6 a day for my board at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York or fifty cents a day for my board at some other hotel, as the case may be, or I am boarding at a restaurant, we will suppose, or boarding-house, where the most of it is consumed, in addition to that consumed in the manufacturing vil- lages and cities of the country. Now will you tell me how I may know whether I am buying and eating butter or oleomargarine ? Mr. Truesdell. Have you any means of knowing in regard to the cigar you smoke, whether the proper tax upon it has been paid or not ? Senator Blair. I might tell whether it was a good cigar or not, if I was a judge of cigars. But you all tell us, on both sides, that to the uninstructed taste it is impossible to detect the differeiue practically between good butter and good oleomargarine. Now liave you not in your answer admitted that the consumer who foots all t.ic bills has no protection under this act ? Mr. Truesdell. I tbink he has. I do not think he has perfect protec- tion, nor that any law could give him that. If a law was enacted re- quiring them to color the goods black, that law would be evaded. Senator Blair. You propose to put every manufacturer of this arti- cle in this country under the supervision of this law, and you propose to examine the materials of the manufactured product and pursue it to its market wherever it is consumed. There is a coloring matter in it as a part of its original manufacture. You supervise that as well as everything else. How is it, then, that you cannot give, if your law should require it, a distinctive color or hue to oleomargarine which would at once show, all through, until it falls under my eye as a consumer at a boarding-house, what it was ? Mr. Truesdell. I see no objection to any such proposition. It would rather add to the enforcement of the law. Senator Blair. I ask you how I am to get protectioi. unless it be by some test addressed to the eye? Mr. Truesdell. You cannot possibly get absolute protection any more than you can get protection under the operation of the present laws regulating the manufacture and sale of liquors and cigars. Those laws are in the main enforced, but in some cases they are evaded ; and no matter how stringent a law is regarding the manufacture and sale of oleomargarine and other products, that law will be measurably evaded. Senator Bla;r. Do you know of any law regulating the manufacture and use of compounds put into intoxicating liquors ? Mr. Truesdell. No, sir. Senator Blair. You propose to do that with oleomargarine. Y'"ou propose to have a law which shall regulate the actual structure and con- 172 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. strnction of the manufactured article itself, and you provide by this bill for the protection of everybody except the man who has to pay the bill in the end. Mr, Truesdell. My answer to that would be that if that law is en- acted and the provisions of the law are enforced, if a man were to be deceived he would receive no special harm ; but if the manufacture was kept under such strict control, in accordance with that idea, he would not be deceived. Senator Blair. But who is the man who is harmed by this bogus counterfeit product ; is it not the man who pays the bills in the end! Mr. Truesdell. It is the consumer, of course. Senator Blair. No other human being is harmed under the existing state of things. A few honest men are damaged a little in their con- sciences, but they contrive to have somebody else carry on the business, and the consumer is entirely without protection. Now you come here and ask for legislation which shall protect these intermediate parties and save the conscience of the honest producers and middlemen ; that is all right. But it seems to me that you leave out of account the in- terest of the comparatively intelligent ordinary citizen who buys and eats the product, and who is himself the real victim of the fraud. Mr. Truesdell. We think that the penalties attached to the law as now drafted would deter the retailer from imposing upon the consumer. Senator Blair. But the trouble with all laws is that we cauriot en- force them, and you all say that the man who knows that oleomargarine is tendered to him will not touch it, or the majority of them will not. Therefore if you can make it patent to the man whose market you are after, the consumer, if you can make it patent to him that he is deal- ing in oleomargarine on the one hand and butter on the other, you have rectiiied the whole thing. Mr. Truesdell. Possibly I can answer your suggestion by saying that so far as I am personally concerned, if you will amend that act so that oleomargarine shall be colored jjink you will meet my views. Senator Blair. Well, suppose we say they may color it anything but yellow, and let butter have its natural color ? Mr. Truesdell. I have no objection to that. Senator Blair. I do not like to be obtrusive with the thought; I do not care anything about this legislation except to accorai)lish honest results ; but I do not think the farmers have any right to call on the country at large to protect them as against honest healthy food. I was born on a farm and know the struggles of farmers. 1 do not under- stand you claim anything of the kind? Mr. Truesdell." I do not. Senator Blair. You only want us to put an actual test, which will enable the consumer to know what he is eating. Mr. Truesdell. Yes, sir. Senator Blair. Is there any other suggestion, except the one of color, addressed to the eye, that you would suggest? Mr. Truesdell. There is not, and I do not think that would be ab- solutely eflective. Senator Blair. Of course not. There would be some blind men and some other lalse aiticle put upon the market. But I do not see how you can get much, if any, piotection unless you do thjit. Mr. Truesdell. I think the provisions of the present law, with pen- a Ites attached, would be sutticient. Senator Blair. J know you are apprehensive that if this bill goes ba to the House with an amendment of the Senate there will be de- IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 173 lay. But you had better have a law worth something even if you have to wait for it. Mr. Teuesdell. I am satisfied in my own mind that the provisions of that law are sufficiently stringent now, not to afford absolute pro- tection, but to afford sufficient protection at least to give the farmer as much protection as he needs until the people determine, at all events, as between the excellency of the two products, whether the new dis- covery is superior to the original discovery or creation of Divine Provi- dence. Senator Blair. How are they going to determine that question when they cannot tell them apart"? Mr. Truesdell. They can put it under its true name as an experi- ment. Senator Blair. They cannot put oleomargarine by the side of every platefull of butter '? Mr. Truesdell. No, but I should put it into my store, and I sup- pose these other gentlemen would. Senator Blair. It will go to the same men as butter, just as it does now. Mr. Truesdell. The difficulty now is that the goods leave the hands of the manufacturer so absolutely like unto butter in all respects that there is not the least safeguard for the protection of the retailer or con- sumer. The packages are exactly alike, the color is exactly the same, the style of the package uniform, and there is no stamp or brand indi- cating what it is. It is simply a blank dollar upon which the counter- feiter places the stamp when it comes into his hands. Senator Blair. But with all the enactments and i)rovisions of that law, the article will eventually reach the consumer as it does now. Mr. Truesdell. Not if the provisions of the law requiring the stamp to be put on at the manufactory are carried out, and the penalty for re- moving it stands. The Chairman. Is there any gentleman from Chicago here who wants to be heard on this question ? I understood there were three gentle- men from the cattle-yards of Chicago who wanted to be heard. Mr. William J. Campbell. Yes, sir; Mr. Washburn, Mr. Coy, and Mr. Wagner desire to be heard. STATEMENT OF IRUS COY. Mr. IRUS COY, of Chicago, one of the committee representing the Chicago Live Stock Exchange, then addressed the committee. I am sent here as one of the committee from the Chicago Live Stock Exchange to appear before you, and state some reasons why we think the bill under contemplation should not become a law. And in order that we might not weary your patience or repeat anything we have to say, we agreed that Mr. Washburn, who is chairman of that committee, should make the statement here of statistics with regard to live stock and other matters, acd Mr. Wagnershould alsotakeone branch of the sub- ject, and between us it was agreed upon that I should call attention more particularly to some of the arguments that have been made before you, and show, if I could, that the reasons given here were not well taken, and would not answer for the purpose for which they were presented. In the outset I wish to say that I, like some of these gentlemen who have spoken to you this morning, was born on a farm in New York, worked on a farm until I was of age, and that my brothers, five of them, 174 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. are farmers; that my sympathy is entirely with the farmers of this country, and I would not say anything here upon this question that could unnecessarily hurt the feelings of any man engaged in that or any other honest calling. Mr. Washburn will state to you more fully, as he is prepared upon that subject, the relation the Chicago Live Stock Exchange has to cer- tain classes and interests throughout the length of this country, and the amount of money that is invested, and so iorth. Therefore I will not touch upon that part of the question. But 1 consider that this question before us at this time is one of the most important questions probably that has come before Congress or will come before it for a long term of years, if we give credit to these people who have come here who manu- facture oleomargarine, and if we are willing to admit that they are honest. Some of those who have come here from Chicago I have been acquainted with for a long term of years, and I believe they are as strictly honest, upright men as are engaged in any business, and I be- lieve the statements that they make here as to the ingredients contained in oleomargarine and butterine are strictly true. I know there has been a great deal said here by people who surmise or say that they believe there are acids or poisonous substances put in, but I take it for granted that these men have stated the facts here to you gentlemen, and if those substances that they say are used in oleo- margarine and butterine are the only ingredients contained, and you determine that those ingredients are wholesome and healthful, that they are not injurious to the people who consume them, then its seems tome that this law in its operation and effect would be unjust, and a calamity if it goes into effect. We are told here that you cannot tell the difference in the taste and looks of this oleomargarine from butter. They tell us, too, upon the other side, that chemists, when they analyze this product, are not able to tell the difference. But they still infer that there are some deleter- ious ingredients in it, and say they can only be tested by use and by a physiological test. Is it not a fact that beef fat and the fat from pork, that lard and tal- low, have been used and tested physiologically for thousands of years'? They are articles of food which have been used on the tables of the most educated and refined people in the world for thousands of years. No one claims that they are unwholesome in themselves. Now, if these articles are manufactured from these wholesome properties, if they are not deleterious or injurious to the public health, then it seems to me that a law of this kind that requires the manufacturer to pay a license, and the wholesale dealer to pay a license, and the retail dealer to pay a license and then compels a tax upon the article claiming it necessary for a revenue when no revenue is necessary, when it is admitted that the present revenue is a burden and is a temptation to dishonesty and crime — that a law that would encumber the manufacture of a whole- some article of food in this country with such oppression is unjust, and I say it is the opening wedge to legislation that would ruin the country. I would say here that I am opposed to the selling of oleomargarine or butterine ibr butter. I have nothing to say in justification of any man who will sell oleomargarine or butterine for butter, or for any man who would sell half cotton cloth for woolen cloth, or commit any fraud upon the purchasers of those articles. But I do not believe it is possible for Congress to frame any law which will make men honest. We cannot make men honest by law. This thing resolves itself down just to this, from the arguments I have heard here : That the manufact- jIMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 175 iirer sells this as butteriue or oleomargarine ; that the wholesale dealer buys this in every instance knowing it to be oleomargarine or butterine, but that it is the retail dealer who imposes upon his customer. We are liable to be imposed upon in every other branch of business and in all the transactions of life. We have to trust to the honor ol the men with whom we deal to a great extent in all branches of busi- ness. If I were dealing with a groceryman in whom 1 had not confi dence enough to think that he would not init oleomargariue or butterine on me for butter, 1 would quit dealing with him in an instant. They may do it. But when you undertake to encumber a business which is legitimate in itself with these unnecessary restraints and encumbrances, especially in business like this where there has been a clamor raised throughout the country that there is something wrong in it, that there is something deleterious in it, and that the people who manufacture it are trying to introduce it throughout the country, and you require the wholesale dealer to pay a license, as you presci ibe in this law, and the retail dealer to pay a large license, it is in effect prohibiting the sale and use of that article. Why f Because every man who retails these goods anywhere in the country, in all these small towns where they are trying to introduce (if they are honest) this new food product, be- fore he can sell it to his customer, before he can have an opportunity of selling it at retail, some man has to take the responsibility of paying a heavy license fee before he can test this matter to see whether the people want this butter or not. The wholesale and the retail dealer must pay this, and in consequence it is a prohibition, because he can- not get it into the market and dispose of it. And then you propose to put a tax of 5 cents a pound upon all that is offered for sale. Why is this ? There is no use of covering this up in any disguise. These gentlemen who represent the dairy interests of this country have described to you the waste and desolation of some portions of this country — in New York, New Hampshire, and Vermont — in consequence, they say, of this com- petition with butter; and they ask you, in so many words, to add this tax upon oleomargarine and butter in order that it may make it come up nearly to the cost of the price of butter; and one gentleman stated that if they could do this the butter-makers of this country could get a quarter more for their butter, because it would bring the price of oleo- margarine nearly up to the price of butter, and the balance they would get then over and above what they are getting now would be clear profit, and it would put the dairy interests of the country on their feet. That without any disguise is the real object and intention of this bill, and I believe, and those with whom I am associated believe, that it is wrong, and contrary to the spirit and institutions of our countr^^ to tax one legitimate branch of industry for the protection of another branch of industry, and it is for that reason more ijarticularly that I am op- posed to the passage of this bilL These gentlemen who appear here in behalf of the dairy interests have accused the introduction and sale of oleomargarine as the cause of all the depreciation of the land and of the cows, the price of the cows and the price of butter ; they have charged all these things upon this manu- facture. I have read the stenographic report of the statement made by Mr. W. P. Richardson to this committee on a former occasion. He said he was president of the Orange County Milk Association, and that the competition between oleomargarine and butter affected them first in about 1884. He went on to state that in 1881 or 1882 the milk brought a very low price ; that the people got up sharp practices on them in 176 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. New York, and they finally organized a society, and I think he said they were incorporated, and they got up what is known as the Orange County Milk War, and they carried on this fight until finally they accomplished their purpose, and the consumers in the city of New York were obliged to pay them remunerative i)rices, and in consequence of this combina- tion that they made they got up "a corner," so to speak, on milk, and by carrying that into execution the people in Orange County and the surrounding counties who joined in that combination made, he stated, in the year 1883 and 1884, a million dollars, and in the whole of the country embraced in their organization some three million dollars in addition to what they would have had if they had not had this orgau- ization. Then he says that in 1883 the people of the surrounding coun- ties, those who had been making butter more particularly, seeing the good prices that these people had received for their milk, dropped the making of butter, and sent a quantity of their milk to New York, and in 1883 they sent more, and in 1884 chey finally quit the making of but- ter and sent the milk to New York, so that it swamped them and broke up this combination. Now he charges this effect and loss to the sale of the competitive oleomargarine coming into the market. I do not believe that they can reasonably say that it was the competition with oleomargarine which re- duced the price of milk and which brought this affliction which they claim upon them. I want to call your attention to this fact also. Mr. S. P. Hibbard, a butter and cheese dealer in Boston, stated that the competition com- menced in 1881, but he said that butter was cheaper in 1879 than he had ever before or since known it, and he had been in the butter busi- ness for twenty years. He said that in 1879 butter sold at from 12 to 14 cents a pound ; but he goes on and says that the farms had depre- ciated in New England about 50 per cent., especially in Vermont, since 1870 and up to the present time. And we have had this statement made by several different gentlemen. They have called your attention to the depreciation in the price of farms that were particularly adapted to the dairy business. I refer to this, and call your attention to the fact that in 1873, when the panic came, it reduced the price of real estate, of cattle, and of every- thing else all over this country from one end of it to the other; it was not only in the dairy districts of New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York, but it extended all over the country. In proof of this I can make a statement from my own experience. Just before the panic, in 1872, I think it was, I was living in Chicago, and at that time I bought a house and lot. The panic came in 1873, and there has never been a time from that day until now that I could get one-half the amount I paid for it; I never have been offered one-half of what I paid for that property, and I have had it for sale. Another instance came under my own observation. A piece of prop- erty near where I lived about the time 1 bought this house I refer to, was appraised by good real-estate men in the city of Chicago ; they ap- praised it to be worth $47,500. That was in 1871 or 1872, and on that appraisement $35,000 was actually loaned upon that property. In 1880 the persons who owned it, and who had borrowed this money, had gone through bankruptcy, and I bought that ])roperty for $20,000. I allude to this to show you that this depreciation in property cannot be traced to the introduction of oleomargarine or butterine or anything of that kind, but is one of the calamities that befell this country and which is liable to befall any country. Neither can these people say IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 177 that because beef cattle are not worth as much now as they were four or five years ago, at the same time that they are not worth' from $2 to $3 more now in consequence of the ability to turn a certain portion of the fat into oleo oil. We cannot reason in that way. But when these men who are buying- cattle and slaughtering- them by the thousands, and who are hunting every opportunity to find an outlet for every part of these animals, the hoofs and horns, the hair, and everything which has been utilized in some way in order to meet sharp competition — when these men who have been engaged in this business for ten, fifteen, or twenty years come before us and say that they are enabled by the man- ufacture of oleomargarine to use the substance, this pure fat of the animal, and realize from $2.50 to 13 and $3.50 a head, 1 take that as true unless somebody can come up and show some other argument against it than the one that cattle are lower now than the> were a few years ago notwithstanding the manufacture of these articles. T want to call your attention to a statement I have here— I will not take up your time unnecessarily, but I have marked a passage and can refer to it easier than I can explain it in any other way. I want to call your attention to the statement also of Mr. G. W. Martin, of New York on this same subject, as contained in a stenographic report made of the proceedings before this committee at a former hearing. He says : " Go to the New England States to-day, where we can produce the best but- ter in Aii:erica, and you will find the laud there growing up into bushes and brambles. The old farm of my father in Vermont is nothing but a wilderness to-day, and his farm in Jefferson County will be a wilder- ness in ten years more if he is not protected, but is driven to the wall. That is why we want this tax imposed. If we do not have the tax we cannot have anything." That, I claim, is an honest expression so far as the object of this bill is concerned. They desire for you to put a tax upon this commodity, this oleomargarine without regard to its wholesomeness or unwhole- someness, without regard to whether it injures people or not, but to put a tax upon it so that it cannot be produced without making it cost as much as it costs to make butter in order that thev may get a larger price for their butter. But how is it that they can say to you, without a smile upon their face, that, when this oleomargarine has been upon the market only since 1880— one gentleman here to-day said that it came into strong competition in 1883— how is it that they can tell us that in that short time these farms im Vermont and in New Hampshire have been abandoned and grown up to be bushes and brambles and are fit only as a home for rabbits ? Gentlemen, that is not the real reason. It is not because oleomargarine has been made and put upon the market. Those reasons are not good. I also want to call your attention to the statement or argument of Gardiner B. Chapin, of Boston, who was here also to day and made a statement to you in regard to this subject. He said in his testimony: " I Have seen on one little road in New Hampshire the remains of nine- teen houses where the houses have rotted down and nothing but the cel- lars remained; the people had abandoned them and gone away. And that is only in one part of N^ew Hampshire. In the State of Maine there are similar instances." He also says: " The people often come down to Boston and say to me, 'Show me some butterine; show me some oleomargarine.' I take them to the place where they retail it, and they try it and shake their heads and say, ' I have got through ; that is enough.' One gentleman told me that in a district where he lived in N^ew Hampshire there were 17007 OL 12 178 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 80 schools. ' When I visited my old home last year,' he said, ' I found they were keeping up a school theie lor tour scholars.' The farmers — the youug men — had been driven away from home by this same de- pression, and they come to the city and live there as long as they can, and then go somewhere else. But they leave the New England farms because they cannot compete with these manufacturers of oleomargar- ine or butterine." Now did anybody ever see a more glowing picture of x)overty de- scribed than this ! Here is oleomargarine that these men say has been in competition since 1880, perhaps, or 1883, and yet this gentlemeu comes here and tells you that as he goes back ht)nie and looks at his old homestead and sees right along in a little road the remains of nine- teen houses that had rotted down — there is not a vestige of a door or window or anything left of them, the chimneys even had gone, and they have become absolutely so poor up there that they cannot raise chil- dren - and, he says, it is in consequence of this competition with oleo- margarine. He says the people come down to Boston from there — this little remnant that is left— they come down there and they say, " Show me oleomargarine — this five year-old monster which has depopulated our houses and which has rotted down our houses and left nothing but the cellars remaining." And he shows them oleomargarine, and they look at it and shake their heads and — go West. Now, gentlemen, do you believe they have any right to charge all these things upon the manufacture of oleomargarine? Is there any ques- tion, can there be any question here before you at this time, as to what the object of those who are urging you to recommend this bill is! Is it not that you may tax one of these industries, which, they say, is a ivicked monster, full of destruction and death ? And there is not one of them who undertakes to show its unwholesomeness, except that some neighbor has said so, or surmised it. Yet these men, honest men, come and tell you just what is in it, and every ingredient in it has been on the tables of refined people for ages, and nobody has received any inju- rious efiect from it. We know what its etfects are. The object of this biU is to have you tax this industry and put it in such shape that the poor people of this country cannot be benefited. They ridicule that idea. I want to tell you what I saw myself, as you ask people to state facts. Last Saturday I had occasion to go through one part of Armour & Company's establishment in Chicago where they retail their butterine, and it is at least a half mile from the street-oars or from any public conveyance. To reach there the people must go through the stock-yards and over the viaduct a long distance, and when I was there there were at least one hundred, if not one hundred and fifty, men, women, and children. They were mechanics, laboring men, and the wives and children of laboring men and mechanics, and there the sign was displayed in large letters, "Oleomargarine and Butterine," and those people weie there buying it. Nobody could suppose that they did not know what they were buying. They had to go right by groceries where they claimed to be selling pure butter ; they had to go nearly three quarters of a mile from the street-cars on foot in this warm weather. They went there and they were buying this at the factory where they knew they made it and where theie was a large sign upon which was displayed the words "Oleomargarine and Butterine." There was not a person there who could, by any construction that anybody could put u])on the circumstances, be said not to kuow that he was buying butterine. IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 179 Senator Blair. Wbat prices do they pay? Mr. Coy. I asked, and they said, I think, they were selling it at from 9 to 10 cents a })Ound. Senator Blair. These peojde were consumers? Mr. Coy, Yes, sir. Senator Blair. And were getting it at !> or 10 c^nts a pound, the wholesale price, and they got an article which they knew they were buying"? Mr. Coy. There is no question about their knowing it. I asked Mr. Cuddy, who is one of the members of the firm (I had some business with him), how much they sold in that way to consumers who came there to get it, and he said some days tliey sold as high as 2,000 pounds of it. Senator Jones. Do they sell any genuine butter, or butterine and oleo- margarine alone? Mr. Coy. They never pretend to sell anything but oleomargarine 5 they do not claim to sell anything else. Senator Blair. And they sell it, and the purchaser gets it, for a low price"? Mr. Coy. Yes, sir. I understand that 10, 12, and 14 cents are the prices of the three grades which they retail there at their establishment, and they are selling now from 500 to 1,000 pounds at their establish- ment a day. Senator Blair. What is the price of butter iu Chicago ? Mr. Coy. The last I bought there from a farmer who came into town cost me 35 cents. Senator Blair. If the circumstances were such that that 10 cent article could be sold to people who did not understand it at 35 cents, there would be room for protection. But these are honest iientlemen, who make an honest article, which they sell for an honest price. The griev- ance complained of is that other circumstances intervene in other cases, so that a 9 or 10 cent article is sold for 35 cents to the man who cannot detect the dilference. Mr. Coy. That is the point I was trying to make a few moments ago, how to do away with this prejudice, and do away with this cry that there is something wrong in this article. As one of the gentlemen who is in favor of this bill stated, the grocers have had to sell it for butter because they could not sell it as oleomargarine. But if this product can be put upon the market at the price they sell it for there, and peo- l)le know what it is, this prejudice that has been created by people say- ing that it is poisonous, &c., could be done away with, and then the laboring classes of people all over the country would buy it. I say if you pass a law like this and require these people to pay a li- cense, and every man who sells it has to pay a license before he can of- fer any for sale, yon "boycott" the business; you put it in such a shape that they can never send it out to the country where men can buy it and know just what they are getting and pay the reduced price for it. The trouble with this thing in Boston is, as has been stated, that they have been saying that this article is poisonous. It looks just like but- ter, but, as they say, when a person offers it cheap they will not buy it, and then the dealer puts a higher price on it and they buy it readily. If this prejudice could be done away with, the article would sell upon its merit. I never have seen a prejudice created which was dying away so fast as the prejudice against oleomargarine is dying away in the communities where they are using it and know what they are getting. The Chairman. What is the objection then to having it inspected, branded, licensed, and sold for what it is "? 180 IMITATION DAIKY PRODUCTS. Mr. Coy. One objection is this : Tbe objectiou to tbe licensing is that it is H commodity wholesome as an article ot food, and which goes into general use in tbe place of butter, which is the most commonly used article throughout the country, and when you go to licensing you license tbe manufacturer and you license tbe wholesale dealer. Nobody pre- tends but w hat every wholesale dealer knows that be is buying oleo- margarine when he buys it. But you make him pay a license, and you make every man who ktei)s a store at the cross-roads, or in a town, pay a license be for be can offer it to anybody to let them see what it is and let Ibem become accustomed to it. You make him pay a license of $48 and it amounts to a prohibition. You cannot introduce it under those circumstances. You boycott and prohibit it by your licenses and taxes. The law would tend to make all people more dishonest. 1 hold that to tax this property, if it is a wholesome commodity, in order to make peoj^le i^ay more for butter, or to pay more for cheese, is as unjust a proposition as was ever offered to any legislature, under tbe spirit of our institutions. Tbe Chairman. 1 do not understand your answer. You commenced telling us about people who bought it knowing what it Avas, and then stated if the retail dealer of the country bad to have a license it was equiv- alent to boycotting it. Then you state that tbe prejudice is wearing away. INow, is it not better, if ibe article is good and wholesome, that it sbould be put squarely on its own merits, and sold everywhere absolutely for what it is, and let it work its way into the favor of the public if it can ? Mr. Coy. Yes, sir ; and anything that would bring that about I am in favor of. 1 would advocate the selling of it for just what it is. Tbe Chairman. Any legislation that would secure that result abso- lutely would meet with your approval ! Mr. Coy. Any legislation which would place this article before tbe pub- lic so that everybody would know exactly what he was getting would meet with my approbation. It is understood at the present time that tbe mass of tbe people wbo use it are the poorer or laboring classes, and they buy it because it is cheaper than butter, and if you tax it Tbe Chairman. We do not care to go into the question of taxation ; that has not been discussed much. We are not getting at the details of legislation whicb must be settled by a legislative body. What we are trying to get is the opinion of people as to some general plan to be adopted. Whether it shall be done by taxes, licenses, inspection, or any other processes know n to tbe laws is a question that the committee do iriot care to hear much about; that is a question of opinion. We want to know bow it is sold and made, and whether it finally makes its way, when sold, upon its own merits. Mr. Coy. There is one thing I omitted to say. It has been my convic- tion that tbe manufacture and sale of oleomargarine, instead of depreci- ating" tbe price of good butter, really enhances it. That was my idea when I came away from home, and I find that Mr. James Hewes, wbo is president of tbe Produce Exchange of Baltimore, stated to you on a pre- vious occasion that when this matter first came up, when oleomargarine ibegan to compete with butter, be says be thought tbey would defeat it by making good butter; but be sajs tbe men who manufactured these articles were sharp and went to where good butter was made and put «p tbe prices of good butter until they could not get butter without pay- ing fictitious prices, because the oleomargarine men bought it and used it in their manufacture. I believe that corroborates the statement of Mr. Webster here, tbat tbe butter they use in this product is tbe best butter tbey can get. I believe from what I have known and seen of IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 181 these articles that first-class butter will brino a better price in conse- quence of tbeui, and that tbe.v ouly compete with second-class butter after it is put on the market. I was glad, in looking over the evidence, to see that his opinion coincided with mine upon this subject. There can be, it seems to me, but one question about this. With a; tax such as is proposed by this law, this article cannot be put upon the market and sold for what it is, so that peo])le may buy it knowingly. I believe it would be a great blessing to the people of this country. Surely economical men, if tliis is just as delicious to the taste and smell and answers every i)urpose of butter, will buy it, and the people generally will lose their prejudice against it if these restrictions are not put upom its manufacture. Senator Blair. How would you attain that end; what legislation would you have to accomplish that purpose"? Mr. Coy. I think if the dairymen themselves would speak of it just as it is, instead of trying to scare and prejudice people against it, ancl let it be sold for what it is, 1 think it would accomplish every purpose desired; but how to accomplish that, I tell you frankly, I do not know. Senator Blair, Here are just two senses you can appeal to if yoit want to find out whether it is oleomargarine or not, the taste and the eyesight. You do not handle it; you keep your Augers out of it. lti» conceded you cannot tell the diiference by the taste of most people^ then what other sense is there except that of sight to appeal to ! Mr. Coy. That is about all there is for ordinary people. Senator Blair. If you make a difference in the color, have you not got the only earthly test there is"? Ml-. Coy. That 1 think is the only real test. But I tell you in five or six years from now, if you color this oleomargarine black, these secoud- class butter fellows will be imitating it by coloring their butter black. Senator Blair. It is very likely that butterine may sell better thau l>our butter. But the oleomargarine people will never pretend that oleomargarine is better than good butter. Mr. Coy. I will make this one suggestion, whicli will cover the idea I have about it, and then I will not say anything more, because there- has been a great deal said upon this subject. The Egyptians, in the dark ages, at the time of tbe building of the pyramids, worshipped a, bull, an idol, and in the days of Moses the people fell down and wor- shipped a golden calf. If this bill becomes a law in the present Con- gress we may have the spectacle presented of an altar being erected iuc America, in the nineteenth century, for the worship of the dairy cow, and a law prescribing sacrifices more galling than any hideous god ever made; because every man, woman, and child, without regard to age or color, health or sickness, three times a day, will have to sacrifice some of their hard earnings upon this altar, or, as a penance, eat dry bread. If you pass this law you i)rohibit the manufacture, sale, and use of ole- omargarine, and you i>ut it into the hands of the dairymen so that they can charge an advanced price for butter, or fix whatever price they see fit, and the poor i)eople throughout the country have to go without or pay those exorbitant prices. The Chairman. What did they do before this wonderful inventioR was discovered? Mr. Coy. Tbey went without, I suppose : that is, they could not afford to pay for butter. Senator Blair. Butter was not so high ? Mr. Coy. No, sir; the price was not as high. These ravages in New England had not commenced where the oleomargarine has rotted dowD the houses. 182 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. Senator Sawyer. Do you believe that there is any other way to regu- late it besides coloring it ? '^''ould there not be a license tax, a light tax, so that the Government could control it and so that it would be abso- lutely certain that it was sold for what it was without doing any injus- tice to any one ? Mr. Coy. I do not know but what that could be accomplished. Senator Sawyer. There is no way for the Government to deal with this matter unless they do it through a tax ; at least I do not know how it can. But if the tax was made a light one, so that the Government could absolutely control the matter and know absolutely what was dro[)ose to disprove. For instance, Mr. Moreland, secietary of the American Agricultural and Dairy Association, says: "I stand here to sj)eak of the capital invested, 16,000,000 cows, worth in the aggregate $()00,000,000." He also says : Had it not been for this oleomargarine fraud, instead of 10,000,000 of dairy cows in this country tiiere would to day be 25,000,000, and this vast number of cows would be worth $1,000,000,000." Again he says: "Our farms have depreciated in value for the reason that there is no demand for our dairy j nod acts.'' 184 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. Mr, Joseph H. Eeall, presiileiit of the Ameiicaii Agiicultuial and Dairy Association, says : " I speak in belialf of tbe owners of 15,000,000 milcb cows, enii)loyed in tlie ])r;ew Hampshire, Michi- gan, Indiiiiia, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Tennessee, and Kentucky." He says : " We have kept away fiom Congress for ten years, tr^, ing all other means, only to find the evil growing daily and the dairy business declining, until now we must have relief or the nation loses an imi)ortant industry"— -showing that these disastrous results have been going on for ten years. I speak of this because I have taken the last results of the Depaitment of Agriculture, the rejiort of 1884, and consequently can co\er but eight of the last ten years. With more authority, the chairman of the Committee on Agriculture of the House in his report, submitted on the 28th of A^^ril, favoring a tax of 10 cents per pound on oleomargarine, is reported to have said, that — After au exhaustive examination tbe committee tind that there are in the United States ov. r 15,000,000 cows, producing annually over 1,000,000,000 pounds of butter, and 300.000,000 pounds of cheese, worth |2oO,000,000 ; that an amount of milk of equal value is annually consumed, makiug the value of the annual products of tbe dairy interests $500,000,000 ; that cows \sere worth on tbe average $40 per head until tbe introduction of counterfeit butter, aud are now worth but $30 each, making a total loss of $150,000,000 in milch cows alone. I have here, gentlemen, some diagrams which have been prepaied with great care, which show the average value of milch cows from 1' 10 to 1884; the number of milch cows in the United States from 1870 to 1880; the average value of principal farm cioi)sfrom 1870 to 1882; the avti age monthly wages of farm labor from 18(30 to 1882 ; the ])ercentage changes in the acreage and values ot the hay and all crops of the farm from 1874 to 1883 ; the exports, in pounds, of butter and oleomargarine since 1877 ; the fluctuations of value ])er pound of the butter and oleo- margarine exported since 1877; the butter and cheese productic us of Canada for the years 1851, 1861, 1871, and 1881 ; the average va\v per head ot farm animals from 1870 to 1884, and the changes in valees of farm aninnils by per cent, of values iu 1870. The diagrajus and explanatory statements submitted by Prof'issor Collier in tliis connection are as follows: Diagram No. 1 exhibits the tinctuation in the value i)er head of milch cows in the United States, as also in the States of Wisconsin and Illinois from 1870 to 1884. These tigures are all taken from the statistical reports of the De- paitment of Agriculture, the last annual report being that of 1884. The Elgin Board of Trade, in a recent resolution declared that " the uianufactare of oleomargarine has depreciated the value of all dairy cattle in these States (Wisconsin and Illinois) by at least $10 per head." Since 1872 cows have been continuously lower than iu 1884. Diagram No. 2 shows the number of milch cows and their average value per head since 1870. It will be seen that there has been an un- interrupted and steady increase in the number of milch cc vvs iuce 1870, without any refeience whatever to the very great iiuctuatio. s in price, thus proving that the profits of the dairy at any period wt ■ re- garded as being fully as good as any other branch of the agricui ral industry, and that those profits were controlled by causes which coer- f $ e t f fe" i f i f ^? i" ^ 1 \ i > / ^ ^ r" »*• '• •' ,- ^^ y y. ^ i ^ >? ^ § ;i > S ^ A ''J ¥ tt « 6 / / / / / r J. j ^ ^ f 1 ) I 1 1 7 / ^ ^ 1 1 t i 1 f J ? > f 7 f ^ ^ - ;- ? -* y y y ^ y s ^ 1 \ \ k N \ \ \ S s ^ ^r' i f f \ \ \ S ^ ^^ ,, *N -• '- \ \ ^. s \ V >K V ^v -s. S V, s s >J H, ^ ^ ^ > \ 1 1 % \ \ \ ^ f 1 1 1 I i r 4 'if ■-♦-1= f ^" f? e ? f ■f f ^^ l\ Si. ^ ^ _1 1 -•«» « 1 11. 000. 000 lO.OOO.OOO ^ fe* is 1 i ni 1 1 n^ I « [ "\ ._„_ ^ -V-^-/ ■ < ■ ^ i 3 ^ 4 \ A. \ 1- ^ fe v. < ^ ^ 5? \ is \ \ 1 \ tl J L \_^_ w i 1 / 4 - \|__ . ^ e &" ^^ L^ ^"^ s*^ 1 ■5) 1^ ^ ^ /' y y X y y y t^ ^ 1 ^ ^ / / / / / / / ^ ^ X y y y ^ y y y iK* ii ^ \ \ ^ ^ / / / / / ^ ^ •s, ><«, V •^ «> >. »«, "> ■N "V, i / 1 \ \ ^ 1 ^ j fe ^" e i i i ^^ i ^" 5f fc t> <1 < I I kl Ki 1*4 Kl 90 s? 5 ?> ;^i ^> to kl ^ Q^ !^ «g kj kj k„ kj ^ 4= *. «» Oi N Oi tn >;i. Ca (\j 7 r » ■ / 1 ^ & ^ fe \ \i._\ . / / r / f 1 i , ^ \/l i 1- e 55 1 g ^ § >si ki >M ki Si ^ S fe ^ ^ 5^ 12. <\5 1 5. 5. is ^ ^ s. ■». •^ X V k •N »«. V, V ^ ^ \l ^ t. ?. ^ - -. •^ ■^ •»• ■^ ^ ^ ■^ < 5! ^ ^ ^ ^ r \ \ ^ & ^s N s s s ^ r^ /> y y y y y ^ ^ «<• «* ^ ««• y / ^ i P ; / r "n s >N V V s N N N| ^ ^ V s •s S s •N V 's V V s s S s ^ ^ \ i5 1 ^ .*• ^ -^ ^ ^ ^ ^ t^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 5.. 1 1 5i 1 1, 1 1^ i 1 !5J Ki <5> to *> "^ ft ?.h >b. 5) s «, ft ft ft ft ft ft ft 55 !ft ft ft ft ft ft H4 Q <5) ft ft ft ft ft ,ft ft ^- k J i>i r 5>l / / / / Im / <>l / / ^ / / ki Y t$ ^ to c* M ft, «j. ^ C^, ^ ,ft 55. SS ,ft .ft i& ^ lished annual re- ports of which I Lave a set, and the last i»ubiished was 1884. The Chairman. I think the bulk of the farmers, so far as I know, would be delighted to know that their cows were wortb more now than they were two years ago. Professor CoLLiER. This does not seem to assert that. The Chairman. If they could only be made to believe it and could get the money it would be \'ery satisfactory. Professor Collier. But the figures from the Agricultural Depart- ment show that there has been a continuous increase in the average value from 1879 up to 1885. What it was for 18S6 I do not know. 1 t f C5 ^ a , : i , ; i 1 1 1 in 1 1 1 i 1 1 1 i i 1 L 1 1 ! ' ■ 1 fj 1 ■ /*" ! 1/3 ' 1 i 1 ' I ^ i / r S fe 1 1 !. ? V f t i 1 /. r: f / /^ » a ^ [ 1 / 23 I J / J / } 3 fe 1 1 f 1 ^ / / / p s ^ i / J / / 5J / / / / / f / / 55 f J f 4 / / r ^ •^ fe i / / / r ^ ^ t ( L \ \ S fe \ \ 1 \ S s \ \ \ \ \ \ 2 fe \ \ \ s s s N, \ \ V g ^ t ^ \ ^ \ \ S ^ ;^ 2^ r 3^ r r r ^ ^ ] ^ S' o 5S ?1 0-? % g ^ ^ &? b^ ^ / ^ ^ ^ \ 2 * «* y -" ^ of *" & f ", ^ ? «* ^ i . <* / f / > / A \ \ f3 { / ^ ^ / / ^ / / / / / f- 1 a ^ \ \ \ ^ ^ < 9 <- ^ ^ ^ y f* / / 9} A ? i' ^ ^ / / / ? \ / / / \ \ / / / / / / / / / / / / y / y r 2 ^ ^ y ^ / / / y K* ** <* *" *-- / / ^ y y y ^ / ^ ^ \ \ \ s s \ s \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ -2 s. s s s 1 S s \ S \ \ s \ \ N S \ S s S ^ V S \ \ N N •>, ■*. v s > •s "s, 5! , K s s s s V s ■^ V s, ^ *. •<« •> >«. ■^ >. s S s 'A ^ ^ s s «^l i - \ < ^ V ^ \ '< Si ^ s S ^, N S \ 1 ! 1 1 1 1 1* , 5^ 5^ 90 8 s ^ -u s a i IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 187 Senator Blair. 1 would like to ask a question or two of Professor Baljcock. What are the principal substauces which you obtain from the animal which are mixed with the dairy products and make the oleo- margarine and butteriue ? Prolessor Babcock. There are steariue, palmatin, olein and margarine. Those are the chemical names of well-dotined fatty bodies, which are slightlj modified in the fats of different animals, but belong to the same general class. Senator Blair. 1 understood from yourself or Professor Morton that sonje of these substances are obtained from cotton seed. Professor Babcock. A certain amount of stearine and more of the product known as olein are obtained from cotton seed. Senator Blaie, Are any of those substances obtained from other veg- etable sources than cotton seed. Professor Babcock. Oh, yes, sir; all vegetable oils, what are called fatty oils. Senator Blair. Please mention some of the vegetable substauces which yield them most freely and are most cheaply obtained by ])roper and suitable ])rocesses. . Professor Babcock. Palm oil contains less of olein and more of stearine, solid bodies, and is used for making soap largely. Senator Blair. That comes from the palm tree. Professor Babcock. Yes, sir. Senator Blair. I want to know the vegetable growths from which these substances can be obtained most cheaply and plentifully. Professor Babcock. Do you mean, to be used in making butter! Senator Blair. Yes. Professor Babcock. Palm oil is not of that character. Senator Blair. I ask you what other sources of" competition the dairy interests have by tLie taking of these outside substances and painting them the color of the dairy product. Professor Babcock. There are a great many bodies which contain stearine, margarine, and olein. Perhaps, as a very general statement, it might be said that all fatty bodies contain one oi the other ot these in different ])roi>ortions. So does butter. In addition to this pure but- ter contains -i or 5 per cent., and that only, of quite a number of fatty bodies which give it a liavor. Some of those were mentioned in the list ot dangerous poisons which it was alleged were referred to in the speciticatioiis of patents for making these couipounds. Senator Blair. Is there anything but cotton seed growing in this country that is likely to yield these oils to an appreciable extent so as to be utilized in the manufacture of oleomargarine or butteriue, or any substance competing with i)ure dairy butter 'I Professor Babcock. There does not at this moment occur to me any vegetable product other than cotton seed which would be likely to be substituted or used in that way. Senator Blair. If cotton seed was utilized to as full an extent as it could be for that purpose, to what extent would it compete with the au- mal fats ? Professor Babcock. It must be solidified ; it couhl not be used as a whole, because it is a fluid. Senator Blair. How is that done ? Professor Babcock. By a mixture with solid fat. Senator Blaik. Which must come from the animal ? Professor Babcock. Yes, sir. Senator Blair. There is no way of dispensing with the anima' alto- gether ''. 18S IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. Professor Babcook. I know of noue. Senator Blair. Then there must be some natural limit to the amount of oleomargarine and butterine which can be produced in the country ? Professor Babcock. I never heard any one of intelligence doubt that proposition. Senator Blair. What is that limit, as it is in your mind ? Professor Babcock. 1 could not say. I do not know. I should have to guess at it ; I have not any data at all. But the amount could be estimated (based upon figures which I have not) about the production of cotton seed. Senator Blair. But probably cotton seed is not an important factor in this, is it ? Professor Babcock. No, sir, I think not. The Chairman. Mr. Webster said they used but a very little of it. STATEMENT OF ELMER WASHBURN. Mr. Elmer Washburn, of Chicago, next addressed the committee : Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee: I am engaged in the banking business at the Union Stock-Yards at Chicago. I am a mem- ber of the Chicago Live Stock Exchange, and am here in company with two other members of that association, asking a hearing before your honorable committee upon the pending legislation "imposing a tax upon and regulating the manufacture, sale, im])ortation, and exportation of oleomargarine." Our exchangehas a membership of two hundred, among whom are the largest feeders, dealers, shippers, and slaughterers of live stock, the largest packers, canners, and shippers of meats, the largest margarine, and butterine in the woild. We are here in the interests of shippers of dresseassage of this bill are the interests represented by our exchange, amounting in values invested to $100,000,000, and giving employment to 30,000 men, upon whose daily wages 90,000 people sub- sist. It has been claimed by the dairymen, or some one representing them, that competition with butterine and oleomargarine manufacturers has been so destructive to their interests that it has compelled the sale, at a great sacrifice, of as many as 300,000 milch cows in one year, at the Union Stock Yards of Chicago. The facts do not justify any such statement. In 1885 there were slaughtered at the Chicago yards 11 7,794 branded or range cows ; 83,925 native cows; total, 201,729. The branded or range cows were never fit for, nor used as, milch cows. Of the total number of native cows at least 90 per cent, were totally dry, and, by reason of age or barrenness, whollj" unfit for milch purposes. The other 10 per cent, could not be called good milch cows, and found their way to the slaughter houses because of vicious habits or for simi- lar reasons. It is not true that cows fit for dairy purposes are slaugh- tered in Chicago in any numbers, as they always sell readily to dairy- men for more than they would bring for slaughtering purposes. It is further claimed that this competition is fast destroying the ex- port trade in dairy butter. There must be some mistake in that claim ; for, while the statistics show that our exports of cattle, salted beef, tal- low, lard, cheese, and butter were considerably less during the first five months of 1886 than the first five months of 1885, both in the aggregate and in separate items, the statistics also show that of all these articles the exports of butter alone during the month of May, 1886, show a marked increase over the month of May, 1885, while they show a marked decrease in the exi)ortation of all of the cattle and hog products for the same time. My statement in relation to these exports may be easily verified at the Bureau of Statistics. The Chairman. How do you account for that ! Mr. Washburn. I am unable to account for it. The Chairman. Is it not a commercial fact that butter only goes abroad according to the range of the foreign price ; that when butter is low in New York City it is shipped abroad, and when it is high it does not go abroad at all ? If butter was lower in May, 1885, tlian usual, the tendency would be to export it until it reached the export price or became too high to export. Mr. Washburn. When the batter market is low, of course the export trade is larger. The bill under consideration provides that the manu- facturer of oleomargarine, butterine, &c., shall be taxed $600, the whole- saler $480, and the retailer $48 per year. I would respectfully call the attention of the committee to the tax at present required of those engaged in rectifying and dealing in liquors, and dealing in tobacco, to wit : Rectifier, accordiug to capacity, $100 to |20U 00 Wholesale liquor dealer 100 00 Retail liquor dealer 25 00 Wholesale dealer in malt liquor 50 00 Retail dealer in malt luiuor 20 00 Dealer in manufactured tobacco 2 40 I will also add that the honorable Commissioner of Internal Revenue in his report for the fiscal year ending June, 1882, recommended the IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 191 reduction of all of these taxes (except that of the dealer in manufactured tobacco, which has since been reduced from |5 to its present sum) 40 per cent., and at the same time he said: " The su()ervision over dealers in taxable articles, which experience has shown to be necessary iu order to fully and fairly collect the taxes from all alike, would still be pre- served." So it can be seen that our Bureau of Internal Revenue has, at one time at least, considered only the smallest sum of taxation neces- sary in order to maintain its supervision over taxable articles. We do not want and are not willing that any tax should be placed on these food products; we deny the right to tax them until the pro- ceeds of such taxation are needed for revenue, and then we will bear the burden manfully aud i)ay the tax without defalcation or discount. We only want to be let alone to pursue an houest living in an honest way. While we can neither see nor understand any legitimate reason for taxing these products in any sum, it is still more difficult for us to understand why (if indeed any one has conceived any legitimate reason for taxing them in any form) it is proposed to make the tax so largely in excess of the amount levied upon persons engaged in manufacturing and selling liquors and tobacco. We can neither discern sound policy nor justice in taxing the manufacture of a wholesome food product three or six times as much as a manufacturer of alcoholic drink, nor the wholesale dealer in the food four and four-fifths times as much as the wholesale dealer iu whisky, nor the retail dealer in the food twice as much as the retail dealer in whisky, nor the wholesale dealer in the food nine and three-fifths times as much as the wholesale dealer in beer, nor the retail dealer in the food twice and two fifths times as much as the retail dealer in beer, nor the retail dealer in the food twenty times as much as the dealer in tobacco. In short, it is proposed by this bill to tax an industry which is supplying a wholesome and almost indispeusa- ble food product, and to make that tax very much heavier than the tax already levied by the Government upon a calling which, in part at least, is stuffing our almshouses, ciammiug our jails, filling our prisons, and supplying candidates for the gallows. We cannot satisfactorily ac- count for this proposed inconsistency, and fancy that it will be hard in- deed for candidates on the stump to explain why it is that a poor man must pay 25 to 30 cents per pound for an abominable and unwholesome article of dairy butter, when but for the passage of this bill he would have buttered his crust for 10 to 12 cents per ijound with a sweet, pure, aud wholesome article of oleomargarine. A word in relation to the purity and healthfulness of these products. I have frequently visited our manufactories of oleo oil, oleonjargarine, butterine, &c., and I have always found them cleanly and in good order, and have never seen or heard of anything of a suspicious or doubtful character being used in or about these works. I recently went through one of our factories with a party of some dozen gentlemen from Bos- ton and surrounding country, and they all expressed themselves well satisfied with the product aud the methods of its manufacture, and de- clared themselves " converts to butterine." Our manufactories of these products are situated in the town of Lake, adjoining the city of Chicago on the south. This township has a pop- ulation of 60,000, and it is safe to say that 90 per cent, of them, rich and i)oor, eat this imitation butter. I have beon engaged in business in that community three and a half years, and have never witnessed but one funeral i)rocessiou, and I believe that there is no land under the sun where the human race is more prolific, or enjoy better health. For the past three mouths I have used oleomargarine exclusively, in 11)2 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. lieu of dairy butter, and in a liouse-keei)ino;- experieuoe of twenty-five years I have never before known what it was to have uniformly good butter for that length of time. It is claimed by the dairymen that the manufacture of oleomargarine and butterine is interfering with their business and rendering it un- profitable, and if continued, that their occupation will be gone. While we do not admit the existence of such conditions, we are forced to ask, what if they do exist ? Is it sound public policy, is it lawful, to tax one industry to support and perpetuate another ? Paths of commerce change and vast cities go into decay. The march of improvement lays a heavy hand upon some industries and builds up others. Such has been the history of the world, and such may be the result of honest competition. And to quote an eminent lawyer who has written well upon this subject, " the dairyman is only having his share of the burden of advancing civilization." And we now submit that if any legitimate reason exists for taxing and supervising the man- ufacture of butter made from beef fat and cream, the same reason ex- ists for taxing and supervising the manufacture of butter claimed to be made from cream alone. Our ihterests are immense and varied. Competition presents many rough corners, and we naturally guard with jealous care the reputation of our market. For doing this, parties representing the dairy interest here have sought to stigmatize us with the name of " stockyard gang." But in closing, I wish to assure the committee that the stockyard gang never will appear in Washington extending the hand of a mendi- cant to Congress, and beseeching them to tax the daily food of every man, woman, and child in the land to perpetuate a waning business, to use the language of the dairymen, " to set us on our feet." STATEMENT OF D. C. WAGNER. Mr. Chairman and gentleman of the committee : I came here at the instance of the Live Stock Exchange of the city of Chicago with a del- egation, of which Elmer Washburn, esq., is chairman, and Hon. Iras Coy and myself members. The Livestock Exchange represents an in- dustry compared with which the dairy business cannot even claim sec- ond place. I shall not attempt to give you comparative figures. These you already have, and if *' figures don't lie," you will have had all you want to arrive at an intelligent conclusion. I will simply submit that, in my humble judgment, you will first have to decide the question upon which all other questions relating to this problem hang, namely, are each and all the component parts that make up and finish the product known and sold as oleomargarine, butterine, &c., wholesome, healthy hu- man food f If yes, then I apprehend you will have done all you consist- ently can or ought to do as between domestic competitors. If, however, on the other hand, you decide that this product is deleterious, injurious, or hurtful to health, then, through the health department, condemn and prohibit its manufacture and sale. Otherwise let it take its place legit- imatelj' in the commercial world on its own merits. After the question of healthfulness of the product shall have been es- tablished the demand for the consumption of the product will only be circumscribed by taste, superinduced or limited, as the case may be, by one's necessities. Taxing an internal product, unless it be a luxury, will hardly be tolerated in times of profound peace, and I imagine that the IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 193 friends of this bill would hardly consent to the distinction when applied to this product. Personally, I never expect to habitually use oleomar- garine or butterine in my familj", not, however, because of any scru- ples or prejudice in the matter, but simply because I have farmer friends who su{)ply me, and have for many years, with the old-fashioned home- made butter, churned in the old sining-house manner. But there have been times in the past when, for various reasons, we failed to get our glorious old-fashioned butter in time, and then has come our discontent. On one of these occasions, not many months since, I asked the butler or steward of a restaurant, where I have been taking one meal per day for years past, where he got his butter ; it was good, nearly, if not quite, as good as my old country butter; in fact, he always had good butter, even before butterine was made. He answered by saying it was butterine. Well, I did not then believe him, but upon investigation the story of the butler was duly corroborated, aud not only so, but I found I had been eating it once a day for months. 1 am quite sure you will ask me whether I still like it as well as 1 did before I knew the name of it. Well, I don't care to answer that question directly, but will say that whenever I get short on my old-fashioned country home-made article, I shall buy this much-abused butterine in preference to the so- called dairv butter commonlv on sale in the Chicago market. STATEMENT OF GEORGE W. SLADE. I am a member of the firm of Allen, Slade & Co., of Fall River, Mass., wholesale grocers. Tlie tirm has been in existence a little over twenty years. We deal largely in cream butter and oleomargarine and but- terine. We commenced the sale of butterine about twelve or thirteen years ago, when it was first introduced into New England. Our busi- ness in these goods, at first small, has gradually increased. Our city has a population of about 60,000, 17,000 of which are cotton factory operatives, who, with their families, number 35,000 to 40,000 persons. These ])eople consume oleomargarine almost exclusively. The goods are sold in 10- pound tubs, with the full knowledge on the part of the consumer of their character. These tubs are all marked and sold in accordance with the Massachusetts law, being stamped with the word " oleomargarine " or " butterine " u])on the top and sides in one-half inch Gothic letters. One of our largest retail grocers constantly advertises these goods under their true name in the daily papers, price $1.10 per 10 pound tub. I have never heard any complaint as to the character of the goods or of any sickness occasioned by their use. We should regard it as a calamity to the poor i)eople if they were to be taxed upon an article which now costs them all they are able to pay for it. Fall River is in coiupetition with the world in the manufacture of cotton goods, and we should regard any tax upon a food product, used largely by our operatives, as being quite as detrimental to our interests as a manufactuiing city as a tax would be upon any of our improved machinery. We are stockholders in nearly all of the large cotton mills of Fall River. 17007 OL 13 194 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. STATEMENT OF WILLIAM B. CLARK. I am of the firm of Clark Bros., of Worcester, Mass., wholesale pro- duce dealers. We make a specially of bandliug" oleomargarine and have done so for seven years. So far as I know, the Massachusetts law is generally complied with. I recently saw in the hands of a party engaged in collecting oleomar- garine tubs from families for packing lard 01 empty 10-pound tubs, all of which had regular oleomargarine stencils upon them as required by statute. About three-quarters of our sales reach the consumers in the original marked packages, mostly lO-ponnd tubs. Consumers of these goods in Worcester and vicinity do not altogether belong to the poorer classes, though the larger number of them do. I am personally acquainted with several farmers in our neighborhood who sell their milk and do not make batter, who regularly purchase butterine to use upon their tables. Our firm is interested in several creameries in Vermont, and we have not seen that the sale of oleomargarine interferes with or lowers the price of fresh made creamery butter. STATEMENT OF J. MERRILL CURRIER. I am a member of the firm of J. M. Currier & Co., of Lawrence, Mass. Our business has been that of retail dealers in groceries and provisions since 1850. Among the articles which we keep for sale are the best grades of butter, and within the last five years we have dealt in oleo- margarine. We commenced the sale of these goods because our cus- tomers demanded them, and because if we did not supply them we found that they would goto our competitors, so that we thus lost their trade for other goods. We have found the call for these goods to con- stantly increase, and that they give general satisfaction. We have less complaint from them than from our cream butter of prime quality. We account for this from its uniform character and quality. We have never heard that any person was made sick by it or that it was unhealthful. Many of our customers say they prefer it to creamery butter, which costs much more. Our customers for this article are principally labor- ing peojile with families, and I understand they use it for the purpose of saving money with which they are able to procure other necessities. The law in our State, so far as I know, is very generally observed, and is thought to be a sufiicient protection against imposition. Every one who buys oleomargarine at our store knows what he is buying, and no one gets it unless he calls for it. If a person calls for butter he gets butter, and if he calls for oleomar- garine he gets that. We desire and intend to continue our business in this way. We do not wish to be obliged to say that the price has gone up 5 or 10 cents per pound, or that we cannot furnish it, because the Government has ])utsuch a tax upon it, while the corresponding article on the rich man's table is exempted from this burden, and all for the benefit of those who are better off than those upon whom the real biwdeu would come. So far as I know, the feeling in the community in which I live is unanimous in the opinion that any tax would be unjust and bear heavily upon those who are the least able to sustain it. IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 195 STATEMENT OF T. C. EASTMAN. Gentlemen : I have heard the statement of Mr. G. H. Webster, of Chicago, before your committee. So far as it concerns the fatty product of cattle, it is in the main correct. I have been in the business of handling and slaughtering cattle for thirty years, and for the past few years have handled over 100,000 yearly, which have been used mostly in foreign markets. My c]nnion is, that any tax on oleomargarine would materially aft'ect the price of the i)roducts of all beef cattle sold in the United States, and that the amount so aftected would fall indirectly on the producer. In my opinion, therefore, to tax the cattle growers of the Middle and Western States by tlie levying of a duty upon a com- pleted product derived from cattle would be a very unjust thing to do, and if rightly understood would not be done. There is already ample evily because of its alleged conflict with another article of trade? On behalf, then, gentlemen, of the beef-cattle interest of tbe section I represent, which interest includes in its scope hnnring-time we found we had no outlet for them and we would ship them to Liver])ool, and the^' were sold as American butter. But on account of the oleo, the fresh flavored oleo which they claim to make over on the other side (and I dare say they make a very good article of goods), it has become impossible for us to find a market for anything on that side except the finest grade of creamery butter. I do not claim that it is any advantage to the farmer to make poor butter. I claim that cream, properly handled, will produce a fine ar- ticle of butter the year round, and every day in tlie year, and because the farmer who has been making his butter and selling it at from 3 to 204 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 5 and 8 cents a pound is being driven out of that business, it is no in- jury to bini, but rather a benefit. I claim that the creamery system which is now practiced in this country and the cheese-factory system bave been of great vakie to the dairyman and the consumer. But, on the other hand, I doubt if they could have reached their present stand- ard, if they could have accomplished as much as they have, had it not been for the oleo which has been taking the place so largely of the cheap grade of butter that tiie farmer was obliged to sell his milk to the creamery because the people would not buy or consume his cheap dairy butter. The shippers will buy fresh creamery at the present time, and it is about the only article in the dairy line which they are willing to buy. Admitting that this oleo is a healthy article of food, I see no reason why the people should not have it, those who cannot afford to buy fine butter. Last winter our prices of butter were beyond the reach of men in ordinary circumstances. The Chairman. Do you refer to the price of it iu your creameries or the general i)rice ? Mr. Simpson. The general price. I thiuk my friends will bear me out iu the statement that the prices averaged about 35 cents at whole- sale for along time, and I can prove it by the price current. I know our price for milk ran an average for three months, and we vary the price of milk on the market from July. I am satisfied that the retail price of fine butter could not have been below 40 cents in Boston or New York for at least three months, and I think it was a little more than that. The Chairman. You buy your milk based on the market price for butter ? Mr. Simpson. Yes, sir. The Chairman. Then if butter goes down as it is now to 18 cents or even to 16 cents, as a good deal of it is, you would not be the loser at all ! Mr. Simpson. We would not be except in this way The Chairman. It would all come out of the farmer who furnishes the milk"? Mr. Simpson. No, sir. We make out prices at the first of the month as a rule. Take the month of April ; Me paid more for milk during that month than we (;ould afford to, because wlien we started in in the month the price was higher and declined. It was the same in May. We paid above the market value for milk in April and May. On the other hand, • we shall ])robably offset that, which is only fair, when the advance comes in the fall of the year. The Chairman. But your interest in the buying of the milk would not injure you, because you are getting your price on the value of the butter iu the market? Mr. Simpson. Yes ; just as the manufacturer regulates his price on the value of the product which he uses. The Chairman. But if you were to use the milk and cow, what then? Mr. Simpson. That is further back than we wish to go. The Chairman. Very well ; but you gave it as your opinion that the reason our export of butter had fallen off" so largely was that poor but- ter had been sent abroad, and therefore had injured the market for American butter. Is it not true that butter does not go abroad at all until it reaches a certain price at which it will be taken by the foreign market, and that the price is the entire regulator of the matter? Mr. Simpson. To a certain extent; but when we had under the old system no outlet for our cheap butter in the spring of the year, there IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 205 was nothing else for us to do but to ship it, muiI get rid of it at the best price we could get. The Chairman. It went abroad for the best price you could get, without regard to cost, as any surplus does ? Mr. Simpson. Yes, sir. The Chairman. Do you not think the manufacture of oleomargarine and the export of oleomargarine has also had a tendency to depress the price abroad f Mr. Simpson. Yes, sir ; I dare say it has. Senator Jones. Bo you mean of all grades, or that low grade of but- ter simply ? Mr. Simpson. I think possibly it may have had a tendency to reduce the price of all grades to some extent, but fine butter has been affected but very little indeed. The Chairman. According to the reports of the markets, particu- larly the New York market, I noticed this morning that the best cream- ery butter from New York State or from Iowa is quoted at 18 cents a pound. Now do you not think the large amount of butterine and oleo- margarine made and sold in the country has reduced the price of that dairy butter very materially at the present time ? Mr. Simpson. If you mean creamery butter, I do not think so. I think that in 1879 butter averaged at as low a price as to-day. The Chairman. I am speaking of the price to-day. Do you think if there was no olemargarine or butterine made, that fine creamery butter would be sold in New York to-day for 18 cents a pound"? Mr. Simpson. It might be. But I say the purchasing power of a dol- lar was never so great as to-day. In 1879 I claim butter was sold as low as it is this year, and that was before butterine came into use to any extent. The Chairman. I understood you to say that, in your judgment, the manufacture and use of oleomargarine and butterine had not materially reduced the price of creamery butter? Mr. Simpson. I so stated for the reason that we were able to sell creamery butter during the winter months at 38 cents a pound, and that is high enough, and that is the time when they use the most of the butterine. In the face of all this, when they were making so large an amount of butterine and buying creamery butter to put into it to make a fine grade, I say in the face of that there was a high price being asked and received, and milk was very short for fine butter for weeks. Senator Blair. Is it not a fact that what you call '*fine butter" is a luxury of life rather than one of its necessaries ? Mr. Simpson. Yes, sir; at certain seasons of the year. Senator Blair. And it depends on purchasers who know very little of the ordinary struggles tor life I Mr. Simpson. Y'es; the finest of it. The Chairman. What do you mean by a " fine " butter ; do you mean creamery made butter 1 Mr. Simpson. No, sir ; not all creamery made butter. The Chairman. Do you mean fine butter, then, simply a fancy or gilt- edge grade that is sold to people at 75 cents or a dollar a pound ? Mr. Simpson. No, sir. The Chairman. I supposed not. I supposed you meant by fine but- ter a creamery butter ? Mr. Simpson. No, sir ; I mean more than that, an extra creamery but- ter grade in New York and Boston markets, which is quoted as extra creamery butter. 206 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. Senator Blair. What would tbat sell for at retail ? Mr, Simpson. At about 25 to 27 cents, the retail jobber getting about 5 cents, and the retailer 2 cents. Senator Blair. I am speaking of fine butter. I think you mentioned 38 cents. Mr. Simpson. But that was last winter. Butter is just about 50 per cent, lower now than it was last winter, and it is no unusual thing for it to be that much lower June, for that was the case before oleo came in. Senator Blair. Generally is much butter manufactured in the sum- mer? Mr. Simpson. No, sir ; I would say not. I would not suppose they would try to niake any of the higher grades, and I do not think they do. Senator Blair. Why not? Mr. Simpson. Because butter is so cheap it would not pay them to do it, and they have all the higher grades of butterine put iu the market against butter. The Chairman. Are you interested in the manufacture or sale of oleomargarine 'I Mr. Simpson. Yes ; a little oleomargarine. The Chairman. Where is that made ? Mr. Simpson. It is made in the West. The butter business of course is a much larger business with us. For instance, our milk bill is $1,000 a day at the present time. We make a half a cent a pound profit on it. Our reason for doing it is this, that we have a certain class of trade who demand it. We opposed the manufacture and sale of it for years, ex- cept that we believed it should be manufactured and sold for what it is. I believe that now. I believe every restriction which can possibly be thrown about it should be placed upon it injustice to the manufact- urer, dealer, and consumer. We think they should be treated alike in these matters. We commenced to handle these goods a year ago last Aj^ril. We formerly had a large trade iu Gloucester; they bought our cheapest butter and ke])t driving away from us until we lost every one of them for that class of goods. We still retained their trade on the fine goods because they could not get anything better, I suppose, and we found that all our trade iu that direction had drifted away, and we thought it better to have some of these goods for them if they wanted them. We make no special effort to sell it, but the result is that most of the Gloucester trade has drifted back and is buying this oleomarga- rine for a cheap grade of goods. I think this is the experience of thous- ands of people. A gentleman was speaking to me here in Washington to-day who handles nothing but fine butter, and he said the time was not far distant when we would have butterine on our hands. Senator Blair. Is not the tendency of the whole thing towards the amalgamation of the dairy and the oleomargarine products ? Mr. Simpson. JS^o, sir; I do not think so. I think they will separate as my tv\u fingers will. I think many people will never buy oleomar- garine if they can't get fine butter — that is good enough for me. The Chairman. You do not eat oleomargarine yourself? Mr. Simpson. No, sir; I eat the finest creamery butter. The Chairman. Are you interested at all in the manufacture of oleo- margarine. Mr. Simpson. We sell them both. I understand the whole thing, Senator. I am a stockholder in the George H. Hammond Company, but 1 have no i>art in the management of the company. I also am IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 207 president of a refrigerator car line, which brings butterine and butter from the West. But I have nothing to do with butterine as far as that is concerned, and I have nothing to do with the management or manu- facture of it. I am only a stockholder. The Chairman. Are you interested in the raising of cattle on the plains ! Mr. Simpson. Yes, sir; I am interested in them from the time they are grown in the West until they reach the butcher's block. The Chairman. Then it would not make much difference to you which way the thing wentf Mr. Simpson. Yes, it would, and for this reason : I started twenty years ago in Boston, and I commenced in Northern Kew York to buy butter, and we gave that up and started West, and we have worked up from a very small business to a good one, and I take a pride in the but- ter business. Our brand of butter is the best known of any brand any- where, and for that reason I propose to continue in the butter business if I give up everything else, and I propose to bring up my boys in it. We put it in tins and send it all over the world ; we supply the United States Government with it. We use nothing but pure cream and salt and color. We are down on these creamery men of the West (if there are any of them — I do not know of any of them) who are using any adulteration, and sooner or later they will come to grief. One gentle- man who addressed you yesterday said the creaniery business was going to the wall, was closing up. We have kept on buying, and will buy them almost any time in our own section ; we will not go beyond that, because we are located. The Chairman. You have special advantages in disposing of your fine grades of butter, I suppose "? Mr. Simpson. No, sir ; no more than other men can get. The Chairman. You do not mean to say that you think all the farm- ers of Iowa can go to Boston and establish houses? Mr. Simpson. No, sir ; the middle men ought to have a chance in the world, and the farmer cannot put it into the consumer's hands ; that is not possible. On the other hand, we pay the farmer more for his milk than he could get for it otherwise. What is the cause of these creameries in New Hampshire f It is because they make it cleaner and better than it was made under the old process, and I do not think, therefore, that the creamery is any enemy to the common dairyman, and I do not think that oleomargarine is his enemy. If he will handle his milk properly and if he will make fine butter, like most of the single dairymen in Franklin County, Vermont, he will have no trouble in disposing of it. 1 do not think the farm dairies are going to the wall there, and the cows selling at a loss. I know farms are not selling at a loss in our locality in the West, and I have a partner in Northern New York who owns three hundred cows, and he says he does not recognize oleo as any competitor, because he can sell his milk; they manufacture it in the creameries as we do, and get as good a price for it as he would expect to get for any other product that he can raise on his farm. The Chairman. Is not this extra creamery butter sold in New York to-day for 16 to 18 cents substantially as good butter as you make f Mr. Simpson. I would say if it was they ought to get more money for it; I can. The Chairman. You seem to be fortunate. Mr. Simpson. I do not think it is because of my looks, but because I have the goods. The Chairman. Of course the great prices you obtain cannot be ob- tained by the farmers. 208 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. Mr. Simpson. No, sir; but I believe every year the percentagfe of fine butter is increasing. The fact is many people thought anybody could run a creamery. A large number were farmers, and they said, "We will not sell our milk to monopolists, but we will use it ourselves," and they have started creameries in a slipshod way, and have lost their money. Fine creamery butter can be uiade if you will pay the neces- sary attention to it, but not in any other way. You have to watch it carefully from the time the milk is received until the butter is packed for market. Other peoi)le have the same feed, the same cows, and the same facilities. We have no patent rights for running our creameries. The Chairman. Are you willing to state what you pay for milk now and what you get for butter now? Mr. Simpson. Yes, sir ; 1 am. The Chairman. I should be glad to have the figures. Mr. Simpson. We pay fifty cents a hundred pounds for milk, and lean proveby the dairy commissioner that the most of the neighbors around pay but foity-tive cents. What makes us do it"^ Because we have over $100,000 invested in creameries that are not worth fifty cents on the dollar without the patronage of the farm. Because prices run low for a few weeks we do not want to put prices so low as to discourage the farmer in making milk, and so we pay fifty cents, and it costs us about sixteen cents a pound to make it. The Chairman. But if butter should remain permanently low you could not aftbrd to pay that average price 1 Mr. Simpson. No, if it should continue so ; but it has never been the case that it has remained permaneiitly low ; it always opens up when the season opens uj). Senator Blair. 1 should like from your standpoint to have you give us your idea, very briefly, as to the occasion of this hearing, how it coQies about, this complaint, and what remed^y you would administer for it. Mr. Simpson. I think this hearing comes about in this way very largely. I think it comes from the early manufacturers of oleomarga- rine manufacturing it and the dealers selling it for butter. I do not think that that is fair play. I do not think the present oleomargarine manufacturers ask anything of that kind. I think they are satisfied that their product is so good, healthy, and cheaj) that it will sell on its merits. I think if sold on its merits for a year or two there will not be more need of this than there is to-day. I think the grocers would indi- vidually take hold and make a lead of it. They would say, " So mauy pounds of oleomargarine for a dollar," just as they say " So many pounds of sugar for a dollar." I believe that the population of the country has increased very much beyond the increase in the production of butter. I believe that fully ten million people would have been deprived of any butter, or substitute for butter, during the past winter, and I think roll butter would have been 50 cents a pound if it had not been for the oleo. I think that would have been the difference if it had not been for the manufacture of oleo. I think there is a demand for all the fine butter that cau be made at a fair price. The Chairman. Right there, speaking about the high price if there had been no oleo ; would not that matter regulate itself, as every other matter does, by the law of supply and demand ? If butter became high, would it not lead to the growing of a much larger number of cows and a much larger portion of the people of our country going into the dairy business, and would it not be self- regulating f IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 209 Mr. Simpson. To a certain extent, but there are only so many States in the dairy belt. Tiiey cannot make tine batter in Tennessee. The Chairman. We thoug^ht in New York ten years ago that tliere was not any other State in the Union that could make fine butter west of us, but we have discovered that in Iowa they make it just as good as they do in New York. Mr. Simpson. We claim that we can make it better, and we own dairies, in New York. I claim that the increase of popu'ation has gone far ahead of the increase of supply, aiul that if the farmers concluded tO' produce a larger amount of milk in the winter time, it would equalize this price. But they are not inclined to do it. There is no necessity for butter being so high in winter if the farmer would ariange to have a larger supply in winter and not have it so low in summer and averao^e the matter. The Chairman. Farmers as a body move very slowly in matters of that kind, but nevertheless they do move when the price is such as to warrant it; and if the price was likely to be permanently large, anj^- where near the figures you have mentioned, do you not suppose that the daily States could and would very largely increase the output of butter by increasing the number of cows "l They are not all stocked up to their capacity. Mr. Simpson. I think they wou-ld increase. But I do say this, that we have tried to encourage winter dairying ever since we have been ia Iowa by paying- a little more in the winter than we can afford to, trying to educate the farmer up to the fact of having a large supplv in winter when it was bringing double the price it does in summer. But we have not succeeded in doing it. We keep our creameries open and supply the trade at that loss. The fact is the trade is changing. A customer used to come and say, " We want a June butter." In a short time they would saj', "We want October butter." But now they want the finest fresh butter just as soon as they can get it, and all the leg'islation in the world will never bring people to eat the old flavored butter. Now I claim that the fresh oleo made by these gentlemen is better than an arti- cle of butter which is spoiled and not worth over 5 or 6 cents a pound , The Chairman. That is not worth eating at all, any more than si)oiled meat or vegetables. Mr. Simpson. I understaud that, and it is being driven out of the market. It applies not only to this, but to everything else. A few years ago the small towns in the Eastern States were satisfied with the class of beef they raised. Now, even as far east as Bangor, they want corn- fed beef, and they are producing more and more corn-fed cattle. Our company is commencing to fatten more and more cattle every year and makes a larger amount of this tallow and beef fat. I believe it would be very much less in value were it not for this manufacture of oleomar- garine. I received a telegram here yesterday from the Wyoming Stock- Growers' Association, an association of cattlemen representing a capi- tal of $100,000,000, which reads as follows : To George W. Simpson, Riggs House, Washington, D. C. : Present to Senate committee the united protest of this association, representing the range interests of Wyoming, Nebraska, and Dakota, against passage of oleomaro-arine bill, A prohibitory tax will destroy the piucipal market for tallow and decrease value of all beeves East and West fli per head. We consider it an honest food prod- uct when sold by its own name. We protest against injustice to our industry in order to aid another. JOHN A. McSHANE, THOMAS STURGIS, Officers Wyoming Stock-Growers' Assoeiaiion 17007 OL 14 210 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. Senator Blair, I want you to have an opportunity of answering the question you were proceeding to answer. 1 asked you how you would remedy this state of affairs 1 Mr. SiMJ'SON. 1 have to say this : That I have no i)lan in n)y mind, but 1 say distinctly that something should be done which would regu- late the manufacture and sale of this product. I think great injustice is being done to the consumer by charging him, as the retailer does when he sells it for butter, 1^5 per cent, above its commercial value. I claim that such a law as exists in New York State at the present time encourages the dealer to commit fraud — that very thing, a prohibitory law. Last winter it was almost imi)ossible for a man to get butter at a reasonable price, so that all these men who sell the article — the retail- ers — took the chances and sold it for butter. But I believe a national law could be passed beneficial to all alike. Senator Blair. What provisions would you put into that law? Mr. Simpson. That is a question that cannot be answered in a mo- ment or without a great deal of thought and more experience than 1 have. The members of this committee in their wisdom would be better able to determine that. A license might possibly regulate it. I would think that a tax no larger than what really the Government was ob- liged to i)ut on wouhl be all right : but 1 do not believe in putting on a tax which will be a burden upon the industry in any sense of the word. Senator Blair. Here is the trouble. These gentlemen advise a rem- edj", and you say the evil exists and ought to be removed, and yet you have no suggestion to make. What can we do but to enact such a law as this? Senator Jones. I do not think the gentleman gets exactly your point. He thinks you are asking him for the details of the bill, but I thought you were asking for the purpose to be reached and not the details of the bill. Mr. Simpson. The purpose to be reached is protection to all manu- facturers, dealers, and consumers. Senator Jones. Your idea, then, of what ought to be accomiDlished by legislation is that the manufacturer, dealer, and consumer ought to be protected by the law in knowing exactly what is sold, especially to know the imitation butter from the real butter? Mr. Simpson. Yes, sir. Senator Jones. Do you think that would correct the evil? Mr. Simpson. Y^es; let every tub stand on its own merits, whether oleomargarine or creamery butter, and not color it pink or black or any- thing of that kind ; there is no advantage in that. Senator Sawyer. Would not a moderate license tax accomplish what you desire, and what we all agree should be accomplished? Mr. Simpson. I think so, with a penalty attached to it for selling it for what it is not. Senator Sawy'ER. What would you think about taxing it a penny a pound ; would that, in your judgment, affect the manufacture seriously ? Mr. Simpson. Not the manufacture, but it would the consumer. It is quite a percentage when it sells for 10 or 11 cents a pound. Senator Sawyer. It would have the tendency to carry it up a penny a pound ; there is no doubt about that ? Mr. Slmpson. Y^es, it would. The Chairman. I understood the gentleman to mean to say that a tax or license should only be in the direction of more fully carrying out the law ? IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS 211 Mr. Simpson. Yes; and the smallest possible amount, to protect all alike. Senator Jones. You mean by protection that everybody shall have full notice of what is being done? Mr. Simpson. Yes, sir. STATEMENT OF PROF. D. E. SALMON. Prof. D.E. Salmon, Chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry, Depart- ment of Agriculture, then addressed the committee. It is only within a day or two that I have had the intention of ai)i)ear- iug before this committee, because I have friends on both sides of this question, and it was only when I was requested by tlie dairy interests of the country to correct certain points or give my opinion on certain points of expert testimony which has been offered here before the com- mittee that I consented to appear at all. I have prepared some, notes of what I wish to say, and what I intend to say is suggestive rather than exhaustive, as the facts that I siiall refer to I believe are correct and incontestable from a scientific stand- point. 1 have been informed that at least some of the scientific gentlemen who have been before this committee have stated very i)ositively that oleomargarine and similar butter substitutes are equally wholesome and of equal value as a food product with genuine butter, and that the fat from which it is made is not infested by any parasites or germs of parasites, and I have been requested to make a statement in regard to such facts as have come to my knowledge bearing upon this subject. I am neither an expert in chemistry nor in butter-making, but I have given considerable attention to physiology, to the diseases of animals, and to the influence of animal foods on the public health, and the statements in this paper are made from this point of view. By way of introduction, it is well to assert my conviction that these questions are rather physiological and pathological questions than chemical ones. The chemical composition cannot in all cases be relied upon to give the properties, the solubility, or the digestibility of the substance analyzed. For instance, the chemist tells us that the phos- phate of lime in bones and in mineral phosphates is in both cases tri-basic phosphate; that it has the same composition, and is chemically the same substance ; and yet when ground into fine powder and placed in the soil the one is very much more soluble and available for plant food than the other, and is valued at about twice as much per pound. Chemically there is no difference in the composition of cellulose as it is found ex- isting in ditferent plants, or between cellulose and starch, but practi- cally there is a great difference in the results of feeding animals upon sawdust, wheat or oat straw, and young and tender plauts. There is also a difference in the digestibility of cellulose and starch. Such facts lead us to ask if there may not be a variation in the digestibility of fats from different sources, aiul they admonish the chemist that it is not always safe to hazard a conclusion as to the digestibility of a substance from its chemical compositiou alone. DIGESTIBILITY OF FATS. In 1880 the French Academy of Medicine appointed a committee to re- port upon theadvisability of substituting oleomargarine for butter in the public asylums of the Department of the Seine. This committee made 212 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. a report which aijpeared in the Bulletin of the Academy of Medicine for 1880, a report which appears to be sound both from a chemical and a physiological point of view. I quote as follows from this report, with the single explanation that the word "margarine" is used synonym- ously with "oleomargarine": In the case where oils are added to the margarine the product certainly does not becdnie dangerous oi' even uuhealthful, nevertheless it nuiy have disadvantages. M. Berthe has made very careful tests of this point, Ihe results of Avhich have not been contradicted. According to this savant, fatty substances are not absorljed with any- thing like the same rapidity, nor even in equal (]uantiry, when equal weights are ad- ministered under the same conditions. Thus, the oil of sweet almonds, olive oil — in a •word, the vegetable oils, would be less easily absorbed than the animal fats. Conse- quently the piesence of peanut oil cannot be without disadvantage, above all with persons in delicate health. The mixtures which to day constitute margarine, and which are necessarily very variable, will i)lace the sick persons on a variable alimentation of fats, that is to say, in unfavorable conditions, and as the absorption of fatty bodies is not; acconjplished ■with the same iacility as that of the other aliments, the employment of margarine is to be regretted from this new point of view. (Page 4(54.) Suppose that the margarine delivered to the asylums is jjure, that is to say, that they succeed in holding the bidders (adjiidicataires) iu awe by fear that analysis will discover the fraud, will the substitution of margarine for true butter be without any disadvantages ? We do not think so. The experiments of M. Lailler, pharmacist to the asylum of Quatre-Mares, leads us by another way to the same coii«lusiou. He has taken equal weights of uuirgarine and of pure butter and suspended them in various liquids, rigorously placing them under the same conditions. He has always observed that margarine forms an emul- sion with greater difliculty tban butter, and that the globules of the butter are smaller and do not separate so readily as the globules of grease. (Pages 464, 465.) The mode of absorption of fatty bodies has been discussed for a loug time. There is accord now in admitting that they must be emulsified in oixler to be absorbed. Therefore, if margarine forms an emulsion with difliculty, if the globules formed have not the extreme fineness of the globules of butter, if these globules rapidly resolve themselves into oil, the margarine is found in a condition for absorption very inferior to that of butter, and it would be regrettable to see it substituted for this, especially for the sick, because ii is to be feared that the absorption of the fats, which are of all substances digested those of which the absorption is the most liuiiied, would only be performed with difiiculty (page 465). (Bulletin de I'Acad^mie de Medecine, Stance du 11 Mai, 1880.) This report simply confirms an observation of everyday experience known to every housewife in the country, viz, that many articles of food are made more delicate and digestible by substituting butter for lard or tallow in their composition, or by cooking them in butter instead of in these other fats. This is a matter of great concern to a nation which is said to be rapidly becoming a nation of dyspeptics, and above all it concerns the part of our population who must consume butter bought iu the open market — I mean the people who live in cities and towns, whose occupation is more or less sedentary, and whose greatest dangers are indigestion, imperfect assimilation of food, and the diseases favored by an improperly-nourished body. Fatty substances which are easily assimilated have a very great food value, as we see in the case of cod-liver oil, which often builds up a frail body and enables it to throw off disease when all other measures fail. The effect of cod-liver oil is not the effect of a drug, but of a food, and it is of more value than other oils because it is more easily absorbed. Fats and oils from different sources are consequently not necessarily of the same food value. Some of these are only absorbed with great difli- culty and in small quantities ; some retard the digestion of the other constituents of the food and derange the functions of the alimentary canal ; still others are cathartics and cause the contents of the bowels to be voided so soon that there is not an opportunity for digestion and assimilation. While some fats have an intrinsic food value, therefore, IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 213 others are without such value, aud still others are a detriment, hinder- ing the digestion of other foods and deranging the functions of the di- gestive organs. It is reasonable to conclude from these facts that butter has an in- trinsic value foi- food beyond that of lard, tallow, or cottonseed oil, which might not be suspected from its chemical composition. A.s I understand the process of manufacturing ob^oinavgarine there is noth- ing about it which increases the food value of the constituents from which it is made ; the object of the different processes is sim[)l,v to se- cure a product which in appearance and consistency resembles butter as closely as possible. And this imitation is carried so far that the best tirades of oleomaigarine deceive the sight and taste, and require an expert to distiugnish tliem from good butter. In other words, it has become more difficult to distinguish between oleomargarine aud batter than between good butter and poor butter. It may be admitted that there is a difference in food value between poor butter and good butter. The high price of the best butter is not, as some suppose, entirely a fancy price — it is based to a hirge extent upon intrinsic value. To explain this: Butter fat as itexists in an emulsion in milk is in its most digestible form ; it needs little digestion aud is readily assimilated. The best butter is granular, made at a low tem- perature and worked but little. In this the batter globules do not co- alesce and form a liomogeneous fat, but they are held separate as granules, and they easily go back to the condition of an emulsion. The more butter is worked and the granules broken up and forced together the farther is it carried from the emulsiflled condition, and the more difficulty would we expect in its digestion aud assiaiilation. The exact dilference in food value of these different grades of batter has never been determined; but that there is a difference I consider just as incontestable as that there is a difference in food value between oleomargarine and butter. There is this difference in the two cases, how- ever: the oleomargarine manufacturer, by bringing into use the latest discoveries of modern science, and an expensive plant, can produce an article which deceives the eye and palate of the consumer; bat poor but- ter bears its own brand, and no consumer takes it into his stomach under the imj^ression that it is the first quality and made by the graunlar pro- cess. PARASITES. That the fat of animals slaughtered for food may contain objectiona- ble parasites is a fact which admits of no doubt whatever. In eating meats or fats which are raised to a high temperature, (^ther in cooking or in rendering, we are generally protected from these parasites ; bat when we take into our stomachs the tissues of animals which have not been raised to a sufficient temperature to destroy these inferior organ- isms, we confront a serious danger, which it would be folly to conceal. And this danger is the greater in our country because we have no sys- tematic and skilled inspection of animals and carcasses intended for food. The Sderostonia pinguwola is a round worm from 1 to 2 inches long, which as its name indicates lives in the fat. It is a very common para- site of hogs in this section and south of here, bat I am unable to speak of its prevalence in the States farther north. It bores channels through the fat about the kidneys and lives and multiplies there in considerable numbers. It is a very difficult matter to remove all of these worms from the fat even when we carefully dissect and follow uj) the channels in 214 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. which they live. Fortunately this worm is not known to inhabit the human body or to cause any injurious eiiects with the consumer. The so called measles of hogs and cattle are caused by the larval form of two distinct species of tape-worms, the Teenia solium in the hog and the Tcenia medioeaneUata of cattle. If this larval form of tape- worm, which is called the cysticercus foru), is taken with the food by man, it develops in the alimentary canal and forms the adult tape-worm. Senator IJlaik. Is there auy reason to believe that those worms are unhealthy, if well cooked? Professor Salmon. No, sir; not if they are well cooked. Senator Blair. They are made from the substances which wo eat without danger"? Professor Salmon. They are dangerous to man not because poisonous, but because created in the flesh of the animal. If boiled sufficiently they are killed, but it requires a temperature of 145 to 150 degrees. Tlie Chairman. They are not very good for food taken alive, but would not seriously iujure the human system if dead? Professor Salmon. No, sir. Senator Jones. Are these parasites found in the main iu larger quan- tities in the muscles and tissues, or iu the fat? Professor Salmon. They are found in the connective tissues between the fats in larger numbers than elsewhere. Senator Jones. And a man who eats the flesh of the animal is more likely to get harmed than when he eats the fat? Professor Salmon. Yes, sir; but when he eats the flesh of the animal he eats it cooked, and in this case it is only heated to a low tempera- ture. It is sometimes asserted that the cysticercus is a muscle parasite, and does not live iu other i)artsof the body. Tliis statement is not correct. The cysticercus is iound iu the connective tii-sue, very often between the muscular tibers, it is true, but very often also in the connective tissue beneath the skin, and in the liver, spleen, and fat of the abdominal cavity. Tlie following authorities are quoted to confirm this statement: Cobbold says: The cysticeici luay develop themselves iu almost auy situatiou iu the huuiau body, but they occur most couimoniy iu the subcutaneous, areolar, aud iutermuscuhir con- nective tissue; next most commonly in the brain and eye, and lastly in the substance of the heart, aud other viscera of the truuk. (Parasites, page 91.) Schmidt Miilheim says: Cysticerci are aI|o fouud iu the subcutaneous tissue, iuthe luugs, spleen, liver, and Bpiual cord; iu the eyes, the kidneys and other organs, as well as iu the serous cavi- ties of the body (page 109). The cysticerci appear in the pig at times sparingly ; at times iu enormous numbers; not iufrequeutly many thousands are fouud iu the con- nective tissue of the muscles. More than a hundred have been found iu the brain alone. Eveu iu the fat they are met with. (P. llU Handbuch der Fleischkuude, 18:^4.) In the same work, we find iu regard to the cysticercus bovis, page 118 : This cysticercus, like that of the ])ig, inhabits by preference the connective tissue between the muscle fibers and the heart ; it is also met with iu the liver, lungs, braio, and other organs (page 119). Perroncito fed two calves : On slanghtering them, in one, iieart, Inugs, liver and spleen contained none, the me- sentery only a few cysticerci. At tlie autopsy of the second calf two large cysticerci were found iu the mesentery and omentum, two beneath Glisson's capsule of the liver, and about twenty in tbe heart. Beneath the peritoneum of the abdominal wails a considerable numbt^r of scattered cysticerci in the form of broad, pale cysts 12 millime- ters long aud 3-4 millimeters broad could be seen. IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 215 It is generally supposed that the trichina is exclusively a muscle par- asite, but this is probably largely due to the fact that it is more diflBcult todiscover them in the lard. Ohatio, who wrote a volume on trichina a few years ago, asserts that they may be found in the fat of parts not connected with the muscles. I have made the following translation from a passage in his work : fl. Fragnieuts of larfl takeu from a piece of American salted meat were, after hard- ening, examined in thin sections nnder a magnification of 120 diameters. Several preparations showed no trace of the parasite, but with a few the trichinae appeared clearly characterized. Among these nematodes, some not encysted presented the same aspect as those found in animals which die at the beginning of tissue trichinosis. Others normally encysted were identical with those which were found in the muscu- lar parts of the same piece of meat. b. Pieces of lard chosen far from all contractile masses were treated by ether and bisulphide of carbon ; the residue examined under the magnitication indicated above showed several trichiiue, of which several were encysted. These researches were undertaken with meats seized at Paris and Joyous. Several microscopists (MM. Delavan, Kourmont, &-c.) soon confirmed from their side the pres- ence of tlie trichiufe in the fatty tissue. The fact soon became generalized by numer- ous observations of the Laboratoire de Micrographie de I'ficole des Hantes Etudes, and I was able later to collect more trichin;e encj'sted in the fat. (La trichiue et la trichinose, par Joannes Chatin. Paris, 18d:i, page 88.) I see no reason to donbt these statements, judging from the life his- tory of the parasite. We all know that the adult worm gives birth to the embryos in the alimentary canal of the host, and that then the em- bryos bore through the intestinal walls and other tissues until they find a place where they are satisfied to coil themselves up and become en- cysted. The psoas muscles are among those most infested, and to reach these the embryos must pass through the leaf lard. It is not surprising that some of them conclude to stop there and make it their permanent dwelling-place. When we consider that on an average about 2 per cent, of the hogs killed in this country are trichinous, making for the twelve or fifteen million hogs annually packed in our large cities 250,000 to 300,000 in- spected animals, we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that there is dan- ger in consuming the expressed fat from hogs which have not been in- spected. It is true we might not get very many of the parasites in this way, but as every adult female worm produces about 1,500 young, a very few of them would be as large a dose as most of us would care to take. That there is reason to believe in the dissemination of both the forms of tape-worm referred to above through oleomargarine I cannot doubt, but the danger of obtaining trichiniie from this source is very much greater. It is not probable, of course, that a sufticient number of trichinae would be consumed at one time with this new article of food to produce violent sickness, but a few worms might cause irritation of the stomach and bowels and pains and soreness of the muscles as the embryos bored their way through these organs. Such symptoms would also withont doubt be considered as due to malaria or rheumatism, and the trouble i)robably would not be serious ; but it is an open question if it would not soon become a serious question for us to continue to take these parasites into our system for an indefinite time and until our mus- cles became loaded with them. There is little reason to doubt, therefore, that the danger connected with the use of oleomargarine, from the liability of the presence of such worms, which are parasites in man as well as in animals, is one that is deserving of thoughtful consideration. 216 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. HOG CHOLERA AND TUBERCULOSIS. Of the parasites which are liable to coutamiuate the fats used iu the production of butter substitutes, by far the most dangerous to the human subject, in my estimation, are those minute organisms which be- long to the class of bacteria. It is well known that there is a disease called hog cholera, which prevails to an enormous extent among the «wine of this country. Having been engaged iu the study of that plague for uearly eight years, microscopically, by inoculation experi- ments, and in almost every other imaginable way, my statements iu re- gard to it are based ujjou considerable i)ersonal experience. I do not regard the germ of this disease as iu itself particularly dangerous to the human subject, although cases are on record where it is claimed that people have died from infection with it. Still, I would greatly pre- fer not to take it in a living form with my food. A greater danger arises from the com]»lications of this disease. I a preventable disease, and it demands that such measures shall be adopted speedily as shall limit the distribution of its cause. We know today that tuberculosis is a contagious disease, and that it may develo]) from tubercular matter being taken into the stomach with the food. It was fornunly considered to be an hereditary disease, but with the recent advances of science that view is being forced into the background, and the most that is chiimed iu that direction now by our scientitic physicians is that a predisposition to it is inherited. In other words, if a jterson has tuberculosis that shows that he was susceptible to that contagion, and it itulicates that the members of his family, having a similar constitution, are also susceptible to it, and will contract it if they are exposed to the germs which produce it; but these germ<, the IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 217 coQtagioii of the disease, must euter the body iu some way before a per- son can develop tuberculosis. Now, tuberculosis is a very cotnmou disease of cattle— aud the bovine form is believed to be identical with that which affects man— it is a dis- ease which also affects the ho^-. The tubercles often form in these ani- mals ui)ou the serous membranes and in the glands of the abdominal cavity in situations where they would necessarily contaminate those portions of the fat which are used in the manufticture of oleomargarine. We do not know what i)roportion of our beef cattle are tuberculous, but in Europe, where careful statistics have been recorded for a series of years, and with large numbers of cattle, it is found that among the ani- mals which come to the slaughter houses for beef there are all the way from two to thirty in every thousand. In this country we have no such inspection, and it'is very seldom that an animal affected with tubercu- losis is ever condenmed. It is not difficult to imagine what follows when the contaminated fat of a steer or a hog affected with this -disease is transformed into oleomargarine or butterine, or any of these com- pounds. It may be mixed with a thousand or with thousands of pounds of other tat and contaminate it. I am unable to say how much fat is mixed together for this i)urpose, but I presume it varies with the capac- ity of the factory. If we say a thousand i)0unds, then it may go to a thousand families, and be eaten by five thousand persons. These figures are of course only conjectural, and they are simply used to show what a remarkable eflect upou the public health is possible by a new invention like this, which introduces a radical change into the manufacture of an article of food which goes ui)on the table of every family in the laud. It is not my desire to make any sensational state- ments before this committee. 1 do not know, nor can any one tell at this time, what the exact effect of an extensive use of oleomargarine will be upon the health of our people. There have been scientists here who have asserted positively that oleomargarine is just as wholesome, just as valuable, just as free from danger to health as pure butter. With this conclusion I cannot concur, and I believe that it should be made and sold under such restrictions as will enable every consumer to know that he is not eating oleomargarine when he thinks he is eating geuuine butter. The Chairman. The authorities which you have cited, and your own experience as a scientific man, lead you to make the statement that par- asites of various kinds are found in the fats of animals, I understand you 1 Professor Salmon. Yes, sir. The Chairman. And the authorities you have cited are acknowledged scientific men, and you cite them to prove that fact! Professor Salmon. Yes, sir. There is no contest between scientific men in regard to this point — scientists who have made a special study of parasites. I do not think any one would contest the statement from a scientific point of view. Senator Jones. I believe you stated you were uot an expert chemist, but a physiologist. Do your conclusions as a physiologist lead you to believe that oleomargarine is an unhealthful pioduct ? Professor Salmon. To the extent and degree which I have indicated iu my paper. Senator JoNEt^. As to being a little more indigestible ? Professor Salmon. As to being a little more indigestible and the fact that it may contain dangerous parasites. Of course that depends largely 218 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. on the way it is mannfactured, how carefully the animals are inspected from which the fat is taken. Senator JoNES. Those are the two points on which you consider it unhealthy ? Professor Salmon. Yes, sir. Senator Jones. If in the manufacture of oleomargarine the product is heated to a temperature verging closely upon the temperature of boiling water you would think there would be no danger from i)ara- sites ? I'rofessor Salmon. No, sir ; I would not say that. The most impor- tant ])oint, I think, is in regard to the germs of tuberculosis, a germ which withstands the boiling point for a certain length of time and which may be induced by tubercles in the serous membranes which cover the fat of hogs and cattle. Senator Jones. Supposing tubercles were found in the fat of ani- mals, \Could they be likely to be found in the other parts of the animal as well ? Professor Salmon. Yes, sir. Senator Jones. In larger quantities than in the fat 1 Professor Salmon. No, sir. Senator Jones. Where would they be found besides in the fat? Professor Salmon. In the long tissues of the serous membranes which cover the lungs, or growing on the serous membranes wbich line the abdominal cavities. Senator Jones. You think it is ])ossible to ha\'e iu the same animal tubercles in the fat and in tlie tiesh I Professor Salmon. Yes, sir. Senator Jones. Have you ever known, in your observation as a physi- ologist, of a man or animal being affected in that way ? Professor Salmon. It is very ditiioult to get positive evidence. I know of many cases where it is suspected they were affected in that way, but these i)arasites are very small. Senator Jones. Affected, you mean, by the use of oleomargarine"? Professor Salmon. By the use of products of cattle that were in- fected with tubercles; by eating perhaps a very raw steak or something of that kind. Senator Jones. That would come, then, from the muscles and not from the fat ? Professor Salmon. Yes, sir. Senator Jones. I understood you to say there was no danger of its coming from the muscles. You may have misunderstood me, but I un- derstood you to say just now that the tubercles would never be found in the muscles, but only in the lungs, the fat, or some other part of the body. Professor Salmon. No, sir; I did not intend to state that. You asked me if they would not be found in larger quantities. They are sometimes found in all parts of the body. I have seen cattle killed where they were only beginning to show these tubercles. Senator Jones. There would be danger in consuming the animal in any way in the beginning of this disease? Professor Salmon. Yes, sir; unless thoroughly cooked. Senator JojNES. Would there be any danger of its being communi- cated in the milk? Professor Salmon. A little danger, but I will state that it is gener- ally recognized by scientific men that it is not communicated through IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 219 milk unless there are tubercles iu the udder, and that is the last organ in which tubercles are found. Senator George. Would it be possible then to convey these things in butter? Professor Salmon. I suppose it would be possible, but as a fact by the time the tubercles appeared in the udder, the animal is so far ad- vanced in the disease that it does not give milk. They appear tirst on the seions membranes, and when in that condition the animal is often used for food. Senator J(tNES. I would like to ask if you rely on the scientific infor- mation solely, attained by this investigation iu Paris, as to the propriety of using oleomargarine as a food in hospitals, as the only scientific proof you have outside of your own opinion that this thing is deleterious, or has it been asserted by other scientific investigations to be so ? Professor Salmon. You refer to the digestibility "? Well, I base that almost entirely on the Paris report. Senator Jones. That was in 1880? Professor Salmon. Yes, sir. Senator Jones. Six years have elapsed since then, and there have been no other investigations of a scientific nature tending to establish that theory ? Professor Salmon. 1 do not know of any other. Senator Jones. That was in the early history of this production, and that has not been afdrmed or denied since that time? Professor Salmon. 1 do not know that it has, but it is one of those things which in itself bears the stamp that it is of scientific value. Senator Jones. I suppose, from the fact that you have produced it, that is now about the best evidence that can be produced in supi)ort of the theor,, 1 Professor Salmon. 1 do not know about that; I have uot been pay- ing so very much attention to the literature of this subject; my attention has bee)i iu another line. But when I was asked only a day or two ago in regard to this matter, I naturally turned to this. Senator Jones. The digestibility, I understand, was the chief point of objection at that time on this subject ? * Professor Salmon. Yes, sir. Senator Jones. I want to ask if, in your opinion as a physiologist, there is any greater ditfereuce in the digestibility between oleomarga- rine and butter than between beef and mutton ? Professor Salmon. Yes, sir ; there is. Senator Jones. Is there any more difference between the digestibility of oleomargarine and butter tlian there is between beef and pork ? Professor Salmon. 1 could not say the exact degree of difference. I simply wanted to say that there was a difference. Senator Jones. And I wanted to get some approximate idea of what the difference was. Professor Salmon, The details of this matter have never been worked out thoroughly ; it simply stands in the position M'here we can say there is a difference. Senator Jones. I understand that in a hospital nobody would ever think of feeding a patient on ])ork, because it would be less digestible than some other meats ; still it would not be proper for that reason to pass a law that nobody should eat pork. Professor Salmon. I certainly am very far from recommending the passage of a law which would prevent anybody eating oleomargarine if be wanted to. 220 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. Seuator Jones. Your idea is to bavc this article so guarded by laws that people shall not be imposed upon, and so that anybody who wants to use it can be allowed to use it "? Professor Salmon. Yes, sir. Seuator Jones. You think there is nothing in the constituent ele- ments of the product that a man should be defended from it as from an «nemy ? Professor Salmon. ]S"o, sir ; I think we should give every man a chance to take it or let it alone. That is all that anybody can reason- ably ask ? STATEMENT OF WALTER BROWN. Mr. Walter Brown, of Washington, D. C, came before the com- mittee. The Chairman. Please state to the committee your occupation. Mr. Brown. I am a butcher here in the District. I do not know any- thing about the manufacture of oleomargarine or butter, but I know something about the fat that goes into it. The Chairman. Tell the committee, briefly, what you do know, if anything. Mr. Brown. We sell our fat to men here. There is a first and a sec- ond grade of fat, and the majority of the beef fat all goes into the oil that is shipped oif to the manufacturers of oleomargarine. When it leaves our slaughter houses in the summer time it is fly-blown, and upon the fat that is left from market the fly-blows are hatched, and I have sent it away with them crawling in the fat. Senator Jones. Where did this go when you sold it? Mr. Brown. We sold it in Georgetown, on Water street. Weaver & Kengla have a soap factory there, and the mutton fat goes into the soap and the rest is steamed; 1 believe they steam the oil out and press it, and the oil is then put in barrels and sent to Baltimore. I do not know whether this firm sends to Baltimore or not, but the firm we used to sell to used to send to Baltimore. The Chairman. How do you know that? Mr. Brown. 1 know they shipped it there ; I have seen it go — the oil. The Chairman. How do you know i Mr. Brown. I saw the oil shipped away. I do not know whether it is put in oleomargarine. The Chairman. You said first it was put into oleomargarine. How do you know that ? Mr. Brown. I never followed the oil. I know this, that the agents of these oleomargarine companies came here about four years ago and iildnced us to stop selling our fat to these fat men. We were then get- ting 5^ cents for our fat, and they said they would give us 6 cents and 6^ cents if we would sell our fat to tbem. Seuator Jones. Who do you mean by "them"? Mr. Brown. I do not know his name — it was one man, an agent. Mr. Stinchcomb is the name of the agent here who bought for this firm. We sold it at 6h cents a pound. We all went in and sold our fat to them, and the soaj) man was broken up, and they have been bringing the price of it down until we are only getting 2^ cents for the best, and 2 oents for what they call the rough mutton fat with little i)ieces of meat attached. This ayent at the time proposed to me that I should send over there and get the refuse, as he called it ; it is chopped up fine and IMITATION DAIRY PEODUCTS. 221 goes through this process. I seut over and got some barrels of it to feed my hogs on, and paid 25 cents a barrelful, a barrel about the whisky barrel size. I sent over and got three barrels of it, but neither my hogs, dogs, chickens or anything else on the place would touch it. Tobacca and the refuse of oleomargarine are the only things I know that a hog will not eat. Senator Jones. Where is that factory that you got the refuse from ? Mr. Brown. It was shipped from Baltimore. Senator Jones. Who did you buy that from ! Mr. Brown. From Mr. Stinchcomb, the agent of this fat that was shipped away to the oleomargarine companies. Senator Jones. What oleomargarine company manufactured the product ? Mr. Brown. I do not know that. If I had known that the gentle- men wanted me to come up Iiere I would have had my books with me. Senator Jones. Where is that factory establislied ? Mr. Brown. It was over in Georgetown. That was about four years^ ago. Senator Jones. The oleomargarine factory was in Georgetown ? Mr. Brow^n. No, sir; not the factory, but the agent. It was shipped to Baltimore and this stuif was shipped back. Senator Jones. The oleomargarine manufactory was in Baltimore. Mr. Brown. I suppose so. Senator Jones. What makes you suppose sot Mr. Brown. Mr. Stinchcomb told me what he was doing with the fat, that he was shipping it to the companies, but I do not know to what companies. If I had known I was coming up here I could have brought my books. Senator Jones. Will you furnish the name of this firm and their loca- tion from your books, and hand it to the stenographer and let it go into your statement ? Mr. Brown. Yes ; I cannot to-day, but I will to-morrow. I know it is impossible for us to keep our fat clean in the summer time; the flies will blow it. We commence to kill in the morning of a hot day, for instance, and it may be 10 or 12 o'clock before we get through, and the fat lies there until my wagon comes home from market. Senator Jones. Then what do you do with it ! Mr. Brown. We have a hide and fat association of our own, the District butchers, and we send it there ; then Weaver and Kengla send there later in the evening and get it and take it to their place up on Water street, at the soap factory. It is there selected out, the best of it (it is six weeks now since they have stopped), and it is washed and chopped up in pieces to put into soap, and the rest they steam and get the oil, and that was sent to Baltimore, I suppose. I can furnish the name of the jDlace where the oil was sent to. Senator Jones. These people in Georgetown made oleomargarine oil up to six weeks ago 1 Mr. Brown. Yes, sir. Senator Sawyer. Did you see it ; were you there, and did you see them make it ? Mr. Brown. No, sir ; I did not see it. Senator Sawyer. Somebody told you about it ? Mr. Brown. Yes, sir. Senator Sawyer. That is what I supposed j you heard so by rumor on the street ? 222 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS, Mr. Brown. Well, we are all connected together, only I have no in- terest in that part at all. They got the fat from the association. The Chairman. You were told by the people who bought the fat that they used it for making oleo oil ? Mr. Brown. Yes, sir. The Chairman. That is not a rumor on the street. Mr. Brown. Oh, I saw a letter from the company last summer. The clerk showed it to me. It said, •' The last oil you shipped to us was musty. Please be careful and keep this sweet." I can get the name of the person who sent that letter. 1 saw that letter myself, and he asked me right there to see that my fat was kept sweet. The Chairman. You say you got two or three barrels of the refuse? Mr. Brown. I got three barrels. The Chairman. To feed to your hogs ? Mr. Brown. Yes, sir. The Chairman. But they would not eat it ? Mr. Brown. No, sir; nor the chickens nor the dog. The Chairman. Did you examine that material to see what it was? Mr. Brown. It looked to me like sausage or pudding-meat chopped up fine, just in a kind of loblolly. The Chairman. Had it been pressed ? Mr. Brown. It had been pressed, and on top the maggots had gath- ered that thick [indicating] on the top of the barrel, and the maggots were pressed as tiat as that piece of paper. My own opinion is the oil was pressed out of that; that is all I can say. The Chairman. Where did this come from ? Mr. Brown. From Baltimore. I bought it from Mr. Stinchcomb, who was the agent here w^ho was buying the fat. Senator Jones. Did he send the fat to Baltimore? Mr. Brown. He shipped the fat then to Baltimore, but since then they have been steaming it here and getting the oil out. Senator Jones. He bought all kinds of fat ? Mr. Brown. Yes, sir. Senator Jones. He made oleomargarine out of all sorts ? Mr. Broavn. No, sir ; the oleomargarine fat did not go in. We had to keep our beef fat as clean as we could, but in hanging up a bullock in a slaughtering house the floor is not very clean ; the entrails fall out on the floor, the fat is wiped all over the floor, and it is impossible to keep it clean the way we work there. Senator Jones. Does this establishment at Georgetown make any imitation butter? Mr. Brown. No, sir. Senator Jones. They do not make the oleomargarine as a product, or imitation butter ? Mr. Brown. No, sir; but they make the oil and ship it away in bar- rels. Senator Jones. And that is made into butter ? Mr. Brown. Yes; I suppose it is made into butter. I know they ship it to these oleomargarine firms, because I saw the letter over there that the clerk showed me last summer. Senator Jones. That was from the oleomargarine firm? Mr. Brown, Yes, sir. Senator Jones. And he said that he was using that oil for the pur- pose of manufacturing oleomargarine? IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 223 Mr. Brown. He said this : " Please be more careful, and tell your meu to keep their fat sweeter ; the last oil we could scarcely use ; it was mighty moldy," or something of the kind. I know that fat, if it lies over night, gets very moldy, and of course the oil must smell so; musty and close. Semitor Jones. You do not know whether fat could be used after it is in that condition to make oleomargarine or uot'? Mr. Brown. No, sir ; I do not know anything about it, only I know I would not like to eat the oil that is taken out of our fat. The fat that we cut in the market there at our stalls, when trimming meat, we throw in the baskets under the stalls, and after market is over we tind it is all covered with green flies. 1 have seen the fly-blows as thick as the end of my finger in bunches. The Chairman. Mr. Webster wants to make a short statement in addition to what he has already said. ADDITIONAL STATEMENT OF GEORGE H. WEBSTER. Mr. Webster said : I desire simply, Mr. Chairman, to explain to the committee why tallow has ruled so exceptionallj^ low during the last few years, as I understood the question was asked yesterday and was not satisfactorily answered. The fact that the price of tallow has ruled especially low during the past few years is due to natural causes well known to the trade, and is not in any way attributable to the manufact- ure of oleo oil. The markets of Great Britain and France, which are the principal consuming markets for tallow, have been oversupplied with Eussian tallow and that from South America, and when we remem- ber that in South America cattle are often killed for their hides ;)ud tallow alone, the reason for the low j)rice is obvious. In addition to this, tallow has to compete with other illuminating and soap-making products, tending to depreciate its value. The light from petroleum has almost superseded the old-fashioned tallow candle, while the products of petroleum furnish various materials for making candles which are far cleaner, brighter, and nearly or quite as cheap as tallow candles. Tallow has still another formidable competitor in cotton-seed oil, which is so largely used for soap-making in this country and in Europe, and which sells at from 1 to 2 cents a pound less than tallow. We have marketed the most of our production of tallow in this country for several years past, for the reason that the price has been higher iu Chicago than anywhere else, often actually higher than in New York, and relatively higher than the foreign markets. We sometimes get an occasional foreign order, which we are able to fill by a reduction of freight, and perhaps a clipping in exchange, a brokerage, or something of that kind. But the exports of tallow have been remarkably light for several years past for the reasons I have submitted. The export of tallow for the ten months of the fiscal year of 1885 ending April 30 were 2,800,000 pounds, and for the ten months of the fiscal year ending April 30, 1886, the^' were only a little over 1,000,000 pounds. We have made sales as large as that, at one time, to J. S. Kirk & Co., of Chicago. So that the exports of tallow have been a mere bagatelle for several years past, and the reason is because the markets of Europe have been oversupplied, and because it has these formidable competitors to con- tend against. The Chairman. Just one question. Suppose American tallow had continued to be made, and as of good quality as it used to be before 224 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. oleo oil was extracted, would not the price of American tallow remain higher than it is now and maintain its hold on the foreign markets to a certain extent ? Mr. Webster. I am glad you asked me that question. I do not think it would. I think our tallow would bring just as much money for the purposes for which tallow is nsed as it would have brought at any time within the past few years. Yesterday I was unable to be present, but I understand the question was brought up about stearine, whether the stearine ought to be figured as enhancing the value of cattle, when it would be in tallow anyhow. Of course it would. T3ut there is a differ- ence in the value of stearine. As oleo oil is of high grade, and higher in value than common tallow, so is stearine from oleo oil of a better quality, aiul consequently higher in value than stearine from common tallow. We ]>ress considerable common tallow to obtain tallow oil for lubricating purposes, and we get the stearine which we sell for soap- making. But we always get from 2 to 3 cents a pound more for our oleo stearine than for this tallow stearine. The Chairman. Is not stearine used very largely for soap and candle making? Mr. Webster. Yes, we sell a great deal to soap and candle manu- facturers in Milwaukee and around Chicago. I have a couple of affi- davits that I would like to offer in connection with the testimony we have submitted, and also the following memorandum : Estimates submitted btj Mr. Webster. Pounds of oleomargarine and bntterine made in Chicago and vicinity during year ending June 1, 1SH6 18,000,000 to 20,000,000 The same product made in the whole United States during the same time 32,000,000 to 35,000,000 In the West the manufacture of butterine predominates, while in the East the reverse is the case : so that I believe the aggregate out-turn of each product is about equally divided. Tbe manufacture of butterine is only carried on during nine months of the year, or from September 1 to June 1. The following affidavits were also submitted by Mr. Webster as a part of his statement: State of Illinois, Cook Count}/, ss. : Philip D. Armour, being first duly sworn, deposes and says that he is a resident of the city of Chicago, in the State of Illinois, and that he is a member of the firm of Armour ifeCo. Deponent further says that said firm of Armour & Co. in the course of their busi- ness makes and sells oieomargaiinc and butterine, and that this deponent knows of his own knowledge the materials and the methods used by said firm in the making of said products. They are as follows: mp:thods of manufacture. The fat is taken from the cattle in the process of slaughtering, and after thorough washing is placed in a bath of clean, cold water, and surrounded with ice, where it is allowed to i-emain until all animal heat has been removed. It is then cufc into small pieces by machinery and cooked at a temperature of about 150 degrees, until the fat, in liquid form, has separated from ihe tibrine or tissue, then settled until it is per- fectly clear. Then it is drawn into graining vats and allowed to stand a day, wheji it is ready for the presses. The pressing extracts the stearine, leaving the remaining product, which is commercially known as oleo oil, which, when churned with cream or milk, or both, and with usually a proportion of creamery butter, tbe whole being properly salted, gives the new food product oleomargarine. In making butterine we use neutral lard, which is made from selected leaf lard, in a very similar manner to oleo oil, excepting that no stearine is extracted. This neutral IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS, 225 iard is cured in salt briue for forty-eight to seventy hours, at an ice-water tempera- ture. It is then taken, and, with the desired proportion of oleo oil and hue butter, is churned with cream and milk, producing an article, which, when properly salted and packed, is ready for market. In botli cases coloring matter is used, which is the same as that used by dairymen to color their butter. At certain seasons of the year, viz, in cold weather, a small quantity of salad oil made from cotton-seed is used to soften the texture of the prod- uct, but this is not generally used by us. Deponent further says that no other material or substance, except as above stated, is used by Armour &. Co. in making oleomargarine or butteriue. Deponent further says that he has read the statement made in a report of the Com- mittee on Agriculture to the House of Representatives, purporting to give the mate- rials used in making oleomargarine and butteriue, and he says that none of the ma- terials or substances therein enumerated are used by Armour & Co. in making said producis '^r either of them, except as herein stated. Deponent further says that he has read a letter dated May 19, 1886, signed Armour & Co., Swift A- Co., George H. Hammond & Co., N. K. Fairbank & Co., and Samuel W. Allerton, a copy of which is hereto attached, and he says that the same is the let- ter of the parties whose names are attached thereto, and that the statements therein juade so far as the same relate to Armour & Co. are trne, and so far as they relate to the other parties signing said letters, he, upon information, believes them to be true. And this deponent further deposes and says that no ingredient is or ever has been used by said firm of Armour tt Co. in the manufacture of said oleomargarine and but- teriue which is in anv wav injurious to health. PHILIP D. ARMOUR. Subscribed and sworn to before me tliis 22d day of May, 1886. [SEAL.] " ' EVERETT WILSON, Notary Public. State of Illinois, Cook County, ss; Gustavus F. Swift, being tirst duly svvoru, deposes and says that he is a resident of the town of Lake, in the State of Illinois, and that he is a member of the firm of Swift & Co. De)>onent further says that said firm of Swift & Co. in the course of their business makes and sells oleomai'gariue and butteriue, and that this deponent knows of his own knowledge the materials and the methods used by said firm in the making of 8aid products. They are as follows : .METHODS OF MANUFACTURE. The fat is taken from the cattle in the process of slaughtering, and after thorough washing is placed in a bath of clean, cold water and surrounded with ice, where it is allowed to remain until all animal heat has been removed. It is then cut into small pieces by machinery and cooked at a temperature of about 150-^ until the fat in litjuid form has separated from the fibrine or tissue ; then settled until it is perfectly clear. Then it is drawn into draining vats and allowed to stand a day, when it is ready for the presses. The pressing extracts tlie stearine, leaving the remaining product, which is commercially known as oleo oil, which, when churned with cream or milk, or both, and with usually a proportion of creamery butter, the whole being properly salted, gives the new food product, oleomargarine. In making butteriue we use neutral lard, which is made from selected leaf lard in a very similar manner to oleo oil, excepting that no stearine is extracted. This neutral lard is cured in salt brine for forty-eight to seventy hours at an ice-water temperature. It is then taken and, with the desired proportion of oleo oil and fine butter, is churned with cream and milk, producing an article which when properly salted and packed is ready for market. In both cases coloring matter is used, which is the same as that used by dairymen to color their butter. At cex'tain seasons of the year, viz, in cold weather, a small quantity of sesame oil or salad oil, made from cotton seed, is used to soften the text- ure of the product. Deponent further says that no other material or substance except as above stated is used by Swift & Co. in making oleomargarine or butteriue. Deponent further says that he has read the statement made in a report of the Committee on Agriculture to the House of Representatives, purporting to give the materials used in making oleomargarine and butteriue, and he says that none of the materials or substances therein enumerated are used by Swift & Co. in making said products, or either of them, except as herein stated. 17007 OL 15 226 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. Deponent further says that he has read a letter, dated May 19, 1886, signed Armour & Co., Swift & Co.,Geo. H. Hanmioud & Co., N. K. Fairbank «t Co., and Samuel W, Allt-rton, a coi»y of which is hereto attached, and he says that the same i.s the letter of the parties whose names are attached theret.», and that the statement therein made, so far as the same relate to Swift &. Co., are true, and so far as they relate to the other parties signing said letters, he, upon information, helieves them to be true. And this deponent further deposes and says that no ingredient is or ever has been used by said firm of Swift & Co. in the manufactnre of said oleomargarine and buttt riue which is in anv way injurious to health. OUSTAVUS F. SWIFT. Subscribed and swoin to before me this resent an oi)portune time for laying the matter frankly before the people, and before Congress, where prohibitory legislation is now being sought, in the hope that a full statement of the actual facts concerning these much abused articles may insure a fair hearing and tend to remove the false impressions which may have been created by the misstate- ments of interested persons. Physicians, chemists, and health officers in various parts of the country have pro- nounced them wholesome articles of food, in no way deleterious to health; and the daily increasing demand lor them shows their hold upon popular favor, not as imita- tions of butter, but as new food products and most desirable substitutes for the me- dium grades of butter. The report of the Conuuittee on Agriculture to the House of Representatives ac- comjianying the bill reported by it is so manifestly unfair that we are sure that its effect will be destroyed by its own absurdity. Of' thehfry alleged ingredients men- tioned in the report only three are ever used, and those so changed and improved in character from what the report would lead the i)ublic to believe that they practically make the whole list a falsehood. The component parts of oleomargarine and but- teriue are oleo oil, neutral lard, fresh cream, and milk — some makers use buttermilk — choice creamery butter, tine dairy salt, and clear cold water. The coloring matter used is precisely the same as that universally used by all dairymen and butter-makers. At certain seasons of the year a very small quantity of tine salad oil, which is pro- duced irom selected cotton seed, is occasionally, but not generally, used to soften the texture of the product. The oleo oil above mentioned is made from the choicest fats of beef cattle, rendered at an approximate temperature of 150 degrees. The neutral is made from selected leaf lard only, and rendered in a similar way and at about the same temperature, producing a clear and odorless product, which is put into a bath of clean, c(dd brine, containing nothing but salt and water, for forty-eight hours; after which, with the proper projiortious of oleo oil and the finest creamery butter, the product is churned with cream and milk, salted and colored, and packed for market. We use nothing else. This is all there is concerning the manufacture of these products, and about which political dairymen have published so many falsehoods. We unhesitatingly affirm that these products are not made by any secret process, nor under any '"patent" whatever. While it is true that several i)atentH for making butteriue were obtained a few years ago, in order to secure Government protection against the French Mege patent prior to its expiration, we do not, nor do we know of any manufacturer who does, make use of any of the processes covered by those patents. Our factories are always open for public inspection, as hundreds of people can testify, and we con- sider'such visitations as marks of special favor. We are ready and willing tofiirnish to members of Congress, or to any conmiittee they may appoint, all detailed informa- tion wliicli they may desire, both as to the materials used and the whole process of making these products. The manufacture of these articles is practically an open industry in Europe, and it is a positive fact that in this country it increases the value of beef-cattle fully $3 per head, by the utilization of the oleo oil above described ; and in addition to all these points in favor of the articles themselves, their manufacture is a legitimate industry which benefits both the consumer and the farmer, and de- serving of positive protection rather than attempted destruction. We are very will- ing that these products shall stand on their own merits, and we do not oppose meas- ures honestly intended to bring about that result, but we do protest against legislation TMITATION DAIKY PKODUCTS. 227 by Congress prohibitory in its character and intended to crush out one industry in favor of another. In corroboration of our statements we append copies of letters written by competent authKritit-s who have recently examined these products and the method of working them, and hope that they may assist in carrying conviction to all minds, aside from the assurances we have herewith respectfully submitted. ARMOUR & CO. SWIFT & CO. GEO. H. HAMMOND & CO. N. K. FAIRBANK Al CO. SAM'L W. ALLERTON. STATEMENT OF JOHN A. M'BRIDE. Mr. John A. McBride, of Sussex County, ^ew Jersey, next ad dressed the committee. I am a farmer by occupation. I do not intend to detain the commit tee long, because I understand the time is limited. I have not come here with any prepared speech, but I have come in the interest of the farmers — not only those of the county in which I live, bat in behalf ol the farmers of this nation. It is a fact that I think none of vou will dispute, that it is seldom, if ever, that the farmers of the United States come to Congress and appeal for help. The^' remain at home, attend to their work, pay their proportion of the taxes, and trust to yon to look after their interests, and it is only on an occasion like this that there is any exception to this rule. Why is it? It is because an in dustry — not an honest, honorable industry — has grown up which threat ens to supplant an honest and honorable industry. One thing connected with this matter appears to me very significant, and that is that while the advocates of oleomargarine object to anj- law restricting the traffic in it, and claim that it is a healthfal product, that it is an honest competitor with butter and the dairy interests, yet at the same time not one of them will eat it. Now if oleomargarine is healthful as an article of food, as they say it is, if it is better than this poor batter, if it can be bought so much cheaper, why not eat it instead of eating butter ? I had a little experience in the New Jersey legislature this last winter, and had to combat some of the arguments then put forward. An oleomargarine bill was introduced there and passed, and the same arguments were heard then that we hear now; that oleomargarine was a healthful article of food; that it was an honesi competitor with the dairy interests ; and yet at the same time none of them eat it. The trouble is. Senators, that this article is not sold upon its merits ; I make that assertion. The dairy commissioner of the State of New Jersey, for the past two months, has been making ex- aminations at diffen^nt places in the State, and finds that the dealers have not been selling oleomargarine as oleomargarine, but they have been selling it as first-(;lass dairy butter. Now I wish to answer the arguments of the gentlemen in reference to beef cattle. While the price of beef cattle may have advanced in the West, it has decreased in the East proportionately. While milch cows may be in demand in the West, their value has decreased proportion- ately in the East. While land may have, as they say it has, advanced in the West, land in my own county of Sussex and in the county of Orange, which Mr. Richardson represented here yesterday, and other as fertile counties as exist in the civilized world, that a year ago brought $100 an acre, to-day will not average $50 an acre under the hammer, or at their cash value. And I think the chairman of this committee will 228 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. bear out my assertion that it lias (lecreasfri('e was the fact that the farmers theie had forgotten how to inake butter, were using an argument I listened to last winter and which has been rejieated here today. In other words, they would have you believe that the farmers of this country have forgotten everything tliey ever knew, and the reason why butter is low and farm products de- pressed is because the farmers of this nation have not common sense. Another jioint whi<;h to me is significant. If it is of such importance to the farmers of the West that this bill should not become a law, why have they not ]»etitioned Congress against it". Has a single petition come from the farmers of the West asking for the defeat of this bill? Are not those here who are advocating it either directly or indirectly interested in the manufacture and sale of oleomargarine itself? While on the other hand ])etitions by the thousand have come from the farm- ers of the East asking for the passage of this bill. I say that fact of itself certainly is significant. However, as you have but little time to listen to further argument, 1 will not detain you longer. The Chairman. If you can give us any facts in regard to the sale of oleomargarine in your own State, we will give you the time to state them and the committee will be glad to hear you. Mr. McBride. The facts are simply as I get them from the dairy commissioner. We had a law passed in our State last winter and un- der it a daily commissioner was ai)poiiited to see that the law was prop- erly and thoroughly executed. As I have stated, the opponents of the hill claimed that oleomargarine could be sold ni)on its merits, and that if sold upon its merits it would be bought equally with butter; that they were selling it on its merits. Now the facts are to the contrary. One of the deputies made an investigation of the matter at Perth Am- boy and he found that nearly every individual who was selling oleo- margarine was selling it, not as oleomargarine, but as prime dairy but- ter. Senator Jones. Is that since the law went into eliect ? Mr. MoBride. Yes, sir. It only went into effect this spring. I pre- sume they thought they would go on as long as they could without branding their goods, as the law prescribes. Senator Jones. What does your commissioner report as the effect of his etibrts to have oleomargarine sold for what it is ? Mr. McBride. His report is that when it is sold for what it is, people are not very apt to buy it. Senator Sawyer. If we can put this bill in such a shape that oleo- margarine will be sold, as it ought to be, for what it is, would not that remedy the trouble? Mr. McBride. Individually I never have objected to that at all; in fact, the law which we passed this winter provided that it should be sold for what it was, and with 'a certain brand. But what we do com- plain of is, that it is not sold for w^hat it is, but for prime dairy butter. Senator Jones. But since the passage of the law you refer to can you and do you enforce the law in New Jersey ; does your commissioner enforce it? Mr. MoBride. Yes, so far as I am informed. Senator Jones. And it accomplishes all that you wish ? IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 229 Mr. McBride. But, as I say, previous to that they ,had been selling it, not for what it was, but for prime dairy butter. Senator Jones. But the people are complying with the law, and he finds no difficulty in enforcin.^ it? Mr. McBride. So far as I am informed, people are complying with the law. Senator Jones. Have you a copy of the law? Mr. McBride. No, sir: I have not. Senator Jones. Could you furnisli us with a copy of it ? Mr. McBride. I could, but I would have to ride 300 miles to get it. Senator Jones. I would be glad if you would send us a copy of it, or perhaps we can find a copy here somewhere. Mr. McBride. Mr. Hires, the Representative from our district in Congress, informs me that he has a copy with him. Seuator Jones. Then I understand you to sa.y there is no difficulty in enforcing the State law, which requires that tliis article shall be sold in New Jersey for what it is ? Mr. McBride. I will answer to that that I have not seen the dairy commissiojier since the j)assage of the law. The oidy information I get is this: That in the investigation he has made he has found that they ha^e been selling this oleomargarine, as I said before, for prime dairy butter, and he has arrested those parties. Just what steps he has taken I am unable to answer you correctly now. Senator -lONES. Is the ATuerican Dairyman, ])ublished in New York, a reputable paper t ]Mr. McBride. 1 cannot say. Senator Jones. I have received a copy of that paper with a marked article reporting what Dr. W. K. Newton said on the subject. Mr. McBride. That is the name of our commissioner. Senator Jones. He reports that the manufacturers, wholesale dealers, and jobbers sell these products for just what they are, and brand them as the law requires, and that they show their willingness to aid him in enforcing the law. In si)eaking of the retail dealers, he found that i>re- vious to that they had been selling this product for butter, but he says, it only being about two months since the law passed, many of the retail dealers have already fallen into line, and are selling oleomargarine and bntterine under its proper name and labeling each parcel accoiding to law. And then this paper goes on to say that the law is being eti"ectu- ally enforced. So that I sup]>ose there is no difficulty in regulating this matter when the States choose to do so. Mr. McBride. It occurs to me that while we may have a State law, it would not do any harm if we had a general law also on the subject. Senator Jones, Would it do any good if the State law accomplishes the purpose ! Mr. McBride. Undoubtedly. I think the more penalties you place upon the improper manufacture and sale of it the better; that is my theory, and I think if you had witnessed what I have witnessed in the dairy districts you would be of the same opinion. Senator Blair. I do not understand that you claim that there has been any fair time allowed to test the law ? Mr. McBride. No, sir; I say the law only went into effect about two months ago, and I do not think there has been time enough to make a fair test of it. Senator Jones. Do you think it will be a failure? Mr. M'Bride. I could not answer that except iti this way : That the man who has charge of it in the State of New Jersey will make a 230 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. success of it if it can be made a success by anybody. That is as far as I can go, for the experiment has not been tried ; it may be a failure or a success. Senator Jones. One of its effects, you think, would be the suppres- sion of the nianufacture of butteiine or oleomargfarine? Mr. Mc'Beide. That has not been my idea: my idea is, that if it is sold under j»roper restrictions, if peoi>le want to buy it and eat it, with the evidence that has been given before us this morning, I am perfectly willing they should do it, but I do not want it on my plate. The Chairman. How long has this law in New Jersey been in force"? Mr. McBride. Only about two months. The Chairman. There is not very much known then about its effects I imagine, as yet? Mr. McBride. As 1 have said, I cannot speak positively at all about it. It is an experiment; it may or may not be a success. But State laws so far have proved very ineffectual. Senator Jones. You do not mean in New Jersey ? Mr. McBride. Yes, sir. We had a i)rohibitory law in New Jersey, and the more they prohibited it the more they sold of it. Senator Jones. So you haAe tried another one ? Mr. McBride. Yes, sir; we have tried another one, and it may turn out in just the same way the first one did. The Chairman. Two or three gentlemen want to submit statements in writing, and may wish to make oral statements first. Those gentlemen we have nor heard will be i)ermitted in a day or two to submit anything that is proper, and it wdl go in to the testimony as their statements. Senator Blair. It ought to be understood that it will take a little time to get it into print, and they should not delay ju'esenting their statements. The Chairman. I understand ; they will have to be put in by to- morrow. ADDITIONAL STATEMENT OF W. S. TRUESDELL. Mr. W. S. Truesdell, of Saint Louis, vice-president of the Missis- sippi Valley Dairy and Cream Association said: I trust the committee will pardon me for inflicting myself upon them a second time. But I do it so that you may properly understand the general methods of the manufacture of butter in the West, in explana- tion of the remarks that have been made by the manufacturer from Bos- ton who is so largely engaged in the creamery business in Iowa. Those of you who have studied the development of the dairy interest in the Western States perhaps are acquainted with the fact that the system of creameries in general use in the Westein States is not the system that the gentlemen himself has adopted and which he has found so satisfac- tory and so successful. You are all aware that the system of creameries and dairying is the sucL-essor of grain raising in all our Western States. In other words, as the competition resulting from the development of new and fresh agricultural sections in the AVest has enlarged the pro- duction of grain in those sections, it has depreciated the value of the grain product to that extent tnat the older settled States have found it necessary to turn from that branch of agriculture to another; in other words, to so condense the product of their lands that by the reduction of the cost of transportation they can find it more profitable. ]jy reason of the freshness, newness, and undeveh)|>ed condition of the dairying and creajnery interests in the.^e Northwestern States, aside IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 231 from the limited section of Iowa iu which the g'entleman is iuterested, a gathered cream system is followed by the creamer^', which system is not that the farmer should bring his milk to the factory, involving" no exi)ense to the factory man, but that the factory man should send his teams into the country to the farmer, in many cases traveling a distance of 20 or 30 miles, getting the cream, bringing it back to his factory iu the shape of cream skimmed from the milk, and then manufacturing that cream into his product of butter. And in order that you may un- derstand the distinction between the two methods, 1 will say that while the gentleman has truthfully said to you this morning that they can maiuifacture their product at a cost to them of 3 cents a pound to put it in a marketable condition, tlie average cost of putting the cream from the hands of the farmer into a marketable shape in the form of butter under the gathered cream system of the Northwestern States is not less than 8 eents a pound. This I know from actual experience in tlie man- agement of two creameries, one for several years tbe largest run in the State of Iowa, manufacturing at one time as much as 2,200 pounds of butter a day, and the other in the northern part of the State of Illinois. The point I want to make is this, that while the gentleman is able to pay the farmer 50 cents a hundred for his milk, the average farmer in the States of Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and those sections of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois that are working under the gathered- cream system does not receive but S or 10 cents per pound for his but- ter, even under the improved creamery system, whereas statistics will show that on the average produced in the past two years he has re- ceived from 15 to 16 cents a pound for his butter iu the shape of cream taken from his own cows at his own home, involving no trouble or ex- pense to him. I want to say just an a\ without fear of (contradiction, that I can go into Kansas City to-day, and can get the signatuies of nine out of every ten men 232 IMITATION DAIRY PEODUCTS. ■who handle dairy products against the petition that was sent up to you by the Live Stock Exchange of Kansas City. J have in my valise at the hotel the protest of the Chicago Produce Exchange and the assur- ance from an individual member of the Chicago Board of Trade that the action of the directors of those bodies is not the action of the bodies themselves, nor does it represent their sentiments. I have to say to you that the Board of Trade of the city of Saint Louis unanimously voted down the resolution ])resented to tbeni by the gentlemen repre- sented before you to-day, disapproving of the act now before you for your consideration. They unanimously voted down a petition to disapprove the bill. We were able to make them understand that the constituency which they rei)resented, the grand agricultural interest of the ISTorth- west were not i)rinie movers against the bill nor the prime opponents of it. But it does not seem to me necessary to use any arguments to con- vince gentlemen of your intelligence and knowledge about the agri- cultural development of this country, especially the great ]S^orthwest, or to show that there is no necessity for this new, man-devised, and man- discovered interest. The food that a wise Creator has provided for the use of man in the form of butter is certainly as good as, perhaps no better than, the product which the ingenuity of even these wise men has been able to discover. They tell us that were it not for the fact that oleo had been introduced in the market, butter would have been 50 or GO cents a ])ound. Now, I want to say to you this: That the rea- son creamery butter sold in Boston last winter at 38 cents a pound, was that the manufacturer of oleomargarine and butterine made the price. I know it to be a fact — and I will state it under oath now if you choose or prove it by the records — that on the day butter advanced in Elgin .5 cents a pound last winter, it was freely and abundantly offered at 35 cents a pound, and that the agents of the Chicago butterine manufact- urers said to these men who were offering butter at 35 cents, "you are fools ; we will take all your product at 40 cents." And I, as a i)urchaser of butter on the Elgin market under contract, was compelled to pay 40 cents when the manufacturer wrote me, under his own hand, that he had expected to sell and had billed me that butter at 35 cents. It was not the scarcity of butter; it was the effort of the butterine men to falsify the market report in order to appreciate the value of their own product and bring it under the a}»preciated price of butter. In rci^ard to the ])roductive cajjacity of this country. Is there a ne- cessity for this new element and new industry which has been intro- duced? What is the design of it? Ls it to meet a want that the country has found in a deficiency of the butter supply! Is it to pro- vide a channel of industry for unemployed labor! Is it to strengthen the hands of the honest dealers of this country ? I claim, Mr. Chair- man and honorable gentlemen, that there is no such occasion as this. It is purely and simply a money-making project on the part of those engaged in it. Why, sirs, will you tell me what the productive capacity of these grand prairies of the Northwest is to be ? Is it possible to ar- rive at the possibilities of those acres now undeveloped as they would have develoj)ed under the natural impulse of the dairj- interest pre- vious to the introduction of this new element? In the State of Mis- souri ten years ago we had not one creamery in operation. Three years ago we built sixty creameries and within the i)ast two years we have not built three. While our State is prolific of minerals and a grand State for the production of grain, our farmers, in the limited experience in the past few years, have discovered that, without this unfair compe- tiMon which they have received from this new compound, it is the in- IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 233 terest for them to euga^e iu. Look at the State of Iowa and see what the past ten years has done iu the development of her interests. Tlje Chairman. Do you thiuk Missouri is well adapted to dairying- purposes ? Mr. Truesdell. There is no question at all about it. Why, iu the State of Mississippi they are ruuning creameries successfully, aud when the gentlemen tell you tbat the dairy belt does not extend below the Ohio Eiver they make a mistake — that is an exploded notion. The State of Tennessee is just as well adapted to good dairying as the State of Illinois. The Chairman. And I suppose that is the case wherever the proper grasses are found? Mr. Truesdell. Yes, sir. Missouri, particularly the upper half of it, is capable of being so developed, and we are developing it more than in the southern part, but we have creameries located all through the State. The best butter I am handling to-day comes from the city of Saint Charles, in the State of Missouri. The Chairman. You are familiar with the creamery business in all its aspects f ]\Ir. Trfesdell. Yes, sir; I am. The Chairman. Mrs. Smith, the president of the Woman's Labor- League, asks me to in(]uire of you whether any women are employed in the creameries in making butter, and if so, what proportion are women. Mr. Truesdell. Well, the number is not very large. In a great many of the creameries no women are employed. The Chairman. How many people are usually employed in a cream- ery ? Mr. Truesdell. From two to tive men, depending upon its pro- ductive capacity. A small creamery can be run by two butter-makers and a helper; a large one employs five. The Chairman. Are some women employed as butter-makers in tlie creameries"? ]Mr. Truesdell. Yes, but very few. Some employ women as help- ers. Where a man is married, his wife is employed as a helper; but men are usually employed as butter-makers, while women are employed advautageously in the dairy, milking the cows and caring for the milk. We still employ women, but instead of putting her at the hard hibor of handling the dasher of the churn we simply ask her to milk the gentle and docile cow and relieve her of the more burdensome part of the work. The Chairman. The machinery does the work ! Mr. Truesdell. Yes, the machinery does the work which women had to do in years gone by. STATEMENT OF GEORGE M. HARRIS. Mr. GeorGtE M. Harris, of Salem, Mass., then addressed the com- mittee : I have heard a good deal said iu the jjast two days about the retail dealer, to the effect that the manufacturer of oleomargarine sells it liou- estly to the jobber and the jobber sells it honestly to the retailer, but that the retailer sells it dishonestly to the consumer. I am, gentlemen, one of those retailers. Until within the last fifteen months I was very much prejudiced against this article, but I found that I was k)sing trade,, and it seemed that the demand of the people was for this fresh-made and fresh-flavored article. Accordingly I put it on my counter, and I 234 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. am selling it strictly in conformity with the Massachusetts State law, which requires tliat the wrapper shall be stamped like this [exhibiting a piece of ]>aper with the word "butterine" printed on it], anoxes. Mi-. Harris. 1 have to buy for my retail trade in small quantities, anarine tor what it is ' Mr. Harris. No, sir, I do not ; within the ])asr six weeks there liave been two prosecutions ; one of the parties was fined $100 for selling butterine as binter, and the other one the same amount, because he did not stamp the wiap[)er in which he i)ut his butterine as it should liave been stamped, but wrote on it with a pencil. The Chairman. J^o yon believe it is senerally sold for what it is tluou^^hout the State; have yon any knowledge on that subject ? Ml. Harris. I ha\ c no knowledge on that subject. The Chairman. Tlu>se cases you s])eak of you knew about? Mr. Harris. I knew of them thiough the papers. Senatoi' JonI':s. According to your observation is the law of Massa- chusetts successfully enforced by the inspector ? Ml'. Harris. T tiiink so. I have great confidence in the inspector at our ))lace. I lecolleet one instance where a lady who had traded with me for many years returned some butter to me that she had ])ainrchaser as against a dishonest dealer ? Mr. Harris. 1 thiidv not, sir. 236 IMITATION DAIRY PEODUCTS. Senator Blair. But if butter was one color and butteriue auother color, I could tell them apart just as well as you could ! Mr. Harris. Yes, sir ; very well iudeed. But no man would buy that article, if it was some foreign color, to put on his table. Would not that discriminate unjustly against the poor man, who would otherwise buy thi> article at a low price, but who would not buy it if it was colored ? S«^nator Blair. That is a matter of argument. I should not think it would be any injury to the poor man ; both products are healthful, as the e\ idence proves. There was some question raised upon that pointy but we will assume thej' are both healthful, one as much so as the other, the one costing 30 cents and the other 15 cents. We eat articles of food of different hues; we eat pink ice cream and other substances. I imagine in time the i^rejudice would disappear. Mr. Harris. I think not against the color. Senator Blair. You think that would remain a permanent objection? Mr. Harris. It seems to me it would. Why, they object to pale butter ; unless the butter is properly colored to come up to their idea, they object to it. Tiie Chairman. The consumer, then, under your law has not much protection against the dishonesty of the retail dealer ? Mr. Harhis. I do not know that there is. The Chairman. There is nothing in tlie world to prevent you, if you are so disposed, between the visits of the inspector, from taking the good dairy butter out of the butter tub and putting it in the place of the butterine, and the reverse, without anybody's knowing it except yourself? Mr. Harris. No, sir ; I think not. But there is nothing to prev^ent a dealer from adulterating his coffee if he chooses to, except as a matter of conscience. Senator Blair. There are laws against obtaining money by false pre- tenses, and there is no doubt a performance of this kind could be pun- ished criminally. But the evil seems to be one of the incapacity of the consumer to know what he is buying, and if anything could be done to enlighten him upon that point, it might )>e worthy of consideration. Mr. Harris. But if there is an article that a poor man wishes to buy — and they do come to my place and call for it — it does not seem fair for the law to say that it shall be colored, so that when he puts it on his table everybody who sees it there will say it is butterine or oleomar- garine. Senator Blair. Perhaps it is unfair to legislate at all upon the sub- ject. The following letter from Mr. Harris is explanatory of his testimony : [Office of I. P. Harris &. Co.. wholesale and retail grocers.] Salem, Mass., Jtote 19, 1866. Dear Sir: Witli your kind perniission, I desire to correct au impre.ssiou which I fear the committee received from my statement before them ou the 18th iustnnt (at the heariug on the oleo bill), in regard to the amount of butterine which we are handling. I stated that we were selling from twenty to twenty-tive packages of butterine "weekly, and about half as many again of genuine 1>utter. Tliese figures are substantially correct in regard to the number of packages, but the butterine is chiefly in 10-pound tubs, while the real butter is chiefly in 50-pound tubs. This, of cour.se, would show that our .sales of genuine butter are ^ ery largely in excess of our sales of butteriue. Hoping that this maybe added to or included in my statement, I am, verv re.sj)ectfullv, vours, GEO. M. HARRIS, Hon. Warneb Miller. Of I. P. Harri Co. Chairman Senate Commiitee on AqrkuJture, IMITATION PAIRY PRODTTCTS. 237 STATEMENT OF F. K. MORELAND. Mr. F. K. MoRELAND, of Ogdensburg', N. Y., counsel of the Ameri- can Agricultural and Dairy Association, then addressed the committee : Mv. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee : 1 just wish to take a few moments to answer an objection which has been urged against this measure that it is unconstitutional. I have prepared a [)aper which I will leave with t1ie committee, in which I have cited some authorities, and 1 wish to take the position that the national Governmeni lias the l)o\ver to regulate interstate commerce, foreign comnu^rce, and tliat the State cannot; that they have the power to tax an objectionable nianu- £acture in order to regulate it and give other industries a fair chance. In my prepared argument I take the following ground : It is rare in the history of this or any other coiintiy that theie has been such a denumd for any i)articidar legislation as the demand dur- ing the present Congress for legislation to prevent the total destruction of the dairy industry. This demand at first but a '• still, small voiije," has grown to a clarion tone — at first, but like the muruuiring of a sum- mer breeze, has become the irresisteble power of the tempest. This de- mand from the people of the country, the whole country, to their rep- resentatives in Congress assembled has been most emphatically mani- fested, and has found exi)ression in divers ways, and Cougrl^ss has done well indeed to take heed and devote to this matter the consideration it deserves. It was thought at one time, and this belief held sway for many years, that the different Suites had ample power in the premises. It was be- lieved that the States had ample power to legislate satisfactorily on all questions pertaining to the interests of the farmers. The farmers have hitherto manifested an agreeable quiescence equaled only by the ready willingness of the different States to furnish any legislation that might be required. I do not believe that the dairymen of the country have any rights which the diftereut States are unable to protect, but the protection of the dairymen of the country in the enjoyment of the rights and privi- leges they are in justice and good government and under the Consti- tution of the country entitled to, is one thing, and the prevention of a great national calamity is quite another matter. The protection of a languishing industry is one thing, the protection of the health of the entire people is quite another matter, and yet they are very closely re- lated. The dairy industry of the country is seeking relief and the health of the people demanding protection both in the same way and through the same medium, viz, the passage of a law regulating and restricting the sale of an imitation article made and sold fraudulently as and for butter. The dairymen of the country have suffered from a diminishing foreign trade, due to the well-grounded suspicion existing in the countries to which we have exported our dairy products that our butter was not an honest article; that it was guiltless of the refining associations of the churn, the dairymaid, the cow, and sweet-scented jjastures, nay, more, that it was the product of offal fat purified by nameless chemicals — a patented poison. The exjtorts of butter and imitations of butter do not to-day equal the amount of butter which we should export had it not been for the fact, well known in all our foreign markets, that we are making and export- ing vast quantities of oleomargarine. 238 IMITATION DAIRY PRODICTS. The home coiisaraption of butter has also suffered to an alarming ex- t-eiit from the knowledge that much of the butter retailed over counters is not an honest article, and is an undesirable article of food. The States may be able to secure to the dairymen within the States the lights they are entitled to, although they have hitherto failed to do so: but they certainly ate unable to i)rotect the health of the entire people and the honor of our commeice abroad. So far as the States liave power, within the limits of their State constitutions, to legislate for the rights of dairymen, no State has yet gone too far to suit me. Let not the jealous defenders of State rights confound the protection of the dairy industry with the regulating of a great and wide-spread evil. Th(^ States have a perfect right to legislate for the protection of their own citizens; but when the different States attempt in different ways to regulate or control a thoroughly organized piracy, then the ineffect- ive legislation we have had in a dozen different States is the only nat- ural result. When the black tiag of organized piracy floating iu the breeze above soap factories that manufacture an article to be used as food, and which is so manufactured that it cannot be distinguished from butter, and is liable to be insidious poison, bears upon its sable folds the legend '• legitimate industry," the evil becomes too much for any State legislation. it is in proof on the statute books of all the States which have med- dled with this growiug evil, in the decisions of courts which have been compelled to declare such laws in many cases unconstitutional, iu flourishing oleomargarine factories, a depressed dairy industry, and im- poverished farmers, that no State legislation has as yet been able to meet this great question. At the national convention of the Amer- ican Agricultural and Dairy Association, held in New York City Feb- ruary 16, 17, and 18, 188C, the one all-absorbing topic for discussion was the possibility of protecting the consumers of butter from the fraud practiced upon them by manufacturers of and dealers in imitations of butter. At this convention every State in the Union to any extent in- terested in dairying was represented by accreditetl delegates. The gen- tlemen who had come from distant States to take part in the delibera- tions of the convention which was destined to torraulate a policy which would redeem the country from the citizens within the country were men not only largely acquainted with public affairs, but also intimate with the interest and welfare of their several States. Strong resolu- tions were adopted urging immediate effective action by Congress as the only possible means of protecting consumers iu their right to pure food and rescuing an imperiled industry. Of all the delegates at this convention no delegate from the oldest dairy State in the Union was more emphatic in condemning in unmeas- ured terms the gross injustice to honest industry, in selling oleomarga- rine for what it is not, than the delegates from the South. None of the delegates at this convention were more emphatic in their condemnation of the detestable, iniquitous crime of tampering with human food than the delegates from the Southern States, and this is not to be wondered at, for when it comes to a question of pure food we are all human. The argument has been made against this measure that it seeks to destroy one industry and thus protect another industry. This is not the fact. This measure seeks only to prevent one industry — if the manufacture of oleomagarine is an industry — from destroying another. It only seeks to lay the restraining hand of the law upon a business which is attempting to destroy a long established and important in- dustry. IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 239 The oppoueuts of this bill have treiited the country to a dissertation upon the rank injustice of legislation against the poor man. Oleomar- garine, the.y say, is "the poor man's butter." If this is the case it is either better or inferior to natural butter. Jf it is better tliau butier then it is a luxury, and the ap})etite of the ri(;h crave it ; if oleouuirga- rine is inferior in quality to natural butter why should it be foisteist, of Boston, Mass., in the Bos- ton Herald of January 8, 1881, says he has recently examined s^me twenty speciuiens (>f oleomargarine obtained from different dealers, and has found in every s])ecimen more or less of foreign substances, a va- riety' of animal and vegetable life; the blood corpus(;les of sheep; the e^ff of a tape- worm ; yeast was found sprouting in considerable quanti- ties, and spores of fungi were very prevalent. He found a portion of a worm, dead hydra varidis, portions of muscular fibers, fatty cells, and eggs from some small parasites. The English microscopist, W. H. Dallinger, said to be the greatest liv'ing authority on this subject, in a letter to the American Journal of Microscopy of October, 1878, shows that oleomargarine is not subjected to a heat sufficient to kill the living organisms which refuse fats are liable to contain. Chief-Justice Marshall, of the United States Supreme Court (McCul- loch vs. Maryland, reported in 4 Wheat., 428), says: rt is iiflmittefl that the power of taxing the people and their property is essential to the verj' existence of the Government, and may legitimately be exercised to the utmost extent to which the Government may choose to carry it. The people give to their Government the rig t of taxing themselves and their property, and as the exigencies of the Government cannot be limited, they prescribe no limits to the exercise of this right, resting confidently on the interest of the leg- islators, and of the intluence of the constituents over their representatives to guard them against abuse. And again: That the power to tax involves the power to ilestroy is a proposition not to be denied. Is it not a (;ase where it is perfectl}^ safe to tax? Hilliard on Taxation says: Section 85. The taxing power is an essential attribute of sovereignty, and can onlv be abridged bv positive enactment (State vs. Newark, 2 Dutcher, N. J., 519; Debolt vs. Ohio, Ohio St., 5(i;5). And again, Justice Story, sec. 922, says : A power to ly a tax be not the eonm on cefense of the United States, if Ihe welJare he not general, but special or loeal, as coutradistingnished from national, it is not within the seope of the Con8titutiower of the National Government sought to be embodied in this law is not unconstitutional, because it may perchance impair the j)rop- eity of manufactures, invested in a busiitess they have hitherto been allowed to carry on without hindrance, for persons and property are subject to all kind of restraint and burdens in order to secure the gen- eral comiort, health, and prosi)erity of the State. Laws relating to tbe comlbrt, health, conveniences, and general welfare of the i)eople are comi)]ehensively styled ]K)]ice laws, and it is well settled that laws of this character, though they may disturb the enjoyment of individual rights, are not unconstitutional. Private interest must yield to public advantages. IMITATION DAIRY rROijUCTS. 243 Tlie National Goveriiinent is not sovereign without the power to regu- late interstate and foreign conitnerce, and Congress can wield this sov- ereign power as it may deem best for the public weal ; and it is indeed a bold and reckless assertion at tliis late day that there is any clause, section, or provision in the Constitution prescribing the limits of legis- lative discretion in directing how, when, or wliere a trade shall be con- ducted in articles intimately connected with public morals, i)ublic safety, or public welfare, or, indeed, to [)rohibitor sui>press such traffic altogether if deemed essential to effect those great ends of good gov- ernment. What are the reasons why the i)olice power of the State should be exercised in the nninner asked for? It is not often that agriculture has knocked at the doors of Conaress. Why is it doing so to day ? It it is not because the prosperity of those engaged in this pursuit is threatened. It is more than this. It is a question of actual existence, and the existence of an industry as important as that of dairying in this country is no unimjtortant matter. This threatened destruction brought to bear upon this measure the sui)port of 7,500,000 of fai'iners, and their supi)ort was sufficient to carry the measure through the House of Representatives. What a keen sat- isfaction belongs to each one of the 177 who sup])orted this measure in the House of Representatives. With the example of the lower House for a i)recedent i do not believe tlie farmers of tlie country will be dis- appointed in the deliberations of the Senate upon this measure. There are i)otent reasons for the ])assage of this bill, and serious evils will re- sult to the country should it not pass. It is no infant industry that is asking for the nursing mother of protection. It is or has been the great industry of the country and it is on the point of destruction. " Comparisons are odious," but it is only by com- parisons that we can ascertain the enormous magnitude of dairying in this country. There are to-day in the United States about 10,000,000 cows, worth $000,000,000, and the annual amount of butter product amounts to about 1,000,000,000 pounds, worth about 1250,000,000. The annual value of the dairy i)roducls each year equals $500,000,000. There are to-day 7,000,000of our population engaged in dairying. There are 05,000,000 acres ot land devoted to dairy farms, and this land with the plant used in the dairy, including implements, machinery, and buildings, especially devoted to this i)urpose, are worth, at a low esti- mate, $-!0,000,000,000. Now to compare this industry with others that are well known to be important: By the census of 1880 there was invested in manufactures .|2, 790, 272, 609 Vahie of mauufactural products 5,369,579,191 Production of gold and silver 774, 490, 620 Capital invested in raihoads 5, 425,722, 560 13,6()0,064,977 This is less than the capital actually invested in agriculture. The prosperity of our country is largely due to our agricultural ])rosperity. If agriculture is profitable and our farmers prosperous, the entire coun- try feels the beneficent effect of this prosperity. But agriculture is r.o longer profitable and our farmers are not prosperous. Many thousands of farmers are comparatively poor. The millions of dollars I have stated to be invested in agriculture is divided among a large portion of our population, and the farm with no source of income save that derived from the dairy must still siii)port the farmer and his family, provide 244 IMITATION DAIRY PRODICTS. inauy daily necessaries witli no liope or ex])e('taTioii of luxury, educate the sons and daug^liters, a i)ardonab]e ambition with every American citizen, and provide an insurance against want and jienury for the farmer's declining years. Tbe individual farmer is no longer prosperous. The farmer who incurred a debt in oider to procure a farm cannot meet his obligations and is forced into bankiuptcy, which means much suffer- ing to himself and family and a loss to the State. If by unremitting toil and the deprivation of many of the actual necessaiies of life the farmer is able to struggle against the tide and meet his obligations, he only accomplishes this much of a barren success at a cost which should not be necessary in any industry in this country. Let us look at the causes wliich have wrought this disaster. We have for years had an enormous export trade in the dairy products, which means a considerable iiicrease in the wealth of the country; it means that dairy i)roducts, under the intluence of this export trade, commanded a higher price than would be the case were there no export trade, and consequently more wealth and ])rosperity to individual farmers. In 1875 we exported butter to the amount of -81,000,090, and this export trade iapi5, more farms would have been devoted to this industry, more of the national wealth would liave been invested in the a])i)liances of daiiying, in buildings and dairy stocks, and individual farmers would have been ac hnist pros|)erous. This is not the success which has attended this industry. In 1885 we exported butter to the amount of only $3,043,040, and it is doubtful if the exjjort trade during the present year will equal $2,000,000. It is not hard to find the cause of the alarming depression in a leading in- dustry. In 1870 anew so-called industry was added to our national resources — the exportation of oleomargarine. That year we exported oleomarga- rine to the value of $70,483. This industry, with so small a beginning, founded in fraud and nurtured in deceit, has attained a marvelous success. In 1885 there was exported from this country oleomargarine to the value of $4,451,032. Compare the value of butter exported in 1885 with the value of the oleomargarine exported during the same time and the comparison is indeed a startling one — $807,980 in favor of the fraud against the legitimate industry. The dairy has been worsted in competition with the oleomargarine factory, and when we consider that oleomargarine is a source of immense profit to a few capitalists, while the dairy is a source of small profit to an immense number of our citizens, the question becomes of the greatest importance to our leading statesmen. The decline in our export trade in dairy products produces a far reaching and inevitable result, and this result is fraught with serious disaster. The decline in the \alue of dairy jjroducts means a decline in the \ alue of dairy farms, a reduction in the number and value of dairy cows, and a reduction in the value of labor on the farm. During the three months ending March 31, 1880, we exported oleomar- garijie, including imitation butter and the oil, to the amount of $018,022, and during the same three months we exported butter to the amount of only $451,114. These are figures well worthy of examination ; tliey can mean but one thing, that the dairy industry is imperiled ; that if the dairy industry suffers loss, the loss is an important source of wealth, that dairy farms will have to be devoted to other branches of agriculture, which IMITATION DAIKY PRODIXTS. 245 ineaii an injury to those engaged in those industries; that dairy farms may yet be devoted to the rearing of live stock to the great detri- ment of those engaged in the production of beef. But there is no room in any other agricultural industiy, and all classes of agricultural indus- try are interested in the preservation of tlie roduct slionld be sold on its merits, but they fail to suggest any i)lan which will compel tbis to be done. They object to coloring it any other than the butter color, and yet admit that they aid the dealer in every way they can to deceive the public in color, flavor, style of packages, and brands, or the absence of brands, as the dealer nuiy require, and even brand it "creameiy" or "dairy,"' with any i)rehx that is desired. ADDITIONAL STATEMENT OF J. H. CRANE. Mr. John H. Crane, of Washington, said: Two of the gentlemen who have appeared before this committee have read tabular statements in reference to the average cost of articles of i)roduce in ditterent years. 1 am a wholesale produce dealer in this city, and all wholesale leiity of it marked " butterine," audall the dealer has to do is to erase the last three letters and it reads " butter." The Chairman. You state it is your understandiug" that the law is not enforced in the District? Mr. (KANE. iS^o, sir; it is not. Senator Blair. I want to get ^t the facts Mrs. Smith says that the "Womans' Leajiue agitated the subject, and that one woman was arrested and fined for selling bogus butter. Mr. Crane. Yes, that is the fact; Mrs. Margaret Kiley. I will state the iacts. Alter i had publislied these articles the Market Comi)auy took hold of the matter, and determined to drive out all ihe dealers in imitation butter standing on the south side of the market, and their in- spector found this unfortunate woman, Margaret Kiley, selling bogus butter, and also an itinerant })reacher from Virginia selling it They swore out warrants agaijist them, and they were arrested, taken to the police court, lined, and held for the grand jury. They have never paid their fines, and Margaret told me the day before yesterday that she never intended to pay a cent, Theie has never been one cent of fine col- lected in the District of Columbia under that law, and never has been cue conviction made which was due to the ett'orts of the District au- thorities. Senator Joneh. You say large quantities of this article were brought here for the first six years without being branded ? Mr. Crane. Yes; I made diligent search among the dealers, and watched it as it landed, and have seen it branded "creamery" and "extra dairy" and so forth, but never saw the word oleomargarine or butterine upou it. Senator Jones. These packages that you saw branded "creamery" and so on, what did they have in them "? Mr. Crane. Nothing but bogus butter. Senator Jones. How do .^ou kuo\, that? Mr. Crane. Because J examined them, and I know by what peojde tell me who deal in them. Senator Jones. Did you rejjort them to the authorities ? Mr. Crane. 1 re])orted it through the press. 1 do not consider it my duty to act as a detective ioi- the District of Columbia when Congress has taken the right of suffrage away and placed Commissioners over us. It is not my place to execute the law or see that it is executed. Senator Jones. In the article which you wrote for the newspaper did you make the statement that oleomargarine and butterine were manu- factured of carrion 1 Mr. Crane. No, sir ; I did not. Senator Jones. You never printed any such statement ? Mr. Crane. No, sir; 1 made this statement in legard to the fat of animals: that formerly they buried their animals and now they paid money to get them. There are two boiling establishments, one on each side of the Potomac, about 3 miles down the river, where these animals are taken and boiled, the bones used i'or tertilizing, the skins sent away, aiul the i'at sold and shi])i)ed away. I had a conversation with one of those gentlem<-n, Mr. P. Mann, and he iniormed me that he sold it for soaj) grease. He is a very honorable gentleman, and would not sell it for anything else. But what becomes of it afterwards ? He says he cannot tell, lie says in the winter time it smells well and looks well. He shi])s it to New York and sells it to a Jew. Senator Jones. You did not inteud to have it understood that it was nsed for butterine? IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 249 Mr, Crane. 1 do uot ineau to say that the gentlemen here would use it ; I do not believe they would. J do not tliink the firm of Armour & Co. have occasion to use anything of the kind ; but I do say that there is great danger of its being used by meu of no character or principle whatever. They get hold of some process of making bntterine, and want to sell a cheap article, and may be tempted to buy this. Senator Jones. You stated in regard to these packages branded but- terine that there was no ditticulty in scratching oft" the last letters so as to make it read butter. Did you ever know of any case where it was done? Mr. Crane. I do not see why it could not be done. Senator Jones. But you never caught a man making that erasure? Mr. Crane. I never did. Senator Jones. And never knew of its being done? Mr. Crane. But I have no donbt it would be ; it has been done. I waut to say a word in legard to the enforcement of the law. There is a gentleman in this room who tried for ten days to have something done about the enforcement of the law. He went from one official to another, and finally gave uj) the whole thing in disgust. I listened with great attention to the chemists from iSTew York who addressed this committee, and was astonished to hear them say that this was bntter. . If it is butter, it will digest like bntter. But what does the other chemist from Boston say who came here? He stated yesterday that it would not digest as well as butter. I care not what they say or what investigations they make, they cannot prove that im- itation butter, made of hog's lard, is like the butter that comes from the milk of the cow. It is an entirely difterent thing. 1 wonhl give more for one fact and a little common sense than for the theories of all the chemists in the world. Senator Blair. You deal in bntter, 1 understand. Mr, Crane. Yes, sir. Senator Blair. And this other article is sold in the District largely, not sohl under its true name, but sold as butter, I understand you. Do you not find .yourself obliged to sell it ? Mr. Crane. 1 refuse to sell it, and I wish to say Senator Blair. How does the honest dealer get along and do busi- ness by the side of men who are not so honest ? Mr. Crane. He has to let his customers go. I liave a notice i)ut up in my store which says, "No oleomaigariiie or butteriue sold here; all good's warranted jture,''' I decline to sell any goods, vinegar, butter, or anything else, unless they are what 1 represent them to be, 1 have lost thousands of dollars in trade because 1 will not sell that article. I have had some of the most tempting offers made to me which I have declined, because 1 consider that a great crime has been ])erpetrated on the American people for the last ten or twelve years in the way of palming oft" on the country this bogus product and having it sold for genuine. It is bringing the farmeis to the verge of ruin while these men are putting millions in their own pockets. Senator Blair. You said you had the most tenii)ting offers made to you to get you to deal in oleomargarine. I would like to get some of those facts, Mr. Cranp:. Well, I have had an oleomargarine house in Baltimore 8eniit witli him ; this was a drummer who was very anxious to sell goods. I do not wish to injure the house by my statement. Senator Blair. As you left it, it would leave the dealers of the whole country — those who deal in oleomargarine — under the suspicion that they were parties to a fraud and an imposition, and were trying- to put their product on the country as a fraud. Mr. Crane. Well, I think they are. Senator Blair. But when I ask you minutely about it, it seems some irresponsible drummer made the proposition, and you do not care your- self to charge it to the firm. Mr. Crane. I do not wish to do anything- to injure any man's busi- ness; I have no right to doit. I wish to be square, honorable, and aboveboard in all this business. J have nothing to do with oleomar- garine. I do not know all the gentlemen making it personally. I know nothing against them, and wish to have no trouble with them. But I think the business, in the way it is carried on here, should be stopped, and that the dealers should be made to put a mark on the goods and pay some respect to the law. There would be no other way for them but to respect the law if the United States would take the matter into its hands, as this bill provides. STATEMENT OF L. M. OHLY. Mr. L. M. Ohly, of New York City, then addressed the committee : I used to deal in oleomargarine, but have not sold any for several years. Within two or three days I have eaten oleomargarine in a res- taurant, and the woman told me it was sold to her for butter, and the tub was branded in such a manner that you could not tell what the let- ters were. The letters were probably an inch and a half long, but they were only a quarter of an inch wide, and it is almost impossible to tell IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 251 what they are. I know, also, that stores buy it and sell it for butter My wife has bought it and L have taken it back to them. I know that manufacturers for whom I have worked have asked me to scrape off" the brand " oleomargarine" after the customers bought it, and to be sure and wait until tlie customer had made the purchase, so that the law could not atJect him. The Chairman. You were instructed to scratch off the brand if the customer wanted it off ? Mr. Ohly. Yes, sir. The Chairman. Did you ever do it; did any of the customers ever ask you to have it taken oft"? Mr. Ohly. Yes, but I didn't do it myself; 1 have seen our men doing it. Senator Blair. Wbo do you mean by "our men V Mr. Ohly. The other employes of the particular manufacturer. The Chairman. Do you say that you dealt in oleomargarine? Mr. Ohly. Yes, sir. The Chairman. When was that ? ]\[r. Ohly. Two years ago the tirst of May. The Chairman. What did you sell it for, oleomargarine or butter? Mr. Ohly. I sold it for oleomargarine ; 1 never sold it for anything else but oleomargarine. The Chairman. The customers knew what they were getting then'? Mr. Ohly. Yes, sir^ Senator Blair. Where do you live ? Mr. Ohly. In Brooklyn. I am a produce commission merchant. The Chairman. You are not a retailer! Mr. Ohly. No, sir. Senator Blair. Your customers are retailers, as a rule? Mr. Ohly. Yes, sir. Senator Blair. You sell to the retailer oleomargarine ? Mr. Ohly. No, sir; we hav^e not for over two years. Senator Blair. When you did deal in it you sold it as oleomargar- ine ? Mr. Ohly. Yes, sir. Senator Blair. You said " our men" scraped off the last letters ? Mr. Ohly. By that I meant the employes. Senator Blair. Of your firm ? Mr. Ohly. Yes, sir. Senator Blair. Of your own commission house ? Mr. Ohly. No, sir ; the employes of the manufacturers. T was not then a commission merchant, or employed by a (jommissiou merchant. Senator Blair. How long ago was that, an])ress a legiti- mate industry, and to avoul suspicion that this is the object of the bill, coloi it with revenue, is a great injustice. The Chairman. You use cotton-seed oil only in the winter time? Mr. Sterne. Yes ; it is too soft to use in the summer time. The Chairman. When you do, what ])ercentage do you use f Mr. Hterne. Five or six i)er cent, sometimes ; it depends on whether it goes l^orth or South. In the winter we use it always with the lat to get the right bread-spreading properties. The Chairman. Do you or does anybody make a y)roduct which is simply neutral and dairy butter mixed, or do you in all cases use the three compounds of neutral, oleo, and the creamery butter ()r milk ? Mr. Sterne. J think the comi)ounds aie universally used for making oleomargarine. In the butterine and creamery grades I think there is no cotton-seed oil used. The Chairman. Then the amount of cotton seed used would be very small ? Mr. S'J'ERNE. Y"es, sir. The Chairman. How do you get entirely rid of the flavor or odor of the lard ? Mr. Sterne. It never has any. Leaf lard is perfectly and absolutely tasteless. The lard of commerce is frequently cut up into chunks, and each chunk must necessarily contain a great deal of fibriue, and in the cooking the outside will have melted away a long time before you get to the inside, and after the fat is melted oft' on the outside the tissue or fiber, or what is there, roasts with the heat and gives that roasted flavor acquired by all commercial lard from the kettle or steam. The Chairman. In the manufacture of ordinary lard for cooking pur- poses, do you in any way deodorize it to get rid of the peculiar flavor or odor ? Mr. Sterne. No, sir. The Chairman. What is the process of deodorizing oils or fats! Mr. Sterne. There is none. The Chairman. How is cotton-seed oil purifled and madejtasteless? Mr. Sterne. I do not think it can be done; I never saw any cotton- seed oil that was tasteless. The Chairman. There is no way of purifying this oil, then ?j Mr. Sterne. I think not. The Chairman, A gentleman yesterday told us it was deodorized and rendered entirely tasteless, so as to avoid any smell or taste. I may be laboring under a misapprehension, but I think he said these oils were purifled and rendered substantially tasteless and odorless. I supposed there was such a chemical process as that known. Mr. Sterne. No, sir; there is not. It has been a study with a great many people to find out how an oil like lard oil could be made into a better grade by taking out the color and smell, but it never has been done. The Chairman. We are told that cottonseed oil is purified and deo- dorized and then used as a substitute for olive oil. The natural flavor 256 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. of cotton seed oil would hardly be palatable as a table oil unless purified in some way, and I suppose it is done. Mr. Sterne. I can explain that. The salad oil of commerce is made from cotton seed, and when tirst pressed from the crude seed it is a deep red color. That color is entirely formed by an inside fiber of the hull which attaches itself on the hull, and gives it a color. That color is eliminated, and it leaves a bright yellow oil, and it is sold as salad oil. It must be made from prime seed, or it cannot be used for such a pur- pose. The Chairman. How is the color taken out, by filtering- ! Mr. Sterne. Yes, sir. The Chairman. Is it filtered through charcoal ? Mr. Sterne. Through bone dust and charcoal. It is put at a very high heat, the presses are charged with superheated steam all the time, and the stearine frotn it is made into cakes and sold. The ('HAIRMAN. The common impression that fats can be deodorized is not correct, then, according to your statement 1 Mr. Sterne. No, sir. I would say in regard to theoleo oil that there is a liavor in the beef suet wl)ich we take great care to i)reserve, and any one who has been able to get it in its i>ertectiou has the best market for his oleo oil. The Chairman. Mrs. Smith asked me to inquire whether you employ in this manufacture female labor. Mr. Sterne. We have none. STATEMENT OF H. W. HENSHAW. Mr. H. W. Henshaw, of Chicago, then addressed the committee. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee: I am a member of the firm of Koos, Henshaw & Co., Chicago, exporters and wholesale dealers in butter and cheese; also manufacturers of butterine. I have been engaged in the butter trade since the year 1871, and commenced to manufacture butterine in the year 1882. In all our manufacture of butterine we have used ouly the finest grade of oleo oil, leaf lard, and butter to be found in the market. The process of manufacturing butterine is substantially the same in all the factories, and has been clearly described by Mr. George M. Sterne. It is simply impossible for any one to successfully make and get even cost out of it unless they use the utmost care and cleanliness and secure the most perfect materials to be had. Competition is so keen and the margin of profit so small that all manufacturers are forced to exercise this care. All our goods are plainly branded and sold for just what they are. I herewith attach copies of our invoices, letter heads, &c., for the com- mittee's inspection. We color our goods to conform with what each market requires; some desire a light color, while others want the goods much higher in color. 1 deny that the butter men have or ever had the exclusive use of yellow color for their butter. A large proportion of butter comes to our western markets, even at the present time, uncolored and very white. Up to tlie year 1879 more than two-thirds of the butter came into the Chicago market in stone jars, soap and caudle boxes, tobacco and candy pails, besides barrels of various sizes, and but very little of it was colored. IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 257 It is only since tlie manufacture of butterine commenced that the large color manufacturers have started in business throughout the West, and I claim that the makit-g- of butterine of a good uniform color has forced the greater portion of butter-makers to follow us in using a color. We now tiud them going to State legislatures and asking them to pro- hibit us from using the very article that we have forced into such gen- eral use among them. • The butterine manufacturers should, in all justice, be the ones who ought to ask for a law to prohibit the butter men from using any color, or if they did, it should be one different from what we have brought into general use. It is claimed by the butter men that the manufacture of butterine has not only reduced the price of butter to such an extent that many are already hopelessly bankrupt and driven out of butter-making, but that it has ruined our export trade to Great Britain and other countries. As they concede th;it all this great trouble has taken place with them in the last three years, I will submit tigures taken from the Chicago Board of Trade annual reports and the United States statistics showing the receipts of butter in Chicago, as follows: Pounds. For the year lHfs2 6fi, 954,045 For the year IH& 75, 3^3, 012 For the year lri.-4 83,410, 144 For the year ^"85 92, 474, 784 This shows an increase in the receipts of 25,520, 73l> pounds in three years, and it certainly does not look as if butter-making in the West was declining as rapidly as they claim. Although this increase has been so large the prices have ruled nearly the same. The average price for tine butter in Chicago was as follows: Ceuts per pound. 1882 28*to32 1883 - 25 to 28 1884 25 to 27 1885 ...25 to 26 I herewith sul)mit the annual report of the secretary of the Elgin Board of Trade for the years 1884 and 1885. The averag(^ prices received during the six summer and autumn months of 1884 was 23^ cents per pound, and for the balance of the season 33 cents per pound. For the six summer and autumn months of 1885 the average price was 21 cents per pound, and 32^- cents for the balance of the year. Certaiu it is that these figures do not lead us to believe tha^t there is such a wonderful shrinkage in the prices of butter as the speakers for the butter men claim, nor would it appear that with these prices which they have been receiving they are compelled to put blanket-mortgages on their farms, as Mr. Hopkins, of the fifth Illiuois district, which in- cludes the Elgin section, claimed in his speech delivered on this bill in the House of Representatives. Pounds. Dnriug the year of 1882 the exports of butter to Great Britaiu and Ger- many were 9, 947, 498 1883 5,687,345 1884 12, 438, ( i94 1885 12,297,629 17007 OL 17 258 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS, The total exportation of butter to all foreign countries from the United States was as follows: Pounds. 1882 14, 704, 305 188:5 12,348,641 1884 20, 621, 010 1885 21,683,148 Showing a gain in these three years of G.888,843 pounds. While our exports of wheat fell off 50 per cent, from 1884 to 1885 and flour 25 per cent., we tind ihe exports of butter increased 10 per cent, during the same period. In the Producers' Price Current, of New York City, under date of June 12, 1886, we find that there had been received during the week in that city 51,782 packages of butter and 733 packages of biitterine; for the corresponding week of 1885 the receipts of butter in that city were 41,348 packages, an increase of 10,434 i)ackages in one week. We also find that the total receipts of butter in New York City from May 1, 1886, to June 12, 1886, was 246,907 packages, and for the same time in 1885 197,334 packages, an increase of 49,573 packages in a trifle more than six weeks of the present year. This certainly appears, and is, conclusive evidence that the dairymen are not being driven out of the making of butter by the manufacture of butterine and oleomargarine. The prices paid to the farmers for milk by the Chicago milk dealers in the winter months of 1884 was $1.40 per can of 8 gallons ; during the summer months of the same year $1.10 per can. For the winter months of 1885 $1.25 ])er can, and $1 for the summer months. At the present time the New York milk dealers are paying the farmers from $1.20 to $1.30 per can of 10 gallons each. The passage of the bill now before your honorable committee, or even in a modified form, which would compel the manufacturers to stamp their goods with an internal-revenue stamp, be it great or small, would work serious injury to us. Strive as hard as we could to bring the merits of the goods before the people, there would yet remain in the minds of jnany the belief that if the Congress of the United States had placed a tax on it, it must cer- tainly be injurious or unhealthy in some manner. But why put a tax on an article which even the speakers in the dairy interest before your committee have so unanimously agreed was pure and healthy. There is not a manufacturer of butterine in this country who does not sell the goods for just what they are, and if the men who for three years past have filled the iiress in both the city and country with abusive and outrageous falsehoods regarding butteriue cease this mode of warfare, which has been carried to an extent far beyond the limit of patience, then and then only will the goods be in ever^^ case sold to the consumer for just what they are. I can safely say that all manufacturers of butterine will be glad to see that day come, for I am confident just so soon as this vile misrepresenta- tion and frightful stories of what is used in its manufacture is stopped, just so soon will the demand be greater than we have at the present time. From personal knowledge I know this has been the case in England, where to-day butteriue is sold in large quantities entirely' on its merits, coloring matter included. IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. 259 The Chairman, If any other geutlemau desires to be heard the com- mittee will give him an opi)ortuuity. If not, the committee will stand adjourned until called, and the record of the hearing will be prepared. I desire to say that papers have come in to me from various parties in the form of statements, and those I wiil have incorporated with the hear- ing and printed, so that the committee will have the use of them — let- ters from dairymen, &c. If gentlemen desire to make any other state- ments which are material — we do not want to encumber the record — as to facts and figures, not arguments and theories, if they are sent in in time they will be printed. The following communications upon the subject under consideration were presented to the committee and are made part of the record: STATEMENT BY THOMAS TAYLOR, M. D. [Microscopist, TTnited States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C] IS OLEOMARGARINE HEALTHFUL AS COMPARED WITH PURE BUTTER ? This question, involving the consideration of che liquefaction, saponi- fication, and absorption of the various fats used as food in the animal economy, can only be satisfactoril;> answered by the physiological chemist. In speaking of fats in general we are too apt to consider that the solid fats of all animals are alike, whereas it is well known that the composite fats of some animals differ very much from those of other animals, and in some cases fats of a different composition exist in the same animal, as in the oil of milk as compared with that of the solid fats of the tissues. The fats of milk consist of palmitine and oleine with a little stearine, while the fats of the adipose vesicles are comi^osed of palmitine, oleine, and a large proportion of stearine. Beaumont does not say much with regard to the changes which fatty substances undergo in the stomach, except that they are " digested with great difficulty," All the receut observations ou this subject show that these principles, when taken in the condition of oil, pass out at the p.yhirus unchanged. Most of the fatty con- stituents of the food are liquefied at the temperaftire of the body ; and when taken in the form of adipose 1 issue, the little vesicles in which the oleaginous matter is contained are dissolved, the fat set free and melted, and floats in tiie form of great drops of oil on the alimentary mass. The action of the stomach, then, seems to be to prepare the fats for digestion, chiefly by dissolving the adipose vesicles for the com- plete digestion which takes place in the small intestine. (Flint.) The melting point of the solid fats is therefore all important in this inquiry, because a fat that melts at a temperature comparatively low in the human stomach is more quickly passed to the small intestine, where it is combined with the pancreatic juice and emulsified preparatory to its absorption by the tissues. The chemists of the United States who have indorsed the statement that oleomargarine when purely made is equal, if not .superior, to butter as an article of diet, if we may judge from their indorsements, have given no consideration to its physiological relations. They say that oleomargarine cannot be harmful because no evil arises from the fat of an animal used as food, if slaughtered in a healthy condition. But this statement is not wholly correct, for it is well known that the fat of mut- 260 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. ton, ill wliichsteariiie largt'ly predominates, causes severe indigestion in some persons. It is further affirmed that oleomargarine will resist the liigii tempera- tures of the summer months better than will butter. Tliis agrees with my own experience, and the fact demonstrates tbat eleomargaiine is inferior to butter in ])oint of digestibility, because its power to with- stand the higher temi)eiature is owing to tbe large amount of stearine it contains; tiierefore, so lar as the higher melting point of oleomarga- rine is concerned, it is not a i)oiiit in its favor since the easy solution of the solid fats at a comparatively low temperature in the animal economy is necessary to their speet they do desire freedoui from the unfair advantage which dealers, and especially small dealers, are enabled to practice by fraud- ulent substitution and sale. This one point secured, identification^ and no good butter-maker has any reason to fear serious competition from Icnown substitutes and imi- tations of his pure butter. I find most good butter-makers agree that we can make an article at least fifty weeks m the year which will successfully compete on its merits with the best- known substitute, even although the latter be ot'- fered as butter. In spite of the many claims to the contrary, few good judges of butter fail to identify the si)urious imitations by the ordinary methods of examination. Many consumers are, however, poor judges, and their servants or purchasing agents still poorer, so that the need of some characteristic feature or mark, which shall at once distinguish pure butter from any adulteration, imitation, or substitute, is mainly in the interest of the consumer. The competition of the so-called '' bogus butters " is felt almest exclu- sively by butter of the lowest grades. The great bulk of butterine and its kindred products is as wholesome, cleaner, and in many respects better than the low grades of butter, of which so much reaches market. It is certainly true, however, that the average quality of American butter 268 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. is fast iinproviiif^, ond if oleomargarine and butteriue spur tbe poorer butter-makers to greater eftbrt, better methods, and a product of higher grade, the inventions which so many regard as a calamity may prove to be blessings in disguise to the dairying and diarymen of the couutiy. The best butter-makers are to-day not afraid of the comi)etitiou as it stands. Secure identification an/w'/5'tow, 7). 0., ./?me 22, LS86. Hon. Warner Miller, ' ? • Chairman Senate Committee on Agriculture: Dear Sir: Herewith I respectfully submit an analysis of the ten sam})les of eleomargariue, so called, received June 12, 1886, from B F Van Valkenburgh, assistant New York State dairy commissioner, 35(i Waslnn-ton street, New York (Mty, N. Y. SampU No. 1 is an oleomargarine. Viewed under the microscope as received, this sample exhibits crystals of lard. On boiling it o-ivcs off fumes of a very disagreeable acid odor and also that of decomposino- cheese (caserne), showing the presence of butter. It is unfit for human iood, being ma highly decomposed state. The sample is marked L, Aarensburg, N. Y. ' Sample No. 2.— This specimen is full of fungi, mycelium, and the spores of the same. Dark bodies, foreign to pure butter or oleomarga- rine, are also observed. On boiling a very sour odor is given off aiul also that of decomposing cheese (caseine), indicating the i)resence of butter, although no odor of butter was perceived. 'This sample was too much decayed to detect in it the crystals of beef fat. Has a slioht taste of butter. Is unfit for human food, being in a state of fermenta- tion. The sample is marked U. .^ D., June 12, 1880. Probably Richards and Muny's goods. Sample No. 3.— This sample is an oleomargarine. Viewed under the microscope, it exhibits crystals of lard. On boiling gives off a slin-ht odor of butter; also a sour and cheesy odor. Is unfit for human food, being highly decomposed. This sample is marked P. H. Ilimr N Y • made by him in N. Y. ; old goods. J. I ei , x> . i . , 170(»7 OL 18 274 IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS. Sample No. 4. — Viewed under the microscope, as received, no crystals- of lard were observed. On boiling- a slight odor of butter is ]>erceived, and a sour smell of decomposed or putrid cheese (caseine). This sam- ple is too highly decomposed to obtain definition of crystals, and is unfit for human food. It is marked N. Waterbury (probably Ham- mond's goods), 115 Warren street. Sample No. 5. — This samjde is an oleomargarine. Viewed under the microscope, crystals of lard are observed. On boiling, a strong odor of decomposing caseine and a strong acid odor is given oil'. Tlie sample is in a state of fermentation. Is uuflr for human food. Marked, P. McGaun; probably McGaun's goods, Brooklyn, N. Y. Sample No. G. — Viewed under the microscope, no crystals of lard are observed. On boiling, it has a sligbt odor of butter and also a strong- odor of decomposing cheese (caseine), showing the presence of butter. It is highly charged with water. This specimen is unfit for human food, being in a state of fermentation. Marked G. Sample No. 7. — This is an oleomargarine. Viewed under the micro- scrope as received, crystals of lard in great numbers are seen. On boiling, beef crystals are observed, and also dark bodies, never seen in pure butter or oleomargai'ine. This sample is in a highly decomposed state and would be unfit for human food. It is marked Millman, probably L. Mendell's goods, New York. Sample No. 8. — This sample contains butterand lard, mycelium (roots) of fungi, and the si)ores of same. On boiling it gives off tbe odor of decomposing cheese (caseine of butter). Contains dark bodies foreign to butter or oleomargarine. jS^o odor of butter is perceived when boil- ing. The sample is unfit for human food, being in a state of fermenta- tion. Marked O. H. Hammond, June 12, 1886. From somewhere in Indiana it is supi)Osed. Samplv No. 0. — This sample, under the microscope, viewed in the nat- ural state, shows crystals of lard. It is an oleomargarine. The crystals of lard are well defined and in great numbers. On boiling gives off the odor of decomposed cheese (caseine of butter). The sample is highly charged with a blue mold, seen by the naked eye. It is in a high state of fermentation and is unfit for human food. Marked A. Manufact- urer unknown. Sample No. 10.— Few crystals of lard observed in this sample. Wlien boiled has a slight odor of butter, also an odor of decomposing caseine, showing the presence of butter, Is unfit for hunum food, being in a state of fermentation. Marked P. H. Van Kiper, New York. C HA^'07