Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1880-04-23
ITO be continued.7
Oleomargarine.
From the Pioaeer Press.

EIOM Cuo f10HeeT freSS.
As the New York butter market is said to
be utterly demoralzed by the immense sales
Of oleomargarine, and big tumble in the
price of genuine butter is anticipated, the
matter becomes of serious import to the dairy
men of Minnesota. It is said that 600, ,O00,-
900 pounds Of oleomargarine are annually ex-
ported to Europe, where it comes in direct
competition with the exported butter.
New York house claims to be selling daily
over 1000 packages of the "stuf,' which is
now being rendered all the more deceptive by
the admixture of genuine butter with it in the
proportion of from ten or two per cent. In
the meantime, the International Dairymens
association is fighting against the bill in con-
gress which proposes to legitimatize the ma n
ufacture of oleomargarine, and petitions
against the measure have been received for
signatures by several of the produce commits
sion merchants of St. Paul.
It appears that conservative and suspi-
the manufacture as a legitimate industry, and
has even affected to regard it as fraud and
8 device for the adul1eration of the o]d-fash-
ioned dairy product. The oseomargarine in.
dustry seems finally to have determined that it
has grown strong enough to protest against
this injustice, and has appealed to congress
for tho passage of a law legitimizlng the
manufacture. This law is now pending be-
fore the committee on agriculture, and the
oleomargarine manufacturers in New York re-
Gently enlarged the information of the COM
mittee through the medium of splendid ban
quet at Delmonicos. This has startled the
butter dealers, and the National Dairymen's
association has set on foot vigorous agitation
against the passage of the proposed law. The
arguments of the obstructionists are first,
that great deal of oleomargarine is made
now, when it is under the ban of the law.
This count of the Indictment seems to be sus-
tanned by collateral evidence. Though the
fact has not been blazoned in the market re-
ports, the oleomargarine makers have been
running their factories with great industry.
The fact incidentally came out in recent
suit in Chicago that 90, coo, 900 pounds of OLE
omargarine are manufactured and sold yearly
in this country, and it is asserted that many
simes this quantity are exported to Europe.
Although nobody ever buys oleomargarine al
retail, it is a transparent secret where all this
imme nse product goes. 1t is bought sold
and eaten as butter, and that is where the
shoe pinches the butter-makers. The second
charge against oleomargarine is that it is
cheap. This seems to be we'll sustained, too.
Oeumargarine is made out of refuse fats of
the pork and beef packing houses, waste pro-
duets of oil reGneries and back door debris of
the kitchens, consolidated, disinfected, freed
Of foreign odors, colors and tastes, and sup
piled with the orthodox bovine qualities by
series of simple chemical and mechanical pro-
cesses, and presented to the market as butter.
As these processes are simpler, cheaper and
less tedious than the chemistry of the bovine
digestion and the mechanical action of the
churn, the oleomorgarine makers are under
selling the dairymen. The latter are in
panic for fear, if the manufacture of the ar
ti6cial product is legitimized, the effect will
be to establish danger GUS competition and
depress the butter market. If 96,000,000
pounds of the new invention have been sold
in single year, while it is under a legal ban,
and have been sold secretly, out of back doors,
there is some ground for the fears of the dali
rymen that free trade in oleomargarine would
be dangerous to them. e. p.