Democratic messenger., 1881-04-09
BOGUS BUTTER AND CHEESE.
How They Are Killing Our Foreign
Export Trade

Walter Carr, of New York, testified
before the Legislative Investigation
Committee that the amount of cheese
exported from that city in 1879 was
12S, ,336, $40 pounds, and of butter
$4,000, ZOO pounds. American cheese
stands as high in England as the pro-
duct of any other country, and the
demand for it is increasing rapidly.
| Lard cheese has been on the market
bere now for about year, and the in
formation that an article so skillfully
made to deceive has appeared cannot
fail to make the English people suspi-
cious of all American cheese, and to
materially iniure the export trade.
which has been built mp with so much
labor. American butter was rapidly
advancing in favor abroad until about
Is months ago, when so much oleomar-
garine was sent to Europe as butter
! that doubt was awakened, and since
then we have been steadily losing
ground. 1t is difficult for experts to
detect oleomargarine when it is well
made, and almost impossible for the
general public to detect it. This and
lard butter have been thrown exten-
sively on our home and foreign markets,
and the result has been not only Ge-
cline in the price of pure dairy butter,
but a serious reduction in its consump-
ton. Mr.. Carr thought that legislation
was sadly wanted TO protect the great
dairy interests of the country. Some
measure was needed to compel the sale OF
oleomargarine on its own merits, so
that consumers might know Just what
they were buying, and if they knew
this he did not believe one hundredth
part of the spurious article now sold as
butter could be disposed of in this
market. He would prohibit the color
ing of it altogether, and ii that was
found to be insufficient for the protec-
ton of the consumers, he would COM
pei the manufacturers to adopt some
distinctive color-pink, green, or blue
so that child might recognize it.
John A. Smith, commission mer-
chant, substantiated what Mr.. Carr had
said, and added that many of the retail
dealers with whom he did business had
admitted to him that they sold oleo-
margarine for butter, and that it would
be impossible to sell it in any other
way. He was in favor of law prOvid-
ing heavy penalty for selling the arti-
Gle as dairy butter, and giving the
greater part of the fine imposed to the
informer. Such law, he thought,
would go far towards executing itself.
Herman Gerschell volunteered as a
witness. He held in his hand small
brown paper parcel, which he laid on
the table as he took his seat. He told
story which convulsed the committee
and the spectators. His daughter, he
said, had bought some butter on the
Bowery, between Spring and Broome
streets, which she pronounced ''splen-
did," for % cents a pound. His wife
induced him to go to the same place.
"Last week." he said, 81 went there
and bought couple of pounds. My
wife liked it: liked it; it was splen-
did. In the evening my wife fried some
fish in this splendid butter, and all at
once she cried out to me, Look here
it's fat I looked, and the splendid
butter had gone. It was no good no
more. Laughter. This morning /
read in the papers about this thing,
and I've brought you a sample of the
splendid butter to show You how poor
men are cheated" He handed the
package to the Chairman, and 1t was
passed around the room. 1t was not
oleomargarine, but lard butter, and the
lard was visible in great patches all
over tine surface of the sample. Mr.
Gerschell said that it was ticketed
Fresh Butter Every Day, % cents. "
Charles A. Butler testified experts
say that oleomargarine is pure and
wholesome food, but their opinion is
founded on laboratory experiments. As
an article Of commerce it may be i'm
pure and dirty. know of manufac-
turer who makes it of meat that is often.
! sive even in cold weather. The oil in
Oleomargarine is extracted at the tenn
perature of 100 deg. Animalcul@ may
exist in any substance if it is not boiled
I When a western farmer has diseased
hog, he generally sells it. The animal
cula in its fat may stand parboiling,
and so go on into the artificial butter.
Two years ago visited two oleomarga-
rine factories in this city. One was Ma
than's, in Twenty-seventh street, and in
| the room where the fat was freed from
! the meat, there was an unpleasant odor.
| believe that the only virtue in oleo-
margarine is the butter that is worked
into it. As to legislation on the sub
iect, have little faith in it; but low
! license TO dealers might be required,
and high penalty, say $500 or more
for each offence, be imposed on the re-
taller who sells it to any one without
informing him what he is buying. Make
it binding on grocers to put up signs
such as 'Adulterated butter and cheese
sold here. '"
Speaking of the investigation the So,
says editorially:
Ii the dealers i'll dairy cheese are
right in their assumption that the intro
duction of lard cheese will soon ruin the
reputation of American cheese in for
| eign markets, besides disgusting cheese
eaters at home, their indignation at the
spurious product is well founded. The
export trade in American cheese is enor-
nous, Dut the fame of American hogs Is
not sufficiently high just now to make
mixture of lard with dairy products al
all desirable in Europe To keep up
this great trade, England must not lose
confidence in the cheese. The ques.
ton with regard to lard cheese, as with
regard to oleomargarine, is not how
many people are alleged to vastly pre-.
| fer it TO the real article at the same price,
but how dealers i'll the latter shall bt
lawfully protected from any threatened
loss of trade by bogus articles of fooC
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