New-York tribune., 1884-03-22
The SALE OF OLEOMARGARINE.
REPORT OF THE SENATE COMMITTEE.
A ELL TO PROHIBIT THE MANUFACTURE or Dis

They favor prohibiting the rile ana niahuactuioo ol
the article In carefully drawn bills they clothe
the State Darymen's Association with power to
stop the sale of the imitation butter. They also
favor giving the dairymen $4,000 to make legal
warfare on the article
FEATURES or THE REPORT.
The report is a careful summary of the testimony
| recently taken by the committee, testimony that
| has been read by the community with mingled
| horror and amusement. The committee state that
they have discovered that the adulteratiOn of nat
ural butter by various intermxtures of lard oil,
tallow OIL beneoil and other foreign Ingredients of
coloring matter has been practised to such an ex-
tent and under such fraudulent cover that the
spurious product has found it's way into almost
every town and city in the State to amount
nearly equal in quantity to that of the whole pro-
duction Of natural butter sold in the markets. The
| fraudulent imitation has been ingenously con-
! trived and executed that ordinarily it cannot be
| distinguished from natural butter by the unsus-
pecting purchaser and even experts testify that
the better qualities of the counterfeit only be
detected by chemical analysis.
To test the extent and the fraudulent character of
the deception the committee had purchased at ran
dom In New-York and Brooklyn thirty samples all
bought as pure butter from retail grocers A
chemical analysis of these samples by DR.. Love,
Of the State analysts showed that twenty samples.
that most OF them had hardly trace of pure butter
in the admixture. In few there was found small
percentage of pure butter, but in case exceeding
ten or fifteen per cent. In no instance was there
any notice that the article oleomargarine.
The "butteT' was largely purchased by restau-
rants, boarding-hOuse keepers and second class
hotels the poorer qualities being sold for themOst
part 10 labOrng people at from twenty to thirty
cents per pound and the better grades often as high
as forty forty-five cents. The cost of manufac-
ture varied from twelve and half cents tOeighteen
cents per pound the great bulk of the article costing
about fourteen cents and retailing at about the cost
of good dairy butter.
| THE MANUFACTURE AND SALE.
The committee staJe that the retailer making
so large a profit could at any time undersell the
| dealer in natural butter but lest low price might
excite suspicion of the purchaser. ii was kept as
nearly possible to the price of natural butter the
price being reduced only when necessary to drive
the genuine article from the market 1t
learned that there several concerns In this State
manufacturing ocomargarine that turn out 3,0O0,
900 pounds annually. largely from fats brought
from Chicago and other Western cities. and ny oils
| imported from France and Italy. The bulk of the
article however. is made IN Chicago, and is made
almost entirely from lard oils mixed with a per-
centage of genuine butter and the mixture, cOlored
to represent butter is sent to and received az New
York as butter to the injury of the dairy butter OF
the State"
The most intelligent witnesses testified that it
had almost driven the State dairies out of the
markets, and compelled large proportion of the
farmers to abandon the business of making butter
"indicting a loss upon tho dairy interests
of the State of from $5,000,000 to
S1OOOO.OOO per annum." No accurate COM
putation could be made of the quantity manu-
| opd nj hp but
sources Of information available the best judges
testified that it would reach the enormous quantity
| of 40 600 900 pounds annually. The committee
state that the selling of the imitation butter IS cor
ruptng retail grocers and is threatening to demor-
alize the farmers. There is no evidence that the
farmers of this State adnteratlng their butter,
but it was proved that in many of the creameries all
over the country the deception is being practised
! Oleomargarine affects the NewYork State farmer
to a greater extent than any other class Of people,
for the reason that the Western farmers ship their
! butter fresh from the churn and get the bulk of
their goods in the market dnriDg the Summer
months. when Oeomargarne is not used to any
great extent, while the NewYork farmer brings his
products to market late in the fall and comes into
| direct competition with butterine and oleomarga-
| rine.
! The secret Of rendering and preparing the lards
| and fats, the committee state Is beyond all ques-
ton the use of nitric acid other chemicals, which
destroy the natural smell, render the article more
insoluble and ndgestble and serve as an agent to
| prevent decomposition or putrefactlOn. but nitric
acid is a poison. While not ayerring that oleomar-
parino is necessarily always unwholes0me, the fcom-
mittee believe that 1t IS likely 10 DE So ana 10
Iargc extent would necessarily be injurious If used
by children or persons in delicate health, and is not
iu any sense or can be MholcSOHle SUBSTITUTE lVl
| pure and natural butter.
| CONCLUSIONS OF THE COMMITTEE.
Tho evil can only be efiectuallv dealt with by the
total prohibition of It's manufacture and sale WITHIN
the State The laws already upon tle statute BOOK t
have been prepared with particularly and care to
prevent its sale under the gulse OF natural butter
Six different enactments for this purpose nave al
ready been adopted but they are eYaded ana unOo-
served and scarcely an attempt IL made tor their
enforcement The farmers OF thus state must either
| submit TO the gradual but certain impairment ana
destruction of the value OF their farms and the
Drofts therefTom, prevent by legal enactment the
manufacture and sale of the spurious article Ihls
| would have long ago been done but Tor the errohe-
ous belief that the laws of the State could not pre-
| vent the manufacture Of an ufici9 tor winch the
| General Government had granted patent, or when
had not been shown to be poisonous or injurious 10
the public health. The committee staIe I1at tnls h
delusiOn has been dlspeled. The Federal Court nas
decided that the State Las the power 20 PIoHp uio
sale of any article within its borders when the pup
| lie exigency requires it. and this even though the
article prohibited is covered by letters patent from
| the General Government. The Missouri law prohi-
| hitting the manufacture and sale OF oieomaTgarlne
is a sweeping one, and its validity has Decn tested
both in the Courts Of the State and OF the Ohiled
| The bill of the committee makes it misdemeanor
| to sell or manufacture oleomaTgarine; and the
person convicted OF tho act can be punished ey M
line of not less than $500, nor more than SI'Oo0
| The state Darymens Association is given powers
to enforce the act.
| THE SALE OF MILK.
The committee also make short report on the
sale of milk in New York. They recommend that q
Lill be passed, making it msdemeanor TO sell mix
| containing more than ~ per cent OF water or
| milk containing less than IL per cent OF mix
| solids which shall contains not less than 3 per cent
of fat A bill with this provision was introduced
By the committee.
| LEGISLATION IN BOTH HOUSES.
| A REFORM IL DIVORCE LAWS-fREE PASsEs On
| o.u.o.Dc-VARtoUs RIIIg.