Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-19
THE BUTTER|NE WAR
Pittsburg Dealers Hold a
Secret Meeting.
CAMPAIGN PLANS FORMED.
Western Capitalists Dictate What
Shall Be Done.
COMMITTEE TO GO TO HARRISBURG.
The Legislature to be Flooded With .Peti.
tiOnS and Letters.
COMMITTEE TO GO TO HARRISBURG.
MONEY IN ABUNDANCE FOR TIE FIGHT

An important meeting, which was in
tended to be secret, was held in the Office of
the Western Dairy Company in Diamond
Square yesterday afternoon. The object of
the meeting was to make preparations for
the coming contest in the State Legislature,
before which efforts are to be made to secure
repeal of the oleomargarine prohibitory
laws, which are now causing the retail and
wholesale dealers in this city SO much
trouble.
The attendance was not large, but those
who we're present counted. Quality, and
not quantity, was the motto as also the COM
position of the gathering. 1t included rep
resentatives from the retail and wholesale
dealers of this city and from the Western
capitalists who are now pushing the fight to
the end.
The Pennsylvania State Oleomargarine
Association, which is composed of the
Western manufacturers of this bogus
butter, had hand in the meeting, and in
fact dictated wnat should and what should
not be done.
All the business transacted could not be
learned. Petitions were given to every re-
tail and wholesale dealer in the city, to be
circulated among
HIS CUSTOMERS FOR sIGNERs.
They are issued BY the Oleomargarine
Association. In the statement at the top
the existing laws are declared to be odious,
obnoxious and monopolistic. 1t is their
endeavor to secure signers from every class
Of lite.
Letters are to be addressed to the physi-
clans of the two cities requesting them to
express their opinion upon the use of but
terine as a food, and to address the CON-
muuications, if favorable, to the Sanitary
Committee at Harrisburg. 1t is their wish
TO secure about $50 letters from the doctors
of this vicinity.
A committee of ivewas appointed to visit
Harrisburg next Wednesday and do effective
lobby work for the bill. Mr.. Calvin A.
Watson, who was recently locked up for
selling oleo, is chairman of the committee.
Two of the other members are Messrs. r. P.
Houston, of Butler street, and Mr.. Samuel
Charters, of Grant street. The remaining
two committeeman are members of whole
sale firms in the city; but their names could
not be learned This committee has been
instructed to do all in its power to have the
law repealed.
Finally, but not as the least important of
the committees work, subscription was
started to carry on the fight. A liberal sum
was collected by the authorized person, and
promises for more, when necessary, were
plentiful.
THE OUTLOOK FOR IT.
The bill repeating these laws has been
favorsbly reported by a committee, and
action will be taken upon it by the Legisla-
ture in few days. The farmers repre-
sentatives are fighting the measure bitterly,
as butterine comes into the market in oppo-
sition to the product of their farms.
The grocers about this city claim that
much of the country butter sold in Pitts
burg is not country butter at all, but is
nothing more or less than butterine, which
the honest old farmer has mixed with his
home product, or has been simply stamped
by him and sold as good country butter.
A physician who has been asked to ex-
press his opinion on the subject said he
would be very willing to do so, as he did
not think the product was harmful, and was
indeed more wholesome than the bad coun-
try butter which is sold among the poor of
this city.
A grocer said last evening that the State
law was unconstitutional. He said the q.
S. Government imposed tax upon the sale
of butterine, but permitted dealers to sell
it. The State law not only does not permit
q man to sell the manufactured product as
oleomargarine, but fines a man for selling
ii, even when labelled as oleomargarine.