Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-03-15
BUTTER VERSUS OLEO.
The Less Oleomargarine Sold the Cheaper
Pure Butter Will Be.

The Less OleOmarEarine Sold the Cheaper
Pure Butter Will Be.
Butter dealers have not been saying much
about oleomargarine lately, but the subject
has lost none of its interest for them, and
the ball, which they started rolling against
oleo, has plenty of propelling power behind
it still. The butter dealers may be said to
hold the fort, and they are not likely to be
dislodged in hurry if the popular surmise
is correct.
''They are firing good deal of ammuni-
tion on the other side, said member of
the Wholesale Grocers and Commission
Merchants Association, with the result
only of raising quite an uproar and attract
ing wider notice to their weak defenses.
We have every reason to feel we'll satisfied
with the work of determination so far as it
has progressed against oleo, and we are con-
fdent enough of the ground on which we
stand, firm enough in the righteousness of
our cause, not only to feel able to assure
legitimate traders that the interests shall no
longer suffer from this fraud, but also to
promise consumers, farmers and dairymen
that the existing law, and the only law yet
devised for their protection will remain"
Odlu duOtueT SeuIleudu, WHOS6 Syupd-
thles lead toward the butter of our fathers:
"The statistics which the oleo people are
publishing are of most laughable charac-
ter. For instance, they make the popula-
tion of the State ., 400, 900, deduct 301, ,112
farmers on the hypothesis that naturally
they don't want oleo (slthough they are
just through abusing them for selling it for
butter), and assert that the remaining
5,09S, 1888 citizens of the State are crying for
the bogus article. Singular, isn't it, that
out of this immense number we hear of no
solitary consumer complaining on account
of being himself deprived of oleomargarine
The tremendous outcry from violators Of
the law is not likely to mis-
lead anyone into thinking that, con-
sumers feel hurt over the expulsion
of oleo. Providers for private families, in
any station, are not complaining. Why
should they? Has genuine butter not
steadily declined in price as the bogus arti-
Gle disappeared? On December 1, about the
time the crusade against oleo was inaugu-
rated, the finest grade of genuine creamery
butter wholesaled at 81 to 38 cents per
pound. Since then oleo has been displaced,
under the lowest estimate of those we'll in
formed, to the extent of 200 pounds per
week. Yet the same grade of butter is offer
ing to-day at q to % cents-a clear decline
of 10 cents per pound, where there should
have been a great advance in value, ac-
cording to the logic of the oleo people and
their disciples. An explanation of the course
of the market is easily given. 1t must be
understand that until recently butter was
without an outlet here; oleomargarine, a
prohibited substitute, monopolized the
market. Makers of butter had, therefore,
learned to avoid this place, and they dis
posed of their product in other quarters.
When the crusade against oleo began to
bear fruit, butter dealers advised their cor
respondents that the blockade was raised
and that they could let their butter come
forward. Supplies were promptly on hand,
sufficient in volume to meet all demand,
and can promise you that receipts will
continue free enough to insure low range
of values. The capacity of the country to
produce butter was never so great as now,
and the facilities for making superior butter
were never so perfect; SO that the oleo people
themselves, who never discovered the many
imperfections of the natural article until
they had an object in displacing it, will be
surprised at its abundance, excellence and
cheapness. Oleomargarine is the product
of less than score of factories, all located
outside the State; it is demanded by few
hundred dealers within the State, the ma
iority of whom have boldly ignored all re-
strictions thus far devised for regulating its
sale. Butter is an important item in the
product of nearly every farm in the State
and an almost indispensable item in its
domestic economy. It would be pity, in
deed, to see the widely disseminated and
time-honored industry of dairying succumb
to this new product OF Western slaughter