Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-11
THE LAW DON'T WORK.

The Retail Grocers Tired of OIeomargarine
Legislation-They Want a Substitute to
Prevent Fraud-A Commission Dealer
Fooled by an Innocent Farmers Wife.
1t may sometime in the indefinite future
| dawn upon people at large that an act of
Assembly will not of itself always make
them rich, and that to say that thing
shall not be sold, or that money shall not be
loaned above certain rate of interest,
though satisfactory to the parties themselves,
is not only an injudicious policy, but one
that cannot be carried out.
After a long trial OF the law prohibiting
| the sale OF limitations of COW butter in this
! State, many of its most strenuous support
ers, have come to the conclusion that it has
| done them more harm than good, and their
feeling toward it now is expressed in the
action of the Retail Grocers' Protective
Union in resolving to ask for its repeal.
Mr.. Henry Daub, an officer of the associ-
| alton, states that the law has worked great
| injury to those who attempted to sustain it.
Even the farmers at large, who were ex-
pected to be its beneficiaries, have not gotten
any good out of Its operation.
FORTUNES FOR LAW BREAKERS.
He stated that oleo is openly sold In the
market house and some people have made
fortunes at the expense of those who obeyed
| the law. For this reason the r. G. p. A.
| will ask the neIt Legislature TO repeal the
present law and substitute one tending to
make the sale of imitation butter disguised
as the real article, a WEAKNESS to the flesh.
They want it sold on its merits, as they say
| it is lust as paIatable and as healthy as the
genuine article, and if cleanly made and
sold at a fair price is pre- erred by the ma
jority of poor people to the variegated stuff
known as country butter.
Some farmers wives who are thrifty"
drive a good trade in the bogus article.
They have been seen buying the oleo in
these cities (there is no law against IT'D, and
they take it home and NIX 1t with their
butter, and MAKE the compound into print,
which in the winter bring So TO As cents
pound. One woman formerly bought ol
from a Liberty street commission man, al d
making 1t into prints sold it to the con
mission mans wife at an advance of so pr
cent AT that time the trade in oleo was
lawful but the commission merchant, though
eloquent in praise of the stuff when selling
ii, was very wroth with his lady customer
when he discovered the imposition and was
greatly guyed by his acquaintances.
oLEo DEALERS IN TROUBLE.
A syndicate that has lately been hand
ling oleo in this city is reported in great
straits at present. The Government detec-
tives have been prowling around lately and
have confscated 100 tubs. These detectives
are not objecting to the sale of the stuff,
but to the destroying of the stamps. The
penalty is 500 for each package, or SIC, 900
in all. Further, the dealers in the stuff
cannot recover of debtors, and it is said they
have sold considerable on time and must
trust to the honor OF their customers for
payment.
The Retail Grocers' Protective Association
has also decided that it will, as body,
break up the practice of making Christmas
presents 10 customers. Mr.. Daub states that
the practice makes much dissatisfaction
among customers from the facts that it is
difficult to discriminate properly, and some
get angry because they think others have
Jared better than they, and occasionally
some are forgotten in the distribution. He
says the prize package business is also de-
moralizing, but so far efforts to abate it have
been aborrive.