Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-10-01
MANY TONS OF OLEO
Sold Weekly in Pittsburg and Alle-
gheny, in the Face of the Law.
ALL In THE HANDS OF A TRUST.
An Easy Way to Get Out Of Paying the
Heavy Government Fees.
MADE IN OTHER STATES AND SOLD HERE

An inquisit1ve public is just now taxing
its brains TO conjecture why it is that the
United States Government encourages Ger
tain traders to do thing that the State Law
declares it is illegal to do.
This thing is the licensing by revenue off
GERS of dealers in butter trading in oleomar
garine, when the statutes of the State o.
Pennsylvania prohibit the sale or manutact
ure of butterine or oleomargarine within
the State.
1t will be nothing new to the public to bt
told that it buys oleomargarine. 1t is on
sale in the two cities, and very many people,
when they call for cheap butter. know that
they are buying the manufactured article
whose only acquaintance with COW is that
they are both raised on the same earth. The
dealers who sell it are chary of calling il
"oleomargarine;" they are perfectly aware
that they are acting illegally in exposing it fol
sale under any title, but run all the risks oi
prosecution for the amount of money to be
made from its sale. 1t is not believed that
there is widespread fraud attached to its
sale, but it is known that many of the
smaller dealers retail oleomargarine at the
prices of good butter. In the Pittsburg aud
Allegheny markets the article is openly on
sale, traders sometimes giving it its full
title, while others refer to it as something
the public knows all about. you know"
WHERE THE FRAUD LIES.
The open fraud is perpetrated when the
Government license stamp is removed from
the pals and the stuff set up for sale as
butter. In such cases the dealer receives
from 25 cents to 2S cents for stuff that is
purchased at wholesale at from l3 cents to AK
cents. according to grade. He sells with i'm
punlty, because the State law is not enforced
He is guilty, but guilty only TO greater degree
than his fellow trader who sells the oleo for
what 1t is. Both contravene the State law, and
both are required to pay Uncle Sam 81 a month
for the express privilege of breaking that law.
Somewhere between 140, 100 and l75 900 pounds
and Allegheny every week. The wholesale
price runs from Is to 1i74 cents, and it retails
for 20 cents pound 1t is generally under
stood that about half dozen men have the
handling of this stuff. under what is called the
''Oleo Trust" What nice little profits the ring
makes out of the contraband stuff can be seen
from the fact that from shipment of 81, 800
worth one day last week, it netted 81 500.
Under the United States law the wholesale
venders of the article are required to pay
license of S4S a month. If each of the six or
eight importers, who are also venders, were
properly taxed, each would have to pay the
amount But they evade the taxation BY hav-
ing central office, to which all the orders
from dealers here and from outside districts,
are sent. This office, it is understood, is GEN.
tered in butter company's establishment on
Water street. This company does not make
any secret of the fact that it imports oleomar-
garine, as its stores are filled with pals SO
labeled.
HOW THEY CAN SELL IT.
The company would seem to be well pro-
tected under the original package decision. 1t
can sell the imported stuff in the pals, and SO
overrule the State law. But the dealers who
sell it by retail have not this immunity.
peculiar feature of the case is that another
State is reaping the benefit of an infraction of
the law which prohibits Pennsylvania from
making oleomargarine, and by the sale of
which the latter might as we'll profit as not.
Some three years ago an attempt to manufact-
ure oleomargarlne in Allegheny was quickly
and latterly a factory Tor the same
purpose, started in Philadelphia was closed
up and the Droprietors, as well as dealers who
had bought from him, prosecuted and fined.
Regarding the sale of the imitation article
it is not so certain that the public would like the
importation stopped. There are always buyers
who want the cheapest things of the kind that
money can buy, and oleomargarine suits them
for this reason. The real injury is done when
the spurious is palmed off as the real article.
And that this is done very extensively is
claimed by people who should know. Whole
sale grocers are. of course. opposed to its sale.
because it interferes with their trade. They
may also be averse to it because they have not
q share in the profits derived from its sale, ami
which, as already stated, are participated in by
half a dozen men who have formed a butter
trust and cornered the trade.