The River Falls times. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1894-1933, 1897-07-13
The Anti-Color lButterine, Law.


papers, almost without exception, are
making comments entirely unfriendly
10 the new oleomargarine law passed
oy the legislature of Illinois. The
papers not only criticse it severely, but
trump up charges that have no truth
N them. In the first place they claim
that the law is entirely in the interests
Of the farmers, which is not so. The
consumer in the city is benefited to
very great extent by the law that
compels oleomargarine to be sold for
what it is. The consumer is now COM
PEELED to pay butter prices for d con-
coctlon of different kinds of grease.
ANY one of those ingredients sell on
the market and at retail for much less
than 10 cents per pound. In fact the
cost OF pound of oleo ready for eat
ing is only about cents plus cents
revenue, making cents altogether.
Now ten cents is a good price for such
a compound, and now that it will have
to be sold for what it is, fancy prices
Tor butterine will no longer prevail.
The city laborer that wants to eat but
terine can get it in its pure state and
for low price If he objects to haV-
ing it white he can for few cents
BUY enough butter color to tint great
many pounds of the stuff to suit nm
self. But we know that the dear
laborer is not interested. He has 10
pay butter prices now for oleo ana
would generally prefer the butter, Tor
q nj hn &c h11tt
willing eater of oleo would rather pay
10 cents pound for white butterlne
than 20 cents pound for yellow but
terine. The poor people in the large
cities eat it for economy's sake, ana
10 cents per pound extra is rather high
to pay for butter colOring matter IN
butterine
Then, the papers say that the law
ruins a great industry and throws
many men out of employment. Let US
see. OleO costs 4 cents per pound TO
manufacture, that including labor anu
materials. But materials only repre-
sent the labor of other men, so that
really the whole cost represents LABOR
in some form. Butter costs the farmer
all the way from cents per pound
(under the very best of conditions ana
with the most profitable OF cows 10
80 cents under unfavOrable clrcum-
stances. Some butter costs much more
than that. 1t is safe to assume that
average butter costs at least II cents
per pound, which means that IL cents
worth of labor is employed IN making
butter. 1t will therefore be seen that
it takes three times as many laborers
to make a million pounds OF butter as
it does to make a like amount OF puC-
terine. Therefore if a good many men
are thrown out of employment by the
closing of butterine factories 1t Will
give employment to three times as
many men, on farms and in creamerles.
But what becomes Of the money saved
in the manufacture of butterine over
butter? Do the wealthy manufacture
ers distribute it among their workmen
in some form or other? Not at all
The saving in cost of manufacture goes
to help swell the fortunes that are be-
coming a menace to the country.
Another point they attempt to make
is that the farmers that now supply
fat from beef, pork or cotton seed will
lose a market for that much of their
product. This is great reasoning.
Every cents worth of the stuff they
sell stops the sale of ten cents worth
of butter by the farmers. Even if the
same men that are furnishing the fats
do not furnish butter yet they are hurt
indirectly by the sales they make to
the cleo manufacturers. By killing OF
the sale of millions of pounds of butter
they force dairymen to abandon dairy
ing and go into stock raising or cotton
growing, and thus raise up additional
competitors to themselves and help
force down their own market
There are other things that might
he said in favor of the law and against
allowing men to get rich by perpetrat-
ing fraud on the people, but we reserve
them to another time. Every farmer
should use his full influence to
strengthen these laws and to enact
them in states that now have no anti
color laws.