Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-01-02
INTEREST AROUSED
Public Being Educated on Subject Of
Oleomargarine Frauds.
SUGGESTIONS 10 PURCHASERS
t+
Additional Protests Against Pardon
Of Wilkins and Butler.
MOVEMENT OF DAIRYMEN
MOVEMENT OF DAIRYMEN

NOV CEMENT OF DAIRY MEN
The application for pardon made on be.
half of Joseph Wilkins and Howard Butler,
now serving sentences of Imprisonment for
hagrantly violating the oleomargarine
laws, and the storm of protest occasioned
thereby, is serving as an excellent lesson
to educate the general public in the dimen-
sfons of the fraudulent traffic in oleomar-
garine and leading butter purchasers to
exercise more care in buying the genuine
product.
In order that those purchasers who may
be IN doubt about the character of the ar
ucie sold them as butter may be satisfied
on the score, it can be announced that all
samples OF such as may be questioned can
be taken to the Agricultural Department
and there analysed by the chemists. Such
persons should be careful to record the
place where such an article was purchased,
the time of the purchase and the name of
the seller, as well as whether the latter
represented 1t as butter or not, and thus, in
case they have been imposed upon, be able
to assist in bringing offending dealers to
justice.
Protest Against Pardon.
The Chicago butter and egg board, at it's
dressed to President Mckinley protesting
against any clemency being shown to VIII
kins and Butler. They were handed to At
torney General Grggs this morning The
resolutions were offered by T. F. Gallagher
and set forth that the opposition to the
pardon asked for was because Wilkins had
peen a persistent violator of the oleomarga-
rine laws ana was caught in the act of re-
moving government stamps from packages
OF oleomargarine. Before the vote, which
was unanimous. was taken Mr. A. a. Ken
ne I'd. who is well acquainted with the case
stated that Wilkins had not only been a
constant violator of the law, but had
poasted that the authorities would never
convict him.
Movement for a just Tax.
Ihere is very strong movement on foot
among farmers and dairymen to secure the
passage Of an act by Congress placing tax
OF 10 cents pound on oleomargarine which
Is colored as butter, the process which per-
mits it being imposed on. the public as gem
nine butter. In reviewing this movement
the Chicago Dairy Produce prints the fol-
lowing:
Reports from Dairy Union Volunteers
received the past two weeks all sneak of
active interest IN theicampaign against the
counterfeit sale of oleo as butter and the
thoroughly suttstantiate the claims. The
producers Of pufe husfer-crea mery patrons
piiNdt. udl!SMStl anu farmers who make
their own butter-are getting to realize
more and more every day that the fight Oh
oleomargarine cdloreh in semblance of but
ter IS their fight ard that the fraud that
has been going on means direct loss to
every owner Of COW, which loss can be
definitely figured down to a dollars and cents
basis. Up to the lightning Of the present
year the country as a whole did not fully
realize to what 5onormous proportions the
counterfeit traffic in butter-colored oleo had
grown. as it was only in the larger cities
that oleo was Boldly and brazenly sold as
butter. The past year has seen a very
great change IN this policy. until now there
Is scarcel y a county In the entire United
States where oleo is not consumed, and
consumed in The belief that 1t is butter
Travelling man see 1t at the depots in the
grocery stores and find 1t on the hotel
tables. Whole districts report their butter
trade all but destroyed because of the sale
or the counterfeit at just enough under the
price of genuine butter to make butter i'm
possible of production without a loss. 1t is
not a theory that confronts the owners of
the 4IO,00eJO0 worth of cows, but a condi-
ton, and condition that can no longer be
tolerated and must not be tolerated. 1t is
not that the S15,C00, 900 worth of oleomar-
garine sold in one year is enough of itself
to be a cause for alarm. but because 1t Is
sold as butter and forces butter to meet
it at a price at which pure butter cannot be
produced, and thus spreads disaster among
butter producers far beyond the volume of
business 1t would get If legitimately sold
for what it Is. The 10-cent tax will force
oeomargarine to sell for what it is and the
two Industries will be placed on an equal
focting-a condition that is absolutely
necessary to the life of the dairy industry
That this fact is appreciated by creamery
patrons is evidenced by the way they re-
spond to the efforts of the butter makers
in building up the membership of the Ma
tional Dairy Union SO that as an organiza-
ton it may represent the unity of American
butter makers views on the great question.
The Greatest Food Fraud.
The following extracts from western pa
pers which represent the great farming
and dairy interests will show how wide
spread and injurious the present traffic in
oleomargarine is:
The Racine CWisD Journal says:
ut is always in order to take a whack
at oleomargarine. the greatest food fraud
of the nineteenth century. The business
of legitimate dairying, a business which
lies at the very foundation of a permanent
agricultural prosperity for this country, is
inperied by this fraud to greater extent
than the dairymen of the country them
selves realize. They should rise as one man
and demand of the government such legis-
lation as will absolutely prevent this fraud
being sold under the name of butter.
THE kidney fat of a fat steer, such fat
as it is claimed is used for the production
of better grades of oleonargarine, will
weigh about forty pounds. Assuming that
the average COW will produce 16O pounds
VI DulttI III H. VIII ldhc loul Steers
to offset one COW as a butter producer.
Enough oleomargarne was made last year
to offset the product of over 100000 cows,
so if this choice fat was used alone in its
production 100000 steers were drawn
upon, but there was not any such number
of steers killed, and so it proves that oleo
is not made of that sort of fat
Pay for Butter; Get OIeO.
The Herald of Mondovi, Wis., says:
THE fight between the -oleo manufacturers
and the butter makers is fight between
dishonesty andHoresfy. The makers of the
honest goods uttef-do not and cannot
object to the rndhufactrre of cleo, but they
do object mostsNigofously to it being sold as
butter The deoep,i3n in the sale is the dis
honest part of the proceeding. The men
who keep cows should stand as a stone wall
against the fraud on their industry and
u-hl AZ fSc butter and ole