Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1900-10-17
THOSE OLEO FRAUDS.
Attorney General Elkin Makes a
Bluff at West Chester.
SAYS PROTECTION rs UNB0UGHT.
The Sale of OIeo Would Have Been
LegaIized by the Machine But For
the Vigilance of the Dairymen.

LegaIized by the Machine But For
the Vigilance of the Dairymen.
At West Chester on Monday night
John p. Elkin, attorney general by
grace of Mr.. Quay, in the course of a
public speech made various offers of
stage money in return for affidavits.
This is the way chosen by Mr.. Elkin
to support his apparent contention
that the Quay machine does not sell
protection to the oleo trust, but gives
it protection out of pure benevolence.
Nobody connected with the machine,
according to Mr.. Elkin, has been paid
anything to permit the oleo trust to
carry on its widespread and ruinous
competition with the pure butter of
the farmers says the Philadelphia
North American.
In his series of challenges Mr. Quay's
attorney general demands only that
proof shall be furnished him that
bribes have been given members of the
machine and officers of the state. He
does not deny that protection has been
extended by the machine to the oleo
trust, nor does he ask that proof of its
guilt as the guardian and promoter of
the trusts trade shall be supplied. Mr..
Elkin is too faithful to the machine,
too regardful of the interests of the
oleo trust, to go that far. He is aware
that every man who reads the newspa-
pers is in possession of such proof.
That the trust is protected, its pres
ence on the Pennsylvania market dem
onstrates. What power other than the
machine could give it protection?
Drudging in the common interest of
the machine and the oleo trust is Mr..
Elkin's trade. At the legislative ses-
sion of 1897 he figured prominently as
one of band of conspirators who at
tempted to give the oleo trust legal
footing in Pennsylvania. The brewers
and the corporations at the time were
making a fight against having their
taxes raised. Naturally the machine
was worried by the prospect of having
to do anything to annoy such good
contributors as the brewers and cor
porations.
Mr.. Elkin thought he saw way out
OF the ditficulty-a way that would not
only spare the brewers and corpora
tions but at the same time do the oleo
trust service which it would never
forget. In pursuance of this conspir
acy William r. Marshall, member of
tie assembly from Allegheny county,
chairman of the appropriations COM
mittee, introduced bill providing for
tax of one cent pound on oleo.
To tax an article is to legaliZe its
sale. Fortunately for the dairy inter-
ests of the state this conspiracy de-
signed to kill three birds with but one
stone-relief for the alarmed brewers
and corporations and legal status for
the swindling product of the oleo trust
was detected and defeated by an or
ganization of anti-Quay members of
the legislature known as the Seventy
Six
Mr.. Elkin will doubtless be willing
to offer more stage money for afiidavits
to prove that in this crafty plot against
the welfare of the farmers and in the
interest of the oleO trust he was ami
mated by mercenary motives. He did
what he did, of course, for the same
reward that the Quay machine receives
for allowing the Illegal sale of 16000,-
600 pounds of oleo in Pennsylvania an
nually-the approval of its own un-
selfish conscience. AS a patriot work
ing for the public good where the oleo
trust is concerned, Mr.. Elkin is strictly
in line with the machine.