The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-05-04
A ROTTEN ARGUMENT.
The Minneapolis Journal has this to say about the oleomargarine bill:

A ROTTEN ARGUMENT. The Minneapolis Journal has this to say | about the oleomargarine bill:
 The passage of the oleomargarine bill ] will be a great encouragement to the makers of genuine butter. The bill really | puts premium upon trade honesty and makes the way of the adulterater and substituter hard indeed. It is difficult for | any man to be strictly honest in manu- factures or trade, to use only good ma l terials and to make articles that are ex- actly what they purport to be, when he is surrounded by competitors who deprive him of his market by interruptions meth ods.
 We are strongly inclined to character | ize the above as unmitigated rot The assertion that the bill puts a premium on trade honesty is ridiculous. The idea that butter manufacturers are more hon.
 est than others Is an absurdity. All the | honesty and all the fairness has not set tied in those who follow this industry and the enactment of a thousand such bills as the one referred to will not make
 honest men of those who are disposed to
 be otherwise.
 And speaking of honest butter makers | reminds us of recent incident in Port | land, Ore. That State has a very positive and unequivocal law on the subject of | weights and measures, and the portion | specially devoted to butter requires that
 each package of butter sold or offered for sale which purports to weigh one pound
 must contain the full sixteen ounces, and each roll or package claimed to be
 two pounds must contain thirty
 two ounces. Then 1t is made unlawful for
 any person to knowingly sell or have in
 his possession for sale "any article of | food drink or medicine bearing any label,
 brand or mark false in any of the above
 particulars"
 Under this law, the Food and Dairy Commissioner had a dealer up for trial
 on the charge of selling short-weight
 butter. Two packages were brought into
 court and weighed and both were found
 two or three ounces short. The dealer virtually ridiculed the prosecution, boast ing that he could beat 'em' and that A'N "'"it hOt pay any ie ease was elaborately argued, the evidence was con- elusive, and the result a mistriaI pos- itive and unequivocal law was shown to have been violated and the defendant really boasted of 1t, yet a jury refused to convict him. That Is a sample of the honest butter manufacturers and dealers in q large city, and of the failure to en- force the law.
 But this Is aside from equity or want of equity of the oleomargarine bill There is not solitary valid argument in favor of it, It is class legislation of the most vicious and one-sided kind. It puts a
 tax of one cent, or one-half cent, per
 pound on imitation butter of one color
 and tax of ten cents a pound on it If 1t
 is another color. It taxes an industry
 and useful as is the manufacture of syrup
 or sugar. It is designed to tax out of | existence product which, in most cases,
 Is as wholesome and as palatable as the so-called pure butter and is much
 cheaper' It Is the poor mans butter and
 when properly made, and of pure mate
 rlais and sold for what it purports to be.
 It is blessing to the poor people who
 are not able to pay the prices charged for genuine butter The law is just as much | an imposition and burden on the poor
 man as would be law preventing him
 from buying cheap grade of flour. suaar
 or coffee.
 | If We had Grover Cleveland in the | Presidential chair, such a law could not
 get on the statute books. It was passed
 at the demand of the dairying interests
 which are too powerful to be offended
 and too strong to be resisted. IL is well
 known that it was supported by Con- | gressmen who felt and acknowledged it's
 viciousness, but dared not oppose it. | They voted for it because butter makers
 of their districts demanded 1t and they
 were too cOwardly to resist the demand 1 Not all of those who supported it were of
 this class. of course. but it could never l have passed the two Houses without the support of Congressman who were | bought or bulldozed by their constitu- ents who are interested in dairying and
 want to crush out all competition The
 effect of the act is already seen in ths