The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-01-23
is HONEST PROTECTION
SO SAYS o. G. GREGG, OF OLEo
LEGISLATION.

Supt. 0. G. Gregg, Of the state farm
ers' Institutes, is very much interested
in the oleomargarine agitation. He says:
Il am naturally interested in the cleo
question. l was one OF the hrst winter
aairymen in Minnesota. know What it
costs to make butter. know the value
OF the dairy interests in diversified agri-
culture. Winter dairying- upon the Min
nesota farm is one OF the highest types
OF agriculture. 1t is a financial success;
1T provides for We'll paid labor during the
winter upon the farm. 1t is one OF the
great methods by which the fertility of
our lands can be increased. By it we
have come to be known not only as a
bread but also as a butter state.
Minnesota is the best home for winter
da1rying of any state in the Northwest.
Our climate and soil conditions are ex-
ceedingly favorable to it. Unless, IN the
course of economic changes, the dairy
intrest is destroyed it VIII come to be
one OF the greatest sources of agrlculru-
raj wealth that we have. Dairymen are
not seeking to promote this industry re-
gardless OF any equities which maintain
IN economic production. They are seek
ing only for just protection for their
goods in the open market. They claim the
right to the use of butter color, winch is
natures trade mark.
"Oleo legislation is designed to place
that product on the market for what
it is. 1t is not designed to destroy it as
a food product. No man has right TO
take any steps that will eliminate a
cheap food product from the world >
markets. Oleo legislation will not do
this, but it will put upon the market, 10
be sold for what it is, and the buyer
of oleo will be paying for what it is.
When the purchasers Of butter and oleo
buy these two products as butter, and as
cleo, they will only pay for butter but
ter price and for oleO a oleO price, which
will be lessened by that amount which
is now obtained by selling 1t under the
guise of butter.
This is question in which both pro-
Queer and cosumer is equally interested.
The manufacturers Of oleo sell their
produce to the dealer as oleo, but when it
reaches the markets then there is a diff
ferent condition of things. When color
is added to it, it is disguised, and all of
the police authorities of the state or ma
ton will be quite unable to keep it COM
pletely within it's proper bounds"
THE cattlemen of the West are inter-
ested in this cleo legislation. At the
present time they are against it, but not
wisely. Let the dairy interests of the
great West be largely eliminated and the
farmers of the great Mississippi valley
will then almost exclusively turn their
cattle interests to beef production, and
the plainsmen will soon find themselves
between the sharp competition of the
sheep men upon the ranches, which they
now understand, and the largely increas-
ed product of beef stock of this great
! Middle West, of which at present they
know nothing.
'HHThey have much to say about the
value of tallow on the beef market. 1T
is a minor matter. The earth oils have
so far supplanted the use of tallow as a
lubricant that it is one Of the cheap prod
ucts of the world today 1t is cheap under
the very best of conditions. This in brief
is how we view the matter of oleo iegiS-
lation from the present standpoint"