Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1902-10-21
MITCHELL TOROOSEVHT FIGHT DUTTER|NE law

Chicago Leading oleomargar.
inc manufacturers OF the country
are said to be planning a big fight
against the law which they have decid.
ed amounts to a prohibition of their
business. The output of oleomargarine
in the Central West, where most of the
supply comes from, has decreased
more than two.thirds since the Butter.
inc law became effective.
Just what plans the manufacturers
will follow have not been made def.
nitely known. but II is probable the
first step will be to attack with vigor
the constitutionality of the law which
imposes the tax on the colored article.
The intensity OF purpose and the un.
concealed desperation of the butterine
men Is shown in the following talk
from John Dadie. secretary and gen.
eral manager of William J. Monkey &
Co., the largest concern in the West
we are now employing only one.
fourth as many men and wagons as we
employed two months ago. and we
would not be employing any at all II
It were not that we intend and expect
the law will be set aside. Neither but.
ter nor butterine can be sold unless II
is colored, at least as long as there are
colored goods in the market.
1T Is true we are making and sell.
been artificially colored, but 1t is only
because the cottonseed oil of which 1t
Is in part composed gives 1t slight
golden tint.
The law Is shameless piece OF
class legislation. We manufacture an
article that is universally conceded to
be wholesome and in some respects SUI
perior to butter. The people like II so
well they knowingly buy II In prefer
ence to butter, frequently paying the
same price for 1t, and do this even In
! the dairy districts, where butter is
abundant and at Its best.
7 yet this product, like glucose and
cuttonseed oil. has been prosecuted
ever since It was invented, though Its
use has spread In spite of all misrepre'
sentation and opposition. But we dc
not mean to lie down and submit to
this outrageous legislation without an
effort to overturn II.
Il have Just returned from New
York. where several representatives oil
the butterine interests have combined
to institute legal proceedings to test
the constitutlonality of the law.
I'VE have retained as our attorney
William Guthrie, who defended the
railroad merger suit, and though th'
proceedings will be begun In the Dis
trict Court we except that, inasmucl
as only constitutional questions ar,
involved. it will at once pass to thu
United States Supreme Court and b.
argued next month.
THE attitude OF Chicago packers to
ward this suit Is somewhat mysterious
More than half Of the butterlne in tn
United States Is made in Chicago, an,
: most OF what Is made here comes fror
the packing houses, though we alon
have made 100000 pounds in
month. It would naturally be expect
ed, therefore, that the packers woul
institute this suit. But they did MOI
and when applied to for their co-operf
ton refused II, except on the condition
that they should have the exclusiv
management OF ii.
This the other butterine manufa'
, turers would not consent to, and tn
only construction we can put on tn
action Is that the packers wish to sc
us ruined before the law Is set aside