Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-06-14
.UPaOLDS THE LAW
SUPREME COURT SAYS oLEo.
MARGARINE MUST NOT HAVE
BUTTER COLOR,
viii be Good News FOR Butter Makers
OF WapelIo county--Oleo Product is
Gradually Diminishing - A Broad
and Useful Field for the Article.

Butter makers of Wapello county
are vitality interested in a recent deci-
sion OF the supreme court upon the
validity of the oleomargarine law. The
decision holds the law valid and con-
sequently makes it unlawful for man
ufacturers to give a butter color to
the manufactured article
The Importance of the recent deci-
sion of the United States supreme
court in sustaining the constitutional
lty of the law affecting oleomargarine
lies IN the fact that that product can
not be given butter-yellow color, law
fully" said State Dairy Commission.
er H. R. Wright recently in Des
Moines
THE court had before it very pc.
culiar question. The law which was
passed by the congress six years ago
recites how oleomargarine is made, and
defines the ingredients which may be
used in the manufacture of the prod.
uct. Among these ingredients the law
mentions butter.
''The law also defines butter as the
product of the milk and cream of the
COW, with or without artificial COL
oring matter.
Now the makers of oleomargarine
have sought to give the yellow tinge
to their product by putting in it the
lawful ingredient of artificially colored
butter.
Question Before Court.
"The question before the supreme
court was whether that section of the
law prohibiting the artificial coloring
of oleomargarine to make it look like
yellow butter was valid if in the manu-
facture of the product butter which
had been artificially colored were used
under the clause of the statute permit
ting the use of butter in making oleo-
margarine.
"The supreme court decided that the
section was valid, that the maker of
oleomargarine cannot color it. by the
use of artificially colored butter, that
it is the result and not the process
which the law prohibits.
"By this decision, therefore, it would
seem that the last support is swept
from under the feet of the oleomargar-
inc makers. They have stood upon this
proposition. 1t is what their lawyers
mean when they insist that it is i'm
possible to make oleomargarine which
has not a yellow tinge at least, like
ivory.
"The decision of the court in effect
is that oleomaragrine must be put on
the market either in it's natural white
color or tinted some other shade than
yellow, provided the manufacturers do
not want to pay the 10 cents pound
tax which the law provides for butter
ine."
Will Kill oIeo Industry.
Mr.. Wright believes that the deci-
sion of the supreme court marks the
beginning of the end Of the oleomar-
garine industry. Six years ago the
product of oleo was 1875 100000 pounds.
Then the law which was just been de-
clared valid. was passed and the pro-
duct of oleo is now estimated at 65,-
100000 pounds. Under the decision
of the statutes in the 80 states which
have attempted to regulate the sale
of imitation butter or substitutes for
butter will soon cut the product down
to 25,000000 pounds a year. That is
negligible quantity and will not be
menace to the butter production of
the nation.
The butter product of the nation
has attained 1.5OO,OOO,OO0 pounds. Of
this Iowa produces one-tenth. There
fore the interest which this state has
in the oleomargarine decision.
THE theory of all the law on the
subject has been that the purpose of
coloring oleo yellow was to defraud
the purchasers into thinking it was
butter,to sell it as butter and to pocket
for private gain the difference be-
tween the profit on butter and the
profit on oleo. Oleo has been produced
at from two-fifths to one-half the cost
of butter;sold as butter at the same
prices, the enormous profit is at once
perceived.
A Market for 1t.
sIn my opinion there is legitimate
market and sale for oleomargarine. If
the makers of it had started out orig