Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1908-12-16
MASSES ROBBED
BY BUTTER MAKERS
TRIBUTE FROM THE MANY Ex
ACTED FOR BENEFIT OF
THE FEW.
ExToRTioNATE RATES MAIN.
TANNED, YET oLEoMAReARINE
is GIVEN NO CHANCE.

There are 10000 farmers engaged
in dairying in the territory tributary
10 Chicago alone, according TO the
health department census, These
! farmers have been led to b. lieYe that
the government embargo on the manu-
facture of oleomargarine directly
benefits them by keeping up the re-
tai. price of butter. Meanwhile there
are in Chicago between 400 1000 and
| 100000 wage earners and some sup
porte rs-and many additional in Mad
ison and every other community
who have to pay the inflated price.
This condition, amounting virtually
to the payment of tribute by the
great masses of people not intere ted
in the pursuits incident to the manu-
facture of butter, is pointed out as the
| foremost reason for attacking the
laws, state and federal, which by put,
/ ting a heavy burden on the manufac-
turers of oleomargarine have held
compe tition In leash.
Forced Passage of the Laws.
Without the vast influence of the
agricultural population, the laws OF
some states which prohibit the manu-.
facture of colored butterine. and in
the country at large place tax of 10
CO nts a pound on the colored product,
never could have been enacted.
/ Drnpadfnn
without remis ion thereafter, the but
ter interests are said 10 have kept up
a constant stream of persuasion, large
ly ia the form of editorials in farm
and dairy journals, to keep ever pres
ent in the agriculturist'J mind the
statement that his welfare demands
the suppression of the cleo people.
The unfailing interest of the butter
| handling concerns. it is declared, is
traceable to the fact that the farmers
portion of the accrued benefits as
compared with that which the dealers
enjoy is about in the ration of l to 5.
! Much interest has attended recent
Developments which have directed at
tention at oleo manufacturer as a
curb on the butter dealers who are
credited with having forced the price
10 the present figures for the pur-
pose of marketing profitably the
large supplies held in cold storage
and in whose next move was forseen
/ concerted action to evate still FUR
Their the quotations.
| Consumers Express a Doubt.
Consumer, repre- sentative of the
stratum of society whose purses are
not Indifferent to the price Of each
pound of butter that goes into the
household store, are not inclined to
| take the solicitations of the butter
concerns in the welfare of the farm
er a wholly disinterested. They even
are disposed to argue that the farmer
could be paid the same price as at
present and butter still be marketed
the year around at more reasonable
| figure.
! More than half a billion pounds of
butter is manufactured and sold in the
| United States annually. In contrast to
\ this the amount of oleomargarine pro-
duoed is comparative y small. AS a
typical month, durilg september last
there was only 157,S54 pounds of col
ored oleomargarine manufactured. OF
uncolored there was 3,52S,032 pounds
| produced
Considering the fact that there are
not a few wage-earners in the country
who find 35 and 40 cents, the winter
retail price of best butter, a form of
extravaganza, and holding that the
poorer grade, of butter do not com.
pare favorably with the best grades
of butteriDe, the critics hold this pro
portion too one-sided to further the
general welfare, whatever its effect
upon any particular portion of the
community may be.
Laws strictly prohibiting the sale of
butterine as butter have from the
fir been recognized as necessa. :
Fad just for the projection, not only
the consumer. To have distorted
this issue into one that aimed to des-
troy the industry of butterine manu-.
facture is the action now condemned.
Declare Against Deception.
Cleo manufacturers declare that
in - far as the laws prevent the sub
stitution of hutte-ne for butter over
the retail dealers counter they vel.
come them. The small shopkeeper
who sci Is their product as something
else is doing them only injury, they
declare
What they object to is tax which
forbid them to color their product to
a hue hat is pleasing to the eye of the
consumer, in the same manner that
the manufacturer of butter is allowed
10 do, The manufactur of oleonarg.
/ airline is subjected TO stricter scrutiny
/ by government state and city Officials
they maintain. than Is the manufact.
IRE of buttel. 50 thst the consumer is
la least as eeraln Of obtaining as pure
and heahhiul a product as is the user
of butter
/ None of those who have argued for
the lowering OF the legislative bars
to more equal competition between
CLEO ard butter assumes for a moment
that butter viii not always be held in