The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1910-08-06
! DENIED B By LEVER e;
,fsr JlEs .TttA 10 lsESe
SAYS AETICLEEFR0M FARM and
FIRESIDE is. FALSE.
SAYS he Had No Connection WITT,

says He Had No connection With
Meat Trust and the Man Who
says He Did Lies.
Lexington, S. c., Aug. g., 1910.
Editor; Times and Democrat,
Orangeburg, S. c.,
Dear Sir:
I have just seen a copy of your
issue Of August 2, in which you car
~ what you seem to think is a very
serious charge against me with. re-
spect to my efforts to take the tax of
. tea cents pound OF Of oleomarga-
rsne. Again, have no apologies to
cffer for my course in this respect:
You condemn me in one instance for
voting 10 put tax upon am article
which my people do not use and
in another breath for working to
take the tax of of an article which
the great majority Of working peo--
sle in the alaboring districts do con-
sumo. Consistency thou art indeed
q jewel when the prejudices of man
enter into it! :
No objection is found to a legiti-
mate criticism Of my record In Com
gress, such criticism Is proper and
]; welcome it. OF course, you will
print what I am about to say for
otherwise you prove yourself unfair.
Oleomargartne, according to the
best chemists: in the world among
them Harvey w. Wiley, the, great
pure food advocate of the United
States and Chief of the Bureau of
Chemistry Of the United States, is
a pure, healthy and wholesome arti-
Gle Of food. 1t is consumed i'm the
labor districts of the country in its
colored form in large quantities as a
substitute for butter. In the north
and congested portions Of the east,
ern and western sections of the
country, the poorer classes Of people,
yko cannot pay the exorbitant trust
made price of butter resort to the
use Of oleomargarine as a substir
tute. When this article began to
be used in great quantities, it was
found that in proportion to the
uuanity of it used the. price OF
creamery, trust made butter, was
reduced and there al once arose a
campaign, conducted by the butter
interests, to find some way of driv-
Z. ing ttis wh holesome food product out
or competition with! their product.
y AS usual they came ato the Federal
Government to find. some way Of
driving this food out Of the market
and they bit upon the plan Of using
the taning power of the Government
ostensibly, :. to collect revenue, but
with the hidden purpose of driv-
Ing out OF business. this legitimate in
Gustry. AS a result Of this propa-
Eantia we have what Is known as
fhe CIRCUITS bill, which imposes a
tax Of q quarter Of a cent a pound
ON uncolored oleomargarine and 10
cents pound on colored o!eomar-
garine; the practical effect Of which
is to reduce the consumption Of oleo-
margarine to practically nothing and
to give the creamery trust complete
monopoly in the sale of butter
The Grout bill proposed to put this
ten cents tax on oleomargarine for
the purpose OF preventing it's sale
as butter. The testimony, before the
committee of which I am member
is that the bill in this respect has
utterly failed. The, Commissioners
of Internal for Revenue in his re-
port for 1909 saying:
.tThe total number Of violations
(of the law discovered during the
fiscal year 1909 was approximate;
twenty-five per cent. more than the
previous year, which up to that
time was the record year, while the
prosecutions for the twelve months
ending June 30, 1909. were approx
imately one hundred per cent. more
than ever before in the his..o:y Of
the enforcement OF the law
What we are all interested in Is
the protection of the public agu;ns'
the .fraudule.:t sale of oleom,:glr.1 G.:
Tor butter. The present>iaw, which
imposes ! ten cents per pou"d tax
which the consumer Of butt 'r or
Dleomargarine must pay, is found by
the Government officials in charge Of,
the work to be entirely inadequate.
Numbers of these bills being before
my committee, began TO study them
all, and not finding any which
met my views, I drafted bill which
is pronounced by the Government
officials and even the creamery in
terests-the butter trust-to be a
great improvement over the present
Jaw. This bill seeks to prevent the
fraudulent sale of oleomargarine for
butter by requiring that oleomarga-
rine should be put up in one-half,
one, two and three pound original
packages with the word margarine"
indented into the surface of the oleo-
margarine and that this should be
wrapped in parchment paper, upon
which the word margarine should
LII Il