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In connection with this subject the evidence given before the Senate committee, upon whose report the law of 1885 was drafted, is interesting. When Dr. H. A. Pooler, president of the Board of Health in Goshen, Orange County, was examined, he was asked what nitric acid was, and how it affected the human system. This question was suggested by previous testimony as to the use of nitric acid in the manufacture of oleomargarine. Dr. Pooler replied:

"Nitric acid is produced by the action of sulphuric acid upon nitrate of potassa, adout equal parts; it is a powerful caustic; it destroys animal tissue rapidly and almost irreparably when it comes in contact with it; upon animal fat it destroys the tissue, and deodorizes it by destroying its smell. It is also a preservative, in a measure. Undoubtedly substances submitted to the action of nitric acid would not be decomposed so rapidly as those which had not been submitted to it; but the acid would affect the digestive organs very seriously. Upon the human stomach it is a deadly poison when taken in overdoses. When taken in a diluted form not sufficient to cause death, and, taken for any length of time, it produces similar effects to that of mercury. The teeth at first become whiter, afterwards decay, aud then become loose; it stimulates the excessive flow of secretion and poisons the system generally. Its 'caustic properties are so great, that it destroys the tissue and impairs the circulation. Where a person loses a nail from it, it is generally because of the accumulation of the acid around the root of the nail; it cuts off the circulation which supplies the nail, consequently the nail will slough off for want of proper nourishment. The acid has to be diluted in order to be safe in any degree as a remedy. In its pure form it is deadly."

This testimony was given subsequent to that of Charles Moses, a laborer employed in a Grove street butterine factory, whose duty it was to pack the finished product in the tubs. He swore that in the performance of that duty one of his finger nails was eaten off, and that the stuff eat through his clothing and into his boots.

"Would it be wholesome or unwholesome to treat any dairy product with nitric acid ?" Dr. Pooler was asked.

"No, sir," he replied. "I think it would be injurious, especially so if applied by a person who was not acquainted with the acid; in fact, I think it would be very dangerous. No matter how minute the quantity is, continued for any length of time it produces an irritation of the mucous membrane of the stomach, which is only alleviated by stopping the use of it, and then sometimes the recovery is very slow. I do not think this man Moses will ever entirely recover from the effects of it. It will be years, in any event, before he gets it out of his 'system."

Dr. Elias H. Bailley, inspector and chemist of the Brooklyn Board of Health, being asked whether manufacturers were liable to get impure fat or lard, replied:

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"Yes, especially as it seems to me one great danger of this whole manufacture lies in the fact that I have known farmers having the hog cholera in a flock of hogs, and the moment a hog is attacked with the cholera the farmer kills it, or if it dies, he tries out the fat and sends the lard to market. I have seen that done myself. Of course, to all appearance, the lard is just as good as fresh lard, and if deodorized could be used without detection. cess of deodorizing would not kill the disease.

"The principal reason why nitric acid is used by the manufacturers," this witness said, 46 was to remove the peculiar odor of the lard, which distinguishes one fat from another, that is decomposed by the nitric acid, which also bleaches the article to a certain extent. I hold hat nitric acid is a powerful poison. Used in the most minute quantities, I believe it will produce serious irritation."

Inasmuch as prominent manufacturers of oleomargarine admitted before the committee that they used nitric acid in the processes employed by them, and as nitric acid appears in most of the formulas for manufacture filed in the Patent Office at Washington, it is fair to assume that this deadly poison enters, at least in some instances, into the composition of counterfeit butter. There can be no question that the decision of the Senate committee was influenced to

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a considerable extent by this consideration, and in the Albany campaign against the machinations of the bogus butter lobby this weapon will be effectively used.

THE EVASIONS OF THE LAW.

The troubles experienced by the Dairy Commissioners of the States having laws for the prohibition or regulation of the traffic in oleomargarine, or what the outspoken Western men denominate "bull butter," in enforcing those laws, have been more than doubled by the hesitancy of some of the minor courts while awaiting decisions from higher authorities. This has been more marked in New York, perhaps, than in any other State, the decision in the Marx case by the Court of Appeals having been held by those interested in bogus butter enterprises as a declaration that the statute was unconstitutional. They forgot that there were provisions in the Penal Code covering their illegal acts, entirely independent of what is known as the oleomargarine law, and it was not until several convictions had been obtained through the prompt action of the Dairy Commissioners for violations of the law in the lower courts, and sustained by the Supreme Court, that these nefarious traffickers in unwholesome food began to fully appreciate the dangers of their position. In speaking of these frequent evasions of the law, Mr. J. H. Seymour, said:

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"This question of bogus butter is one that involves not only our national commercial honor, but the health of our people. The manufacturers of olemargarine, butterine, and other mock butters are possessed of immense capital, and leave no stone unturned to advance their own interests. My belief is that Congress has the power to pass an act to preserve the public health, and it is probably on this ground that the enactment of a law relative to the manufacture and sale of oleomargarine will be asked. The trouble about the State laws hitherto enacted was that they could be easily evaded. Thus, when the law directing manufacturers to stamp each package with the name of the product it contained was passed, they obeyed it, of course, but at the same time managed to practically evade it by stamping the word "oleomargarine in diminutive letters on some part of the package where it could be less readily seen. It took a good pair of eyes to read this inscription, and for some time the traffic went on uninterruptedly, and the markets were flooded with cheap bogus butter. The next enactment provided that each package should be branded " oleomargarine" in Roman letters at least one inch long, and this, and the public agitation as to the wholesomeness of the stuff, made oleomargarine very unpopular for a time. Seeing that their trade was being injured, the shrewd manufacturers changed their tactics and simultaneously changed the name of their product, dubbing it this time " "butterine.' In spite of the new name it was the same old compound, made of animal fat and treated with strong acids and coloring ingredients that are dangerous to public health.

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'If you will read the testimony taken before the Legislative Committee you will see that in no case would the makers of oleomargarine admit that in the processes of manufacture the fat was subjected to a temperature of over 120 degrees. It is known that some of these factories use the fat of diseased animals, and chemists hold that it takes 212 degrees Fahrenheit to destroy the germs of disease in animal matter. Is it not fair to conclude, then, that where the fat of diseased animals is used and submitted to a heat of 120 degrees or less that the germs still live? I forgot to mention, when speaking of evasions of the law, one interesting fact, and that was the practice that was adopted by the ingenious manufacturers after changing the name of their product to butterine. They complied with the law in stamping the packages, but the word "butter" was in big letters and the terminal "ine" in little ones. You see there is practically no end to their ingenious devices. And yet they claim that their trade is legitimate, and that they sell their wares for what they are. If this is true, why do they pack their bogus stuff like reputable dairy butter, and why is it that pots of oleomargarine stamped like the best brands of Philadelphia butter are offered for sale?

"Not long ago I attended a convention of the National Butter, Cheese, and Egg Association in Chicago, at which Mr. Stern, who represents Armour & Co., of that city, admitted before a committee that his firm sold neutral lard to creameries in the West. When he was asked whether the firm bought butter for manufacturing purposes from those creameries, he replied naively; 'No, indeed; we buy pure butter, as we prefer to do our own mixing.' He said also that the firm colored their product so as to make it look like June butter. Now, neutral lard is simply lard deodorized so that it has neither taste nor smell. Take 5 or 10 per cent. of dairy butter and mix it with this substance, and you can produce a butter that only an expert can distinguish from the genuine dairy product. This neutral lard is heavily shipped throughout the West. and there can be no question that much bogus butter comes into the market under the guise of the genuine article.

"The injury done to our export trade and to our reputation abroad as an honest-dealing nation cannot be estimated. The frands in the trade have become so glaring that the German Government has taken measures to prevent them, and now every shipment of butter to Germany must be guaranteed. In other words, upon its arrival it is subjected to analysis, and if not found pure, it is rejected."

DAMAGE TO THE DAIRY INTERESTS.

With regard to the injury done to the dairy interests of the State by the traffic in oleomargarine, Commissioner Brown says:

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"There is invested in the dairy business of this State more than $300,000,000, and the annual product of the dairy amounts to more than $600,000,000. That an industry of such magnitude as this, and contributing so much to the material interests of our State, is well worthy a full, fair share of the care and attention of our Legislature cannot be gainsaid, and that the products of the dairy being consumed by the people to so great an extent as an article of food should be kept pure and free from adulterations of all sorts will not be disputed by any one, saving only those who would get gain by imposing a fraud upon their customers. resident of the county of Oneida, and know that it requires a much larger sum to maintain police establishments and to enforce the criminal statutes in that county alone than was appropriated by the Legislature to carry on the work of this department. It will be readily seen that to cover the entire State with our work, and to give to each dairy county and to every section of the State that care and attention which its importance demands is impossible, and we are obliged to prosecute our work at such points within the State as will result in the ac complishment of that which promises to best serve the interest of the whole. Our appropriation is $50,000. This, to the average farmer, seems to be a large sum of money, and so it is, but if, for instance, we had at our disposal $120,000, which would enable us to accomplish very much more than we can now, the tax would amount to about four cents on every $1,000 of valuation. To raise such a sum, the farmer whose farm is assessed at $5,000, would pay a tax of twenty cents. Two pounds of cheese at ten cents per pound, a single pound of fine, pure creamery cheese, or even the price of two ten-cent cigars would pay his tax."

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"The dairymen of New York are not the only ones who suffer from this nefarious traffic," said Assistant State Dairy Commissioner Van Valkenburgh. "In all parts of the country oleomargarine factories are in full blast, and the annual product of the United States must be at least 50,000,000 pounds. I cannot give you the exact figures of the butter trade in this city, but it will sufficiently show the break in the price to mention that while we have handled 13,000,000 more pounds of butter in 1885 than we did in 1882, we have received less for it by $3,500,000 than we did in that year.

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New York, which leads all the States in the matter of dairy production, is, of course, the chief sufferer; but there are other sections where the abuses of the nefarious traffic are severely felt. Hon. W. D. Hoard, President of the Northwestern Dairymen's Association, said recently:

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"The butter production of the State of Wisconsin for 1884 was 38,000,000 pounds. This would amount to 73,000 pounds a week. We have lately learned, upon what we deem reliable authority, that a certain butter color manufacturer in the West has a standing order from a single butterine factory in Chicago for three barrels of color a week. A barrel of color will color 75,000 pounds. This proves that the single factory referred to is making each week three times as many pounds of butterine as the State of Wisconsin produces of butter per week. We have no doubt of the facts of the case. In addition let it be remembered that this is only one factory, while there are sixteen more in active operation in Chicago. Then remember that in all the other cities of the Union the same iniquity is going on, and ask yourself, brother farmer, if it is not about time to stir yourself and let your influence be felt. Haven't you sat in dumb silence, like a sheep before her shearer,' about long enough? Look at the capital you have involved. The production of milk alone in the United States amounts annually to $900,000,000, and the milch cows—saying nothing of the beef interest—are valued at $700,000,000. All the banking capital of the United States amounts to $656,000,000, or $44,000,000 less than the capital invested in the dairy cows.

"The silver production is only $40,000,000. Yet the farmers will sit down as quiet as mice, while the silver men are hounding Congress day and night. The remedy is a simple Write to your Congressman, and ask him to support the enactment of a law taxing the counterfeit stuff, say fifteen cents a pound."

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"There is great elation among the oleomargarine men of Chicago," said a leading butter merchant of that city, "over the decision of the State Board of Agriculture early in this month, that oleomargarine and butterine, when cleanly and properly made, and properly labeled and sold under their true names, are wholesome and cheap substitutes for butter, and they frankly admitted that they had obtained a greater concession from that body than they had ever hoped for. But while the manufacturers are elated, the legitimate dealers, who see their business falling off day by day, are correspondingly depressed. One of these told me the other day, that although he had contributed liberally to the fund raised to defray the expenses of a vigorous campaign against it, he had about given up the fight. He declared that although he did not want to do it, the time might come when he would be forced to handle the sham butter or quit the trade altogether. The butterine men had the upper hand, he said, and were making over 2,000 tubs a day, and before long would drive natural butter out of the market. This is an utter despondent view to take of the position, and is not shared in, I think, by the majority of the trade. That it is not the view taken by President H. B.. Gurler, President of the Illinois State Dairymen's Association is evidenced by what he said the other day: 'I expect Illinois will be the last State to get herself in line. The butterine interest is heavy in Chicago, but we must do all we can. We shall win the battle if we persevere, for we have the people with us.'

"There is a phase of the oleomargarine fight in Chicago that has not reached New York yet, but as its cleverness is apparent, and as the manufacturers are extremely anxious to push the sales of their product in that greatest of American markets, I have no doubt it will be adopted there. The New York law requires that oleomargarine shall be sold for what it is, and the plan adopted by certain Chicago dealers might be adopted with profit in the metropolis. They show their customers samples of low grade, rancid dairy butter, offensive both to taste and smell, side by side with the bright-colored product of the factory, and say: 'Here is the dairy butter, and there is the artificial-take your choice.' Naturally, the consumer takes the counterfeit rather than the genuine article, and the shrewd dealer pockets a clean profit of fifteen cents for every pound he sells.

"One of the arguments used by the advocates of these bogus compounds is that their manufacture has caused a marked advance in the price of prime dairy butter. That is so to a certain extent, but do you know how the higher prices are maintained? I can tell you. They buy up the best brands themselves, and use them in infinitesimal doses for flavoring the stuff they foist upon the public. Good butter, which not long ago sold for fifteen cents a pound is

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now selling for forty-one cents, and the butterine men went out to Elgin, famous for its butter, last week and boomed the price up to its present figure. Their object is as plain as the nose on your face. They want to make the higher grades of butter so costly that those of moderate means will be compelled to use their imitation, or eat their bread dry.

"Then, again, they decry the agitation of the butter question, and say that their object is to educate the people up to the point at which they will fully appreciate the purity and wholesomeness of their filthy product. The people, they claim, would be glad to use cheap imitation butter but for the outcry raised by sensational newspapers and jealous dairymen. At the same time, they take good care to pack their butter in tubs and firkins modeled on those used by legitimate dairymen, color it to imitate the real thing, and sell it to retailers who they know will dispose of it as genuine butter.

"The depreciation in dairy products in the four Western States that are noted for their butter, caused by the sales of this unwholesome stuff, has been enormous. In Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota there are 4,000,000 cows. The value of each of these has been reduced at least $10 by butterine and kindred counterfeits. This alone represents a total depreciation of $40,000,000. Throughout these States the rentals of dairy lands have fallen off fully $1 an acre from the same cause. Do you suppose that the farmer is recompensed for these immense losses by the increased consumption of lard and tallow in the manufacture of these imitations? The fact is that, in spite of the great consumption of lard in making butterine, hogs are cheaper now in Chicago than they have ever been before."

Dealers in legitimate dairy butter claim that the manufacture and sale of the counterfeit product is doing incalculable damage to the dairy interests of the country, and that not only does it injure the domestic trade, but ruins the reputation of American dairy products abroad and thus cuts off the United States from its legitimate share in the export trade. As an instance of this, they point out the fact that England annually imports $50,000,000 worth of butter, of which only ten per cent., or $5,000,000 worth, comes from America. Besides this she imports $25,000,000 worth of cheese, seventy-five per cent. of which comes from countries other than the United States. The exports of butter from the United States, they say, amount annually to about 28,000,000 pounds, while of oleomargarine there are exported 250000,000 pounds. But for the exports of oleomargarine, they argue, the annual exports of butter would be between 50,000,000 and 60,000,000 pounds, for American butter and cheese are equal to any in the world. Inasmuch as the dairy interests of the country nearly equal in value the other agricultural interests combined, these merchants hold that it behooves our government to take such action as will effectually prevent injury to products which form so large and so essential a factor in our national prosperity.

The State Legislature of 1884 passed an act to prevent deception in the sale of dairy products and to preserve the public health, one section of which prohibited the manufacture" out of any oleaginous product, or any compound of the same, other than that produced from unadulterated milk, or of cream from the same, any article designed to take the place of butter or cheese produced from pure unadulterated milk or cream of the same, or to sell, or offer for sale, the same as an article of food." A violation of this section was declared a misdemeanor, and was punishable by a fine of not less than $200 nor more than $500, or not less than six months, nor more than one year's imprisonment.

A decision of the Court of Appeals declared this act unconstitutional, and there was much jubilation and gun-firing indulged in by the oleomargarine manufacturers in celebration of the

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But they counted without their host. The first law totally prohibited the sale of oleo. margarine as butter, but at the last session of the Legislature another act was passed, prohibiting the manufacture or sale of any oleaginous compound when made in imitation or semblance of natural or dairy butter. This knocked their legs from under them, and it is not. deemed likely that any court in the land can be found to declare that this provision is unconstitutional. Under this act the fine and the term of imprisonment were reduced.

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There has been considerable bitterness between the dairymen of Illinois and the State

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