000 a year was completely crushed out by
state legislation.[2] The output of the United States, which in 1902 had
risen to 126,000,000 pounds, was cut down to 43,000,000 pounds in 1909
by federal legislation. According to the disingenuous custom of American
lawmakers the Act of 1902 was passed through Congress as a "revenue
measure," although it meant a loss to the Government of more than three
million dollars a year over what might be produced by a straight two
cents a pound tax. A wholesale dealer in oleomargarin was made to pay a
higher license than a wholesale liquor dealer. The federal law put a tax
of ten cents a pound on yellow oleomargarin and a quarter of a cent a
pound on the uncolored. But people--doubtless from pure
prejudice--prefer a yellow spread for their bread, so the economical
housewife has to work over her oleomargarin with the annatto which is
given to her when she buys a package or, if the law prohibits this,
which she is permitted to steal from an open box on the grocer's
counter. A plausible pretext for such legislation is afforded by the
fact that the butter substitutes are so much like butter that they
cannot be easily distinguished from it unless the use of annatto is
permitted to butter and prohibited to its competitors. Fradulent sales
of substitutes of any kind ought to be prevented, but the recent pure
food legislation in America has shown that it is possible to secure
truthful labeling without resorting to such drastic measures. In Europe
the laws against substitution were very strict, but not devised to
restrict the industry. Consequently the margarin output of Germany
doubled in the five years preceding the war and the output of England
tripled. In Denmark the consumption of margarin rose from 8.8 pounds per
capita in 1890 to 32.6 pounds in 1912. Yet the butter business,
Denmark's pride, was not injured, and Germany and England imported more
butter than ever before. Now that the price of butter in America has
gone over the seventy-five cent mark Congress may conclude that it no
longer needs to be protected against competition.

The "compound lards" or "lard compounds," consisting usually of
cottonseed oil and oleo-stearin, although the latter may now be replaced
by hardened oil, met with the same popular prejudice and attempted
legislative interference, but succeeded more easily in coming into
common use under such names as "Cottosuet," "Kream Krisp," "Kuxit,"
"Korno," "Cottolene" and "