The Butter Police Come for the Lumber Camp's Oleo
A Seattle dairy commissioner catches a McMurray lumber company serving colored margarine in its boarding house — and the company pleads guilty rather than fight.
The deputy dairy commissioner of Seattle last week visited McMurray, where he discovered colored oleomargarine in use in the boarding house of the Atlas Lumber Co. Mr. Price, president of the company, stated that it would be unnecessary to commence proceedings against the company, as they would make no defense, and he pleaded guilty before the local justice of the peace. A fine of $25 was imposed, and the company promised to ship the oleomargarine — ten tubs — back to Hammond Co. and use butter hereafter.
Mr. Price conducted himself in a gentlemanly manner in the matter, and acknowledged that the law was a good one, as it protected the dairymen and creamerymen of the state against a substitute that would, if not restricted, ruin the industry.
A shipment of colored oleomargarine just from Swift Co. was found last week by the deputy dairy commissioner on the platform of the packing house of Frye, Bruhn Co. and promptly reported to Mr. McDonald. Frye, Bruhn Co. protested vigorously against being prosecuted, because they claimed that the firm had always ordered and received heretofore white oleomargarine, and they introduced as evidence to substantiate this claim the correspondence, telegrams and bills of such shipments. The lot that had come colored had been telegraphed for, and the wording of the telegram did not specify that it should be colored. They use it in their boarding house. Mr. McDonald has referred the legal points in the case to the prosecuting attorney.
While the dairy commissioner is not disposed to be extreme or do an injustice to any one, he takes the stand that there is but one way to successfully suppress all attempts at substitution of dairy products, and that is to enforce the law so strongly that its importation will cease. As it is, Frye, Bruhn Co. have shown that they recognize the spirit of the law by shipping out the colored oleomargarine. They say that they had been using the uncolored article heretofore, and that they purpose to continue using it in the white state, which is not against the state law.
“Mr. Price conducted himself in a gentlemanly manner in the matter, and acknowledged that the law was a good one, as it protected the dairymen and creamerymen of the state against a substitute that would, if not restricted, ruin the industry.”
Washington's dairy lobby once criminalized the color of margarine to protect creamery profits — a fight that echoes today's battles over labeling plant-based milk and meat. The boarding house at the center of it fed working loggers cheaply, and the state's answer was a fine and a promise to buy butter.
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