any place in the United States. I just wanted to call that to your attention. You are from Virginia?

Dr. WARE. Yes. I am not only from Virginia, but I am a farmer in Virginia as well-not a dairy farmer, however.

Mr. MURRAY. And the milk that is being produced there is getting one subsidy of 7 cents a pound for butterfat, and another of 10 cents, and then there is also a subsidy on the hay of $14 per ton. The price of butterfat is over a dollar a pound. That is what more or less causes this heat, because the people out in the Middle West, in Mr. Andresen's State, for example, cannot ship their milk down here to this market whenever they want to, because there is a trade barrier built up under the guise of a health requirement.

Dr. WARE. I am not supporting that, Mr. Congressman. Just because something else could stand correction hasn't anything to do with whether this particular problem here needs correction.

Mr. MURRAY. You are interested in the cost of living. I have seen milk sell in this town for 14 cents a quart when the people in Mr. Andresen's State were getting a little over 2 cents a quart.

Dr. WARE. Mr. Murray, there is no argument on that question whatever. Whatever the fact may be, or however bad they may be, hasn't anything to do with whether there should be a tax on margarine or not. Mr. MURRAY. I think it has quite a lot to do with it.

Dr. WARE. The tax on margarine is, in my view, and in the view of my association, bad in itself, and if there are other taxes under similar circumstances, they are also bad.

Mr. MURRAY. Don't you think we are going to have opposition from Virginia if we allow interstate commerce of filled milk? If they added fortified vegetable fat and then sold it as milk in any of the markets here in Washington?

Dr. WARE. I cannot speak to that question.

Mr. MURRAY. Don't you think we would have opposition from the milk people on that?

Dr. WARE. I don't put it beyond them, but that is not my affair and it is not what I came here to discuss.

Mr. HILL. First of all, I think you have made a very fine statement on behalf of your association. I happen to know about it, and it is doing a great work. Let me ask you this, What have you done in your organization to work out a plan to keep public institutionsfor instance, you can go into a hotel and they take this butter or oleo out of the original package and I can't tell what I am eating when they put it in my plate-what have you done through your investigations to work out a plan where, when I go into a cafe or a hotel, or a public institution, I will know I am not buying oleo which is substituted for butter?

Dr. WARE. You have a real point there, I think. Yesterday I came here to testify and did not get a chance, so I went for my lunch over to the Supreme Court Building, to the cafeteria there, and very properly there was a sign there saying "We are serving a butter substitute today." That let me know what I was taking, and that seemed to me proper. But I thought at the time it should have said "We are serving oleomargarine today."

Mr. HILL. I have never seen one of those signs, and I am pretty sure that I have been eating oleo at several places in this town. I haven't seen anything anywhere to indicate that it was oleo.

Dr. WARE. I am sure the members of my association would be very sympathetic to local ordinances or any proper requirement for identification.

Mr. HILL. You really think, then, that the cafe that brings out the "butter" on a little plate ought to tell me, if that is the case, that it is colored oleo and not butter?

Dr. WARE. I don't know that the waiter should lean over your shoulder and tell you by whispering in your ear, but it may be that it should be on the menu or posted, or in some way identified. Mr. HILL. You favor that?

Dr. WARE. We are definitely in favor of the identification of a product from beginning to end, and I think you have a real question there.

Mr. ZIMMERMAN. We thank you very much for your appearance and for your statement.

We will now hear Mrs. Thomasina W. Johnson.

STATEMENT OF MRS. THOMASINA WALKER JOHNSON, LEGISLATIVE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE NATIONAL NONPARTISAN COUNCIL ON PUBLIC AFFAIRS OF THE ALPHA KAPPA ALPHA SORORITY

Mrs. JOHNSON. Mr. Chairman, I am Mrs. Thomasina Walker Johnson, legislative representative of the National Non-Partisan Council on Public Affairs of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. Our national headquarters are located at 961 Florida Avenue NW., Washington, D. C.

The Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority is the oldest Negro college women's organization in America. Its membership is 6,000 college and university women in 152 chapters in 46 States. Each one of our members is a leader of some kind in her community-teachers, social workers, lawyers, physicians, dentists, and professional women in all walks of life.

I also appear for the National Council of Negro Women, of which we are a member, which is composed of affiliated organizations representing 800,000 Negro women from all walks of life.

I am also appearing for the International Ladies Auxiliary to the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, representing 22,000 women in 48 States and the Dominion of Canada.

All of the women whom I represent are consumers and housewives as well, and it is that light in which I wish to present testimony. We should like to say that we are highly in favor of the passage of H. R. 2400, which is a bill to eliminate a Federal trade restriction in the form of a revenue measure against domestic margarine by repealing the one-fourth cent per pound on uncolored margarine and 10 cents per pound on yellow colored margarine; the additional tax of $600 for manufacturers and $480 or $200 for wholesalers, $48 for retailers for the sale of yellow colored margarine, and the $6 for the retailer of uncolored margarine, as well as related restrictive provisions.

We appeal to you to repeal these taxes so that we might be able to buy oleomargarine along with all other food products. We are now faced with a situation where we cannot buy it in many places through

out the country and of having to pay an excesesive rate when we are able to buy it. Thousands of the women whom we represent are in the low-income groups or in low fixed-income groups whom the rise in wages in war work has not affected. With the scarcity of butter and the rise in cost of butter they have had to pay prices they could not afford, or worse still, they have had to go without, because the wholesalers and retailers will not handle margarine as long as these tremendous taxes are imposed not only by the Federal Government but by State governments as well.

There are many places where margarine may be bought, but the housewife must add the coloring in her own kitchen, because of the great difference in the amount of tax for the sale of colored margarine. This process could be done better and more cheaply by the manufacturer. When this is done by the manufacturer the exhorbitant tax must be paid by the consumer.

We believe that taxes as revenue should not be levied on food of any kind.

We as consumers do not wish to be deprived of the right to buy colored or uncolored margarine at any place, the present restrictive taxes make this impossible. We are further unalterably opposed to absorbing this unnecessary tax rate on a badly needed food when we are able to find a store selling margarine.

We do not believe this tax is just or justified by any criteria. We do not believe that the enterprise of any industry should be taxed while others are not taxed. Why must margarine be taxed while other foodstuffs are not taxed?

Margarine is a good food, it is a nutritious food, much needed and in demand by low-income and low-fixed-income groups and we strongly urge that taxes which prohibit its sale be repealed.

Gentlemen, we cannot urge you too strongly to repeal the taxes on margarine through the passage of H. R. 2400.

Mr. ZIMMERMAN. We thank you very much for your appearance. Now, then, is there any other witness listed here who wishes to testify?

STATEMENT OF MRS. MARY WRIGHT JOHNSON, REPRESENTING THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA FEDERATION OF WOMEN'S CLUBS

Mrs. JOHNSON. My name is Mrs. Mary Wright Johnson, representing the District of Columbia Federation of Women's Clubs, the Women's Economic Council of the United States, and the Housekeepers' Alliance of the District of Columbia, a consumer and a housewife. Mr. ZIMMERMAN. You may proceed.

Mrs. JOHNSON. I have not a prepared statement. I have taken some notes, and I have some information that I would like to get across to you.

This resolution was offered in the resolution committee of the District of Columbia Federation of Women's Clubs, from the Housekeepers' Alliance, who had passed it. That committee was composed of Mrs. Frank M. Shortell, Mrs. Bruce Baird, Mrs. Harvey W. Wiley, Mrs. Charles H. Bair, andMrs. Ruth H. Snodgrass.

Whereas oleomargarine is a wholesome and nutritious low-cost food product;

and

Whereas the interests of national defense demand that such food products be made readily available to the customers of our Nation; and

Whereas the discriminatory taxes which have been levied against oleomargarine effectively reduce the consumption of this product; and

Whereas these taxes operate as trade barriers against the American farm products which constitute the ingredients of oleomargarine; and

Whereas in the current emergency these barriers to interstate trade present an aggravated threat to our national unity and economic well being: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the District of Columbia Federation of Women's Clubs urge the repeal of all special taxes on oleomargarine and oppose the enactment of restrictive legislation directed against this product; and, be it further

Resolved, That a copy of this resolution be forwarded to the resolutions committee of the General Federation of Women's Clubs for consideration and adoption, with a view to securing the endorsement of the General Federation of Women's Clubs.

That was presented to the District of Columbia Federation at its regular meeting, Thursday, December 18, 1941, and referred to the department of legislation.

Mr. ANDRESEN. Will you permit a question?

Mrs. JOHNSON. I will be glad to.

Mr. ANDRESEN. Did the National Federation of Women's Clubs take any action on this question?

Mrs. JOHNSON. It was tabled, due to a paid lobby put on by the butter interests. We were very much ashamed; we never had had a paid lobby in the general federation before, and I think it will act as a boomerang on the dairy States. In fact, I think the Governor of Wisconsin has said it has already cost them millions of dollars in trade from the Southern States. However, I will go into that later. Mr. ANDRESEN. You don't think there is a paid lobby on the part of the oleomargarine group?

Mrs. JOHNSON. We didn't have a paid lobby. The women went into this question for truth and justice. They were astounded to find a paid lobby there. I understand the butter interests raised nearly $5,000. They raised it from the ice cream manufacturers association, and from the creameries, and from the national milk industry, and another one. There were four national organizations and 16 State organizations, and we are rather proud of the fact that although we were ashamed that such a thing could occur and be brought into the association-we were proud of the fact that it took nearly $5,000 to defeat Mrs. Harvey W. Wiley. We women are quite proud of that.

Mr. ANDRESEN.. I understand, Mrs. Johnson, and I have it from pretty good authority that the oleomargarine interests raised approximately a million dollars to get this bill passed by Congress. Mrs. JOHNSON. Well, we know nothing about it.

Mr. ANDRESEN. I am sure of that, that you did not accept any of it. Mrs. JOHNSON. No; none of our women who were working for removal of discriminatory taxes on oleomargarine ever knew anything about it.

Mr. MURRAY. In regard to Wisconsin, I would just like to say that the Governor that made that statement was also repudiated by the people of the State of Wisconsin at the polls.

Mrs. JOHNSON. That may be. Many of us get repudiated. That is nothing new when you run for political office. Mr. ZIMMERMAN. You may proceed.

Mrs. JOHNSON. He made a true statement; that is why he was repudiated probably. But it is going to act as a boomerang, gentlemen; that is the point.

Now, then, this resolution was offered to the District of Columbia Federation of Women's Clubs, and was referred to the department of legislation. The same resolution passed our department and was signed by myself as chairman of the legislative department of the District of Columbia Federation of Women's Clubs, in February. Mr. HILL. I would just like to ask the lady if she doesn't know that there are lots of lobbies and pressure groups surrounding Congress, as well as the State legislatures?

Mrs. JOHNSON. Oh, yes. I know a great deal about that. I am over here a lot myself. I have been speaking before these committees for 40 years, without any money, and the very first talk I made was before the Military Affairs Committee of the House, and when I left that committee room the bill I was advocating was passed on favorably, carrying with it a $200,000 appropriation. But I didn't get any of it. Mr. ZIMMERMAN. You may proceed.

Mrs. JOHNSON. This resolution passed, because of the definition and standard of identity which was established by the Federal Security Administration. Oleomargarine is not a substitute for butter; it is an article in and of itself. It has all the properties of butter. In coloring it is the same as butter. I never saw any uncolored butter scarcely except on a farm I used to visit in New England. They did have one Alderney cow that gave two and a half pounds of butter a day, and it was good butter. I carried that westward through Michigan and Wisconsin, and it was just as fresh when I reached my destination as it was when it left the farm. I have never seen any butter in midsummer that could be carried the number of hours that that was carried and not become rancid-not even Wisconsin creamery.

By the way, you folks have a lot to say-and I don't blame you for upholding your constituents. They sent you here and you are doing what they tell you to do. Just so, if I get into Congress from my State, I am going to do the best I can for my State. However, I am not going to forget that I am for America first.

We have had so many boys turned down because of lack of nutrition that it does not behoove any of us to stand in the way of any nutritive article that can be put out for the consumer. Therefore, that tax should be repealed.

Mr. PHILLIPS. The lady understands, does she not, that we are furnishing butter to the troops? How are they being deprived of nourishment?

Mrs. JOHNSON. I am not speaking of the troops. I am speaking of the men who were rejected because of lack of nutrition, and your boy and my boy stand that much more chance of being shot, because there are so many boys that did not have the proper nutrition to enable them to enter the Army.

Under this new definition and standard of identity for oleomargarine, there must be 80 percent of animal or vegetable fat, or both, and 20 percent milk and milk solids, and so forth.

You know that as well as I do. However, there will be milk sold for margarine, and you will be hurting your farmers if you do not allow them to sell that milk for margarine.