usehold use. Notwithstanding the immense quantity of the article
described in this bill which is sold to the people for their consumption
as food, and notwithstanding the claim made that its manufacture
supplies a cheap substitute for butter, I venture to say that hardly a
pound ever entered a poor man's house under its real name and in its
true character.

While in its relation to an article of this description there should
be no governmental regulation of what the citizen shall eat, it is
certainly not a cause of regret if by legislation of this character he
is afforded a means by which he may better protect himself against
imposition in meeting the needs and wants of his daily life.

Having entered upon this legislation, it is manifestly a duty to render
it as effective as possible in the accomplishment of all the good which
should legitimately follow in its train.

This leads to the suggestion that the article proposed to be taxed and
the circumstances which subject it thereto should be clearly and with
great distinctness defined in the statute. It seems to me that this
object has not been completely attained in the phraseology of the second
section of the bill, and that question may well arise as to the precise
condition the article to be taxed must assume in order to be regarded as
"made in imitation or semblance of butter, or, when so made, calculated
or intended to be sold as butter or for butter."

The fourteenth and fifteenth sections of the bill, in my opinion, are in
danger of being construed as an interference with the police powers of
the States. Not being entirely satisfied of the unconstitutionality of
these provisions, and regarding them as not being so connected and
interwoven with the other sections as, if found invalid, to vitiate the
entire measure, I have determined to commend them to the attention of
the House with a view to an immediate amendment of the bill if it should
be deemed necessary and if it is practicable at this late day in the
session of Congress.

The fact, too, that the bill does not take effect by its terms until
ninety days have elapsed after its approval, thus leaving it but one
month in operation before the next session of Congress, when, if time
does not now permit, the safety and efficiency of the measure may be
abundantly protected by remedial legislative action, and the desire
to see realized the beneficial results which it is expected will
immediately follow the inaugu