EXECUTIVE MANSION, _August 2, 1886_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I have this day approved a bill originating in the House of
Representatives entitled "An act defining butter, also imposing a tax
upon and regulating the manufacture, sale, importation, and exportation
of oleomargarine."
This legislation has awakened much interest among the people of the
country, and earnest argument has been addressed to the Executive for
the purpose of influencing his action thereupon. Many in opposition have
urged its dangerous character as tending to break down the boundaries
between the proper exercise of legislative power by Federal and State
authority; many in favor of the enactment have represented that it
promised great advantages to a large portion of our population who sadly
need relief; and those on both sides of the question whose advocacy or
opposition is based upon no broader foundation than local or personal
interest have outnumbered all the others.
This upon its face and in its main features is a revenue bill, and
was first introduced in the House of Representatives, wherein the
Constitution declares that all bills for raising revenue shall
originate.
The Constitution has invested Congress with a very wide legislative
discretion both as to the necessity of taxation and the selection of the
objects of its burdens; and though if the question was presented to me
as an original proposition I might doubt the present need of increased
taxation, I deem it my duty in this instance to defer to the judgment of
the legislative branch of the Government, which has been so emphatically
announced in both Houses of Congress upon the passage of this bill.
Moreover, those who desire to see removed the weight of taxation now
pressing upon the people from other directions may well be justified in
the hope and expectation that the selection of an additional subject
of internal taxation so well able to bear it will in consistency be
followed by legislation relieving our citizens from other revenue
burdens, rendered by the passage of this bill even more than heretofore
unnecessary and needlessly oppressive.
It has been urged as an objection to this measure that while purporting
to be legislation for revenue its real purpose is to destroy, by the use
of the taxing power, one industry of our people for the protection and
benefit of another.
If entitled to indulge in such a suspicion as a basis of official action
in this case, and if entirely satisfied that the consequences indicated
would ensue, I should doubtless feel constrained to interpose Executive
dissent.
But I do not feel called upon to interpret the motives of Congress
otherwise than by the apparent character of the bill which has been
presented to me, and I am convinced that the taxes which it creates can
not possibly destroy the open and legitimate manufacture and sale of the
thing upon which it is levied. If this article has the merit which its
friends claim for it, and if the people of the land, with full knowledge
of its real character, desire to purchase and use it, the taxes exacted
by this bill will permit a fair profit to both manufacturer and dealer.
If the existence of the commodity taxed and the profits of its
manufacture and sale depend upon disposing of it to the people for
something else which it deceitfully imitates, the entire enterprise is
a fraud and not an industry; and if it can not endure the exhibition
of its real character which will be effected by the inspection,
supervision, and stamping which this bill directs, the sooner it is
destroyed the better in the interest of fair dealing.
Such a result would not furnish the first instance in the history of
legislation in which a revenue bill produced a benefit which was merely
incidental to its main purpose.
There is certainly no industry better entitled to the incidental
advantages which may follow this legislation than our farming and dairy
interests, and to none of our people should they be less begrudged than
our farmers and dairymen. The present depression of their occupations,
the hard, steady, and often unremunerative toil which such occupations
exact, and the burdens of taxation which our agriculturists necessarily
bear entitle them to every legitimate consideration.
Nor should there be opposition to the incidental effect of this
legislation on the part of those who profess to be engaged honestly and
fairly in the manufacture and sale of a wholesome and valuable article
of food which by its provisions may be subject to taxation. As long as
their business is carried on under cover and by false pretenses such
men have bad companions in those whose manufactures, however vile and
harmful, take their place without challenge with the better sort in a
common crusade of deceit against the public. But if this occupation and
its methods are forced into the light and all these manufactures must
thus either stand upon their merits or fall, the good and bad must soon
part company and the fittest only will survive.
Not the least important incident related to this legislation is the
defense afforded to the consumer against the fraudulent substitution
and sale of an imitation for a genuine article of food of very general
household 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 inauguration of this legislation, have had their
influence in determining my official action.
The considerations which have been referred to will, I hope, justify
this communication and the suggestions which it contains.