When Lafer was interviewed by food inspectors he admitted the only way he "could save people 10 to 15c a lb." on butter was by selling them oleo. He admitted that the "fresh churned at 22c and 25c" was not butter but oleo.

MORE DELAY AND TECHNICALITIES.

When the cases were called in court the writer offered in open court to dismiss the cases if Lafer would obey the laws of the state. Lafer refused. Various postponements were had, all but one at the request of Lafer's attorney, and so the matter dragged on until May, 1915, when the case came to trial. Lafer did not dispute the facts, but attacked the title of the deceptive advertising law as being unconstitutional in that it was too broad. The court held with him and an appeal was taken and that case is now pending in the supreme court. What became of the other case under the new oleo act the Lord only knows, we don't. Lafer is still continuing his defiance of Michigan laws.

MORE OLEO LAWS DEFIED.

We have before mentioned the law against selling colored oleo in Michiigan. This law has been upheld by our supreme court, yet it is violated every day in Detroit and conviction seems impossible. When a man wishes to start a "blind pig" in a dry county he pays a federal tax to sell liquor. This gives him no right to violate the state laws, but it keeps off the U. S. officials and leaves him only state officials to fight. So when a dealer wants to sell colored oleo in defiance of state law he pays the government tax as a dealer in colored oleo so as to escape trouble from federal officials. Three years ago over 50 of such licenses were issued in Detroit in one year, but owing to the activities of the dairy and food department but 18 were issued last year. These people were at once notified by the department that the sale of colored oleo was unlawful and prosecution would follow. They paid no attention to the notice.

SELLING OLEO FOR BUTTER.

In November, 1914, fifteen of these places were visited by disguised food inspectors. Each was instructed to ask for a pound of butter. In every case they were given colored oleo and charged 30 cents a pound. A similar grade of oleo could be bought as oleo for 20c. In each place visited numerous sales of their "butter" were being made to consumers at 30c per pound.

AND STILL MORE DELAYS.

Warrants were sworn out and these defendants were arraigned late in 1914. Although the colored oleo law has been passed on by our supreme court, the lawyers found innumerable fly specks to argue about. They moved to quash the information. Arguments followed. Judge Phelan took the cases "under advisement." Months passed by, no decision was rendered, and finally old age overtook the judge and he passed away. Whether he took the cases with him we don't know, but we presume he did, as we are informed by the Detroit papers that the docket of the recorder's court is all cleaned up and there are no pending cases. These

defendants are still defying Michigan law and Detroit consumers are daily buying oleo from them at butter prices.

OLEO STRIKES BACK.

On the day the colored oleo dealers were arraigned in Judge Phelan's court a new deal was sprung. The sheriff of Wayne county served a summons on the writer by which Lafer sued the writer for $20,000 damages. The suit had been "suppressed" in the Wayne county clerk's office waiting for the writer to come to Detroit. For once Mr. Lafer's smart lawyer got left. The writer had been subpoenaed as a witness that day and was therefore not subject to the service of process. On his application the Wayne circuit court set aside the service. Nothing prevents Mr. Lafer from bringing suit against the writer in his home county, and we welcome such a suit, although we don't know what he is suing for.

The writer is a man of only moderate means. A $20,000 verdict would wipe him off the map financially.

When we read almost daily of the miscarriage of justice in Detroit courts, such a verdict would not be impossible, and even if such litigation were unsuccessful, the cost of hiring Detroit attorneys and defending the same would be oppressive. If the object of this suit was to drive the dairy and food commissioner out of Detroit, the litigation has been successful; the writer will not again enter Wayne county as long as he is dairy and food commissioner unless summoned by the court. After he gets out of office and his power to enforce the oleo laws is gone there will be no further object to push their litigation.

NO HELP FROM THE STATE.

Some may think the state would defend its officials, but our experience with the present board of state auditors is not one that gives us any confidence. At the last session of the legislature the writer presented a bill which would exempt any state officer from being sued on civil process outside of his home county while engaged in the performance of official duties. The bill was referred to the judiciary committee, which refused to report it out. The judiciary committee consists entirely of lawyers. If a lawyer attends court in any county outside of his residence he is exempt from the service of civil process. This judiciary committee would not grant to a state official the same privilege the lawyer possesses. Oleo seems to be entrenched in the legislature as well as in the courts. In this connection we wish to state that we do not desire to criticize Judge Connolly of the recorder's court. Whenever oleo cases have been before him he has tried to expedite matters in every way that he could.

WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

Frankly we don't know. The price of milk is governed by the price of butter.

Milk and butter are low this year, notwithstanding feed and labor on dairy farms are the highest known.

The fraudulent sale of oleo is largely responsible for it. Michigan's dairy interests are threatened. On the other hand Detroit consumers are daily being sold oleo for butter by law-defying dealers. We have written this article to answer in full the many inquiries received, of why the

dairy and food department doesn't stop the illegal sales of oleo in the city of Detroit. If any one can tell us how to do it we will be glad to receive the information. We have made strenuous efforts, but we are rapidly coming to the belief of dairy and food commissioners that have preceded us that these laws can not be enforced in Wayne county.

THE ABUSE OF ADVERTISING.

is the abuse of adverProprietary medicines First, common, simple

One of the greatest abuses of the present day tising in the sale of so-called Patent Medicines. can be generally classified under two heads. remedies that are sold under a hifalutin name at an inflated price, and, second, a mixture of simple, harmless ingredients that do not cure or help any disease and are not harmful to any part of the patient's anatomy except his pocketbook.

The press is practically the sole medium by which the sale of fake. medicines can be carried on. We cannot expect the press to refuse all proprietary medicine ads but we ought to expect the press to refuse to advertise medicines that have been exposed as useless by officials of the government in charge of drug investigation. No newspaper has the moral right to advertise a medicine in its columns whose only virtue is to extract dollars from the pockets of its subscribers.

A recent issue of the Lansing Journal came to this office containing the advertisements of about thirty proprietary medicines. Not all of them were worthless but there were many old time fakes that have been exposed by this department and others. We took the liberty of fixing a new "makeup" for this issue of the Journal by placing on the front page all of these ads. A plate of this revised make up is given herewith. It makes an imposing array. The many ancient fakes therein might entitle it to be called "The Old Settlers on Parade." The picture of the man "with the heart-bowed-down" appearance is an ad for Mayrs wonderful stomach remedy. The medicine might be called the "rule of three" remedy. For one dollar you buy a package that contains two small packages of white powder and one small bottle of liquid. The liquid is Olive oil, the packages are Epsom and Rochelle Salts respectively. You take them in 1, 2, 3 order, three hours apart and "presto change" your acute and chronic stomach troubles vanish, likewise your dollar that you paid for a ten cent dose of physic.

Then there is pictured our old friend who jumps three feet high. He has been taking Kellogg's Sanitone Wafers, which are recommended as "ambition producers." The wafers are composed of green paint (Chromium Sulphate), red pepper and a physic with an unpronounceable name. It may produce ambition but history does not record that the ambition of either Caesar or Napoleon was nurtured on green paint and red pepper.

The nice looking man in the center of the page is representing an ancient medicine called Fruitola which relieves liver and stomach trouble by removing the gall stones from a man's system. The beauty of this