Color Line

A visitor would hardly have guessed that it was the tenth annual convention of the National Cotton Council of America. In the Atlanta Biltmore Hotel last week, a huge banner carried the legend: "Why Is Margarine Singled Out for Discrimination? No Other Product Is." And much of the talk among the 800 cotton men was of margarine. The reason: margarine, made chiefly of cottonseed oil, is worth $80 million a year to cotton planters. Planters thought that they could easily sell twice as much cottonseed oil if only Congress would repeal the high tax, lobbied through by dairy farmers, on the sale of colored margarine.

The cotton planters were convinced that they had a legitimate grievance. Coloring is common in other foods; even butter is often colored. But the cotton planters had always lacked enough political support to outlobby the Midwest dairymen. At their convention, the planters sealed a pact with representatives of Midwest soybean farmers, who sell soybean oil to margarine makers. With Southern Democrats to support cotton men and soybean farmers pressuring Midwest Congressmen, planters thought they had a good chance to get the tax killed. Cried white-haired Charles G. Henry, council chairman of the margarine committee: "We are finally going to beat this bunch of reactionary dairymen."

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