Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-14

duced the Legislature to abolish it, at Gov
ernor Pattison' suggestion. The immediate
cause seems to have been q personal matter
between the Governor and the two sealers
of Philadelphia. They had fought his can
didacy, and, failing to defeat him, set to
work to deprive their successors of revenue,
by furnishing seals, etc., in advance
knowing that Pattison would decap-
itate them, and their action con-
tributed to the abolition of the Office.
Mr.. Paul did not seem to think the pros
poets of re-enactment were particularly
rosy, as the matter had been agitated-two
years ago, but was allowed to fall through
because not pushed by the business inter-
ests and on account of the apathy of con-
sumers. He states that he has been asked
to interest himself, but has refrained from
doing so, as he believed his advocacy might
be imputed to interested motives. 1t has
been suggested that as some traders kick
against the fee system of remuneration, the
burden of which falls on them alone, that
it might be well to make the Office sala-
ried one, and put the burden on the entire
community, being most interested, but Mr..
Paul files the objection that if the incum-
bent were not conscientious he would not
exert himself to see that justice were DONE
Mr.. L. F. Houston states that consumers
are cheated in measure, even where dealers
are honest, and cites case where the
refining company with which he was con-
nected contracted to furnish the Govern
ment 40, 900 gallons of refined petroleum in
cases. The Government had the cases
measured and deducted considerable sum
from the price agreed upon. The ordinary
purchaser, who has not Governmental
facilities for measuring, is defrauded in such
cases, though the seller be perfectly honest.
THEY BORE INSPECTION.
For the purpose of testing the matter
DISPATCH reporter bought a number of
vessels, both OF dry and liquid measure, in
various places, and had them tested by Mr.
j. C. Mercer, Superintendent of the Court
House. They proved to be as near right as
possible, to ascertain from tests made by the
county machinery, so that in general IN this
respect it would appear that skullduggery
must be looked for elsewhere.
As it has been stated that the iron manu-
facturers were opposed to recreation of the
office, call was made at Painter & Sons.
They stated that they knew nothing of the
matter, and rather intimated that thev
didn't care whether there was OF was not
such an officer. One of the Messrs Laugh
lin, of the firm of Jones & Laughlins, on
the other hand, was quite outspokeD. He
said he saw no necessity for the Office unless
it were for the purpose of creating places
for some people. He stated that so far as
his company was concerned it could not
afford to allow its scales to get out of order,
either for buying or selling purposes, as in
the latter especially reputation was worth
more than the value of q large number of
pounds of iron, and he didn't consider it
any burden to keep the scales in proper
trim. and less expensive than to pay an
officer for doing it.
This reasoning might not apply. however,
to the case of peripatetic dealers who go
around the country gathering up "ya-a-gs,
old iron and papeh, as some of them have
been known to deal with housewives at the
back door. much after the same fashion as
did the Knickerbockers with the Indians
when buying furs in the days of the Dutch
Governors of New York wide Washington
Irving), only that the rag peddlers reverse
The Dutch traders method.