The record-union., 1891-03-01
THE WEIGHTS AND MEASURES
BILL.

BILL.
The bill for the establishment Of sys-
tenn of sealing weights and measures, in
troduced in the Assembly by Mr.. Went
there is really no pronounced opposition
to it. There is not moro worthy meas
ure before the Legislature, if we except
the reform ballot bill, as, framed by the
Senate committee.
The Wentworth bill is simple, strong,
and we believe will be efiectual 1t pro-
vides for sealer in each county, with
deputies, who shall inspect weights and
measures in use in trade and seal them
when they are found to be up to standard,
and report for prosecution all dealers
refusing to use standards. The cost to
the State is practically nothing, and to
traders is insignificant, and yet sufficient
revenue will result from the fees to make
the sealers diligent.
1t is matter of common notoriety that
y
if he buys cord of wood he will gener-
ally be sheared an eighth; if he buys a
roll of butter it will fall short of its pre-
tense sufficiently to make the consumer
lose percentage that in the average fam
lily consumption of butter will equal a
sum that would pay the insurance charge
upon the ordinary property of the house
hold-and so on through long list OF
nearly everything that is Of home produc-
ton and sale.
FIVE are told that, after all, it makes no
difference, since for full weight and meas
ure we would be charged more than for
short weight and measure, the reply is
that the consumer is entitled to that for
which he bargains, and to uniformity in
weights and measures. 1t is not CUES
ton of price at all, but one of fair dealing
and uniformity. We have been accus-
toned to lay at the door of the dairyman
the charge of the shortage in butter, for
instance, but the following from the San
Benito AdUdnce repels the charge. A
dairyman, writing to that journal, says:
Twenty years ago butter was put up in
two-pound rolls, fifty rolls in n box. II
varied a little IN weight, from 9S to 102
pounds, according to the condition when
nodded. II n box fell short of 100 pounds ii
was satisfactory TO the retailer; if ii overrun
he mplained TO the commission merchant
that he had TO pay for more pounds than he
sold.
Hence the entire retail dealers of San Fran.
l,l+
a mold. We then filed down the edges of the
roll. The average of the fifty-roll box was
now ninety-seven pounds. This suited the
trnde so we'll that we soon had a demand for {,
further reduction in weight. Some complied
with this demand and some did not. If a box
of my butter weighed ninety-seven pounds
and q box of my neighbor's of the same
quality weighed ninety, my butter might sit
on the floor of the commission house until
Gabriel blowed his horn and then il wouldn't
sell.
Therefore, the lighter the rolls the better the
sale. and still every few months a letter from
our commission house would say: "If your
rolls We're little lighter your butter would
sell more readily" And again we would re-
sort to the file. At the present time we put
siXty-four rolls of butter in the same old fifty
roll box, and still the creak OF the file goes on
rasping down the poor old butter mold.
have made careful mathematical calcu-
lation in reference to this matter and lind
that II the reduction i'll the weight of the two
pound roll goes on at the same rate for the
next ten years that it has for the past fifteen
all the consumer will ceb when he goes to the
store for a roll of butter will be a creased rag
about six inches square.
So itappears that from the dairyman's
standpoint it is the retailer who is at fault.
While inclined to believe that the pro-
dueers are also to blame, and that if they
insisted upon giving full weight they
would win, nevertheless the letter quoted
has in it the elements of truth. Now, il
weights and measures were sealed under
the law and made uniform, every con-
sumner would be able to know when there
was short weight; the retailer would de-
mand full weight because of knowledge
that his customers could, with official
scales, invoke the law; the commission
merchant would feel the same influence,
and compel the dairyman to give full
weight.
So it would run through the whole sys-
tenn of trade. No hardship would be yis-
tied upon any one, but great good would
be accomplished on the line of fair trad
ing. We should get full tons and cords
and gallons and pounds, and the infiu-
ence of the reform weuld operate to secure
us full counts also. II is not intended to
charge the whole line of dealers in pro.
duce with shortage in weights and meas
ures; but there are plenty of men in the
business who avail themselves of the alb
sence of az effectual law to make the
matter of full weight means to gain by
concealed profits.
No reason can be advanced why we
should not do as is done in all othel
States, and secure to the people the mean:
of detecting and Furnishing for weighs
and measure shortage. 1t is folly to es