Evening star., 1897-05-17
GENERAL BONDS DEFENSE
The Sealer Of Weights and Measures Meet
His Aocusers.
He Claims to Have Complied Full,
With the Law, and Challenges
Proof to the Contrary.

A special meeting Of the board Of Com
miesioners was held this morning At IL
o'clock. to hear the reply Of General F.
| A. Bond, sealer of weights and measures,
to the charges recently made against him
by q committee representing the Wash
ington Coal Exchange.
General Bond preceded his answer to
the direct charges by a brief statement Of
his connection with the office. He came
into the service Of the District, he said.
little more than four years ago. No man
| was turned out to put him in, the incum-
bent at the time of the change being in
trouble, with an Indictment hanging over
his head. While he came into the office
when not resident of the city, he had
had business interests in Washington for
many years. having been the sole owner
of the Merchants Parcel Delivery Com
pany. He did not make an application
for the position; it was rendered him. al
though OF course. he knew his friends
were working for him.
When he entered upon his duties, he
said, he found employees In the service of
the District who had been in Office for
hfteen or twenty years. 1t was represent
ed to him that as long as a man did his
duty he would not be disturbed He de-
termined to make a good record and be-
Heved he had done so.
Change I'm the Law.
Upon assuming the duties he found the
law governing the sealer of weights and
measures to be the same that had been in
vogue Tor eighty years. 1t was a fee Of
nee, the sealer collecting all fees and pay
ing all the expenses of the office. He was
locked upon by the merchants, he said, as
pirate. whose only object was to grab
everything in sight.
Realizing that there should be a change
IN the law, he laid the matter before tine
commissioners, and upon their order draft
eo Dill which passed the lower house of
congress without charge, but received
slight amendment in the Senate The hin
nnally became law through his personal
EFFORTS on the last day of the session Then
ne was instrumental in changing the law
Ie,aths 10 ire old time taper measure"
whlcn was always an unpopular means of
measuring. Va
Continuing in answer to the direct
charges. General BoEd said
In reply to the communication of
Messrs. Merrill, Stevenson and Werner !
nave tins honor to say that all scales in the
Dlstrlct OF Columbia have received careful
attention, and none have ever been certified
as correct Unless well within the amount ne
board. ooie
The Requirement.
An order of the board, dated April %
1886, directs the seaIer Of weights and
measures to seize and destroy. or condemn
until repaired, any scale that is incorrect
10 the amount of one ounce in each four
pounds. This amounts to thirty-five pounds
10 eacn ton OF 2,24o pounds, and as the
team is always weighed at the same ,inno
the coal Is weighed, the weight on the
scales Is never under two tons for each
ton or coal, and generally nearer three
:. IONS Is by the positive order of the board
II Is compulsory with us to certify to the
correctness of coal scale that does moi
snow a greater inequality than 1O5 pounds
10 each three tons, and challenge any one
been violated!
IT is the invariable rule that when a
scale is incorrect to a noticeable extent to
write the amount of error on the ticket
and to notify the owner to have il repaired'
AS to the charge that the scales are NOT
tested to their full capacity IL must be
acknowledged that this is manifestlv inn
possible: The total amount of weights fur
nished this office is 224O pounds This ia
supplemented by weighing the horse and
wagon, but more than that cannot be dene
nor is II necessary, for a scale that will
Meign one ton correctly will weigh cor
rectly to the full capacity.
Attacks Mr.. Werner,
AS to Mr.. Werner's complaint of the in
correctness of the scale at the Soldiers
Home, he Is entirely at fault. The law
creating this office specially exempts all
government scales from our inspection.
ana although we are frequently requested
to examine such scales and always COM
ply, they are entirely out of our jurisdic-
.ion' we can only give information but
nave no authority to condemn Mr. Wer-
ner Is particularly unhappy in referring
to this case, as 1t appears he gave yerv
short weight in lot of coal furnished
that institution, and he called upon me
repeatedly to help him out of the scrape.
! twice examined the scale at the Sol
diers' Home, but could not find ANYTHING
radically wrong with it.
II further information this point
is necessary l request that Major Parker
of the Soldiers Home be called upon. I'm
der the circumstances L think 1t very nat
ural that Mr.. Werner should want the
present sealer of weights and measures re-
moved.
Il desire to call attention here to the
fact that this being a salaried Office, al
though fees are collected sufficient to make
1t self-supporting, there is no reason for
the sealer to discriminate against the coal
dealers. and feel it to be my duty to ask
the board to carefully consider II 1t would
be good policy to have a sealer of weights
and measures appointed at the instance
of the Coal Dealers Association? 1t
to have an inspector of scales who, for a
good cause, had become unpopular with
limited number of coal dealers.
Absence of Motive.
There being no motive for the sealer of
weights and measures to make an in
correct test Of scales, and no proof that
he has done SO, the only question, in my
opinion, that remains to be considered is,
has due diligence and attention been given
to the business? In reply, I point with
pride to the amount of fees collected and
turned over to the collector of taxes. An
examination of the sworn reports on file
in the secretary's office will show that the
returns of the present sealer of weights
and measures is greatly In excess, on an
average nearly double, of that of any for
mer incumbent of the office.
During the past fiscal year there was
condemned or destroyed 151 scales, several
Of them coal scales; 50 weights, liquid
measures and SO dry measures"
There was a general discussion Of the
ways and means employed by the sealer
in testing scales, and then the hearing
closed.
nDnuS Un aNK.s ErNERAI