Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1901-11-23
SHORT MEASURES
Arrests Bring Up Question as to
What Constitutes
Bushel.
ONE OF THE ACCUSED Is HELD
Bound Over to the Grand jury
Means is Dis
charged.

The arrest of two men yesterday
for the alleged use of bushel meas
ures of something less than the legal
size in peddling out potatoes calls to
mind the ordinance seeking to rem
edy abuses of the sort charged which
was introduced into the city council
at its last meeting by Aid. Eckhart
and now in the hands of the ordin-
ance committee.
At the preliminary hearing of the
men arrested yesterday the question
arose as to what is a legal bushel and
it developed that there is no regular
ly established standard of measure
ment in the county. There are
weights for the testing of scales but
nothing regulating the unit of dry
measure. OF course ii is generally
known that a bushel of grain is
contained i'm vessel 1872 inches in
diameter and eight inches in depth
and that there are a certain number
of pounds in bushels of different
commodities, but the question of en-
forcing the law is another matter.
Who shall say whether a basket of
irregular shape used in measuring
tubers contains the legal number of
cubic inches is question of some
moment when someone is to be pun
ished for a violation of the law bear
ing on this head.
Without question the people of
Rock Island are previously defrauded
in the measurements of things they
buy almost every day. This is es-
pecialIy true of those commodities
purchased from peddlers who have
no reputation to sustain and are not
always over-conscientious in living
up TO their contracts, specified or i'm
piled. when their customers are off
their guard. At the same time when,
as in the case yesterday, it is found
that co pounds of potatoes can he
placed i'm the basket used by heaping
il till no more could be laid on. it is
an open question whether the seller
is liable on account of the vessel he
measures with. Any advantage he
may be able to get through failure
to heap up the measure may be con-
sidered merely Il form of business
thrift which the customer must eX-
pect to suffer from without recourse
if he does not take the precaution to
look after his own interests when the
goods are being delivered.
The county clerk is the sealer un-
der the Illinois state law and the one
who is supposed to have the stand
ards of weights and measures and to
apply them when called upon to do
so. This fact has brought out the
suggestion, and one worthy of con-
sideration at the hands of the COM
mittee to which has been referred the
ordinance above mentioned. that it
would be well to require peddlers and
others who sell in the city commod-
tiles of commonly established value
by the peck or the bushel to use a
vessel in measuring out their wares
that has been examined by the cOun-
ty clerk and stamped or tagged TO
show that it is of the legal capacity.
This would appear to remedy pres
ent abuses as far as lies within the
province of the law.
Heck Bound Over.
The charges against Means were
dismissed last evening, as it was |
shown that he was not actively en-
gagged in the sale of the potatoes, but |
this morning Heck was bound over to |
the grand jury in the sum of 500 on
the charge of giving short measure.
Edward Gillapp. who was arrested
Yesterday afternoon charged with
stealing corn from field near the
mouth of Rock river, was bound over
i'm the sum of 500 for larceny.