The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-12-19
POUND NOT POUND
Mr.. COburn Takes Issue With
Creamery Men.
Should Be Compelled to Give
Full Weight.
KEEP UP STANDARD.
Kansas Cows Products ShOuld
Be Second to None.
Evidently Not in Full sympathy
With Creamery Men.
''vFhen is a pound not a pound r.

when is a pound not a pound ?"
If this were a conundrum, F. D. Co
burn, secretary of the Kansas state
board Of agriculture would say:
when it weighs Is 4 ounces
Mr. Coburn has taken issue with the
Kansas creamery men on the package
butter proposition Mr.. Coburn insists
that pound packages of butter should
weigh pound. net
W. T. Jensen of the Continental
creamery, who seems to represent the
sentiment of the creamery men Of the
state. declares that the socalled pound
packages Of creamery butter weigh
only Is X ounces, and that this is fair
proposition because grocers weigh in =
The Wrappings of country butter when
!. selling It to a customer
y MI Coburn did not go to the meet
ing Of dairy and creamery men which
was held at the Continental creamery
Monday for the purpose of selecting
delegates to go to Washington and OPP
pose the establishment of SIX per
cent as the standard for butter fat
content in all butter He was invited,
but wrote a letter instead
The letter didn't seem to altogether
suit the creamery people, though they
applauded II when it was read This IS
Mr. COburu' letter in full:
Prof I D Graham. Secretary Kansas
State Dairy association.
Ny Dear Professor: AS I feared. 1
the Office and can not reach your meet
ing
7 am not well acquainted with the
purposes OF the dairy conference to
which you have invited me, but it may
not be Inappropriate for me to say once
more that regard Kansas as having
measureless and unsurpassed posi-
bihties and opportunities as a dairy
state, and my prayer is that those who
have these interests in tn cir keeping
shall see clearly that their own and
the states best interests are alike in
Volved IN maintaining the very highest
standard IN quality weight. and in
every other element of excellence of
whatever product of theirs may bear
the Kansas label.
This standard will require. too. that
a pound Of butter shall weigh sixteen
ounces VII en- it reaches the buyer II
that is what he Is supposed to be pay
ing for. and not fourteen ounces of
butter, water and wrappfngs- That the
goods, OF whatever character shall be
what they are represented to be and
what the consumer is led to believe
they are whether directly or by indi-
rection- It viii not do to make ex-
cuses for short weights or short quail
ity in goods sold for ma ximurl prices
as of maximum quality ard weights by
saying evap Oration or deterioration
have taken place since the goods left
the makers. Only a small portion of
the consuming public are so credulo11s
as to long accept explanations so
f1imsy, OF patiently submit to pilferinzs
Gone under such a guise. No other
line of legitimate business is conducted
on any such basis; it could not be and
survive. and would not be legitimate
Il it did survive. The buyer of muslin
expects to get So instead of 80 inches
when he pays for a yard, and is not
told that # shrunk after leaving the
factory; the buyer of sugar gets 16 and
not Ia ounces when he buys pound
of sugar, and is not told how it lost its
originally honest weight after it was
shipped from Garden City.
The splendid men who are behind
the Kansas COW and COW products and
who have wrought so well in the past
must not do aught. when such oppor-
tunities as those of the present con-
front them. that will make them or
the products of their skill and genius