The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-09-07
A SQUARE DEAL Law.

a platform promise, but nevertheless
it is proving to be the most important
and beneficial of recent laws. The
bank guaranty bill is in the courts
and the public utilities bill is in the
scrap heap but the weights and meas
ures law is in full force and effect and
directly benefits all the people in the
\ state.
! study of the enforcement of this
law by the state board of health dur
ing the past three months develops it's
/ great Importance. The law requires
that the manufacturer, the wholesa1-
| er and the retailer shall give full
| weight and measure in all goods sold
to the consumer. It requires that
pound shall consist of sixteen ounces,
that pints, quarts, pecks, bushels and
yards shall be full and complete in
every sense the words imply. The
general public is inclined to under
estimate the benefits that will accrue
under this law, but recent prosecu-
tions have shown conditions under
the old state of affairs that will make
people sit up and take notice.
Take the cases against the butchers
for an example. A large number of
meat markets have been found to be
| selling meat at the rate of fourteen
| ounces to the pound. The butchers
scales were set to weigh two ounces
short on every sale whether for one
pound or four. Now there is an aver
age of four hundred sales from every
beef and this means that the public
pays for 500 ounces or fifty pounds OF
meat that it did not get. The butcher.
under this system reaped over Sc
| per day of unholy profits.
! In the case of the dishonest miller
the results are even more startling. 1t
has been found that mills in this state
have been selling flour a half pound
under weight on every quarter sack.
This would mean four pounds on the
| barrel and a mill with a capacity OF
one thousand barrels per day has
swindled the public out of $3.50 every
day in the year that its wheels turn
| round. The honest miller cannot
compete with this man at all.
Then there is the grocer, and his
name is legion, who sells his potatoes
two pounds short to the peck. And
the baker who makes bread weighing
fourteen ounces to the half-loaf. How
can a baker whose bread weighs six
teen ounces compete with the four
teen-ounce baker? Yet the pure food
ment of the weights and measures law
have found that there are only two
sixteen ounce bakers in Topeka and
none at all in Leavenworth, while in
Atchison all the bakers make sixteen
ounce bread. The Atchison bakers
are honest and yet they are up against
stone wall in competition with the
Leavenworth bakers.
The inspectors are finding scores of
cases in every section of the state
where the consumer has been imposed
on in an outrageous fashion, and the
| dealers, under the fear of the law are
| correcting these abuses in a hurry.
| When honesty was rewarded only by
| its own virtue and the wicked short
weight dealer f1ourished like a green
bay tree it was not to be expected that
there would be much of the former
abroad in the land. But with the
| law resting heavily upon the short
weight fellows the honest dealers
| (and they are largely IN the majority
will be glad to sell a pound for a
! pound and exact the same treatment
from the manufacturer. The exper-
fence of the inspectors has been that
a stern example set in every commun-
ity insures full weight and measure to
|
| When one considers that more peo-
pie are affected by the weights and
measures law than by all the other
laws on the statute books put togeth-
er it must be conceded first place in
| Importance. It insures a square deal
| not only in the sale of meat, flour
| and potatoes and bread, but requires
| full measure in meters of gas, kilo-
watts of electricity, yards of silk, feet
of lumber and quarts of syrup. The
| dealer did not need to worry much
| under the old law when he cheated
his customer two ounces on the
pound, for the latter could not afford
| to bring suit for that trifiing amount,
| but under the new law all he has to
do is to make complaint and he has
all the machinery of the state grind
| ing for him and when the dealer
comes out of the hopper he is $40 to
$50 short on the transaction and the
/ CONSUME does not even have to pay
i for reserved seat in the court room.
The effective and energetic enforce
ment of the weights and measure
law means a saving of millions to the
consumers of this state and it pro-
tects the honest dealer in the bargain
by placing a premium on his honesty.
This is the real square deal law and
worth in dollars and cents to the COM
mon people in these days of high
| prices for necessities more than all
the redemption of all the promises
made by all the political parties and
factions in the state during the past
five years.
Prison for Gossips.
The Georgia legislature has made
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