Omaha daily bee., 1909-10-29

49,
the best dressed man in the upper house
Senator Flint was highly successful at the
law before he entered the senate. He will
doubtless now be able to step back into his
law practice and accumulate plenty of fat
fees. His term will end a year from next
March. His intention to quit the senate
in order to make some money for himself
and family is the first ayowed case of the
kline since the retirement of John G.
Spooner. spooner quit the senate poor, but
since then has been so busy handling big
law cases that he has already piled up q
good sum for his support in hie old age.
A Washington rental agent stirred up
trouble for a lot Of statesmen the other
day. A prominent woman who owned q
fine home in a good location came to him
and wanted TO rent her house furnished
at a great bargain until the middle of next
April. 1t looked like a fine thing for some
senator or representative. The agent got
out a circular, illustrated, and sent It out
more or less broadcast to members Of
congress. 1t stirred up a commotion. Here
was a house to rent, ordinarily worth 5000
rental a year, which could be had at about
twenty-five per cent Of that. kilograms
began to come In to the office of the agent
and at least one prominent member of con-
gress got on a train and fastened to WASH
ington. About this time the owner of the
house exercised the unfailing privilege Of
a woman and changed her mind The agent
is still busy answering inquiries.
A considerable number of notices Of
judgment have lately been issued by the
Board Of Food and Drug Inspection of the
Agricultural department, and in a sub
s~tantial number Of instances these have
related to judgments obtained against pro-
ducers who enormously marked their goods
with respect to weight or contents. This
has. been the case as regards canned goods
Of various kinds. In such instances the
courts, so far as known, have uniformly
ruled against the producers, entering judg-
ments OF confiscation and then releasing
in many cases the goods upon bond to the
owner to rectify the labelling so as not to
conflict with the pure food law, Thus,
where peas have been marked as con-
tanning a given quality of the article and
on inspection have been found short, II has
been necessary to relabel, indicating the
true contents. Some Of the shipments thus
held up have been large and there are, It
is asserted, many other cases of the same
sort pending. The producers have, of
course, found the publicity given to the
method Of labelling they employ decidedly
annoying, and object to the interference
with their business methods that is thus
experienced. 1t is probable, writes a CORES
pondent OF the New York Journal of Com
merce, that these COMBINATIONS will In
crease in number, rather than minis In
the future as the pure food law has been
pretty steadily developing into a labelling
law rather than a law prescribing or regu-
lating composition Of goods. In fact the
view is taken by many officials that the
question Of labelling is the important factor
In the matter and that consumers can be
trusted to select their goods in the most
desirable way, provided that they are
truthfully informed OF the contents Of
packages. The protests Of various pro-
ducers to the effect that they cannot easily
regulate the contents Of the packages with
exactness. and that on occasion there will
be more or less in the packages than the
specified measure, have received no atten-
ton because, It is asserted, none Of the
cases thus far brought to the attention of
the board ave shown the existence Of
overweight or overmeasure.
In the case OF goods put up in packages
or wrappers it is complained that the pro-
cess of drying or evaporating the moisture
OF the article unavoidably leads to a
change in weight which cannot be guarded
against. This Is the case with goods like
butter, hams, etc. 1t has been suggested
to the owners Of such goods that they could
either allow for the shrinkage in weight
and include in the packages enough OF the
goods to cover the difference likely to oc-
cur during the average time that elapses
before the consumption OF the goods, but
this has not been received with favor, al
though the department has indicated that
it is willing to treat producers with all pos
sible consideration In cases where such a
plan is followed. Another suggestion that
has been made is that producers abandon
the practice of marking the goods, as e. g.
butter in "one-pound' packages, since the
law as now on the books make no re-
duirement that weight or contents be
stated. The reply has been that in certain
lines trade conditions and customs call for
a statement on the outside OF the package
and that 1t cannot be easily given up. To
meet the situation, some producers have
resorted to the plan OF simply marking on
the outside the number OF units of weight,
as for instance zone" leaving the consumer
to suppose II he chooses that the word
pounds" or ounces" as the case may be
is to be supplied. The department, how
ever, is not willing to accept this scheme
and proposes to treat such cases as viola
ton Of the law just as II the full label has
baau attached