New-York tribune., 1910-08-21
Old Trade Cusfon1 Thar "orked 0oofy 1o'
f6e Customer Broken VP by
Collector Loeb.

slammed % inches wide, but which won
20 on 10 26-inch pillow.
t,oIlov-i,lg the receipt of this disturb
ing information the chief went Oh
..etiu hunt and satisfied himself that 'he
,eror- was true He also made the dls-
co,-erv that many bolts of cloth marked
..r,7,re linen" were only part linen, that Ger
tain fabrics marked pure SILK were "Ha'
: known as artificial silk and that Vafl-
o,,s kinds of goods sold by the yard marked
rbirty-six inches wide were only I'LL y
four inches wide by actual measurement
Ha also discovered hot water bottles
slammed ..,zyo-quart bottles that Wouio
hold only Z little over a quart.
This seemed 10 MI. DriscoH to call tor
x.>,,1a,,a4too 50 he visited the heads OF
some big wholesale drygoods houses AZ
,ba offices of one Of them he was told:
.Nye have always been proud OF our fepu-
tation for honest measurement II you
can show me a false measurement IN my
house YOU will be doing the firm a faVor,
please call the head of your linen depart
uenr." said MI Driscoll. The linen buyef
came. and was asked about the sheets ana
r7illoU-sIips marked in excess OF their actual
measurements.
"Oh. that is merely a trace CUSTOM
was the reply Of the buyer 1t has grown
up in the trade everywhere. and ali houses
recognize it II began so long ago that
none of us can remember when We kno"
/ perfectly well how much these sheets anu
pillowslips actually measure, but we &C
! cept the markings as they come
! J-pon further investigation Mr. Driscoll
! learned that this trade custom" was firm
! ly established IN connection with many
Z .-.aa oil lA - n -
goods firms 10 send a representative to a
! public hearing TO be held under his direc-
J ton. More than thirty responded.
/ 1t was clearly brought out that the false
! labels on linens, embroideries. cottons,
! drawnwork, etc. originated partly in this
country and partly in Europe An illustra-
! ton in point is as follows: A drummer
for an honest house goes TO retail mer-
chant and offers, say. a 72 by so inch sheet
for a certain price Hard on his heels en-
.ers a drummer from a second house not
50 particular about its method OF doing
business This second drummer says 10
! the merchant: But ] can sell you Y by
! 80 sheet al a lower price, same quality OF
goods See here is the sample" And he
pulls cut a sheet marked Y BY 80. and
, makes a sale. The reason he can under
! sell IS because mis- sheet is IN reality only
/ 6G by IS. and so contains less cotton. The
! retail man may or may not know the truth,
| but he is willing to accept at its face value
! the marking on the sheets he purchases,
/ knowing that his customers in turn. will
accept the same markings.
This illustration serves to show how
strong is the temptation of the would-he
honest manufacturer 10 put false labels on
his goods. II he is asked later on to make
a stock of 6s by IS sheets for some customer
and 10 label then 72 by 50. while selling
them at the value Of s6 by IS, he may feel
that business conditions-in other words,
the trade custom'-permit him to do this.
One Of the latest steps In this crusade for
| honesty has been taken against dealers in
! 1ewelry falsely marked as 10 the purity OF
| the gold or silver contained therein. Gross
frauC a. become g. trade custom here