The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1910-08-03
R0DBING THE BUYING PUBLIC
,p,TrD PRACTICED AS A. TRADE
IN NEW YORK CITY.
,,,I;ons of Dollars Stolen Annually
Through Dishonest Weights
and Measures.

NEW YORK.-By means of false
-.oiqbts and measures the people of
,..- citv have been defrauded out
g CORES of millions of dollars a
arr Resides this colossal graft in
ricl,els and dimes and quarters all
thor kinds of swindling, even that
of the grating politicians, are COM
noratiyely insignificant. Year after
,oar this system of robbery has gone
on unchecked until recently, when
clement G. Driscoll, the new COM
missioner of weights and measures,
bocan a crusade against the evil
Co vigorously has he acted that the
rnmber of false weights has been
graat1v reduced, and he is confident
fbat within a month it will be diff
c,tit 10 find in the city fraudulent
3w or liquid measure.
The worst offenders against hon
os+v in trade Mr. Driscoll found to
no the big retailers, whose scales are
obsolutely accurate and whose meas
nres are standard IN this group
are the retail butchers. 1t is the
rrle with many of them that their
omntoves have to make their week S
waaas out Of the short weights they
Give their customers. The hanging
scale is used almost exclusively.
The meat is tossed on this and the
needle on the dial oscillates The
nntcber puts his hand on the scale
IN steady it, and in that way adds
half pound or more to the weight
of the meat. But he is not satisfied
with that. Following the custom of
the trade he trims the piece of meat
and throws the bits of fat and bone
INTO a box under the counter. The
customer has bought the meat at
the gross weight and paid from 20
to IS or 80 cents a pound for these
SCRAPS. The butcher, however, ap-
Dropriates them and sells them at a
good profit.
Underweight Packages.
A good deal of dishonesty prevails
among the grocers who buy their
goods in small packages from the
wholesalers. Almost invariably these
are under weight or under measure.
The trade custom" in introducing
new article is to send it out in
full weight packages. After an es-
tabished trade has been worked up
the size of the packages is cut down,
and they are not filled full Al
though they may be labeled as one
pound or one quart they really fan
far short of that The grocer not
only buys but he sells them knowing
they are fraudulently labeled
Those who buy their potatoes by
the barrel are openly robbed A
barrel of potatoes should weigh ia
pounds; but the trade custom" is
to put not to exceed 142 pounds
in the barrel. Similarly in the coal
business short weight is the rule,
and the very poor, who buy coal by
the basket, pay as high as SIS a
ton for it,
Of the 100000 milk cans in use
in New York Commissioner Driscoll
says that only a small percentage
come up to the correct measure. To
be standard they should hold 40
quarts, but as a rule they are short
quart.
Making False Scales.
A great deal of kerosene and gaso,
line is sold from wagons that cover
every part of the city. The meas
ures with which these wagons, be.
i00pIOO TN tho NV 70
controls the oil business, are supplied
are perfectly accurate. No end oil
the drivers and of the small dealers
IN oil, however. give short measure
10 their customers in various ways
Sometimes the can has a false bot
tom, oftener it is dented badly. and in
many cases the man who delivers
the oil Intentionally fails to empty
all of it from the can in which he
brings it, Whatever he is able fC