The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1912-03-08
MANKAT0 GROCERS WILL SELL BY
WEIGHT INSTEAD OF BY MEASURE
New System Decided On at Meeting Of Retail
Association Last Night; Inspectors
Address Dealers.
From Tuesdays Daily.

!
Hereafter when madam calls Of
her local grocery man or tele
phones an order for a bushel of pc
tatoes. she will be politely informe,
that potatoes are not sold by tn
bushel but by the pound. This wa
the important decision reached las
night at the monthly meeting of tn,
Mankato Retail Grocers' association
which was held at the city hall /
was decided to sell everything b.
the pound, except liquids, eggs; ais,
to make an exception to this wher'
both customer and dealer agree OF
a special price or q job price OF
a certain article. The bushel baske
will be discarded as a measure ant
used merely as a container, accord
ing to the new law; graduated quar-
measures cannot be used for com
mercial purposes, and only thos,
stamped by the inspector of the
state department of weights ant
measures will be considered lawful
Meeting of Interest.
| The meeting of the grOcers' asso
! citation was of particular interest tt
the public at large, as the steps TAX
en- there will affect the public tt
presided. He introduced S. p. Jep
son and d. S. Evans, two state in
spectors of weights and measures
who are at present making an in
spection of the scales and measures
in Mankato. These two gentlemen
interested those present for severa
hours with suggestions as to what is
being done and will be done by the
state department of weights and
measures and explained the new Law
and what is required of grocery
men. 49,.
Mr.. Jepson spoke first, demonstrate
ing his talks with his tools used in
| inspection work. He stated that
wherever he found measures not UP
to the standard, used for measuring
beans, peas, or dry measures, they
were smashed, and where scales OF
weights were found defective, the
owners were instructed to have eth
er the state department or the man
ufacturers repair them. In case
they were beyond repair, they were
condemned.
Gave An Explanation. ..
Mr.. Jepson explained the differ.
ence between the use of the grad
uated liquid and the dry quart. BY
the demonstration of these two
measures he showed that the only
way in which the merchant can be
honest with himself and the, CUSTOM
err, is to use weights exclusively,
except for liquids. He showed tags
which were attached to every meas
ure used for commercial purposes
in the stores, and also tags fasten-
ed to the scales, to show that the
scales had been inspected by the
state department. He said that the
dry quart held ten cubic inches
more than the liquid quart. 49,.
Among some of the rather sur
prising statements he made, was that
nine-tenths of the weights are not
correct, and that most of these were
robbing the dealers, not the custom
ers. The scales may be all right
but the weights are faulty. One
merchant in Minneapolis lost $4,000
on a $S5 scale during a period of
sixteen years, because the weights
were heavier than the standard
= State Repairs Weights.
That it is cheaper to have the
state repair these weights than the
manufacturer is shown by the fact
that the actual cost to the mer.
chant when the inspector did the
job would be fifteen cents, while the
total expense in case the manufac.
turer should do it, would be about
thirty-five cents.
All faulty weights were placed in
envelopes those marked rejected"
being sent for repairs, while those
marked condemned" were confiscat-
ed, as they could not be fixed, some
parts having been broken or were
missing. -......
Mr.. Jepson also stated that the
department which he represents
has prescribed the shape Of the
computing scales; there are two or
four makes that are wrong. Accord
ing to the law, every computing
scale should have three columns of
figures, while many have but one
column, and some have no penny
lines. Ninety days are given the
merchant in which to repair the
scales and notices are placed on the
scales not in use so as to inform
the customers, in case they wish
to know if the scale has been in
spected. The inspector makes his
investigation once year. He also
explained the. difference between q
bushel and n peck, which is large
when one considers what the mean
ing of the law is in regards to it's
use. When a customer asks for a
peck of potatoes, he gets peck
measure, but if he asks for bushel
of potatoes, he must receive the
standard pounds.
Liquid Measuring Pumps.
Regarding the liquid measuring
pumps, such as are used for gaso-
line kerosene, syrup, ETC., he said
that nine out of every ten are in
correct. AS they are made for liquid
measures, they are regarded as such
by the law, and whether they give
too much OF too little, they are
corrected or condemned by the in
spector. But the inspector never
has anything to do with a mer-
chants stock; thus the merchant
may sell measures as he pleases or
can, whether they are up to the
standard or not; the state simply
governs their use for commercial
purposes.
Mr.. Jepson stated that because of
the variation of the laws in the
ct0 he fn1