The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1912-01-25
STATE OFFICIALS KEEP BUSY
Special Agent Downing of Madison
Makes Purchases in More Than Sew
enty Places in Kenosha and Confs-
Gates Scores of False Measures.

are losing 100000 annually through
the use Of false weights and measures
in the city and I am willing to say
that this is conservative estimate. -
This was the statement of Fred p.
Downing of Madison, special agent for
the Wisconsin office Of weights and
measures, who completed an investiga
ton of conditions in Kenosha late
Friday night.
III have visited more than seventy
stores and markets in this city and /
am competent to speak of conditions.
/ have found in the two days that |
have been in Kenosha more than sixty
violations Of the law. I~haye visited
the north, south and west sides of the
city and there is no place in Kenosha
where the innocent customer can get
away from the false weight or the false
measure. Don t think that / mean that
all storekeepers are knowingly defraud-
ing the people for some of them are
innocent and some Of them are even
defrauding themselves. | can say,
however, that two thirds of the stores
i'll the city are short weighing their
customers and I don It believe that
there is one of them that is living
strictly up to the demands Of the new
law governing weights and measures in
the state l have not made a. single
arrest following my Investigations, but
every dealer has been warned and am
going to return to Kenosha in short
time and then the men must settle
in the. courts. There is nearly every
kind of short weights and measures
known to trade to be found in Keno
sha and / want to say right here that
the city council of Kenosha should
lose no time in naming man for the
office Of city sealer who will have the
nerve to demand the enforcement of
the laws. This is one of the big
economic questions for Kenosha and it
is one which if solved will go long
way toward reducing the cost of liv-
ing in the city. -
Inspector Downing was here not
only to make Investigations, but also
to look up the members of the council
and seek some reason for the failure
to appoint a city sealer Early in
September the state civil service COM
mission certified to the mayor the fact
that Felix G. Mayer had passed the
examination for the office, but this fact
has never been reported to the council
aud no appointment has been made.
The council has not even fixed the
salary of the official Notwithstanding
the fact that several efforts have been
made to call up the question and Sc.
cure formal action.
Inspector Downing was not partial
in his visits in Kenosha and if any
store in the city was overlooked it was
hidden so completely that even the
most careful man could not ind it. In
meat markets and Stores he condemned
scales and directed the managers of
the places to do away with them. In
grocery stores he confscated short
measures and threw them into the gar
bage barrel and reduced them to scrap
iron and kindling wood. More than
seventy of these false measures were
put out of business in the two days.
The inspector found that the people
were getting short weights in sugar by
the use OF too heavy sacks, short
weight prints of butter and lard and
even some of the prints of butterine
failed to weigh up to the figures mark
ed plainly on the packages. He found
that the short gallon kerosene can was
very much in vogue in Kenosha and
that few if any of the storekeepers
were following the rule of the state of
selling everything by weight. He took
an, especial notice of the so-called bot
tomless measures used in Kenosha
stores and declaring none of them fair
to the purchaser he ordered them
thrown out and directed sales by
weight.
"People of Kenosha should not buy
anything that is put up in a package
and labeled certain weight without
weighing it, said the inspector. 81
went into one store and weighed
twenty of these packages and nearly
every one of them was found to be
from one to two ounces short of the
proper weight. I ordered the man to
empty all of these packages and when
left him he was busy making new
packages If people buy articles in
such packages they should weight
very one of them and demand the
proper weight.
That the people may be advised as
to the weight of the various food pro-
ducts Inspector Downing gave out the
following schedule of weights which
prevail under the Wisconsin law: