The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-08-17
CITY GIVES A DON'T"
LIST TO HOUSEWIVES
Tips on How to Buy During War
Price Flight and Not
Be Cheated.
SOME FAIR DEALERS FOUND
Inspectors TO Be at the Markets
To-day to Assist shoppers
in Purchasing.

Commissioner OF Weights and Measures
Hartigan making tour Of the CHEAP
market and push cart districts on Satur.
day night learned tina, the great body
OF people who live on the boundary be.
tween sufflciercy and poverty are bray
Ing che sudden rise in the price OF food.
stuus slrewdly, and he found many deal.
ers who are doing their part to ease the
situation
He learned that the Hebrew Grocers
Also 'iation, composed Of 5000 retail dcal-
ers on the East Side. have accumulated
fund from which sugar will he bourh,
and distributed among the members In
way that wilt enable them TO keen
prices down. Mr. IIartlgan has advised
the Retail Groccrs Association. which has
5000 members, to raise a fund OF s25. 900
TO buy sugar In the hope that In large
quantities 1t can be bought and sold at
reasonable price. In many places Wis
ited he found that Is cents IL being
charged for 3i5 pounds OF sugar. where
two weeks ago the same amount was cell.
ing for Is cents At one store In Thonn-
son street sugar was being sold for i
cents and the groceryman told Nj. Hart-
gan that he would not raise the price un.
III his two weeks supply Is exhausted.
groco ryman at 2oI First avenue said
he paid s725 for hundred pounds of
sugar and was selling It at 7 GEMS a
pound. He has qul, selling macaroni. FOR
the reason that tho wholesale price fo-
% pound box has been raised from s.. al
to 81 In the last week
All vegetables and fruits are being sold
cheaply by the pushcart men and in the
markets.. Potatoes can Ice had at thre-.
pounds Tor hNe cents. Green peas are SELL
ing quarts for cents. Lettuce il
cent for two small heads tomatoes sell
cents a dozen, and apples and near,
sell four for cents. These prices Mr.
lIartighn said. indicate thai the poor can
se' fopd 'hcapIJ II they will exercise care
IN buying It.
paying 40 attention to tho law r, nnIrinr
them TO mark the weights of foods sold
~ pdc,dEeS and TO mark the weights OF
hour. bread and sugar when they are
S"'d IN certain quantities. Five women
lhsp' vtorS are now making purchases
from dealers violating this law and the
result OF their Investigation will be laid
bfore the Mayors committee to-day and
tomorrow.
Another thing that butchers and
grocerymen are doing in violation OF the
l"" - Weighing meats and other foods in
Idp'I or wooden roccptacles Nine
butchers who were found doing this told
Nj HartiGan IN extenuation that their
receipts had dropped of about s25 a
week since the rise In prices began.
In view OF these discoveries Mr. Har,i-
gan listed number of don is" for house.
wives, He urged them not to let the
butcher weigh paper TO see that he does
not touch the computing scale with his
body. not to let anything be weighed in
wooden dishes not to talk to the butcher
~h'.' he is Weighing, but 20 keep the
eye on the scale not 10 buy otherwise
than by weight and measure, In other
words to he guarded always when maxi
Ing purchases and insist on not being
cheated.
one OF the difficulties in the way is
the complsxity OF the computing scale
now used by most dealers II is deli.
cately adjusted and the majority OF buy
ers do not understand II. These facts
have led TO plan to establish instruction
In the public schools on this subject
beginning this fall there will be courses In
the reading Of these scales and in buy
ing. Five retired butchers and Ave re-
tired grocers have volunteered to act as
instructors and the policy OF such in
struction Is supported by the fact that In
a great many households the boy and
girl at school are the familys bureau
OF information and that one half the
purchases of foodstuffs are made by chill
drcn sent to the stores.
Beginning to-day the Bureau OF Weights
and Measures will have an inspector sta
toned at each OF the big markets to
watch the fuctuation OF prices. Daily
reports will be made and wherever pos
sible the inspectors will assist buyers In
getting foods NJ reasonable prices