Evening Star Newspaper, August 16, 1925, Page 73

) ILLUSTRATED FEATURES MAGAZINE SECTION he Swunday Staf FICTION AND HUMOR Part 5—8 Pages WASHINGTON, D. SUNDAY MORNING, AUGUST 16, 1925. Inspectors Take Error Out of D. C. Weights and Measures BY CORGE H. DACY. HE most dynamic and ironclad law ever passed by the Federal legislators in Congress assem- | bled is that piece of legislation which most of us call the “Dis- trict's weights and measures require- ments."” It is a remarkable assemblage of words and phrases, sentences and cluuses, which spell “exit” to dishon- est dealers and which maintain the purchasing power of the consumer’s | money b uring that he will re- celve 100 cents’ worth of full measure | and true quality of goods for each dol- lar he pays out I ere is one man today who is garbed and vested with unlimited au- thority, George M. Roberts, superin- :ndent of the District Department of Measures and Markets, is Supt. Roberts has authority which prohibition enforcement officials long have coveted, for the members of his staff of inspectors are empowered to enter any building or place other than a private residence, in the Dis- trict, in the pursuit of their duties, | and examine and test the contents | as they see fit, without the need of search warrant or other orthodox arm of authority. The law provides that no person shall hinder or molest them. When the Sixty-seventh Congress passed the District’s weights and measures law on March 3, 1921 l!\e‘ new law went into effect on the 3d of | June of the same year—it did not| trifie with any half-w measures, ‘ Short weights, false measures. sharp practices, trade trickeries and various subterfuges which carved away large | from the buyer's dollar got the | gate Mr. Roberts received authority 10 “do his job as it should be done.” Such power was necessary. And toberts, small in inches and avoirdu- pois, but mighty in accomplishing what he attempts, has made a go of a » nighty tough assignment, so that to- { day the city of Washington is a model | in the way it supervises commercial | barter and exchange. The swan song of the rheumatic scale and the funeral | dirge of the cork-cored weight have | been sung in the latitude of the placid | Potomac. "[HE campaign of extermination has not been a drive of gum-shoe spy- ing and merciless prosecution. Rather it has taken the form of an era of education. Don't imagine by this that Supt Roberts has had his assistants tramp around llke a crew of revivalists drumming up supporters for and pra tioners of the District’s best law. \ The rod has not been spared where the rod was needed. Prosecution of those cash-hardened “cheaters” who try to increase their livelihood by unfair practices has been achieved. But, in the main, prosecution has not been| necessary The 1921 law has acted as a bell wether. District merchants have been zoverned by its directing tones since they became familiar with the dulcet melody. If a shortage in weight of only one | ounce per pound, on the retail sales in the District of Columbia, of 11 im- portant food commodities for a single vear were effected by the connivance of dishonest dealers, the profits for these staples would amount to the following amazing sums: Meats, $420, 000; butter and butter substitutes, $275,000; bread, $408,000; coffee, $75 000; sugar, $65,000; potatoes, $90,00 cheese, $24,000; tea, $25,000; rice, § 000; lard, $32,000, and milk—a short- age of one liquid ounce per quart— $120,000. In a word, a scale discrepanc: about 7 per cent would add ex $1,546,000 to the coffers of the deal ers. Through the work of the DI trict’s weight and measures expert: no such losses occur. However, the chances are that large monetary losses, which the consumers paid, were features of our marketing his- tory previous to the inception and en- actment of the law. Every scale, weighing device or allied instrument used in barter and exchange in the District must be tested and “okehed” by the proper authoritles before it can be used in| commerce. Subsequently it is tested | every six months. If it is found de- fective at any time, it is temporarily condemned and put out of offictal commission until it is repaired. If it is found to have been tampered with | or if it is a flagrant violator, it is con- fiscated by the District authorities and smashed ~ into junk or otherw destroyed. The catalogue of the type of scales tested includes practically all varieties from alpha to omega of weighing ~apparatus. For example, there are spring scales, computing scales, counter scales, counter plat-| form scales, platform scales, prescrip- | tion and jewelry and welghts, linear measure: measuring pumps, capacity mea and milk | bottles, avoirdupols weights, abbatoir scales, and wagon and truck scales | in the roster which the District in-| spectors test regularly, and sometimes | even oftener than that. During the last fiscal vear, the six inspectors made 9,748 official visits to Washington business establishments. They called on every class, from the smallest shops to the largest depart-| ment stores and manufacturing plants. ) They also made 1,636 catch-as-catch- | can or syrprise calls—just dropped in unexpectedly to look things over and leave their calling cards when the shop was not all dolled up and looking for company. | The total number of examinations of equipment, including commercial and prescription scales, welghts, ca pacity measures, mechanical fabric measures, linear measures, gasoline | dispensing pumps and similar inspec- tions, aggregated 899.1 Of this number, 891,434 appliances were found in apple-ple order and were ap- proved. Fourteen hundred and ninety others were adjusted before being ap proved, while 7,694 forms of apparatus were condemned. Of the sum total of those condemned. 2,582 were sub- sequently confiscated because of il- legality and were placed where they never again would be able to tell lies about the articles which they weighed or measured Furthermore, * % scales automs 2,957 lahoratory tests | were made of instruments and devices of transient dealers as well as of very delicate appliances which demanded extra care. Yes, indeed, the Depart-| ment of Weights and Measures is | about as busy a center as you will find anywhere in Washington. *x % x AME COLUMBIA must garb her- self surreptitiously in a vast ar- ras of finery if the shopping purchases vaade by some of her representatives are any appropriate criterion by which | 10 judge har wardrobe. You see, the | District, in keeping tab on department store doings, sends out official shop- pers ever and anon. They buy such | yard goods as sheetings, silks, dress| ioods @nd the like. And instead of | scurrying with their purchases to their | home sewing rooms when the deals are completed, they tramp back to the Dis- krict Building, where shey carefully meusure the articles to see that “‘they are all wool and a yard wide.” If short measures of a vicious nature | with each bill of goods when demand- False Weights and Inaccurate Scales Find No Welcome in the District—A Shortage of One Ounce Per Ppund in Washington's Eleven Lead- ing Foods Would Mean an Extra Profit of $1,546,000 for the Dealers»-—Wcights and Measures Law and Its Efficient Enforcement Are Models. Motorists Would Pay $400,000 a Year Extra if Gasoline Pumps Themselves by Failu re to Watch Carefully for Inaccuracies. Testmtj Milk. EottlevCapaqhi T are found among the purchases, the | owner of some particular store fled and brought up on the * to explain such shortages. planation is satisfactory, well and | good. If it does not pass official | scrutiny, he is prosecuted to the full | extent of the law for selling by false| measure. | Many of Washington's leading de- partment stores now use mechanical devices which measure the goods and | simultaneously compute the price. | The salesmanship sleuths test these | forms of apparatus regularly. Some. times they are condemned because of light errors due to particles of cloth which clog up the rollers or because | of loose adjustments or corroded parts. When repaired they are test- | d again and, If satisfactory, are then put back to work. Yardsticks as reg- ulation measures are still used in| many other stores. More than 100 | yardsticks were confiscated in a IWashington store about a year ago because of some slight irregularity. The District law requires that mer- chants give authentic sales tickets | noti- | arpet” | If his ex- | ed by the purchaser. This ticket states the total amount of the pur- chase and states the name and ad- dress of the store. The inspectors have to keep track to sce that all the stores are giving out such sales re- ports to the buyers who deal with them. The inspection service is designed to benefit both the storekeeper and his clientele. By regulating his scales it assures that he gives neither too much nor too little for the money paid. The reader would be surprised at the number of Washington deal- eors who give excessive measure and really cheat themselves instead of the persons to whom they sell mer- | chandise. To aid the merchant in | giving full measure and to protect the buyer against short measure these, in brief, are the District's goals Many grocers and food products venders prepare large quantities of package goods for special sales. In- spectors visit such stores frequently and In the presence of the storekeep. er, using his tested scales, they weigh specimens of these package goods se- lected at random. The dealer is in- formed if he is giving too much or too little per parcel. If the tests show a preponderance of short welghts he is required to give ac- count of such discrepancies. 1If the | evience is that he defrauds the pub- lic by false measures he is prose- cuted. Tab is kept, not only on package goods put up by local deal- ers, but also of imported articles. Protection for the consumers against light-measure purchases is the pur- pose of this systematic campaign. A ERY store in Washington, as well as every translent dealer, is represented in the coplous files of the Department of Weights, Measures and Markets by respective index Jjackets. The mercantile history of each establishment is carefully brief- ed. Tabulated data about the type and testing of the scales, information on the weighing of package goods and all other facts and figures which the District inspectors have collected con- cerning a particular store are included 2] within each envelope. At any time, In a few minutes, Supt. Roberts and bis aides can scru- Made a Mistake of One Quart in Five Gallons—How Some Dealers Cheat | wished to increase their | Columbia As a result, whenever the bakers t earnings they met together and agreed to shave down the weight of the popular size of bread loaves by one to two ounces wplece. This was done without any warning _whatsoever to the buying public. The consumer exchanged his 5 cents for a loaf of bread which vesterday weighed 16 ounces ar which tomorrow might welgh only 14 nces. The only way that he could iscertain the discrepancy was weighing his loaf When the 1921 luw process of construction the Dist: wuthorities saw to t this popul bakery practice was banished fore: Here is the way t veuds: “That the manufactured for exposed for sh avoirdupols, but bread manufactured for sald, exposed for sale in half pound. pound and one and -half, or multiples of one pound, but shall not be manufactured or sold in other than these weights. Every loaf shall have affixed ir conspicuous | place a legible stating the weight of the loaf in pounds or fractions of st of bread sold, offered or District one pour may also b sold, offered es of one ale. label GRORGE M ROBERTS Inspects Confiscate Prescription Scales Exammmg [llegal Vardsticks Weuihmfl Diamouds To Locate Traud T tinize the tradesmanship records of |the case of every five-gallon sale. This | each Washington store. Prosecution records are also maintained. Sullied records are dotted with black mark: ‘The retalling reviews of the honest stores are spotless. Five thousand records of indlvidual stores are filed away in Mr. Robert. archives, as well as 1,500 to 1,800 sim- llar accounts which concern the ac- tivities of hucksters, pushcart ped. dlers, ice and coal venders and other transients who have no permanent | commercial headquarters, One inspector devotes his time ex clusively to the testing and pertific: tion of the many gasoline filling sta- tions in Washington and its District suburbs. His job is a never-ending task, for the consumption of gasoline for motor purposes continues to in- crease in proportion to our mounting | population of gas-propelled vehicles. A conservative estimate on the basis of present consumption is that Dis- trict motorists purchase-40,000,000 gal- lons of gasoline annually. Practically all of this output is retailed in quanti- tles of five gallons or multiples of five gallons. Just let us suppose that a shortage of one quart of gasoline prevailed in is not an extravagant shortage. Many gas pumps have been found that de- |liver such deficits regularly. Anyw: | on the basis of such a shortage, equi |alent to a loss of 5 per cent, the Di: trict motorists would pay yearly $400 000 for automobile fuel which never {ran into their tanks. This but goes | to show how a small error in filling | station pump accuracy may run into {a large sum of money—which the con- sumer has to pay. | All gasoline pumps which fail to sat- isfy the District’s standardized require- ments as to construction and opera- tion are condemned summarily at the time of preliminary test, and their potential use in Columbia land is per- manently prohibited. Pump types that qualify_are okehed and legalized for use. Every half-year they are tested for accuracy, and when the need for s0 doing arises the inspectors visit them even more frequently. Adjustments are made as is neces- sary. . The owners are required to maintain_these pumps in prime condi- | tion, so that they will deliver accurate measure at all times. Furthermore, - jamount to run into the tank | the District service stations of su: tion, or concerning ceived objectionable sumers. The amounts chased are carefully District experts. Dealers who are soline from picious reputa- which it has re reports from con of gas pur measured by the purc make prosecuted apd punished In many cases slight shortages have obtained merely from the carelessness of filling station employes Many of the gasoline | in Washington are of the visi | the being pumped int large | glass cont er at the crown of the pump, where it is visible to the buyer. and whence it flows by gravity into {the tank of his motor car. The bot {tom line of this container and the visi | bility to the purchaser are not identi {cal. " There is a space adequate to hold { one quart of gasoline in some of these | tanks which is located below the visi | ble glass line. Some dealers have wit tingly short-changed the Washington public by shutting off the gas flow in each delivery when the gasoline line {and the glass line coincided. The buy {ers logically have assumed that the termination of the glass container wa | the bottom of the tank. Thus the { dealer. has gained one quart of gaso. line on each five gallons sold. The District inspectors have worked eff clously | fraudulent. practice. | * %k %k ¥ OME dealers have brazenly operat ed on_carelessness of the pur- chasers. Many motorists stop at a pump and order a charge of gasoline without ever paying any attention to found to a used type. pumps ble {five gallons. The dishonest operator will sometimes set the pump to deliver four gallons. He will allow this shut off |the control lever and give you your {change. He may make one gallon of {gas on every five that you order—un- less you watch him carefully and check his activities. If you question him, he will say: “Well, 'm certainly sorry that the | mistake oceurred. I thought you led for four gallons instead of five." | But you will find that he rarely ever charges you for four gallons instead jof five, and slips the mistake to the opposite side of the ledger. To illustrate the rank carelessness, which may mount into considerable | money, consider the case of a certain service station. On five different occa- sions the District cars purchased five- gallon orders of gas of this retailer. The first was 7 ounces to five gal- lons, -the second 9% ounces to five gallons, the third 8 ounces, the fourth 13 ounces and the last 42 ounces. detecting and controlling this | Previous tests had shown the deliv of too much gasoline to each order That was all that saved the owner from prosecution. The case was fer reted down and the trouble was found to obtain from the sheer carelessnes of the gasoline and oil salesmen, who handled the pumps Mr. Roberts believes prietors of fill responsible in law sold by their em that the pro stations should be for short measure ployves. He says that if the courts will in him in this contention he will be able practically to stop the practice in the District In practically the - prosecuted cases, the hired employes and not the owners of the stetions were the guilty parties. The custom which certain |street-car conductors have long follow fed, of “knocking-down” a certain ratio of the daily fares. has also extended {to the gasilling stations. The cen. “ral company hires a man to run one {of its branch stations. He is respon !sible to the management only for the |gas and ofl which he buys daily His responsibility to the purchasing public !is largely his personal concern | By not draining the pump hose, he |cansave about one quart of gasoline lon each five-gallon sale. He may |“hog™ all such profits personally, or else he may split the surplus over legitimate sales with his helpers. | It will profit District motorists to watch for gas - stations that serve short measure. Report such violations of ethical dealing to the Department |of Weights, Measures and Markets, | The inspection force is doing its level best to run all gasoline transgressors to earth. You can aid in the cam | paign reporting suspicious case: | Washington uses approximately 30, 1 all the amount which is delivered into|000,000 quarts of milk each vear. This | their tanks. Say that the order is for |liquid food is marketed in glass con- | | tainers trict_offi f nother function of the Dis. ials is to ascertain that no udulent-sized bottles are used The entire milk supply is sold in bottles of one quart or less. In one a certain dealer began to sell {milk in one-third quart bottles, which {looked as though their capacity was {one pint. Mr. Roberts and his in- ‘Snevlhin force discovered the short |containers, and ordered the dealer to |discontinue their use and to destroy all bottles on hand. | Most_of the Washir !have shown the desire to co-operate with the department. They aim to serve sanitary, full- measure milk and cream for your use. * k% x HE legalization of standardized weights for bread loaves in the District was a_Kingpin toss which knocked inflated bakery profits into a sort of cocked hat. .The former weights and measures law, which was legalized in 1896, did not Testrict the size of the loaf of bread by weight. ton dairymen pound, whether the loaf is st | or not he business dress of the also m whene must demon loaf o cent i deeme Ples ulent practice commuonly - » push car peddlers. For truth visu District meth, seek out the licated trickeries de successful business e You would be surprised purch det highls tablishments to find tha the ind ifle, so that fide unde h are not oadest aspects el ied and still legal requiren full measure in of the defi rey qualif the b Washington flrms tomers. The nethods and harp practices is the exception here rather than the rule. The abatement of these fonable practices is n one of the end points tow d which the District inspectors are aiming Intricate systems of cheating have eplaced the old-time methods. Ex perts who foster post-graduate crookery in rchandizing are politel. called “business strategists.” To clude even the weight of the pap in which the goods are wrapped is il {legal in figuring the salable weight, yet a few Washington dealers have ever attempted this deception to gain an extra dollar or two income each day | One § ation a refined prac | tice of unfair dealing is where price cards, including fractions of cents are displayed. or ere the prices quoted include such fractions. Afte the customer has made a selection the salesman will place the commod ity on a scale and very quickly will announce a total price in excess of the proper amount for the weight de livered. The fractions and odd cents readily confuse the ordinary purchase: who attemipts in his head to caleu late the quantity nd amount Be. cause of this confusion, i se of doubt of the cotrectness of a trans action, the tomer often hesitates to question the salesman's arithmetical accuracy. An uneducated person often unable even to make the calcu lation. Four salesmen were prose cuted and three convicted in one day in a certain Washington store for at tempting such falsification * 'OMPLAINTS from purchasers who had bought stones which are underweight led to a valuable preclous areful study ¢ It very @ few jewelry that ambiguous statements their and talk. They frain from making a definite statement about the exact weight of certain They would say that the weighed “about one karat” or “about onehalf a karat.” uch methods will mislead the ordi | nary buyer. Notwithstanding, it is probable that an action for false weight subsequent any such pur chase would not maintained. Tt ifying to emphasize that the majority of local jewelers frown upor such methods and are exerting every effort to free their trade of such black shops was dealers in found some use advertising selling would r diamonds. stones be those who nuntber at oper the following data the information of interested in the exact of business establishments t ate in the District are offered. - They ave authentic and are the latest available statistics of this character which have been tabu lated. Stores handling groceries and similar foods, 1,961: meats and poul- 335; fruits and vegetables, 204 and bakery products, 140; nts and hotels, 127; hardware dry goods and department stores. druggists, wholesale and retail 1238, garages and gasoline stations, 406} automobile supplies, 22; delic: tessen and confectioners, 393: fish and other sea foods, 74; dairies and dairy products, 70; transportation and utility companies, 33; coffees and teas, 11; fuel land ice, 139: flour and feed, 23: house | furnishings, 46; building materials and | contractors, 14; hospitals, §; ice manu facture and cold storage, 17; paper, publishing and stationery, 24; junk, 31 |leather and leather goods, 13; Govern | ment departments or divisions, 85; and | miscellaneous establishments. 116 { The District transient venders include 1397 fuel and ice dealers; fruits and | vegetables, 441; miscellaneous farm products, 116; junk, §2; meats and poultry, 15; gasoline and ofls, 11; and miscellaneous commodities, $4. The District rule which provides that ice venders weigh the different blocks of fce at the time of delivery {has proven invaluable in preventing | short weights. The enforcement of | branch of the welghts and meas- | u aw has been extremely difficult, | because of the large number of deal | ers who ‘handle ice. The general | tendency of many of these is to guess jat the welght of the blocks of frozen | water which they place in vour ice box. During the last year, a pro- nounced improvement has been ap parent in all sections of the Di: |in accuracy of ice weights. |ers can aid by checking up on the | dealer’s deliveries at frequent inter- i vals. i While Mr. Roberts is clothed by law | with great authority, he is careful never to abuse it. The dutles of his office are performed in a quiet, courte- ous and dignified way. He is a firm bellever in the doctrine that broad authority carries with it great re- sponsibility, and that the official who does not know enough not to abuse authority should not be vested with it | | |