WEIGHTS AND MEASURES 353 



signed to decrease the effectiveness of the law. At a conference the sen- 

 ate refused to concur in the amendments and on account of the lack of 

 time the bill failed of passage. Ten thousand copies of the reports of 

 the Bureau of Standards, showing the necessity of inspection service 

 and the extremely bad conditions existing were printed by the senate 

 and with this assistance the bill became a law at the next session of the 

 legislature. 



There was also passed a net container law applicable " to food-stuffs 

 and stuffs intended to be used or prepared for use as food for human be- 

 ings " and " to any commodity intended to be eaten or drunk by human 

 beings " ; but it does not apply to commodities intended to be used solely 

 for medicinal purposes or to a quantity of a commodity that is sold for 

 less than eleven cents at retail. The act contains several provisions con- 

 cerning the manner of marking the net weight, measure or numerical 

 count, and fixes a minimum penalty for violation of $25 and a maximum 

 of $500. 



Colorado passed four laws on the subject of weights and measures at 

 the 1913 session of its legislature, prior to which this subject had been a 

 dead letter in Colorado for nearly a score of years. One of these laws 

 gives the Public Utilities Commission power to examine and test all 

 water, gas and electric meters; another requires persons or corporations 

 engaged in business of mining and selling by weight to keep constantly 

 on hand the necessary apparatus to correctly weigh their product, and 

 provides for the annual inspection of such apparatus and makes further 

 provision for the proper weighing of coal mined in the state; a third 

 law requires that oleomargarine be put up in print form of one half, 

 one, two, three, and five pound prints and in no other larger or small 

 subdivisions, and sets forth other restrictions regarding the marking of 

 the weight; and the fourth law provides against the false reading or 

 manipulation of the Babcock test for milk and cream. 



Connecticut passed a most excellent law including nearly all the 

 provisions recommended by the conference for general legislation, and 

 also requiring the net contents to be stamped on the outside of all origi- 

 nal containers of food. 



Delaware passed two laws ; one requiring that a standard ton of coal 

 shall consist of 2,240 pounds and providing a heavy penalty for viola- 

 tion, and the other law specifies standard cups, hampers, baskets, barrels, 

 etc., to be used in shipping berries, fruit and produce. The latter law is 

 not mandatory, but permits the use of other size containers when prop- 

 erly marked with the amount that they contain. 



Florida failed to pass any general legislation requiring inspection 

 service, but this state distinguished itself by amending its pure food 

 law so as to require that the net contents of all original packages should 

 be "conspicuously, legibly, and correctly stated" in terms of weight 

 or measure, on the outside of each package. 



