RTilH'RT OF THE COMMISSION'ER. IJ 



As far as the laws go, we ought to have more here in Maine. 

 At present there is no law on the statute books in Maine which 

 prevents the giving of short weight. There are laws in regard 

 to tlie use of false scales but if a man gets short weight now 

 the only charge he can make against the dealer is for larceny. 

 You can see by the amount of apparatus that has been collected 

 here in the city of Portland that there is some necessity for 

 these laws. There are quite a number of people, food pro- 

 ducers and farmers, that are looking towards national legisla- 

 tion on this matter. The food producers are going to Congress 

 either this next session or the session after that, to ask for 

 uniform legislation in regard to packages. There are eight 

 states now in the Union that require the placing of weight, 

 measure and count on all packages of food stufts. There is a 

 good deal of necessity for that legislation. Take for instance, 

 cereals. At one time we had a pretty fair package of these. 

 I will cite one case in which one of the large cereal manufact- 

 urers formerly put out a package containing two pounds of 

 rolled oats. At dilTerent times that package has been cut down, 

 until now it holds only i 1-4 pounds. It sells for the same 

 price as formerly, but the weight has been taken ofif. The pres- 

 ent trend is to make the packages as small as possible and 

 eliminate the weighing when it can be done. In this way we 

 have bacon put up in glass jars, at a price of 58 cents a pound. 

 We have puffed rice, at 33 cents a pound in packages, and dried 

 beef sold for t8 cents a pound. We have crackers put up in 

 packages, common soda crackers, at 15 cents a pound, and in 

 bulk practically the same thing could be bought for 7 or 8 cents. 

 It shows that the manufacturers are putting these articles up 

 in package form for the purpose of deceiving the public. It is 

 only a short time ago that they started putting vinegar and 

 molasses into bottles. There was a time when if you wanted a 

 quart of vinegar or molasses the dealer drew it out in a quart 

 measure, but now he generally takes a bottle down from the 

 shelf, and there are usually six to a gallon. He hands one of 

 these bottles to you for a quart. That is the way the food 

 stuffs are going now. To prevent that, eight states have passed 

 laws requiring that the amount contained in the container shall 

 be placed on the outside. Most of these states have different 

 laws on the matter and a state of general confusion prevails. 



