REPORT DEPUTY STATE SEALER OF WEIGHTS & MEASURES. 139 



I have been interested in this matter of the sealing of weights 

 and measures. I found upon our statute books a strong law, a 

 good law, but it was not in operation. No attention was paid 

 to it. Seven or eight years ago som'e aldermen of the city got 

 scared because on looking up the statute they found the excess- 

 ive penalty attached to the neglect of duty in this matter, and 

 one of the most pleasant things I did when I became mayor, 

 one of my first acts, was to appoint a sealer of weights and 

 measures for the city, under the supervision of the Department 

 of Agriculture. I chose a young man for the work, well quali- 

 fied and willing, and he has done splendid work. I do not 

 believe our weights and measures in this city had been sealed 

 for 25 years. Our young man has gone everywhere until today 

 all the weights and measures have been sealed, and all the milk 

 bottles and cans of the milkmen have been sealed, with possibly 

 one exception. While we expected some opposition, we have 

 found that the merchants have met our sealer in a friendly 

 spirit. The man who does an honest business has no objection 

 to having a sealer come to his store to seal his weights and 

 measures. This is the day of the square deal. We ought to 

 get 16 ounces to a pound. We have a right to know that we 

 are getting correct measure when we pay our money for 

 molasses or any other article of food. This is a great move- 

 ment. I hope it may be extended. Our state ought to take 

 hold of it and the department ought to see to it that the state 

 does take hold of it. I have read a great deal in the magazines 

 in the past few years of the splendid work that the enthusiastic 

 young men have done in the large cities of the land along this 

 line, and I have seen great piles of measures that they have 

 seized and stacked up for destruction. I do not quite know how 

 far Mr. Pennell or Mr. Roberts can go in handling the hawkers, 

 with their false bottoms of measures, false measures and tricky 

 scales. If anything can be done in this city, when summer time 

 comes and they begin to call their wares, it will be done. I 

 believe you cannot appreciate as well as I can the enthusiasm of 

 Mr. Pennell. I have seen him at close range. I know his en- 

 thusiasm in the work. I know how much he has meant to the 

 young man in Augusta who took this job for me. 



There are men who believe that the state should keep hands 

 off from a lot of things. I do not beheve it; I believe it should 



