160 Urdahl—The Present Fee System in the United States. 
D. INSPECTION OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 
The sealers of weights and measures as state and local officials, 
have tended to disappear. The reason, which has been elabor¬ 
ated in preceding chapters, is the gradual cheapening and con¬ 
sequent diffusion of instruments of measurement among the 
people, so that nearly every one possesses the means of testing 
the accuracy of his dealer’s measurements. As a matter of 
fact, town-weighers are still, as a rule, subject to some regula¬ 
tions. Some cities still have public measurers of wood, and 
weighers of hay and grain; 1 and others provide for a compul - 
sory weighing and measuring of coal 2 and other articles. But, 
in general, the accuracy of weights and measures can be left to 
the self-interest of buyers and sellers to secure. There are two 
exceptions, however: first, in the case of imports and the pay¬ 
ment of customs duties; and second, in the gauging and measur¬ 
ing of liquors for the collection of the excise tax. In both 
cases Congress has enacted stringent regulations, but in only 
the first instance is a fee paid for the services performed. The 
nationalizing tendencies which the railways exerted on exports, 
led to the abolition of state export inspection laws; but inter¬ 
national commercial relations have necessitated federal export 
regulations, 3 which are in many respects similar to the old state 
inspections, except that no fees are collected from the exporter 
for the services of the inspector. 
E. MISCELLANEOUS. 
There are, furthermore, a large number of local or semi-local 
regulations involving fee payments, which are not enacted for 
protection either to consumer or producer; nor for police regu¬ 
lation. Some of them may be said to resemble the early ex¬ 
port inspections, in that they tend to preserve and protect 
some special local industry. Examples of this kind may be 
mentioned: the produce inspection law in Ohio; the law of Ore- 
1 Minneapolis, Minn. 
2 Philadelphia, Pa. 
* The refusal of foreign countries to take our uninspected pork and meat 
has forced Congress to require its inspection. 
