HOW THE CONSUMER IS CHEATED
Hubbard, Henry D.
How the Consumer is Cheated By HENRY D. HUBBARD Secretary, Na 1 ional Flu re an of Standards THE ULTIMATE CONSUMER is just awakening to the high cost of living. Among the many causes which affect...
...that the shortage on flour often pays for the milling...
...The steps suggested above can be taken easily and at once and if taken they would tune up the moral tone of every-day trade in ways unsuspected...
...Mann, whose national pure food law has done so much for the consumer, has already introduced into Congress an amendment to this measure requiring the quantity label...
...The money part of the transaction is checked to a cent but the buyer who haggles over the penny will overlook a shortage of ten per cent, in quantity...
...Home weighing, however, tells the story and the results are apt to be startling...
...A sealer's office must be out of politics...
...A new law enacted there* exiled the condemned jars to a state where no law existed...
...that.is something...
...that in some places meat is sold by butchers' salesmen at the same price as they pay for it, the profit being made from short weight...
...A rise in the price per pound, however unwelcome, misleads no one,—but a decrease in the ounces per pound is not noticed by one family in a hundred,—so that short measure is more treacherous than a frank raise of prices,—in fact often subtly conceals extoition...
...In working for an efficient inspection service, you can count upon the cooperation of every honest merchant in town...
...Under an ideal service, a dealer would not dare givf short measure to his most unsuspecting customer...
...Such a practice is dishonest even if not illegal...
...But the start is made...
...This integrates all factors which affect the net weight of a purchase...
...The blame for the unlabeled package now lies directly with the consumer and as long as he consents to go it blind when buying, he need not be surprised if he has to pay panic prices in times of peace...
...The sealer may be underpaid...
...For instance, a 1-pound package when systematic short-weighting is detected, is then called a No, 1 package, tempting the local salesman to sell the near-pound as a full pound,—a common trick wherever a quantity label law protects the consumer from the fraud direct...
...If not, there is a reason, and it is apt to be the fault of the citizens...
...The sealers pointedly argue the necessity of a national law for such cases...
...He does not weigh his package...
...The weights and measures of the market are the oldest...
...This requires in advance, some knowledge, which may easily be obtained, as to the duties of a sealer, a proper salary, method of appointment, and details of an efficient service...
...A short time ago but few states were interested, in most of them a good inspection service is still lacking, and only in five or six is it effective...
...Perhaps the town sealer is inactive...
...Many of these sharp practices are not amenable to the law, which follows tardily the knowledge of the fraud...
...Until this obtains, the consumer must fight his own battle and home weighing is the final word in successful single-handed tactics...
...How the National Bureau is Helping THE ANNUAL conference of state superinfendents of weights and measures was recently held at Washington,—a conference which responds to the demand from the states for federal cooperation in the technical side cf the inspection service and in other ways...
...Secure Law for Quantity Label THIRD,—This is an era of package goods,—unfortunately of the non-standard package, sealed from inspection...
...A series of pertinent cr:estions might have a telling effect...
...Weigh Your Purchases FIRST,— Recent investigations show that the most important thing at the present time is to weigh and measure up purchases and package goods at home,—for this is the ultimate test of the efficiency of an inspection service...
...I believe in the honesty of purpose of the average man, but it should not be made too easy to defraud or too hard to be honest,—-a condition which lack of inspection fosters...
...that lu Nome places meat Is sold by butchers' salesmen at the same price as they pay for it, the profit being made from Nitoit weight...
...but to protect the public in buying, legislatures and congress should be petitioned to require that the net contents of all goods in packages be clearly printed on the label in units of weight, measure, or count...
...He needs to be told what is expected of him...
...The consumer often pays for paper bags at .the price of tea, for wooden butter trays at butter prices, and for pasteboard at the price of crackers...
...It may surprise many to know that 13-ounce packages of butter are often sold at pound prices, though there is little if any evaporation...
...As the women are usually directly concerned with the serious cut which short measure makts in the family income, several steps are suggested by which they may aid the powerful movement for full weight and measures now sweeping over the country...
...to include measures of heat, light, electricity, and other products, winch are bought and sold as truly as groceries, and for which the standards must be accurate...
...Happily, however, the crusade for a higher standard of honesty in the sale of household necessities is under way, and has gained a good headway...
...Perhaps he is overworked...
...Backed by the consumers of the town, he will take a keen pride in his work...
...Resolutions to your representatives -\ would aid them in securing the^ quantity labels on package goods for which the demand is so urgent...
...Women do most of the buying but usually scrutinize the ncminal price and ignore the fact that a dealer may deceive with a low price and rob from the basket what he saves to the purse...
...that the shortage on flour often pays for the milling...
...The dishonest dealer can cheat with honest weight, he can throw his balance out of adjustment before the sealer has left the store on his annual inspection, he may divert with a false show of down weight, he may use a magnet under the beam, short-stack his weights, dent his measures, or a score of other tricks showing much ingenuity,—but no fraud or carelessness which he may practice can escape detection by home weighing...
...S. W. Stratton who presided, as director of the Bureau of Standards, has done much to make precise standards of all kinds available in commerce, trade, science, and manufacturing...
...He may do neither unless he sees the handwriting on the wall and your Committee could furnish this...
...that bread weight is usually subnormal...
...He should have enough assistance to cover the town thoroughly...
...Perhaps the short bottles are coming your way...
...Then something indeed needs to be done, —for the sealer must be foot-loose,—free, if need be to round up the mayor's own coal-yard employees...
...Perhaps your sealer is in politics...
...become habitual and Is paid unsuspectingly for the smaller quantity...
...Cranberries, benns, and other dry commodities are ofteu sold by the liquid quart Instead of by the dry quart,—>a shorts'ge of 20 per cent...
...Here the women's committee can quickly raise the standard and the scaler must be told that he will do his duty or resign...
...The town, how-' ever, should pay for the service...
...Does your sealer do this...
...uml Mr...
...He will do more...
...One hundred thousand short measure milk jars, condemned in one state for shortage, weie sent td another state where lax laws prevailed...
...But this is not all...
...Among the many causes which affect the net cost to the ultimate buyer, who is usually the housewife, it is not surprising that one important factor has been overlooked...
...It is astounding how much food is bought where the buyer does not know how much he is paying for...
...At least they are cn the move...
...In the latter case, the sealer should be notified, and the dealer must make good the deficit...
...A good inspector is worth while, and should have all his time for the work, except in the smaller places...
...By always keeping ahead of actual enactments, dishonesty collects a constant toll usually from the more unsuspecting citizens...
...Yet without a sealer, the buyer is helpless in the hands of those to ' whom short measure is a source of gam, Few can detect such fraud and without inspected weights and a sealer, the average buyer could not prove his- case in court...
...Cranberries, beans, and other dry commodities are often sold by the liquid quart instead of by the dry quart;—a shortage of 20 per cent...
...A distinction is to be made between carelessness-, which may result either in over or underweight and the cases where short weighing is habitual...
...The national Government many years ago lurniched all the states with standards of the metric and customary weights and measure?.—but the application of these to daily trade has been slow and desultory until recently...
...It is bad enough to keep watch of goods by weight,—but the unlabeled package reduces what should be a two-sided bargain to something like a lottery or a hold-up...
...Look out for the number system...
...With short measure the price current becomes a fraud...
...He trusts his assumption mainly because he lacks means to test its accuracy...
...Millions Lost by Short Measure INVESTIGATIONS by the Bureau of Standards show that the consumers of this country lose millions a year by short measure...
...The housewives, who come directly in touch with the markets, and who do most of the buying, do not get full measure,—and the question is up to them in large measure...
...Ultimate Conn inner are Interested In "eights and meiiMiircH.—A neglected factor In the high coitt of living._ More than $100,000,000 a year taken from the iimasewtveH by means of jthort "eights and abbreviated measures.—What is to he done about ttr spread, knows no boundaries but touches the private purse of all and endangers the success of honest merchants...
...In the two states which maintain the best inspection the officers estimate the ehort weight as in excess of $20,000,000 each...
...In short, an efficient sealer is essential to justice in daily trade and will be its alert conscience...
...This may require legislation.—all the more reason for activity...
...There is nothing to be hurt but dishonesty, which must step aside before the new crusade...
...He has everything to gain and nothing to lose by it...
...that bread weight is usually subnormal...
...Package goods are handy, ready-wrapped, sanitary, and are here to stay...
...For this much, credit is due to the pioneer in federal cooperation, Mr...
...Secretary Hubbard of the National Bureau of Standards...
...Pound for pound, package goods cost a third to a half more than bulk goods...
...Indifference In n subsidy to fraud, for abort measure In an easy Nonrce of profit (o a dishonest dealer...
...That price has unfortunately "Tiie consumers of thin country lose million* a year by short measure...
...Indifference is a subsidy to fraud, for short measure is an easy source of profit to a dishonest dealer...
...For weighing up meats and other cut commodities, the dealer should be asked to include the trimmings...
...The awakening public conscience finds in this not a cause for pessimism but a means of quickening the moral sense of the people which will extend to quality, price, wages, and every factor in which social efficiency is short of ideal...
...He will in season and out of season weigh up purchases, and will see that full weight and measure are given the buyer...
...Such a committee could stir things up in a few weeks so that they would not settle down until they were settled right—that is by providing a modern inspection service to protect the consumer...
...A hundred million dollars a year would be a low estimate of the loss to the consumers through dishonest and careless shortage in weights and measures...
...For a given quality of commodity, two factors fix the cost,—the money paid and the quantity received,—the standard of quantity being as vital as the standard of money...
...Home weighing, however effective, is only a temporary expedient until an efficient inspection service is established in the town, and which will relieve the public from the ugly suspicion which current trade practice forces it to maintain when marketing...
...Kjeliander with twenty sealers, hardly enough, has stirred the town and is fast making Chicago a safe place to go marketing...
...These may be of value and are needed to check the weight...
...He will investigate any complaint of short weight or sharp practrce filed by any citizen and upon evidence which he should gather, prosecute (not persecute) promptly and vigorously...
...The buyer counts his change...
...One inspector reported a shortage of 25 per cent, in ice cream boxes from four cities...
...It may surprise many to knon that 13-ounce packages of butler are often sold at pound prices, though there In little if any evaporation...
...In modern times the scope of weights and measures broadens...
...Because he asks for a pound and pays for a pound, he accepts it without question as a true pound...
...Large food companies deceive the public by reducing a standard weight package by several ounces, removing the net weight from the label, and selling often at the old price...
...The Constitution empowers Congress to "fix the standards of weights and measures" and the National Bureau of Standards was established to cany this prevision into effect...
...Here is a g od touchstone,— if any one refuses his support,—there's a reason...
...The buyer's right to know the net quantity is as inviolable as his right to know the price—they are equally important,—otherwise relative prices mean nothing and extortion is easy...
...Too often nothing is expected of him and he does it...
...Clearly laws are needed, for short measure as a business practice is deepseated and wideWhy Mr...
...The poor of New York City buy coal by the sack,—at a high rate,— but even at the excessive sack rate the inspectors found a thousand cases in a single week where the shortage averaged 24^ pounds on each 100-pound sack...
...Another subtle practice is to change the standard weight packages to the number system...
...He will examine every trade weight and measure in the town frequently, seal them if correct, condemn them if defective...
...Many stater have no seller...
...A new movement is under way, a practical one, for which the remedy is at hand, upon which public opinion is united, and for which the outlook is promising...
...Our coinage is simple, readily inspected, and difficult to debase,—but trade weights and measures are complex, easily damaged and misused, and detection is difficult, hence counterfeiting is raie while short measure is epidemic...
...Demand Honest Inspection SECOND, —Excellent work can be done by a women's committee on "honest weights and measures," which sh'iuld visit the mayor and the town sealer, if such an officer exists, to study the inspection service and examine the written records of the service...
...The almost revolutionary effect of the new interest women are taking in civic affairs makes it certain that if they demand honest weights and measures they will get them...
...L. A. Fischer, chief of the division of weights and measures, whos*» connection with the work antedates the Bureau, and to whom the present activity is so largely due...
...One Inspector reported a shortage of 25 per cent...
...In ice cream boxes from four cities...
...The short history of the Bureau since its founding in 1901 is full of interest, for its work affects every family daily and directly in many ways, which cannot however be enumerated here...
...A report of your home weighings sent to the mayor, published in the papers, distributed as a printed leaflet would bring results...
...Whether from carelessness or dishonesty, however, short measure is as much a loss to the buyer as short change...
...Excellent scales and measures for this purpose may be secured for two or three dollars and will earn good dividends...
...In Chicago, Mr...
...The consumer often pays for paper bags at the price of tea, for wooden butler trays at butter prices, and for pasteboard at the price of crackers...
Vol. 2 • March 1910 • No. 12
