Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 84.djvu/372

368 large number of states introduced legislation of some sort but were unsuccessful in enacting tbem into laws. In a number of these states the idea was new and the bills did not receive sufficient consideration on that account. In others they failed through lack of time at the end of the legislative session, or for other reasons.

There is another phase of the subject that has not been touched upon that is perhaps more important than the supervision of the weighing and measuring apparatus of the tradesman, because of the fact that the amount involved in any transaction is not stated, and that is the sale of goods in sealed packages without any statement as to the quantity in the package.

Prior to the passage of the Food and Drugs Act, it was customary to mark such packages with some whole number of pounds or ounces. Most readers remember the two-pound packages of cereals, and the three and five-pound cans of lard extensively advertised and sold some years ago. It is possible that the weights marked upon them were originally correct, but it is certain that they were not so in 1906, when the Food and Drugs Act went into operation, because the packers immediately stopped marking such packages, on account of the provision in that act which requires that if any weight or measure be stamped upon any package it must be the correct weight or measure. The influences behind the Food and Drugs Bill attempted to have this section read so that the correct weight or measure of the contents should be stamped upon the outside of the packages, but the packers had enough influence to have it modified. The result was that the packer was at liberty to reduce the size of his package as often as he deemed it advisable, and without the knowledge of the purchaser; and this has been done in numerous instances.

The passage of laws by a number of the states, requiring the marking of the net weight, measure or numerical count upon the outside of articles put up in sealed packages, and the delegation of authority by such laws to state officials to promulgate rules and regulations concerning the enforcement of the laws soon convinced the manufacturers and packers that it would be much better to comply with the terms of a national law than to attempt to meet the demands of a number of state laws, which would not only present a multiplicity of regulations but would undoubtedly be conflicting in some instances. Accordingly when the Gould bill was introduced in Congress to amend the Food and Drugs Act so as to require the net weight, measure or numerical count to be plainly and conspicuously marked on the outside of food packages there was not sufficient opposition to prevent its passage, and after some changes it became a law March 3, 1913, and was one of the last acts signed by President Taft.

Aside from the weights and measures provision contained in the Food and Drugs Act, the amendment of March 3 is the second and most important step taken by Congress to exercise authority over weights and