Show THE SHORT WEIGHT DEALERS A coal dealer of ef this city has ha had bad displayed in front of his place of ef bubie now a placard reading 1800 pounds pound of screened coal and 2000 pounds pound of unscreened coal for foi ton 5 A aahl silver men in the east declare that the government has hai issued an 88 ent silver ilter dollar io keep company with the fuel measure or bent gald dollar ane and some even eren go K so BO far or so 10 shot short t to put it down to 69 cents thus pointing out at ahat h t an utter fraud it is to foist upon the hi people in the be name of a dollar that does doea not anwer the dictionary requirement of containing cents and so BO it would be a fraud if it were true but the gov has haa done nothing of ef the kind it has declared deola redi as it has the authority to do how much gold and how much silver larer the dollar shall hall contain eon tain and if one la in a fraudulent measure the other by j parity of reasoning can also be so BO called with just as much propriety but it wax was of coal we began speaking A ton ten as ai the term is i wed in this country is i 2000 pounds dounda of anything more mere than that is more than a ton on and lose leai Is i but a fraction of a ton ten it if a man sells sell a ton of eoal coal or any thing else and given but 1800 pounds his measure is pounds short and unless union he reduces reduce his prices to correspond with the shortness heitnen hert short nen nesi he simply robs his customer out of so much money as la in represented by the shortage that to in one tenth of the whole sum paid that Is ii a trilling trifling matter some one may say may fifty any cents or er even seventy five alve in a deal in not worth haggling bagg liag over in ii it not net if not worth consideration if pot not of sufficient importance to figure on why does doe the dealer take it he evidently thinks otherwise or he would not commit the sin to put it very mildly of selling elling a man one no thing thief and giving him another of lew less value oh but that is different the superlatively charitable and excessively car eltse may say it amounts to something to the dealer because small mall amounts in the way of profits are the same to him as to a storekeeper aggregated they make his living ap just juit so the small profits are what all our enter prices great and otherwise depend upon but whenever we find one depending upon its small thefts for a living it to is time to jump on it with both feet and the hardest kind of shoes going out the dishonesty spoken of does not seem to te figure so highly because it to distributed throughout the community and the amount which each has to pay day is in not so great as to incite to serious beriou 8 trouble but coming in it represents in n the aggregate large sums SUBS every day being just so mush much added illegitimately to a business that has not net even the poor excuse of doing badly in a financial way to offer in justification it Is will probably be claimed that the now new arrangement 1800 pounds for a ton on being duly advertised the cus cue tomer is not taken advantage of in any way since he to made fully aware before purchasing pur chasta of just what he be to is getting and if he takes taken the goods at th the a figures demanded he impliedly if not actually consents to the deal and thus does dees as aa much toward making the bargain on OB the terms proposed as does doea the one from whom he buys this would be an excellent argument for the defense in a criminal action founded upon such a case can as an is spoken of it if the all around were normal but they are not those who engage in the business of retailing coal in this eity city have a monopoly compared with which we have to go ge back to the days when there was but one telegraph wire or later one railway line 11 ae across the continent and aad we wb could patronize it or any other method we chose it will be observed that we thus bad our oar choice even then the coal men not being on a footing with other merchants because of the railroads being willing to haul haal goods for the latter on competitive terms have the game entirely ea in their own owa hands if one dealers terms do not suit you you can go to another any of them will tell you that but why waste time in going there only to be con fronted by the other doromio to re belve the same greeting same terms same treatment you must have the coal and so se far as an the outcome goner gener ally is concerned might as aa well close a transaction with the first one oae you come to as the lost last certainly the fact that the terms upon which you deal with the he seller were imparted to you beforehand disarms any charge of u you might be disposed to make and having assented you have no right to complaint complain Is this not logical reasonable roa comforting and conclusive it la a proper at all times to be just and right here lot let us be just to the rall rail roads they have placed us within the constricting folds of a monopoly and we can submit to its ito embrace or go cold but in the midst of all this we believe they unload 2000 pounds for a ton and if they do not they ean can be reached by legal process so far as ae heard from they have not yet attempted a revision of the standard arithmetic by making anything less than 2000 pounds a ton and no one in any age or at any place ever knew them to try to make it any more than that those who deal with them and then with us however are more venturesome or enterprising it if the they prefer r efer that word through their mutual at relations the profits to both are so enormous that there Is in not the slightest excuse for adding anything in the way spoken of but yet it to is done right soong ong it has been done all the time agid anally the press make the situation ib so warm arm that our oar alleged guardians at the city hau hall are compelled to pw pay attention and then cornea comes the announcement that it if you want something that will burn oil all the way through you must take ton ten pet r dent low lew than what you pay for mat what an improvement I 1 what an honorable aIdI audition tion to profits which previously doly amounted almost to petit ya larce the leaven is working at last that is some comfort the absence abs ertee of competition to is a con condolon dUlon in which we hope never to be found again after this year is gone cone we look forward to a t time ime in the immediate future when fairness fal rut will characterize the traffic in fuel the same as it does other branches of business in our midst and when that time cornea comes the citizens will pay not to exceed three dollars for a full honest ton of coal unmixed with dirt or other B x substance that is not combustible then those who cannot or will not deal fairly with consumers will certainly not dot advertise the fact indeed they will not be likely to have anything to vertlee ad long |