Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 183, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 August 1913 — Round Steak In Rensselaer Selling At 22 Cents A Pound. [ARTICLE]

Round Steak In Rensselaer Selling At 22 Cents A Pound.

ftound steak, which a few years ago retailed in Rensselaer for 10 cents a pound, is now sold for 22 cents a pound. Other cuts of beef and other meats have advanced proportionately. It is understood that a considerable part of the butcher stuff sold here costs $5.50 and $6 per hundred, on the hoof. Methods of business have changed some within recent years. It costs more to run a business now than it did ten or five or even two years ago. We were never in the butcher business and don't pretend to know much about the maintenance cost of the dressing off of beef. We have talked, however, with some who have had experience and have not found' any who try to justify 22 cents for round steak with butcher stuff at its present price. There is another thing that is of importance to all who are meeting up with the high cost of living in the daily problems of home econimies. is the correctness of the scales on which all foodstuffs are weighed. A citizen reported that he Was greatly surprised on weighing a piece of meat to find that instead of paying 22 cents a pound for it he was paying at the rate of 26 2-3 cents a pound. This was doubtless an oversight on the part of the butcher, but it is expensive to have to put up one’s hard earned money for some other person’s, oversight. . We are careless. We have been living rapidly and have not ini dulged in the'systematic methods that the rigid economy of some years ago demanded. We order a dollar’s worth of sugar or a 90-cent roast without asking how much we are to receive in weight. to blame if we do not get all that is coming to us. I say we are to blame, that is, we are to blame for not having required the merchant to be honest with Us. We do not accept responsibility if a dwarfed conscience has caused him to shortweight us.

Every home in the city and country should be supplied with scales and everything we buy should be weighed in. It is a means of encouraging honesty that none should neglect. It has been claimed that some computing scales are adjusted purposely to shortweight customers. We do not believe any Rensselaer merchant would permit unfair scales to be in their places of business, but we believe that we should know It if any have through willingness or unconsciously purchased such scales. Now we do not want the butchers in Rensselaer to fall out with us. We are glad to see them succeed. Possibly they are not making any more than they should make, but we do believe that this is a subject that is of such vital importance that every person should probe to the very bottom to And out whether or not he is getting a square deal when he makes a purchase.