BAKERS' GRIEVANCES.
BAKERS'if we are to judge from a recent correspondence in the Times, appear to look upon themselves as a hardly used class. The price of bread is no longer, as in old times, fixed by law; but its sale, they complain, is regulated by rules and restrictions very difficult of observance. Further, the Weights
and Measures Bill, introduced this Session by Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, contains provisions imposing new and stringent liabilities upon the trade. Now, the importance to the whole community, and especially to the poor, of being able to rely upon obtaining pure bread and full weight is so apparent, that no one, unless possibly a member of the Liberty and Property Defence League, would object to a wise intervention of the Legislature to secure these objects. It may, however, be doubted whether some of the means adopted by Parliament more than fifty years ago, and still in force, are models of administrative wisdom. With the provisions against adultera- tion no fault appears to be found. Bread, it is provided, must be made of " flour or meal of wheat, barley, rye, oats, buck- wheat, Indian corn, peas, rice, or potatoes," with the admixture of " any common salt, pure water, eggs, milk, berm, leaven, potatoes, or other yeast," as the makers shall think fit. But where pure wheaten flour is not used as the main sub- stance, the loaves must be marked with a large " M." The breach of these regulations, and the adulteration of any of the ingredients, are punished by heavy penalties. In spite of these, however, it is more than hinted by the bakers' repre- sentatives that there is something wrong with the quality of a great deal of the bread supplied to the public. The sug- gestion, though made for the purpose of creating a diversion, is not the less worthy of attention.
Perhaps the best-known provision of the Bread Act is that which forbids the trade to make bread rolls or cakes upon the Lord's Day, while allowing them to bake " any meat, pudding, pie, tart, or vegetables" up to half-past 1 o'clock in the after- noon. There is something to be said for the distinction. The poor man's Sunday dinner is a necessity, while hot breakfast- rolls can scarcely be looked on as more than a luxury. But this luxury the great hotels and others will insist on having, and every now and then a baker has to be fined for supplying them. But the real difficulties arise as to the manner of sale. All bread, Parliament has provided, except French or fancy bread, must be sold by weight, and a baker who should offer loaves of ordinary bread at a fixed price of ld., 2d., or 3d. each would render himself liable to a heavy penalty. With fancy bread he may do as he pleases ; but then, " fancy bread," as a term of art, is not easy of definition. The shape of the loaf appears to be the principal determining quality, and the Courts have found some difficulty in deciding to which kind a particular specimen belonged. Were all restric- tions on the sale of ordinary bread removed, and bakers allowed to sell their loaves at fixed prices without weighing them, the chief protection to the customers would be gone, and a wide door opened to dishonesty. On the other hand, the statutory requirements as to weighing appear to be unnecessarily minute and irksome. All over England, every loaf of ordinary bread must be weighed before sale, and in London it must be weighed in the purchaser's presence, and this whether he desire it or not. If the bread be delivered from a cart at the house, the baker must carry his scales with him and weigh it at the door, or he is liable to be fined. Needless to say that this obligation of weighing is widely shirked. In fact, except in the case of the poor who buy their bread over the counter, the weighing provisions of the Act are very loosely observed.
Such being the present state of the law, Sir Michael Hicks- Beach has brought forward two new proposals in the Weights and Measures Bill. The more important of these is, that where, as is ordinarily the case, bread is sold by the quartern, every quartern loaf shall weigh at least four pounds, and every half-quartern two pounds, and that in every case of deficiency the baker shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding £2. The advantage of such a provision would be to ensure cus- tomers getting at least full weight for their money; and if the loaf proved to be of more than the required weight the baker could proportionately increase the price. The difficulty consists in the fact that it is impossible to forecast the weight of a loaf accurately before baking. Much will depend on the weather, and on the length of time each loaf remains in the oven ; and it will often happen that the lighter loaf will con- tain as much nourishment as the heavier, and only differ from it in the quantity of moisture. It seems hard that bakers should be liable to a penalty of £2 for an error of judgment; but probably they would soon learn to err, if they erred at all, on the safe side. Besides, should this provision become law, they might fairly claim to be relieved from some of the more onerous requirements as to weighing. The other provision of the Bill gives power to an inspector of weights and measures, if so authorised by a Justice of the Peace, to enter a baker's shop or stop his cart, and weigh the loaves it contains, a fine being imposed where the weight is less than that represented. What with present and prospective restrictions, bakers complain that they are unequally treated by the law. The public, they say, are left to protect themselves in dealing with other traders, and they ask why an exception should be made in the case of bakers. But, in truth, every important trade has restrictions of its own. The present Bill contains provisions as to the sale of coal in comparison with which those we have been con- sidering are light indeed. No trades should be lightly inter- fered with ; but it is of the utmost importance that in the vital matters of food and warmth the poor should not be victimised. It is because the present state of the law has not proved efficient to protect them, that the Board of Trade have thought it necessary to introduce this measure.
Previous page
