Labels Ought to Tell the Truth
It is not what men name things to be that makes them so. For instance we purchased not long since a can of fruit labeled thus: “Choice Strawberries. First Quality. Packed by Hemingway Packing Co., at Norfolk, Va., U. S. A.” A beautiful lithograph of a bunch of red, luscious-looking strawberries completed the falsehood. This for the outside of the can. Inside was a pale, purple, slightly acid, flavorless syrup, with a few over-cooked, tasteless strawberries swimming about, reminding one of the legendary church-fair oyster soup, of which we experimentally know nothing,—a grateful ignorance. Now this one can, purchased in the extreme northeast corner of Colorado, may be an exception in this packing company’s output. We hope so. If not, we have been wondering what second and third quality would be! The moral is that a label ought to tell the truth. And this is as true of men as of canned fruit.