Washington – Secretary Wilson made public today the regulations under the new law governing the inspection of meat products for interstate and foreign trade. They do not, however, cover the subject of interstate transportation of meat or the microscopic inspection of pork for export. Regulations on these subjects, if was said will be issued later.

The regulations issued today are stringent and in line with the best authorities on the subject of the sanitation, preservatives, dyes, chemicals and condemnations of diseased carcasses.

50 Years Ago, 1956

THOMASTON – Inmates at Maine State Prison today made a fruitless attempt to flight their way to freedom with homemade gasoline firebombs. A fire, which officials said was started as a diversion, destroyed the prisons printing shop.

Warden Allen L. Robbins said “several unidentified inmates” assaulted an entrance with rocks and homemade gasoline bombs. One bomb went over the wall, the others fell short of their marks and all burned out harmlessly. The rocks smashed windows in the guard tower.

25 Years Ago, 1981

American consumers are fairly well resigned to having double-digit inflation eat away their buying power year after year. Although wages have made substantial leaps and bounds over the years, for some reason they just never seem to be enough.

The average weekly wage for Maine workers in 1980 was approximately $200. Steven Gruz of the Maine Department of Manpower Affairs said a similar figure for 1940 was unavailable, according to Gruz, is the national average weekly wage of $45.58 for 1947.

The July 9 Sun Foodbasket, a listing of 63 food items compiled weekly, cost a little more than $65. For an example of how inflation has increased the cost of food, for the careful consumer in 1940, the sum would have been closer to $10 for the same items. This is roughly a 650-percent increase in the cost of enough food to feed a family of four for a week.