zation, by its rules and acts, denies to the master plumbers the right, as business men, to direct and manage their business affairs according to their own ideas."[1] How great a difference it makes whose ox is gored is disclosed again in the reply to the demand of the jobbing houses of Salt Lake City that the master plumbers of the town should, under the famous Baltimore resolutions,[2] restricting the sale of plumbing supplies to master plumbers only, purchase of them alone, "We hold the right," they said, with the true American spirit, "to buy where we can buy the best."[3] The same view as to the rights of labor are to be found in the official essay that Mr. Edward Hayward, of Brooklyn, read before the Milwaukee convention. "Such claim," he said, referring to the claim that "organized labor has rights superior to those of the craftsman or laborer standing alone on his own merits, and supporting the dignity of his manhood," "could never have rooted well and can never flourish long in the atmosphere of a people possessing equal rights and capable of maintaining them. It would not," he added, in a tone of mild admonition,
- ↑ Proceedings, Pittsburg, 1889, p. 55.
- ↑ These resolutions were first adopted at Baltimore, June 26, 1884, and reaffirmed and amended at subsequent conventions. The essential part of the original resolutions is as follows: "Whereas, the manufacturers and wholesale dealers in plumbing material persist in selling to consumers, to our injury and detriment, placing us toward our customers in the light of extortionists, causing endless trouble; and whereas, the system of protecting us from this wrong, which draws in its wake other wrongs, is ineffective, it is absolutely necessary to perfect such a system by united action that will remove these evils from which we have suffered for years; therefore be it resolved, that the members of this association confine the purchase of plumbing material to manufacturers and wholesale dealers who sell goods to master plumbers only, as defined in these resolutions." The term master plumber was defined in the following resolution adopted at Washington in 1892 and amended at Philadelphia in 1895: "Resolved, that it is the sense of this convention that in the future the interpretation of the term 'master plumber,' as set forth in the above resolutions to entitle him to purchase plumbing material, be construed to mean a master plumber who has an established place of business and represents the industry of plumbing, and who has qualified under State or local enactments regulating plumbing and plumbers, where such exist; or, where no license is required, an individual or firm with an established place of business and representing the industry of plumbing." The following important additions were made at the Philadelphia convention: "Resolved, that the members of this association should not sell plumbing material to consumers when they do not furnish the labor for putting the material in. Resolved, that the supply houses doing a plumbing supply business and contracting for plumbing work shall be considered unjust competitors." The following are at present exempt from the operation of these resolutions: The United States Government, State, county, and city institutions. Sailors' Snug Harbor, railroad, gas, water, and electric light companies only for such goods as are necessary for their respective lines of business.
- ↑ Proceedings, Cleveland, 1896, p. 68. See also p. 161, Proceedings, Milwaukee, 1893, where the essayist says: "When rules governing a household, the laws of a State, or of a trade associate alike, are oppressive, they become inoperative by a general disregard of them. The inability of the governing power to enforce them is seen, and contempt for it follows."
