38 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the riglit to connect tlie range he has sold with the water system 

 of his patron's house.* 



Although this intolerable despotism continues to grow by 

 what it feeds on, and its complete abatement is not likely to come 

 soon, there are not wanting some faint signs of revolt. The hard- 

 ware men of Buffalo, N. Y., have refused to submit to it, and are 

 engaged in a hot fight against the tyrants of the wrench and 

 soldering iron, f As already indicated, the opticians of the State 

 are also in rebellion against the oculists, having discovered in the 

 benevolent legislation of these " social reformers " an attempt to 

 enslave them. " Let us," says the president of the State Optical 

 Society just quoted, summoning his followers to arms and defend- 

 ing his course with an argument equally cogent against all other 

 assaults on personal liberty, " concentrate with the fearless deter- 

 mination to throw off the yoke which some oculists are so deter- 

 mined to have us wear by relegating us to a position of abject 

 dependence upon them, and thus exposing ourselves to the exer- 

 cise of a power which might, in a moment of emergency, make 

 perjurers of all who lack the fortitude to resist it." X 



But futile as has been the attempt to create the honest and 

 competent plumber and to make him a national blessing, the 

 effort to find the honest and competent official to enforce legis- 

 lation and to rescue the public from the dangers of imperfect 

 work has not been less prolific of disappointment. When I say 

 that the failure has been signal and inevitable, I do not express 

 the opinion deduced from first principles nor from every experi- 

 ment with the black art of the lawmaker since its first dicovery. 

 I express only the honest and unpremeditated convictions that 

 plumbers themselves have reached. Even Mr. Spencer has scarcely 

 described more vividly and effectively the political entanglements, 

 the industrial paralysis, and the moral enervation that follow the 

 practice of this system of modern magic. " It does seem impossi- 

 ble," said a Syracuse delegate at a State convention of master 

 plumbers, after listening to a melancholy tale of the neglect of 



* So intolerant have some plumbers become that it has been proposed to pass "a law 

 making it a criminal offense for a person to hang out a sign, handle tools, or construct any 

 part of plumbing work." (Remarks of Mr. Hosford, of New York. Proceedings, Pitts- 

 burg, 1889, p. 105 ) A less intolerant but equally absurd and despotic proposition is that of 

 the Michigan dentists. In a State Convention last year they passed a resolution in approval 

 of an act for the appointment of a State dental examiner, whose duty should be to inspect 

 the teeth of all children, and enforce such regulations as might be necessary to preserve the 

 molars and bicuspids of the public. (Chicago Times-Herald, June IG, 1896.) 



f Buffalo Courier, November 12, 1896. As further proof of the unselfish spirit that 

 animates the plumbers of Buffalo, it may be said that for the work of connecting a range 

 with the water pipes they charge from eight to twelve dollars. The hardware men claim 

 that it is worth only three or four dollars. 



\ The Optical Journal, vol. ii. No. 4, p. 120. 



