Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-11-21
EXCLUSIVE TRADE PRIVILEGES.

The prevalent combination idea was
presented the other day by local organ
of the building trades which applauded a
resolution of the Master Plumbers AssO.
citation that all dealers in goods used by
their trade should be required to sell
goods for plumbing to no one outside OF
the associati on. The journal referred to
developed he theory that as the master
plumbers We're in the plumbing business,
it was their exclusive privilege to buy gas
pipes, and the rest of the goods in their
trade, and any contumacious dealer sell
ing goods to an outsider should be placed
under the boycott
This is the sort of service by which the
position of organ is earned to an interest
which has adopted the policy of exclusive
privileges Yet it ought to be easy to see
that it is the one that really Injuries the
trade more than any other one thing The
only right of any trade TO existence is that
it can perform the service it undertakes OF
distribute the goods it handles more
cheaply than anyone can do it for himself.
So long as master plumbers, contractors,
builders of any kind, or any other trade
keep that fact in mind they will be
useful units in the industrial total, and
will, as they can, furnish the best service
at the cheapest rates. But when they cast
aside that principle and setup claim that
no one but themselves shall be permitted
to do anything in their line they disclose
that they propose to extract charges from
the public which they could not get if out
siders are given equal privileges. 1t is
just this theory which led to the remark
able avowal in the building trade earlier
in the year, that no man has any right to
buy lumber CT brick, unless he belonged
to the Builders Association; and the tenn
PCrary result of that idea is that the cost
of building is so enhanced that cities with
half our prosperity and elements of
growth built as many houses in 1890 as
Pittsburg
Such remarkable edicts as these do not
call for any especial public action because
they are only transient in their efforts.
The one referred to is an old one, and its
renewal is due to the fact that dealers will
keep on selling to outsiders whose trade is
worth having simply because they know
that if they do not some one else will.
There if no monopoly in the handling
of plumbers goods, lumber, brick;
and therefore SO long as there
is any trade worth serving dealers and
manufacturers will be found to supply it,
whether ii belongs TO the masters asso-
Citations or not If this were not so-if
such orders as these could be made per-
manent and binding it would be neces-
sary to very emphatically assert the fact
that this is nation where all men have
equal rights; that those equal rights for
bid the establishment of close corpora
tions or guilds in any trade; and that if
any man wants to buy any class of goods,
his title to equality gives him the privi-
lege to do so on the same terms as other
buyers Of similar amounts, so long as he
has the money to pay for his purchases.
Such resolutions as these have exactly
the same disregard for individual rights
as the occasional declarations of the
trades unions that none but union men
shall do any work. They have not the
excuse of the unions where wages are in
sufficient 1t may be well to call their at
tention to the fact that the policy of which
this is the exponent has restricted their
business during the past two or three
years from 40 to 30 per cent.