The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-04-10
THE PUBLIC HEALTH.
The Plumbing Inspector and Our Ordi-
nances in Relation to Plumbing and
Plumbers

To the Editor of the Press:
The ordinances in relation to the above
| subject were enacted in the spring of
1893. They were carefully considered
and passed upon by the whole city gov
ernmnet and were finally approved. as
provided for in the State law, by justice
of the Supreme Judicial court. They
had.been carefully compiled from those
in vogue for several years in most OF
the cities in Massachusetts and other
States, and certain features where their
experience suggested and warranted 1t,
were, made more flexible The aim was
to make them no more exacting than
the fundamental sprinipcles in house
sanitation demanded. 1t was expected
that they would give dissatisfaction to
some people, among whom We uld be In
fact quite proportion OF people want
ing and willing to pay for proper plumb
ing, but whose erorrs OF Judgment or In
completeness of knowledge on the sub
ject, demonstrated by their own works.
was an added factor indicating the value
and desira bility of the law. In fact it
must be quite patent to any thinking
person that if such features had not
been quite common rule IN the past,
there would have been no occasion for
plum bling law anywhere Knowledge
Of what Constitutes good safe plum bling,
including as it does familiarity Of
complex laws in physics, and a full
knowledge about a wide variety of mate
rails and workmanship in combining
them is best acquired by long course
of careful study, supplemented by actual
experience. For over twnety years have
made the subject special study, and |
feel that l may claim to have increased
the common. knowledge in regard
to proper principle and material, and yet
Notwithstanding have stood over skilled
workmen days and weeks together,
could not claim to guide unaided by the
practical plumber, as skillfully upon
equally we'll versed in principles To-
day the principles of ordinary domestic
plumbing are fairly well fixed and set
forth in our Portland rules; and yet |
do not believe there is one man IN q
thousand outside of an experienced
plumber that can read and understand
them and collect the-material in accord
ance with them, that would plumb an
ordinary house, and much less direct the
execution of the same. The capacity,
as may sbe inferred from the above to
pass upon proper materials and work
manship in combining them, and to
guide the work along the lines in the
rules that have been adopted and APP
proved cannot be acquired in day, and
the Importance of the matter demands
that the officer to whom this is COM
mitted shall be an intelligent man and
plumber skilled by long experience.
The action of our local board of health
in appointing or employing such man
was to that end. Last fall the wisdom
of the law was questioned by certain
parties, and hearing was held at
Joint convention of both boards of the
city government, and full explanation
of the actual operations of the law was
given. An overwhelming approval re-
suited, there being only two dissenting
votes
with this record view the attempt
made at notification By bare majority
of small committee first as an unfair
advantage taken of their colleagues who
were new men unacquainted. with the
past history Of the law; and secondly
was an outrage upon the people whose
desires had only a few months previous
ly been expressed and passed upon by an
almost unanimous vote of the twoboards
in. joint convention.
The office or position of Inspector is an
unusually difficult one to fill satisfac-
torily. To accomplish the desired end
without excessive friction during the
first few years of enforcing the law
requires in addition to special training as
a plum bT uuusudl tdGb anu w luo huOWl-
edge of human nature and this combi
nation is rarely found and obtained for
$1,000 per year. That an inspector how
ever valuable as whole he may be will
occasionally err both in judgment and
tact is to be expected and especially in
the latter when we realize that he must
from time to time run counter to the
ideas of men of very pronounced charac-
ter who resist what they think is an in
reference with their rights Some one
has very aptly said that no one is en-.
titled to all his rights, and it is proper
for everyone to be moderate and conform
to this law which is, as matter OF fact
for the individual as we'll as for the COM
mon good. For the individual the in
spector compels the plumber who has
won in sharp competition the oppor-
tunity of doing certain work, to at least
furnish proper material and execute all
his work in safe and sanitary manner.
about which most householders really
know, but little, and for the general
public buying or renting houses, he
renders the service of protecting them
from the landlord who may either sell
fishIy, ignorantly OF negligently main
tain or insist upon plum bling methods
that are dangerous to health.
[ would not be the special advocate
of this or that man, exceptsas my opin-
ion might be asked, but | do insist that
it would be criminal to appoint a man
not an experien ced plum Der, who will
proceed to slowly acquire his knowledge
at the expense OF orr health and lives,
after the same manner that has prevailed
in the past in depicting our pocketbooks
in educating street commissioners and
which method we have now laid aside
I believe our city government upon
reflection will not be bound by the
policy that indicates lakewood step
and a disregard of the public health.
E.C.JORDAN.