The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-02-24
NO JOB IN 1T.
The Bill to Establish a State
Plumbing Board
And Require Plumbers to Pass
an Examination
is DECLARED TO BE
Solely in the Interest of the
Public Health
And to Prevent the SWindling
Of the People.

The bill pending before the house and
senate to create a state plumbing board
and to require plumbers to pass an
animation both in theory and practice
before engaging in the business, is a
measure which Is now in operation in
Texas and in some of the eastern states.
having had the support of some of the
most noted scientists and students Of
the subject of health
This bill is regarded by many people
as an effort on the part of the plumber
to foster a trust or combination which
will benefit his business. and for that
reason has met with considerable oppo-
S1t1on in the Kansas legislature.
Albert E. Hyde of Detroit, one of the
best known lecturers and students of
sanitary plumbing, who was in Topeka
today, denies that this is an effort to
help the plumber, and says that it is
the most important measure ever pre-
sented to legislative body, in that it
reaches the people by touching upon
the subject of health and sanitation.
two questions which he says are the
coming scientific issues, and such issues
IS will make themselves permanent and
important in discussion and settlement
among scientists.
In conversation with a reporter for
the Journal, Mr.. Hyde explained the
purpose of this bill. He said:
There is no disposition to create a
trust or combination of labor among
the plumbers by this measure, but it is
a bill in the interests of the people; in
the interest of the laboring man who
occupies rented houses, and in the in
tereSt OF the poor man who builds a
small home of his own. This is due to
the fact that the proposed bill makes a
standard to which plumbers must be ell
evated before being permitted to engage
in business. In the absence of laws gov
erning the business of plumbing the aV-
erage plumber has skinned the public
by substituting under vaults and in
L.
faulty pipes. connections and other bad
material which were responsible for
leaks through which sewer gas per-
meated all parts of residences. To this
sewer gas is attributed the origin of all
diseases in the nature of consumption,
pneumonia, scarlet fever and diphtheria,
these being the most destructive dis
eases found in public schools and in pri-
Vate houses, and in public buildings as
a rule, except government buildings.
There the plumber is compelled under
the direction of a competent inspector
to put in alright joints, faultless mater
ial, and in every other particular to con-
struct a first-class job. The result is
that the government buildings in our
country are the best ventilated. the best
lighted and the best plumbed, as to
sanitary conditions, of any that may be
found.
IF we have a law which will compel
the plumber to make similar alright
joints and to use faultless material in
the construction of jobs of this charac-
ter in residences, then we indulge in an
effort for the sake of humanity and for
the sake of our families, because it
comes to US in such way to per-
hapS save the life Of some member
thereof. When we do this, then we
reach the hearts of the people. On the
other hand, the bill is a disadvantage
to the plumber, because now the prac-
tice is to skin jobs. On the other hand,
where competent inspectors watch over
the work the best of material and the
best of workmanship would be used.
Then we would pass from the period of
incompetent plumbing and unsanitary
work. The man who rents tenement
houses to the laboring man would be
compelled to put in good plumbing, and
thereby save the laboring men of the
country millions of dollars annually
now expended for doctor bills arising
from this inferior plumbing.
ION the other hand, we would pre-
serve the energies of our people who
are attacked by diseases from these
sources, and as energy is the life of the
nation and production one of its great
est interests, then we have taken one
of the grandest steps towards higher
and better civilization"
Mr.. Hyde says that the idea of trust
is so important to some people that the
mere mention of a plumbers name in
connection with a bill incites opposition,
because in killing the bill they think
they reach the plumber, when as mat
ter of fact the passage of such meas
ures as these reach the people only.
Mr.. Hyde is the author of the scien-
tific chapters upon sanitary plumbing
which are appearing in the recent pub
LEGATION of a new standard encyclopedia,
and has been engaged in this work for
many years in the south. He inspired
and followed until it was signed by-the
governor the present plumbing law in
Texas, of which the proposed law in
Kansas is an exact copy Now the
plumbers there are every one of them
in favor of the law, and all cooperate
in its enforcement. Mr. Hyde will come
to Kansas in July and deliver a lecture
upon this subject before the Chautau-
qua assembly. This date was arranged
by Mr.. A. P. Elder of Ottawa, who is
president of the Kansas Master Plumb
ers' association, and he brought Mr..
Hyde to Topeka to present to the mem
bers of the legislature as far as possible
in the short time allowed the advanta-
ges of this proposed law Mr.. Hyde says
that this is in no sense a measure in the
interest of the plumbers, end that it
also removes the business of plumbing
and the appointment of the board from
politics, which, in his opinion. is a very
desirable plan, He says politics is re
SpOnsible for some of the greatest evils
of the time. The board of examiners,
which it is proposed to create by this
bill, is appointed by the mayor, acting
in conjunction with the members of the
board of health and master plumbers
of ten years standing. The work is to
be done by an inspector, who is to be
appointed by this board from a list of
applicants passing the best examina-
ton in theory and practice of plumb
ing.
Mr. Hyde's visit has inspired the sup
porters of the bill to renewed vigilance,
and an effort to secure the passage OF
the bill will be pushed as much as pos
sible at this session of the legislature,
even at this late hour.