The Wilmington morning star., 1945-12-04
Fair Enough
RY WEsTBROOK .PEGLER
1915, by King Features Syndic

and millions of other Americans who are
camping in miserable crowded quarters in
American cities and towns are suffering from
the vicious greed Of local plumbing and cleo
trical contractors and manufacturer of build
ing supplies and their dealers It is a corrupt
combination intended to rob the builders, the
renters and the purchasers of homes which
now has become so grasping that new build
ing. after more than five years of suspension
except in emergency war communities, is in
pathetic proportion to the tragic need. These
merciless crooks are protected in their racket
by town and city ordinances and building
codes put through city councils for no benefi-
cial public purpose and with hardly even a
pretense of any other purpose than to expose
the best class of our citizens, the hone-rnakers
and home owners, to their legalized thievery
Startling as the statement may seem, there
are many thousands of decent, public spirited
plumbers and plumbing contractors and cleo
tricians and electrical contra ctors in the Unit
ed States who would be glad to give the
people a square deal but can't offer them
economical bids because the racketeers have
the power to examine them in written tests
and deny them local licenses on the ground
of unfitness The Examiners are the con-
tractors who got in on the ground floor and
the ordinances which require Examinations,
and local licenses permit them to keep out
all competition by deliberately flunking the
new applicants.
I have letter from woman in a large
Texas city presenting a typical example OF
this robbery.
"My husband,' she writes, twas one Of the
best plumbers in Lincoln, Nebraska He de-
cided to go into business here. After long
wait he was allowed to take the examina-
tion.' It consisted of such questions as these:
What is air?' What is water?' What would
you do to get soft water?'
ITO the last question he answered: would
install commercial water softener.'
"He was wrong. The answer was Dig
cistern and let the rain water run off the
roof
The city Inspector IS In the Master Plumb
ers' Association and the union business agent.
They all advised my husband to 60 to work
for an existing shop, and they would require
no license of any kind. Some of the old timers
who came in under the grandfather clause
couldn't pass any examination, and were frank
in saying they would fight to keep out a new
shop. The license fee is 500, but even il
man could slip by the examination he would
be hooked again because the supply houses
have orders not to sell to new men. With
the excuse of war shortage they are scalping
the customers plenty. Nobody can challenge
the rejection Of applicants. They make me
think of q bunch of pigs in a trough"
California city with desperate housing situa-
ton: II am the owner of small electrical
shop trying to get the right to work here.
have been an electrician 20 years. Having
opened 4 shop can't get the necessary city
license. I have taken the local examination
several times but always have failed to salts
fy the local board Of electrical examiners that
am an electrician. The board consists of
old-time local electrical contractors. Accord
ing to the local ordinance these thieves can
ask any questions and grade the papers as
they wish. They have been doing this for 20
years. ] have lived in this county % years
but my record and reputation mean nothing
when it comes to getting master electri-
clans license, although I have 4 state IL
cense to do electrical contracting anywhere in
California. Even the city has issued me
certificate OF competency proving that the city
believes I know how to use tools and do as
the city code says But the examiners exercise
their right to make the examination 80 hard
that nobody can pass"
| I can affirm that the best electrician in the
United States could be st,:mped by the crooks
| composing practically all of such examining
boards, because they may ask such questions
| as "how high is up?' and there is no review
ing authority to smash an outright conspiracy
to exclude new contractors. In similar situa-
| ton a state law compels doctors entering
Arizona from other states to take stiff ex-
animation in stuff that most fresh medical
graduates could pass but which most doctors
forget after few years, and thereby excludes
good men from competing with the established
medical gang in state which has probably
| the greatest need Of additional doctors, and
good ones, and whose present complement are
on the average, about the worst in the coun-
try. Some doctors now on the ground thor
oughly agree that these estimates of the situa-
ton are correct and most of the victims of
the racket in the coming years will be sick
war veterans.
To return to the housing crisis and the
rackets which are making it worse day by
day. however, I would emphasize that the
local contractors, greedy and brutal as they
are in their ruthless robbery Of their neighbors
by these crooked monopo1ies, are neither
alone in their racket nor the most contemplate
of the rasca1s involved. The worst are the
respectable manufacturers and dealers in
building supplies. They have been robbing the
people for years in a hidden but arrogant
hold-up whereby they add 20 percent, some
more, some little less, to the price of
plumbing articles, electrical supplies, wal1pa-
per and other materials and turn it over to
the contractors on the jobs.
Because these are such vicious robberies
and because the effect now is to deny new
homes or even fairly civilized quarters to
millions of Americans intend to pursue this
subject.