privileged communication between the association and its mem

bers.

17. The sale of plumbing, gas or heating supplies by either manufacturers or wholesalers should not be made through a broker or manufacturer's agent. A broker or manufacturer's agent is any person, firm or corporation who represents one or more lines, who purchases goods for resale or on a commission basis, but who does not come within the classification of a wholesaler, and is not a direct representative or employee of the concern whose line he handles.

Any corporation, if its stock is owned largely by plumbing dealers, gasfitters, or steamfitting contractors, should not be classified as a wholesaler.

19. Members should follow these trade customs which have become established as applicable to their business and in accordance with the best ethics of the trade:

(a) Wrought iron pipe is a term used to distinguish wrought from cast pipe and is held to mean as being, and generally is, made from soft steel, and persons desiring to obtain pipe made from puddled iron must designate genuine wrought iron pipe for which an extra charge is made.

(b) The guarantee on supplies sold is only to the extent of furnishing first class goods for any found defective and no claims for labor, cartage or consequential damages are allowable and the measure of damage is the price of any defective goods, but such defective goods must first be returned before credit is given.

(c) When orders have been filled as specified, no credit will be allowed for goods returned, nor will teamsters be permitted to accept goods to return, unless the seller's consent has first been secured; and all goods so returned will, if accepted. be credited at the cost or market price, whichever is lower at the time prevailing when such goods are received by the seller, less cost of handling, and all freight and cartage expenses, if any, incurred by the seller.

(d) If an article is broken in transit, or goods are otherwise damaged in transit, the condition of the shipment or package at its destination is no evidence of its original condition when shipped or delivered to the carrier; and when goods delivered to and receipted for by a common carrier or agent of the buyer, as being then in good condition, the goods, package or shipment then immediately becomes the property of the buyer or consignee and no allowance will be made by the seller for breakage or damage in transit and the consignee must look to the carrier or transportation company for relief.

PRINTING

See also under Collective Bargaining

UNITED TYPOTHETAE OF AMERICA

The oldest trade code. Adopted Oct. 20, 1891, under the leadership of John De Vinne:

CODE OF ETHICS

Recognizing the fact that in the conduct of our business. no individual or concern in any community can act regardless of his neighbors and competitors, and that while the spirit of competition has been so deeply imbedded in the human breast and so keenly sharpened by the methods of every-day life as to cause it to enter into and influence every transaction, but at the same time believing there are methods of competition which are clean, honorable, and legitimate, whereby we can compete without wronging others and without demoralizing the business in which we are engaged, this Association adopts the following rules, and recommends them to the employing printers of the country:

OF OUR DUTY TO OURSELVES

1. The code of ethics best calculated to elevate the status of employing printers must be evolved by the development of moral and intellectual manhood. We should, therefore, and firmly, resolve to test every transaction by the standard of truth and justice.

2. Take advantage of no man's ignorance, and see that employees are truthful and straightforward, and do not misrepresent nor overcharge the confiding.

3. It is an absolute essential in honorable competition that we prove ourselves as honorable in every particular as we would have our competitors.

4. Mix freely with intelligent and honorable members of the craft, and study their ways and methods, and endeavor to get a reputation in the community as an intelligent, honest, firstclass printer, whom people can trust with their work without competitive bidding.

5. Every printing establishment should have a perfect system of ascertaining the actual cost of every job. It is in this way only that the business can hope to be relieved from the deleterious effects of guess prices. Such a system should not only

ascertain the facts, but record them, so that they can be referred to understandingly, and the information immediately ascertained. 6. No establishment should be satisfied with anything except the most exact and systematic bookkeeping, and all work should be checked up and charges proved before delivery, and the following made a standing rule: Never permit a charge to be entered on the books that cannot be proved by competent evidence in a court of justice to be a fair competitive price.

7. The expense of doing business, such as the wear and tear of material, interest on money invested, bad debts, rents, taxes, insurance, bookkeeping, and all other items of expense, should be ever before our eyes, and we should never forget that these must be as surely levied on each particular job as its labor cost. Never, under any circumstances, should the minimum cost plus a fair profit be departed from. We should feel here a double restraint; in the first place, to cut cost is foolish; in the second place, it is wrong.

8. On no account consent to pay commissions to bookkeepers, secretaries, or others who have work to give out. It is demoralizing to both the giver and the taker. Money is passed without a proper equivalent. The agent is selling something he has no right to sell, and unless the printer has a better conscience than is ordinarily met with, the commission is added to the bill, and the customer pays more than he should.

OF OUR DUTY TO EACH OTHER

9. When a young competitor enters the ranks, welcome him as a new soldier to the field, and help him to any information and assistance which will enable him to overcome the difficulties we had so much trouble in surmounting. Rest assured you can make no better investment of the time necessary to do so, as his gratitude for the kindly consideration will often cause him to repay you in fourfold way and where you would least anticipate it. 10. It should be a duty and a pleasure to impart to our less experienced competitors the knowledge we possess, so long as we are satisfied that the information generously given will be honorably used. In this way the element of ignorance, which does so much to demoralize the craft, may be partially eliminated and one of the most dangerous factors of competition destroyed. Remember that knowledge kindly imparted makes a business friend of one who would probably otherwise become a business foe.

11. The young employer who starts with a small capital, and does most of his own work, should ever remember

the honorable nature of his calling, and never make the mistake of supposing that because he does his own work he can do it for less than his neighbor who employs fifty or more hands, with a long list of superintendents and foremen. He should rather insist that the work which he does with his own hands will be better done, and therefore he should receive more for it.

12. When a printer is offered work which he cannot do, his rule should be to decline it and refer his customer to the office that can do it, and not accept the work hoping to get some neighbor to do it for him and allow him a commission.

13. Make no rebates or allowances to professional brokers or middlemen. If it is possible to help a neighbor out of an extra rush of composition or presswork, do it cheerfully, and divide with him the profit on the work. In this way the temptation to add to the facilities, oftentimes much too large for the work done in a given community, will very often be overcome, as idle machinery makes it almost impossible to maintain any standard of prices which may be adopted.

14. When estimates are asked for by any person on work done by another printer, with plain intent to find cause for an alleged unfairness of the price charged, they should be invariably declined. It is not safe to criticize any price until one is in possession of all the facts. The work itself when done does not say whether it was done by night or by day, with a few or many alterations; these with many other unknown conditions may have controlled the price.

15. In making estimates we are shooting arrows in the dark, and may unwittingly wound some of our best friends when we have least intended it. If the aggrieved person thinks he has been injured by an estimate which has taken away a valued customer, his proper course is to seek an explanation, and he should always begin with the supposition that the injurious price has been made in ignorance of all the facts, by thoughtlessness or by mistake. In most cases he can reach such an explanation as will prevent a repetition of the error, if it does not bring the lost work back.

OF PRICES AND ESTIMATES

16. Every establishment should have a thorough knowledge of what it costs to produce the work it sends out, and should. determine what percentage of profit it will be satisfied with. Based upon those two items, it should establish its prices for all work undertaken, whether secured by competitive bid or without a price being named in advance.

17. A master printer should not make estimates for work that he cannot do, and when he is devoid of experience in certain branches of printing, should not attempt to price them. It is always unsafe and often unjust to give prices upon a class of work for which the cost is not positively known and has to be guessed at.

18. Always have the courage to ask fair remuneration for any work offered, resting assured that it will be more profitable to be without a job than to secure one in which there is a temptation to resort to questionable methods in order to avoid a financial loss in its execution.

19. Estimates calling for detailed specifications of separate value of the paper, composition, electrotyping, presswork, ruling, binding, etc., should always be refused. These details the customer has no right to. They are the printer's property, and to be swift in giving them away is one of the surest methods of provoking unfair competition.

20. When requested to make estimates for work, or submitting proposals in answer to advertisements, the intelligent printer should endeavor never to lose sight of the fact that the only price proper to make is the one that he would make were the work entrusted to him without any estimates having been requested on it. His estimated figures should be made on the basis of 1,000 ems, per token, and per pound for paper that he has adopted for his minimum for the class of work, while carefully studying the subject with the figures of his previous year's business before his eyes, and while safely shielded from the exciting influences which arise when the estimate fiend is so close upon him-always consoling himself when he loses the job with the thought that if he had encumbered himself with the work at a low figure he would have incapacitated himself from doing what may presently come along at a remunerative rate.

21. A master printer should always contend that he is entitled, when asked for an estimate, to know the names of all who are to be requested to bid on the work. A glance at the names is often sufficient to show him whether it is worth the trouble to make the necessary calculations. He should also insist upon his right, if he desires it, to know all the prices offered for the work, and to whom and at what prices it was awarded.

22. The man who asks for a bid upon work, and before receiving it shows the figures made by another bidder, should be marked; it can be depended on, if he will show you another's bid he will show yours to a third party. He wants you to do the job, if you will do it for less than anyone else.