e machinery in elevators--the
Machinists or Elevator Constructors? Is the operator of a linotype
machine a typesetter? So plasterers and carpenters, blacksmiths and
structural iron workers, printing pressmen and plate engravers, hod
carriers and cement workers, are at loggerheads; the electrification
of a railway creates a jurisdictional problem between the electrical
railway employees and the locomotive engineers; and the marble workers
and the plasterers quarrel as to the setting of imitation marble. These
quarrels regarding the claims of rival unions reveal the weakness of
the Federation as an arbitral body. There is no centralized authority
to impose a standard or principle which could lead to the settlement
of such disputes. Trade jealousy has overcome the suggestions of the
peacemakers that either the nature of the tools used, or the nature of
the operation, or the character of the establishment be taken as the
basis of settlement.

When the Federation itself fails as a peacemaker, it cannot be expected
that locals will escape these controversies. There are many examples,
often ludicrous, of petty jealousies and trade rivalries. The man who
tried to build a brick house, employing union bricklayers to lay the
brick and union painters to paint the brick walls, found to his loss
that such painting was considered a bricklayer's job by the bricklayers'
union, who charged a higher wage than the painters would have done. It
would have relieved him to have the two unions amalgamate. And this in
general has become a real way out of the difficulty. For instance, a
dispute between the Steam and Hot Water Fitters and the Plumbers was
settled by an amalgamation called the United Association of Journeymen
Plumbers, Gas Fitters, Steam Fitters, and Steam Fitters' Helpers, which
is now affiliated with the Federation. But the International Association
of Steam, Hot Water, and Power Pipe Fitters and Helpers is not
affiliated, and interunion war results. The older unions, however, have
a stabilizing influence upon the newer, and a genuine conservatism such
as characterizes the British unions is becoming more apparent as age
solidifies custom and lends respect to by-laws and constitutions. But
even time cannot obviate the seismic effects of new inventions, and
shifts in jurisdictional matters are always imminent. The dominant
policy of the trade union is to keep its feet on the earth, no matter
where its head may be; to take one step