Why We Should Have State Legislation

From The American Horologist magazine, January 1939

Why We Should Have State Legislation

By WALTER SCHAEFER 

HOROLOGY, a time-honored industry, is next in importance to the medical profession; for time is next to life itself. Time is of such importance to us today that good watches and clocks govern our every activity.

Anesthetics are administered by the watch of the one who gives the anesthetic. Trains are dependent on the watchmakers' skill and accuracy. Great ships are dependent on accurate chronometers to make their observations and calculations. The value of accurate time is of great importance in every walk of life and is, in many cases, the thing upon which hinges the difference between life and death. We have reached a point in civilization where time must be measured in seconds and split seconds. It is no longer sufficient for a watch to run within a minute a day, as was true in years gone by. Horologists of today, to perform their work as it should be done, have to be highly skilled, and spend many hours on a watch after it is repaired to adjust it to accuracy.

Unfortunately the depression years have brought about a condition of commercialism which has made great strides toward lowering this highly skilled profession to a point where the public is bewildered and at a loss to know where to go to have a watch properly repaired.  There is many a nice fellow, who cannot proper!y repair and adjust a watch, and there IS no way for the public to discriminate. There are, even now, many really good watchmakers, but the public does not know them or is not in a position to discriminate for there is no way to tell the good from the bad.

Customers who want the best and are willing to pay for it, most times patronize the high-class jewelry stores. But it is sad to say that some of the biggest, most ostentatious stores are the biggest cheats and "Gip Joints". This is not true of all. But the honest, ethical stores are placed at a decided disadvantage because of the unethical methods in advertising used by the unscrupulous ones and the stigma of poor workmanship, which they must share because the innocent suffer with the guilty.

The ethical watchmakers, both large and small, find that this evil has eaten into the vitals of their business' and though they too fight the evil, thei; fairminded methods are not sufficient to combat the price appeal to a priceminded public. John Ruskin said, "There is nothing that some man cannot do a little cheaper; and he who looks for price alone, is that man's lawful prey." That is true in all things and all professions, but that is what the control legislation is for-to save the public from itself. Think what the public would suffer at the hands of unscrupulous men in the medical profession if it were not controlled.

We recently witnessed in Indiana the passing of a barbers' law to protect the citizens from dirt and infection. It is equally important, or perhaps more important, that people could rely on State Legislation to protect them against poor watch work when their lives depend on timepieces carried by doctors, nurses, persons whose duty it is to give anesthetics, train men, air pilots, etc.

But it is also an important factor that the public should be protected against the enormous loss in money they incur each year through poor work on watches, which has been estimated at $3,000,000 to say nothing of ruined watches, which would run it still higher.

Considering that twenty states are preparing to present bills to their legislatures this year. Can you imagine the loss the citizens of Indiana will suffer if it remains an open state and a "dumping ground" for all the unethical watchmakers from these other states?

Those who do not understand the situation cannot help themselves, but they will suffer the loss. Those of us who do understand and know the situation and do nothing about it are to blame for allowing it to continue.

Legislative control is the only solution for the problem. Even our supply houses are handicapped without it; for they cannot refuse to sell to the unethical unless we have such a law. Legislative control would not relieve the situation immediately because all those now practicing would have to be admitted. But it would prevent the unskilled from settling here; and in time, no doubt Indiana citizens could feel secure in the fact that those who practice will be educated for the work, which we all know requires much time, effort and money. Every step in civilization's progress has a more and more complex material accomplishment and these interwoven relationships of modern life, in which time is an important factor, can only be sustained through the use of acurate time-measuring instruments. In other words, civilization leans upon the watch and involves a closer and closer recording in smaller divisions of time by exact methods.

The middle ages produced clocks and watches; and clock and watches make the age in which we live. Man labored for thousands of years to produce a contrivance that would really tell the time.

Timekeeping has always been a part of history, and history a part of timekeeping. The entire universe revolves around time. Our civilized world came about through time. Everything we see and know is based upon time alone. Stop and think for a moment the necessity of time. The world would stand still without it. Then consider that recording of time dates back to the beginning of time. It was, and is, a science. The most scientific men of the world respected the ability of scientific watchmakers.

We must take steps to protect and preserve the science of Horology!