To the Officers and Members United Horological Association

From American Horologist magazine, December 1938

To the Officers and Members United Horological Association:

November 19, 1938

Dear Brother Craftsmen:

At the 1938 National Convention I was honored by election to the office of Vice-President of this, your Association. It is so very seldom that a Vice-president is called upon to perform the duties of President, that I felt entirely safe in accepting this honorary office.

Having accepted the office of Vice-President, I now find myself bound by the rules of Honor and Fair Play to accept the obligations and duties of President. Frankly the requirements of this office are beyond my available time and ability. Your Executive Board has expressed its unwillingness to accept my plea that I be relieved of this office and some other person chosen.

I therefore pledge myself to uphold the principles and obligations of this Association, dedicated to the American Watchmaker. I ask that each of you reaffirm your faith in our aims and purposes, and your obligations to carryon our work now successfully begun.

There is no expectation on my part that I shall prove myself a Good President. I therefore ask each of you to work a little harder to carry forward our plans for the betterment of our fine craft. Inactivity, not incompetence, is the enemy of a successful association. If we will all put a little more into our association work, we will all enjoy the fruits of success.

With the knowledge that it is humanly impossible for all to see our various problems and their solutions in the same light, but that we are all nevertheless striving toward the same end, let us each determine to do more than ever before to strengthen and unify our National Association.

Your Association needs the constant and active support of every competent and honorable craftsman.

Fraternally yours, (Signed) 

B. W. HEALD, President, U.H.A.A.