The municipal control of plumbing in the United States dates back only about twenty-five years, although some simple regulations were in effect in Lowell, Mass., and Providence, R. I., as early as 1878. The earliest codes with any claims to completeness took effect in 1881. The first such rules were made under the authority of general statutory provisions which conferred power on local governments to legislate on sanitary affairs. It soon became evident, however, that State legislation was necessary in order to give proper uniformity to the method of control; and general plumbing laws have now been enacted in more than twenty States.

The application of the police power in the State - which may be broadly defined as "The power of promoting the public welfare by restraining and regulating the use of liberty and property" - was at first questioned when used in this connection. Owing, however, to the advances in public opinion regarding these questions of general welfare, it has been settled by numerous decisions that the regulation of plumbing construction by competent persons and in accordance with well-defined laws of design is a proper function of the Commonwealth. A recent authority has said: "The legislation on this subject has been the result of evolution, and conditions that were at one time tolerated are now recognized, with the growth of knowledge and the advance in sanitary science, as dangerous to life and health."

The scope of plumbing laws varies in the different States. They usually provide in general terms for the establishment of a Plumbing Board in each of the larger cities. Such a board generally includes at least one master and one journeyman plumber, together with some member of the Board of Health, or other city official, whose duties bring him closely in touch with plumbing construction. This board has authority to examine candidates for licenses as master plumbers and for journeymen's certificates, and to determine their competency to conduct the business or to work at the trade. If an applicant is not found competent, he is forbidden to do plumb-ing work. Either the board as above constituted, or the Board of Health, is Charged with the duty of regulating plumbing design; and in most cities, ordinances have been framed with this end in view. The method by which plumbing shall be controlled is sometimes defined by the state law, and is in other cases determined by provisions of the city charter.

The extent to which regulations and ordinances prescribe the types of construction, varies greatly. In the smaller cities, a simple regulation comprising a few paragraphs is all that is found necessary. In the larger cities, long and complicated ordinances, with many provisions describing in great detail the materials that may be used, the method of venting, etc., have been framed. The great advances in plumbing design and in types of fixtures available create a necessity for some adaptation of plumbing rules to changed conditions.

The jurisdiction under which the control of plumbing inspection should be placed - whether with the Department of Health or with the Building Bureau - has been a subject of some controversy. The enforcement of the earlier plumbing rules was entrusted to the sanitary authorities; and the supervision of plumbing is, in many of the larger cities, still in the hands of the Health Department. There has been, however, in the last few years, in connection with the more detailed study of features of plumbing design, a well-defined feeling that the questions of greatest importance fall within the province of the Sanitary Engineer, and may be logically treated by that department which has control of other details of building construction. In New York and Boston, as well as in some smaller cities, jurisdiction over the Plumbing Bureau is placed with the Department of Buildings.

Although the extension of plumbing supervision to those cities where it has not previously been in existence has been rapid, there still remain a number of large cities and many smaller ones which have neither regulations governing plumbing nor inspectors to supervise plumbing construction; and in many States no movement has yet been made to frame general laws upon this subject.