Very few contracting plumbers realize the value and importance of helpers and exercise sufficient care in their selection; yet no other factor so affects the quantity and quality of work turned out by a journeyman as the helper or apprentice he has for an assistant. There is no economy in robbing the cradle for boys to carry tools, just because they can be had for $3 per week. It is better to get an older boy who is ambitious to advance himself and pay him $6 per week for his services. The youth who thinks of nothing but baseball and quitting time is a drag to the journeyman instead of a help, while at the same time he is expected to do more work on account of the boy. It is a good plan never to employ a "friend of the family" as an apprentice or helper unless he is told emphatically that he works on an equal footing with the other boys, and that if he doesn't make good the plumber he is working with is authorized to let him go, and that plan should be systematically followed out. The plumber should be given to understand that he is credited with a helper whom he is expected to make work and if the helper is not satisfactory he is to send him to the shop.

By this means the contractor will soon learn what helpers are worth keeping and can let the others go. The materials used in plumbing construction are so heavy, and such a strong boy is required for cutting threads and helping with the other work, that a helper under sixteen years of age is of but little value.