As the knightly descendants of "mime-singers" of the middle ages became in the course of time skilled master singers of German cities, so it appears that our musicians, men of a free country, are being forced into a trade union which has been established here, and which regards every non-union musician as being a "scab". Even Theodore Thomas had to feel the intolerance of the Union, when he presented at his concerts a non-inion oboe artist, to whom the Musician's Union objected. The New York Staats-Zeitung says: The Musician's Union bitterly denounces Mr. Theodore Thomas, who dared on his concert tour throughout the United States to present a German oboe artist. No protest was heard on his coast-to-coat tour until he reached New York. Then, just a few minutes before the beginning of the concert, the union officials thundered their "so far and no further". One of their paragraphs demands not only the exclusive employment of union musicians, but that any artist from foreign lands has to reside in this country six months prior to joining the union. In order not to disappoint the audience, Mr. Thomas had to consent to pay a large sum as a fine for violating the Union's rules. A warning was given him that on the repetition of such a 2violation the Union's statutes would double the punishment, and a disregarding of it for a third time would man the expulsion of all Thomas's musicians from the Union.....

Whatever improvements the Twentieth Century may bring, the large majority of sane thinking people in the last quarter of this century are still of the opinion, as they have been for thousands of years, that there is a vast difference between art and handiwork, and if musicians descend to the level of day laborers they cease to be artists.