"
Now, if some boilermakers are so dishonest as to try and impose upon the
locomotive engineer, who they know will carefully examine every part of
his boiler, and who is able to detect any flaw, it is not to be expected
that the farmer will escape. Nor does he. The great number of explosions
of boilers used in thrashing and in other farm work proves that there
are boilermakers who "force their boilers into such localities
when their work is not up to the requirements of the law." And the
boilermaker, if he be dishonest, is doubly tempted if the broad width of
a continent intervenes between him and the farmer for whom his work is
intended, and if in the place where the boiler is to be used there are
no inspection laws in force. The farmer who lives many miles from a
city, and who has no means of testing any boiler he may purchase,
is wholly at the mercy of the boilermaker, and must run it until it
explodes or time proves it to have been honestly made. Then, again,
there are boilermakers who, although making boilers of good iron and of
the proper thickness, finish them off so badly that the farmer is put to
great inconvenience and expense to put them in working order.
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