There are too many men engaged in plumbing and heating contracting in Virginia. There is little incentive for any contractor to attempt to “elevate” the industry by investing money in a salesroom or showroom. The man in the back-alley competes on equal terms with the man who has a respectable establishment; he pays no more for the material which he installs. The advertising of the manufacturer has been mainly “product advertising”; he has led the public to believe that the make or manufacture of the material determines whether or not it will function properly. The merchant who pays high wages to competent mechanics must thus compete with the handy-man. The contractor who builds up a prospect-list and who adds to his business expense by attempting to properly run a sales department sees the customers in whom he has created a desire for better plumbing or heating, go to his backstreet competitor, where the same equipment can be bought from twenty to thirty percent cheaper. There is volume enough for less than half of the contractors now in business, and what business exists is for the most part done at a loss. The recommendations following apply to the merchant-contractor, not to the repair or maintenance man. There must be, especially in the small towns, small repair shops which may quickly and economically take care of minor repairs and installations. The larger establishments may sometime establish branches to handle minor work in the smaller communities, but until this occurs there will be a proper field for the small shop. However, this will be unable to compete with the contracting shop on installations of any considerable size, on account of the cost of labor-saving power machinery. / M.S.