William Braid White's Sidelight On History: The First Two Tries

1893
The history of attempts to organize the tuners and piano technicians of this country is longer than most men of today suppose. During the great Columbian Exposition in 1893 in Chicago, a group of these technical men from various parts of the country organized a National Tuners Association. Their purpose, so far as I have been able to find out, was to secure something like a fair level of prices for their work, and, to mobilize these recognized experts into a single national body. I can remember the late Benjamin Carr of Chicago, well known during his life as one of the best known of the tuner group in those days, had much to do with the founding and carrying on of the NTA, which, however, was unable to maintain itself against the negative forces of general apathy. It went to sleep; and declined thereafter to come back to consciousness.
1904
Some 10 years later, a small company of well known tuners, mostly connected with the more important music houses of New York City, met privately, and determined to form a society of thoroughly high-class technical experts, most, of course, from among the "outside" or visiting groups. Their expectation was to set up a sort of academy of choice spirits, who should be able to exert a strong influence upon the piano manufacturers and merchants of New York and of the eastern states. This was, if i remember, in 1904.
The local industry made no objections, and the first auguries were quite favorable. There was even a certain small favorable reaction in some other large cities; but again the destined life turned out to be sadly short. The thing would not hold together.
The top-ranked experts serving the great houses, and knowing themselves to be indispensable, considered that they formed a superior class and looked down upon their less distinguished confreres of the factories. The latter were jealous and the former very far from being fraternal.
As a song of the day, very popular among the habitues of the variety theaters, very aptly put it: "More work for the undertaker, 'nother little job for the casket maker."
Almost any other group of co-workers in any recognized activity could be brought together and formed into a permanent body; but the piano tuners seemed to be a "peculiar people." They may have loved each other, but their beliefs differed rather sadly from their practices. They may have called themselves brothers, but in fact, they were intensely jealous of each other and little inclined to entertain mutual fraternal sentiments.