Taking the [licensing] act as a whole, it would seem quite apparent that its purpose is to enable the employ[ers] to create a sort of guild or body as he may pass an examination, the requisites of which are not stated, and where is success or failure is to determined by a board of which some of their own number are members. In order to be at liberty to exercise his trade . . . he must pass this examination and become a member of this favored body. People ex rel. Nechamcus v. Warden, 144 N.Y. 539, 534 (1895).

Sound familiar? It's about plumbers!