The Conservative * 9
tion ? " Of what is the public deprived
during the short term of the patent by
the application of such a rulq if the
patented thing be new and useful ? The
public , in such a case , were not in pos
session of the thing before the grant of
the patent , 'so they were no worse off
than they were before in being temporarily
arily deprived of its use. On the other
hand , at the end of the monopoly they
are in free possession of that which they
did not have before. If the patented
thing bo of comparatively little use , the
profits of the inventor will bo proportionately
tionately small and the temporary de
privation to the pxiblic of the right to
use it during the term of the patent
will be proportionately slight. If it beef
of really great value , so much the better
for the public at the expiration of the
patent. In any event , it is a thing
which but. for our patent system the
( public would not have had , since ex
perience has shown that but for the in-
I ducements held out by such a system
I the tseful arts and manufactures do not
thrive.
We have not only the words of our
distinguished Chief Justice Marshall to
assure us that our patent system thus
administered is best administered , but
thus , in othpr words but to the same
effect , does that great philosopher of
utility , Jeremy Beutham , speak : "A
patent of invention is an instance of a
reward peculiarly adapted to the nature
of the service , and adapts itself with the
utmost nicety to these rules of proportion
tion to which it is most difficult for ro-
wnrds artificially instituted by the legis
lature to conform. If confined , as it
ought to be , to the precise point in
which the originality of the invention
consists , it is conferred with the least
possible waste or expense. It causes a
service to be rendered , which , without
it , a man would not have a motive for
rendering , and that only by forbidding
| others from doing that which were it
{ not for that service it woul d not have been
| possible for them to have done. Even
with regard to such inventions , for such
there will be when others besides him
who possesses the reward have scent of
the invention , it is still of use by stimu
lating all parties and setting them to
strive which shall first bring the discov
ery to bear. With all this it unites
every property that can be wished foi
in a reward. It is variable , equable
commensurable , frugal , promotive of
perseverance , subservient to compensa
tion , popular , and reasonable. "
Conclusion.
What is pateutable is to bo determined
by the language of the statute ( Sec
4886 , R. S. U. S. ) , fairly and liberally
construed.
If the thing patented can fairly bo said
to come within the comprehensive term
used hi the statute , / . e. , is any art
machine , manufacture , or composition
of mutter , or any improvement thereof
and is new and useful , then it is patent-
able under the law , and the patentee
ms "invented or discovered" something
vithin the meaning of the statute.
To undertake any other test of this is
: o leave the certain , true , and only safe
guide provided by the statute , and to
nter the uncertain realm of meta
physics.
St. Louis , February , 1899.
The perpetually
WAS AND is.
recurring birth
days of eminent statesmen who illumt-
mtedthe early days of the republic , and
constantly increasing holidays make the
banquet business and the vocal exercise
of post-prandial speakers monotonous
and wearisome. Many of these body-
and eutertain-
stuffing mind-attenuating -
nents are crowded into each month of
ho year. The stomach of the most ro-
mst patriotism is nauseated and the ap-
jotite of the vanest athletic oratory is
lulled by this supreme satiety of dinners
and speeches. Disgust and dyspepsia fol-
ow as sequences , and a revolt against
; ho too frequent admixture of hospitality
and exhortations is already materializing
in till parts of the United States.
The banquets have been generally in
honor of some statesman or partisan who
was , in his day and
AViiH. . .
environment , a wise
and earnest man. What ho would bo
in this day and with its conditions , du
ties and problems nobody knows. What
was patriotic and expedient then may bo
wrong and inexpedient now. The ? 's of
today , may be by evolution and trans
mission , very logically , altogether unlike
the was of yesterday. The need of the
American people is not studies of and
eulogies upon dead men and their views
of conditions and questions which ex
isted a hundred years ago. But strong
common sense , old-fashioned frankness ,
consummate courage and stalwart hon
esty are needed. They are needed in
living , acting and intelligent men of
affairs who ought to bo charged with
the responsibilities and duties of this
momentous crisis of self-government
upon this continent.
The was is not ours. The in belongs
to us. Good men with moral bravery
existed then and there must bo some oi
the same breed now. The republic
needs them. Cool judgment , real pat
riotism is required to study and solve
the complex problems which an un
necessary war and undesirable territoria
and populationnl acquisitions have
forced upon this government.
If the pioneer legislators of Iowa , Mis
souri , Kansas and Nebraska had enactec
laws unfair and inequitable , relative to
insurance companies , railway corpora
tious and banks and banking , in 1854
1855 and all along up to the present time
as is much of the legislation now ad
vocated there would have boon less do
velopment by two-thirds , than there has
) een in each. Formerly there were a
universal desire and a unanimous effort to
nduce railroad building , and the influx
of capital , in all forms , to the states of
he Northwest. The invitation to bring
n dollars by the hundred , by the thous
and and by the million was given then
vith unanimity and heartiness to all the
vorld. Then the pioneers prided thorn-
elves upon their appreciation of and
dndly feelings towards capital and cap-
talists. But some of their less sensible
successors do everything possible , by
egislatiou , and taxation , to drive money
and men with money from the Western
states.
The San Fran-
111SOKNT KAINS IN cigco Call of
CAIiIFOltNIA. , . ,
March 16 , 1899 ,
reaches THE CONSERVATIVE on the morn -
ng of Monday , the 20th instant. This
great newspaper and able advocate of
the material and moral interests of the
Pacific states is overflowing with praise
and rejoicings because of the recent gen
eral and continuous downpour of rain
all over the golden commonwealth and
; ho state of Oregon.
Never before was rain more needed
and never again will it bo more grate
fully received an3rwhero on the globe.
The agricultural and horticultural in
dustries of California are baptized with
renewed vitality and prosperity is as
sured.
The greatest
THE GJtKATJSST menace to develop-
A1KNAC12. , , .
ment and improve
ment in Nebraska and in Kansas and
Missouri is the active and ingenious
mania which is constantly inventing
laws inimical to railroads and all other
forms of incorporated capital.
There are no three states in the Amer
ican republic so much needing new cap
ital with which to open up new indus
tries like beetsugar ] , straw'paper , cement
and pottery factories.
Never before was there so much capi
tal at liberty for investment in the West
and never before have a civilized people
placed guards , in the shape of hostile
law-makers , on the borders of their domain -
main to exclude and repel the in-coming I
of millions of dollars anxious to bo
"benevolently assimilated" in the mater
ial development of this great empire of
fertility.
A Lincoln poet sounds his loud tim
brel o'er the dark waters of the Blue
river :
"Flow down from thy prairies
Oh , waves of the Blue ,
Through pathways the fairies
Have trodden for you : "
Says the poet , thus including buffaloes ,
Pawnees and Mormons all together
under an appellation that the pioneers
seldom applied to any. ofthem , , . , , . , ,
* reit
