Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1878-12-08
hustNEss BEFORE THE SUPREME
COURT.

tRustNEss BEFORE THE SUPREME
COURT.
ijniess Congress shall furnish some relief
10 suftors before the Supreme Court, the
accumulation Of business must soon be-
come 80 great as to almost involve a prac-
teal denial Of justice. At the present
form there are over nine hundred cases OF
tho docket, OF which less than a third will
be tried or dismissed, leaving Q dead
weight of six hundred to be carried over,
wholly independent Of the new ones to be
added.
In the regular course, between two and
three years must pass away before . case
can be reached ct all on the calendar, and
this condition Of things is growing worse
every year by the enormous increase in the
business Of the Court, most Of it triAing
and wholly untitled for such q tribunal.
Appeals in cases exceeding two thousand
dollars in civil actions from the Circuit
Courts, and in cases Of equity, and Of adj
miralty and maritime jurisdiction, and also
from the Supreme Court Of the District Of
Columbia, crowd the docket, to the great
obstruction Of important matters.
Bills are before Congress proposing vari-
Gus remedies for this grave embarrass-
ment by an intermediate Court Of Appeals,
by increasing the number Of Circuit Judges
and by removing from the Jurisdiction Of
the Supreme Court certain classes of infe-
rior cases that were never intended in its
original organization to be appealed there,
or were admitted to appeal when the bust
ness was limited, and the territorial area
Of the country was less than half what it is
now.
The Court itself. says the New York Sun,
by . judicious economy Of time, might lift
of . part of the present burden. For ex-
ample, Monday Of every week is appropri-
ated mostly to the reading Of opinions.
The day is usually too far gone for the
hearing Of arguments when that duty is
performed. On Monday last, two opinions
in patent cases consumed most OF the sit
ting. Now, If the Court would adopt q
rule Of announcing on Mondays that GER
tain judgments we're affirmed or reversed,
and file the opinions accompanying the
DEGREES, there would be a considerable
saving Of time.
In cases Of magnitude, touching State or
National, or great corporate interests, or
involving principles connected with the
H..-ek.-A:-- - or nuoa-
lions Of general application, of course the
existing practice would be continued by
consent and desire.
THE TRIBULATIONS OF AN IN
vENTOR.
An interesting story Of an inventors
trials and fluctuations, finally ending, not
in his own success, but in that Of q third
party, is told in explanation Of a decision
Of the United States Circuit Court Of New
York granting an injunction against the
Western Union Telegraph Company
against the use Of wires insulated with
gutta percha, and ordering an accounting
with the holders Of the patent therefor.
Gutta perchs became an article Of COM
merce about 1S45. At that time. and for
some years thereafter, Morse and others
we're experimenting with various articles
designed to serve as insulators for wires
used under wster. In 1s48 Farraday first
made public the insulating properties of
gutta percha, but he was preceded in the
discovery by George B. Simpson, who, in
November, 1847, filed his fist application
for . patent for the use Of gutta percha as
an insulator. He was too poor to pay the
fees End had to borrow the amounts re-
quired, bat his application for apatent was
refused. In the fall Of 1913 his invention
was tested at Baltimore and proved sue
-~cessful. but Ave successive applications for
patents were refused. and Mr.. Simpson,
who had paid Gil the fees with borro we'd
money, at length abandoned the attempt,
and in 1850 went to California. He re-
maiEed there eight years, but. returning
10 the East. found his invention in general
use. Then he began again, with his own
money, the battle for his rights. For eight
years he filed applications with each new
Commissioner Of Patents with the usual
result. rejection. In 1866 he got a relief
bill through Congress. and under this OBJ
tanned : favorable report and q patent.
He was at this time 1851 . paymaster in
the United States service, stationed at New
Orleans, and three months after the patent
was granted died Of yellow fever. His
widow sold the patent right for q trile to
Arthur N. Eastman, who has since died,
and il is the assignee Of the latter who has
won the suit in New York. The story is
not q very encouraging n for inventors,
hui it may be for assignees and lawyers.
SOME GOOD SHOULD GROW OUT
1t IL, perhaps, fortunate that the very
bitter controversy now raging between the
army on the one hand and the Secretary OF
the Interior on the other, in regard to tbs
management Of our Indian affairs, has
sprung up. Both sides are in earnest;
both seem disposed and prepared TO strike
hard blows. Probably out u the sharp
-z-x-A ~o~a Hal - &rxkb may he a1fcifad