Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1880-04-14
CHEAP PATENTS CHEAPEN
GOODS.


The attorneys of anti-patent associ-
ations waste no end of rhetoric in des-
cribing the burdens put upon purchas-
ers by the multiplication of patent
rights. Every thing is patented or
made with patent machinery or by pat
ent processes therefore everything
must cost great deal more than it
would were there no patents. This is
their logic stripped Of verbiage. The
only fault with it is the persistence of
facts in always going dead to the con-
trary. 1t is plausible but it is not true.
The moment one sees the word 'pat-
ented" stamped on an article it is safe
to infer one of two things: either the
thing is cheaper and better than any,
thing of the. sort previously in market,
or it is an entirely novel article, which
in all probability would never have
produced except for the patent laws.
A pretty illustration of this indus
trial and commercial parodox occurs in
paper lately read by prominent
English builder before the Manchester
(England) Scientific and Mechanical
Society. The reader had been, for the
second time, comparing English with
American made builders hardware,
showing the marked superiority" of
the latter. and in summing up the
causes which had led to the competi-
tion upon their own doorsteps from
American manufacturers. He said:
Another and most important factor
in the sum of lightweight under which
we have to stagger in this race is our
absurd patent laws. If our legislators
had set out with the intention of sup
pressing the inventive genius of the
country, they could not have succeeded
more completely than they have done.
Can we wonder that America is such
close competitor in the manufacture
of these small articles, when we know
that for payment of Els the inventor
can secure himself for seventeen years,
whilst in this country it will cost at
least twice the money to secure an in
vention for three years only? How
can man with inventive skill, but
with limited means, make the most of
his talents? Too often he spends all
his little savings, ruins himself, and,
when bis three years have expired,
sees some other person take his inven-
tion in hand and realize the profit that
belongs to himself The result is that,
disheartened and disgusted, he for
ever buries his talent in the earth. 1
show you here small article Of Amer
lean make, not connected with the
building trade, as an illustration of the
different influence of the patent laws of
the two countries. This little machine
(an apple-parer) carries eight patents,
yet its wholesale price in England to-
day is less than As"
A most ingenious parodox, truly!
The apple-parer was beyond Eng
lsh competition because it carried
eight patents. 1t is safe to say that
every single patent had improved its
working or lessened its price.
But why could not the English 'uaL
ufacturer, have no patent royalties to
pay, produce and sell the article On the
spot cheaper than the American, with
5000 miles freightage to pay in addi-
tion to the cost of manufacture There
may be several reasons more or less
sufficient but one is enough Having
no monopoly of the manufacture, the
Englishman could not afford to risk the
investment necessary to enable him to
produce the article cheaply.
Our Canadian friends discovered
that law of trade when they under
took to reap tie benefit of Yankee in
ventions without payment OF patent
royalties. The only drawback was the
simple circumstance that, though Ca
nadians had the worlds best inventions
to choose from gratis, no man dared to
undertake the manufacture of novel ar
ticles when everybody else was free to
set up in opposition. Canadian indus
tries would not multiply until the Ca
madam Government recognized the
property rights Of all inventors then
the Canadians began TO be manufac-
turing people.
Our Western and Southern citizens
are rapidly learning the same impor-
tant lesson. Industries increase and
multiply, and industrial products i'm
prove and cheaper in direct proportion
to the number of patents issued; and
the number of patents issued depends
very largely upon the lowness of the
official fees for issuing them. Which
brings as round to our thesis, that
cheapening patents cheapens products.