Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1884-03-13

IN myself. IneTeIoTe tle inherent
justice of copyright and patent laws.
Therefore do great numbers of thought
full, toiling people devote themselves To
the production of patents and ofbooks.
If deprived of exclusive ownership,
their iabors would he instantly sus-
pended and the wheels of the world s
progress instantly stand still. 1t is
also true that however beneficent
and infinitely useful any patented
mechanism, great sum of money
must be expended in introducing it
into general use, and newspapers are
thus the great beneficiaries as well as
benefactors of inventors. Repeal the
patent laws or so restrict them that
! the inventor loses every inducement
| to popularize his work, and the people
will never learn how cheapiy cotton
may be gathered, or wells made, or
| cloth stitched, or dispatches sent, or
machinery prspelled, or houses lighted.
| The wou9erful progress of the United
| Statesfn art and wealth and civiliza-
| ton is mainly due to liberal patent
laws, which have stimulated invention
here, il not elsewhere in the world.
Switzerland, unhappily for the peo-
pie of that country, hasn't no patent
laws, and inventors We're thus exiled.
They came TO the United States, and
we have AZ n consequence the best and
cheapest watches in the world. Eng
land has seen how the liberal and juat
patent codes of the United States
stimulated mechanical exertion in
every direction, and how the United
States are outstripping all nations in
practical progress, and England has
recently given infinitely greater privi-
leges and rewards to inventive toll
and genius than ever before. France,
too, grows more and more generous TO
patentees, and Switzerland has just
enacted codes very like ours. Russia,
on the contrary, simply proposes to.
give an investor for two years eX-
elusive use of his machine or device,
and it results that Russians are least
intelligent and least progressive, and
have fewest comforts of all Europeans.
PROGRESS TURNED BACKWARDS.
The politicians in efforts TO repeal
the patent laws are laundering fatally.
Pullman's, and the sewing machine
and the well-boring monopolies y
may be terrible, expressions and
grievous, to be borne; but the people
robbed through u few years by these
pAtentees are voluntary victims. They
are surely in better condition than be-
fore these patents existed, or they would
not pay Tor them. The people, by
no possibility, can he wronged by the
exclusive ownership of his book or pat
ent by the inventor, and only by this
exclusive ownership can men be in
duced To make books and inventions.
A great stride backward will be taken
whenever the wheels of progress are
no longer made to revolve with con-
stantly accelerated velocity by proper
patent laws.
SUNSET COX AND A QUEER GENIUS.
wot OF "a gentleman who has de-
voted time and toll for twenty years
to the purpose of perfecting Il vessel
which shall glide like sea-bird over
the face OF the waters. 1t Is propelled
neither by wheels nor screws nor pad
dies, and yet is driven by steam, as 1t
must be, / am told, by the bi-sulphide
of carbon. Its speed, even BOW, Is FOR
~ miles an hour. 1t can run like a
shot into the huh of the strongest iron
clad, aud IFS speed is only limited Ivy
the strength of iron bolts and bars
combining the engine TO the floor
Of the vessel. n dozen
of these lleet vessels strongly
constructed could protect the whole
American coast. Mr.. Cox says the
government will pay any reasonable
sum for the simple secret by which this
extraordinary speed may be attained.
The inventor stated yesterday that he
could go 10 Norfolk and back, 500
miles, in six hours, ana then lie added
III those crazy fellows up there repeal
the patent laws under which I've been
toilirg these twenty years, ] will blow
up the whole concern. Ii ! toll aud
study and expend life and health for
the advantage OF my country and my
people, they should not be so base that
they will claim, Gs their own, Ina!
which they never had and never could
have If choose to deny them the
blessing. But the senate is more con
servative, aud hope wiser than the
house. 1t will 90 very slowly III re-
forming the patent Laws which have
made this the richest aud most pro-
gressive country on the globe"