The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1885-06-18
Clann-Gr1ffith Patent.

Il
We publish elsewhere an article from
the New York Times, referring to a new
process for making steel, known as the
Clapp- Griffith patent. The experiments
which have been made encourage the belief
that the invention will prove a success,
and if SO have an important influence
over the value of Virginia iron ores. The
question to be considered, in the event OF
a demonstrated success, is, what IS TO pc
done with the patent? Will it fall into the
the hands Of the owners of the Bessemer
process and be absorbed by them, without
working out the benefit the patent would
certainly accomplish if practically operated
wherever there are phosphoretic ores The
Bessemer monopoly allowsno competition
if it can destroy it. Such patent as that OF
the Clapp-Grifiith would operate revo-
luton in steel manufacture would utll-
ize the phosphoretic ores land give value to
many iron properties which they do not now
possess. The larger portion of the iron
ores Of Virginia. Tennessee. Alabama and
throughout the South are more or less i'm
pregnated with phosphorus and any meth
cd by which the phosphoretic property can
be eliminated, in the manufacture OF steel,
would be of incalculable advantage to this
section.
1t is an interesting question, whether or
not it would be proper for Congress to in
terpose to protect the public interests by
inhibiting the absorption of any invention
that looks to charging the resources of the
country and cheapening so important a
product as steel. The patent is properly
the property of the inventor, it is true,
but as the laws of Congress give it the
value it may possess, is it not within the
scope of the powers Of that body to guard
it against being perverted to a public dis
advantage -?
I he increasing demand for steel for
many OF the purposes for which iron has
| heretofore been used, attaches more than
ordinary Importance to any invention that
j will popularize the material out of which
steel may be made. In the degree that this
is done, does it become public benefactor,
and protest against any monopoly that
would practically destroy an agency so in
timately associated with the profitable de-
velopment and utilization of the mineral
resources of the country.
Should the tests now being made I'M
der the Clapp Griffith invention prove
successful, attention will be prominently
called to any effort that may be made to
capture and virtually suppress the patent
in the interest of an existing monopoly.
sit is a duty they owe to themselves,
and the people of adjoinining States, that
Malone and his party should be crushed
for all time. 1t is not the Republican
party of Pennsylvania or Massachusetts
or Illinois which we are fighting, but the
so-called Republican party of Virginia
which is dependent entirely upon negro
votes to carry the State, and not only this
but it is the party of one man, and that
man who has never let slip an opportunity
to bring disgrace and humiliation upon the
State and people he claims to represent. y
Lexington Gazette.
We hope our contemporary feels relieved
after this bilious discharge. In what re-
spect the Republican party Of Virginia
differs from the Republican party Of other
States, is not easily discerned except in
the prejudiced imagination of the Bour-
bon writer's Of Virginia. 1t is recognized
as part of the Republican party of the
country was so recognized in the Nation
al Convention in the recent Presidential
canvass in the Senate of the United
States and on the floor of the House, and
it has supported the platform and the can
didates Of the party whenever called upon
Wherein the disgrace to Virginia ap-
pears calls for more astuteness than the
Gazette has yet exhibited, to discern. The
Democrats of Virginia have had to accept
either willingly or unwillingly every
proposition that the Republicans have for
mulated and enacted. They accept the Rid
dleberger bill; they accept the repeal of the
whipping post law; they accept the..repeal
of the capitation tax restriction on the bal
ballot they accept the restoration OF the
public schools after they had been prostrat-
ed under Democratic administration; they
accept the removal of helpless lunatics
from the common jails to comfortable ac-
commodations in the Asylums. They, in
fact, accept everything that the Republi-
cans have devised and consummated, be-
cause they were compelled to do so by the
force of public opinion, and then, too, af-
ter they had expended their energies and
strength in opposing the legislation which
had effected these reforms. If from any
of these things disgrace" has attached to
Virginia, the Democrats will have to &C.
cept that, too, for they have publicly pro-
claimed that they endorse them all, and
indeed, announced their purpose to be even
more advanced than are the Republicans
on some Of these propositions. After the
record the Democratic party made in the
last Legislature, those who speak for tina
party ought to be careful in the use of the
term disgrace To deliberately scheme
and plot to unseat a dozen or more legally
elected Republican representatives of the
people and illegally seat a like number
| of Democrats, that two-thirds majority
might be secured in the Legislature to
practically neutralize or nullify co-or-
dinate branch of the government, so that
partizan legislation might be enacted, to
the ordinary comprehension ought to con-
stitute burning disgrace" To disfran-
chise legislative district, by three times
refusing to seat the delegates whom the
people had elected to be their representa-
tives by large majorities, in order to carry
out partizan scheme, ought to stand out
as a monumental disgrace. To pass an
election bill, by which provision is made
to make the election machinery partizan
and place it in the power of one party to
defeat the will of the people as expressed
at the ballot-box, ought to be considered a
disgrace" by all fair-minded men.
These things the Democratic party
could do, and yet have the effrontery to ar
raign the Republicans as conspiring to dis
grace' the Commonwealth. Let the Ga
sette give the counts in it's Indictment
and demonstrate where the ''disgra cen
comes in.