St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-10-10

1SS5-Hon. John Goode, Solicitor General:
My Dear Sir: l submit to you with this state
ment, made by Attorney General Garland,
explaining his relations (Or rather want of re-
lation) to the action taken by you in his alb
sence upon an application to bring in the
name OF the United States, q suit to test the
validity OF a patent, held by the Bell Tele-
phone company. I call your attention es-
pecally to the latter part of this statement,
in which the attorney general speaks of the
usual procedure in the department of Justice
upon such applications. The reference to
the interior department., which he mentions
as an ordinary feature in that pro-
cedure, seems to have been dispensed
with IN your treatment of this
application. This omission may have been
the result of lack of familiarity with the
routine in such cases, or of perfectly clear
and satisfactory persuasion of what should
be done, derived from the documents pre-
sented to you. Whatever the casue may be,
and while such reference is not vital, of cour Sc
TO the validity of your action, and though
am by no means prepared to question the
correctness OF the exercises of your discretion
in the matter, still the precedent calling for
reference to the department with which the
matter is connected is so well established and
seems to Inc so well founded upon considera-
tons OF safety as well as propriety, that de-
sire to suggest for your reflection, the propo-
sltion whether such action on your part as
will preserve and protect such precedent and
custom could not be we'll taken. Yours very
truly, GROVER CLEVELAND.
SOLICITOR GEN. GOODE,
under date of to-day, replies, acknowledge
ing the prevalence of the custom of refer
ence and his omission of it, and adds:
This omission was not the result of a
lack of familiarity with the routine in such
cases, but of a satisfactory persuasion de-
rived directly from the papers presented to
me as to what was right and proper to be
done in the premises. In addition to the
afiidavits which accompanied the letters of
the district attorney, who made application
to use the name of the United States in bring
ing the suit he transmitted an attested copy
OF all the writings flied in the patent office
and the proceedings had thereupon which re-
suited in the issue and delivering of the lat
ter's patent TO Mr.. Bell, and after a careful
examination of these exhibits, which ap-
peared authenticated, / came to the con-
clusion that all the necessary information
had already been furnished by the patent
office and inaSmuch as the question presented
by the papers for my consideration was a
legal one exclusively, did not deem it ad-
viSable to refer the application to the interior
department for suggestions
In closing he says he concurS in the sug-
geStion that the precedent is bad one to
set. and that he has accordingly written to
United States Attorney McCarey of the
Western district of Tennessee, directing
him to discontinue the suit.
Fraud Urged in the Ben Patents.
Special to the Globe.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 9.-The suit of the
United States against the Bell Telephone
company, which has just been dismissed,
was to set aside the patent held by the lat
ter. 1t is well known that the National
Telephone company'S contention is that the
Bell patents are void for want of novelty,
on the ground that the ReisS telephone was
a success fifteen years before Bell took out
patent, and covered all the essential pat
entable features of the Bell device, but it is
known to but few that the National I'm
provement company believes Itself able to
prove The Bell patents void on account of
fraud i'll procuring them. Bell took
out his first patent in February, 1876. At
that time Il. f. Wilber was the principal
electrical examiner in the patent office.
The National Improvement company be-
lieyes that it can show that at the time Bell
filed his application there were On file and
pending in the patent Office applications for
patents for telephones which covered points
not covered by Bells application, and of
nature, if patented, to make Bells in
by violation of law and fol peclIniary con-
sideration, told Bell what features were
claimed in these other applications, and
offered him the opportunity of withdrawing
his application and so amending it as
to include the features claimed by
his competitors, and on this amended
application Bells patents were granted;
that some months ago Mr.. Tom Benthuy-
sen, president of the National Improve
ment company, induced Wilber, who was
at the time under the influence of LIQUOR, to
make an affidavit to these facts; that
after WILDER Sobered off he remembered
what he had done and told lawyer about
it, and the lawyer told him that the best
thing he c0nld do was to make himself
scare e, for his testimony might be worth
more to the Bell than it was to the National
improvement company and the latter could
not use his affidavit in court unless they
could produce him. Wilber took the law
yers advice and his whereabouts are now
unknown. Agents of the Bell and National
Improvement companies lave been looking
for him, but it is supposed that he intends
to keep himself in seclusion until he finds
out how much the rival companies need
him as a witness.
1T Wfll Result in "a New Commission
Special to the Globe
WASHINGTON, Oct. 9.-There is trouble
in the court of commissioners of Alabama
claims in regard to the arrangements for
continuing the work Of the court with the
assistance of persons whose employment
Comptroller Dunbar decided to be un-
authorized. A portion of the attorneys
prosecuting cases before the court have sub
scribed enough money to pay the salaries of
those persons. In regard to the clerks no
objection can be made, but some Of the at
torneys refused on the ground of manifest
improperly to contribute to the salary of
the insurance expert, who is government
witness, and Mr.. Walker Blaine, who is
assistant attorney for the United States,
and the non-contrbuting lawyers say that
they cannot hope to receive the
same consideration from the counsel
for the government and the insurance
expert and the employees of the court as the
contributing attorneys, no matter how i'm
partial and fair the officers and employees of