Richland beacon. [volume] (Rayville, La.) 1869-1890, 1888-05-05
WASHINGTON LETTER.
(From our Regular correspondent
Washington, ID. c., Apr. &c, 1883.


DONG business in the United STATES Pa;cn,
Office are becoming lend and frequent. ],
i, charged tina, the examiners in tie Office
are extremely careless. sone say criminal IA
'heirrx nhi,aIinn &C apriirri!oms FOR la,rnt,;
HAT they Throw out inany applications " i,l-
out properly examining ,iI-rn TO discover
whether they are paten'a5e or no,; that other
arpicaInns are rejected " inch the examiner
tnows should he allowed.
These are serious charves against an I'M
porrans branch 81 the government. I have
thoroughly investigated The matter in order to
discover " nat il any, f,uuda,ion iaere is for
he cia,ges and vino IL to blame. | soon
Uncovered that the charges were all too true.
or rather thut many o! them were I also
discovered TIA; the parties who were re-
i"n-ihie fur il,>, / nigh, almos, say dis
'fict;m!. State Of affairs, were tue republican
examiners " 10 have been allowed 20 con.
Time il n:lire under the present administra-
ton. Aud thai is not all. am firmly con-
WINGED dat these hoid-over republican
examiners have conspired together 10 bring
the office into bad repute, in order TO help
the republican party in the Presidential
campaign this year.
! In order to get some idea OF The political
effect Of such conspiracy among these re-
publican examiners, just think for a moment
of the great number of people who are either
directly or indirectly interested in the
business of dis Office. Suppose you notice
for ono day, everything you see. and You will
find low many of them are patented or are
the product Of patented machine or process
iou will be surprised, for you will discover
that about meme tentbs of all the things either
manufactured or produced IN this country are
| connected IN some way with United States
patent
After this discovery yO; will not be sur>
pnsed to learn that this government Issues
more patents every year than oil the rest Of
the world combined. Now you can more
that can be done the administration by the
conspira'ors. Every man whose patent is
disallowed without a good and sutIicien,
reason therefore, becomes a deadly enemy,
not o. the examiner but OF the democratic
administration, which he believes has mis-,
treated him, and his idea of getting even is,
nine times Out Of ten, 10 work like bazes for
the republican party. This fellow is no,
alone, there are, so TO speak, thousands OF
HIM, and the republican examiners of the
Patent Office are TO blame for all bis troubles
In no branch of The government is the head
ola department so dependent on his subor-
dinates as in the Patent Office. In 1885
President Cleveland appointed Mr. Mont,
somery, Michigan lawyer, Commissioner
of Patents. At The time that was considered
an excellent appointment. But owing TO
lack Of familiarity on the part of Mr.. Mont
gomey with the extremely complicated
practice the office, his republican .ubordi.
mates virtually ran j, for him. The na,u.
raj result was neglect and idleness on the
part of the employees and complaints on the
part OF the representatives Of the pa,eDtees Of
the county.
am informed BY gentleman who IS in
position to know whereof be speaks tina, there
are quite a number Of ex,exarniners of The
Patent Office now engaged in business here
as patent attorneys, whose sole capital with
which to begin business were long list, of
the names and addresses Of applicants for
patents whose applications they had un>
Ius'ly rejected for the sole purpose of after
Rrds getting fee as an attorney for 2rocur.
ma he paien, they had as 81 examiner of
the ni,ei States Patent Office rejected. !
Thesev gen are republicans.
In oro to break up thi. practice, bills
have been Introduced in Congress several
times to make examiners Of the patent Office
Ineligible 10 al as patent attorneys for two
years from the date of their designations or
dismissais from cdice. So far interested |
parties have in some way been able 10 pre-,
vent such bills from becoming laws
Las, year Mr.. Montgomery was succeeded
by ex-Represen,ative Hall, of Iowa, as
Commissioner of patents Nj. Hail is an
ab'e and honest man, bu, like his predecessor,
be too was unfamiliar with the workings of
he office, and the republican examiners sue
seeded in getting him to make a series of
'ul!ngs which heve produced much trouble
md litigation. In the mean time the re.
publican examiners are enjoying the situation
Ind working hard for the success of their
party mex, fall.
When Mr.. Villas, with his vigorous bust
Tess methods, succeeded Mr. Lamar as
Secretary OF the Interior, he at once noticed
he loose way Of doing business that was in
rogue there. and issued an order prohibiting
employees sossipins, smoking, writing private
stters, etc., during Office hours. This order
rented big scare among the republican
xarnineis and outwaroly there was a sudden
transformation in the Office, but in reality
hey are devoting more of their time trying
...x Il. IL. Il