St. Landry democrat., 1888-05-05
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From our Regular Correspondent.
WASHINGTON, April %, 1888.


WASHINGTON, April %, 1888.
Complaints against the present meth,
DDS Of doing business in the United
States Patent Office are becoming loud
and frequent. 1t is charged that the
examiners in the office are extremely
careless, some say criminal, in their ex-
animation of applications for patents;
that they throw out many Applications
without properly examining them TO DIS
cover whether they are patentaole or
not: that other applications are reject,
ed which the examiner knows should
be allowed.
These are serious charges against an
imnortapt branch of the Government.
7 have thoroughly Investigated the mat
ter in order to discover what, if any
foundation, there is for the charges and
who is to blame. | soon discovered
that the charges were all too true, or
rather that many of them were. | also
discovered that the parties whD were
responsible for this, might also say
disgraceful, state of affairs, were the
Republican examiners who have been
allowed to continue in Office under the
present administration. And that is
not all. I am fairly convinced that
these hold-over Republican examiners
have conspired together to bring the
office into bad repute, in order to help
the Republican party in the Republican
campaign this year.
In order to get some idea of the po-
ltical effect of such conspiracy
among these Republican examiners,
lust think for a moment of the great
number of people who are either di-
rectly or indirectly interested in the
business of this officea Suppose you
notice for one day, everything you see,
and you will find how many of them are
patented or are the product of patent
ed machine or process. You will be
surprised, for you will discover that
about nine tenths of all the things eth
er manufactured or produced in this
country are connected in some way with
United States patent.
After this discovery you will not be
surprised to learn that this Government
issues more patents every year than all
the rest of the world combined. Now
You can more readily understand the
amount of damage that can be done the
Administration by the conspirator.
Every man whose patent is disallowed
without good and sufficient reason
therefor, becomes deadly enemy, not
of the Examiner but of the Democratic
Administration, which he believes has
mstreated him, and his idea of getting
even is, nine times out of ten, to work
like blazes for the Republican party.
This fellow is not 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 of q Department so depend
ant on his subordinates as in the pat
ent office. In 1885 President Cleveland
appointed Mr.. Montgomery, Michi-
gan lawyer, Commissioner of Patents.
AT the the time that was considered an
excellent appointment, but, owing to
a lack of familiarity on the part of Mr..
Montgomery with the extremely COM
plicated practice of the office, his Re-
publican subordinates virtually ran it
for him. The natural result was neg
lect and idleness on the part of the en-
ployes and complaint on the part of the
representatives of the patentees of the
country.
am informed by gentleman who
speaks that there are quite number of
examiners of the patent Office now en-
gagged in business here as patent at
torneys, whose sole capital with which
to begin business we're long lists of the
i. names and addresses of applicants for
patents whose applications they had IN
Justly rejected for the sole purpose of
afterwards getting fee as an attor-
ney for procuring the patent they had as
examiner of the United States Patent
Office rejected. These men are Repub-
licans.
In order to break up this practice,
bills have been Introduced in Congress
several times to make Examiners of
,tt,a D,fapf af4son mali nihta IN at q @
patent attorneys for two years from the
date of their designations or dismissals
from Office. So far, interested parties
have in some way been able to prevent
such bills from becoming laws.
Last year Mr. Montgomery was sue
ceeded by ex-Representative Hall,
Of Iowa. as Commissioner of Patents,
Mr.. Hall is an able and honest man,
but like his predecessor, he, too, was
unfamiliar with the workings Of the
office, and the Republican examiners
succeeded in getting him to make a Sc
ries of Rulings which have produced
much trouble and litigation. In the
meantime the Republican examiners
are enjoying the situation and working
hard for the success of their party next
fall.
When Mr. Villas, with his vigorous bust
ness methods succeeded Lamar as Secre-
eary Of the Interior, he at once noticed
the loose way of doing business that
was in vogue there, and issued an order
prohibiting employees gossiping, smok-
ing, writing private letters, ETC.. during
Office hours. This order created big
scare among the Republican exami-
ners and outwardly there was sud-
den transformation in the Office, but
in reality they are devoting more of
their time trying to bring discredit on
Mr.. Cleveland's administration. than to
the work for which they are paid.
Vicksbarg Herald: His Reverence,
Bishop Francis Janssens, of the Dio-