Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1890-04-12
THE PATENT OFFICE.
Americas Iconoelastic Forces Housed In
Grerian Temple.

Grecian Temple.
1t is singularly suggestive fact tn
the Patent Office building, one of &
most beautiful structures in this or al
other country, is, in the main, a repr
duction of the architecture of ancie
Greece. 1t is almost paradoxical tn
the inventive genius of this young al
vigorous Nation, genius that has borl
it's part in revolutionizing the arts al
industries of the world, is thus visib
linked to the remote past; that the sy
tenn which has placed our country in Il
van of the march of progress, a syste
that is necessarily iconoclastic; a sy
TEN that cares not for what was, b
looks only to that which is to be; a sy
tenn that makes aggressive warfare
the past and contemns the present. twill
itpays its devotion to the future, is house
in an edifice that was virtually conceive
n brains that moldered back to kindrt
lust three Thousand years ago. 1t
/ consolation to pessimists- the
never tire of parading the fact-that
some respects the ancients were superiC
o the people of our day. We may
veil concede that in architecture, sculp
re, and poetry the Greeks have nc
,een surpassed by nations of moder
ines. But this concession covers onl
small space in the boundless field {
'uman effort. Within the Enclosure {
rose Grecian walls that house oil
ttent system are wonders tina sc ON I
,elong to a different world and to
igher order of beings than the worl
nd the men for whom Homer sang
he ancients knew but few arts. Tn
lost affiuent citizens of old Athen
we're surrounded by fewer accessories c
asy existence than are at tn
command of the day-laborer c
ur time. We copy some of tn
beautiful forms of Grecian architecture
but we add to our buildings the result
Of ages of scientific progress. In heat
ing, lighting, draSing, ventilation, tn
elevator and thousand devices tina
promote comfort and enhance beauty
we have made more progress in tn
present century than was achieved i
all preceding ages. The ancients of al
nations had few and simple means o
travelling by land or sea. Modern in
vention-invention largely due to tn
stimulus of our patent system-ha
brought the ends of the world tOgethe
and made neighbors of nations separated
by oceans. Except his own immorta
poem and a few suggestions of the ar
and architecture of his time, there i
nothing on this continent that Homer
resurrected and transported here, woul,
recognize as belonging to the world il
which he lived The steamships, rail
ways, telegraphs, telephones, electri
motors, printing-machines, factories
and, indeed, all that we use, al
that we enjoy, on land or sea, il
peace or war. in our homes, in our place
of business, on our farms, in our mines
or wherever we toll or rest-all, all
new, all belongs to the new world
The inventions of recent years have 5
changed the world that the man G
thirty is older than Methuselah-old
in that he has seen more, experience
more than the oldest of all the ancients
We do not suppose the architect of tn
Patent Office building intended a
anachronism or paradox, but it wa
strangely-suggestive conceit to hous
the iconoclastic forces of America in
Grecian emple.-Inventive Age