Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-04-11


Secretary Noble responding to the toast 1.-THE
Future of the American Patent System" made
a brilliant and ringing speech. He referred to
the sentiment to which he was to respond az
one full of significance and hope as to the
future of the American patent system. We
stand" he said, lat the opening of a new CEN
fury, both for the inventive genius Of our land
and for the capital of our country. 1t is an
occasion worthy of the deepest patriotism and
of the freest expression Of appreciation as to
the past and hope for the future"
The Secretary referred in most compli-
mentary terms to the congress just closed, and
said the papers he had there were the most
eloquent and the most instructive he had ever
heard. and at the same time the most conducive
to the prosperity of this country.
There time" he said, beyond this
century that has just been finished when insti-
tutiOns that man had created were such that
they subjugated man both body and soul with
in their confines; there such thing as
personal liberty; there was no such hope as
human aspiration had right to expect. The
time grew on until at the beginning of the CEN
turv now just closed the agitation of the people,
the aspirations of the souls of the land of other
nations and our own were such that the
shackles were broken, the thorns that existed
before we're cast in the dust and the spirit of
man in all his nobility and possibilities stood
upon the surface of this earth with no confines
beyond those of the utmost liberty and no con-
troller but the Almighty who made him. At
that time came invention. the power to con-
ceive and bring into actual form along with all
other intellectual faculties that have made his
tory illustrious. one that had raised as if from
a virgin soil and sought even in distant lands,
as our country then was, the opportunity upon
a new field to make new efforts in behalf of hu-
mainly. 1t was then and not before that the
inventive genius of our race, strong in its phys
ical power. with the gray matter in its
brain greater than any other people, found an
opportunity to do and to imagine what it
were well to do, and to accomplish it II you
take the history of the patent office you will
find that when it was initiated there no
great rush of patents In 1880, the anniversary
of which You celebrate on this 10th day Of
April, in that whole year there were but three
patents granted. Was the mind of man awake
to the opportunity; had the spirit Of this land
been cultivated SO that it could understand
patent? No; the truth is, and you men. /
think will bear me out in the statement that it
takes almost as great intelligence in a people
for whom patent is intended to understand it
as it does in the man who makes it to in
vent it.
Let me say another thing. Among the very
few things that shall address you upon" re-
marked the Secretary, Il have heard it dis
cussed how far the love Of gold is the incentive
of the inventor. Now, for myself let me say
that for honest effort and labor and all that
wins gold nobody will reward more generously
or more alphabetically than myself. The man
that has earned it ought to be able to enjoy it,
but when you come to tell me that that genius
which presides in the human soul, that is born
of the spirit Of the age which age is the age Of
liberty, is stimulated by the spirit of avarice
deny it, and / say that that earth-born spirit
never inspired q noble thought or created q
single invention.
THE FUTURE.
From this spirit Of the past, the increasing
or generalizing spirit of the age of freedom, of
liberty and constitutional government, what
may We not expect for the future. He would
be a vain man who IN presence like this were
10 attempt In detail to announce what he sup
posed the inventions of the future might be.
II he could do II lie should Immediately resign
from the Office that hold and 20 upon the
field Of invention and make his fortune. That
thing is impossible; but gathering from the
/ thoughts that have thus inefficiently and
poorly expressed may we not say this for our
/ land, FOR our home, for our people and its
leaders in thought, that its institutions are
/ broad enough, that its intellect is strong
/ OF nature and the opportunities of
art have enough yet undeyeloped within them
\ for that spirit, under such institutions, to de-
velop yet more and more, as the years roll by,
until this nation, as il has been Distinguished
III the past for liberty and invention, will be-
1 come more and more marked among the ma
| tons OF the earth for the labors of those who,
\ While they may pursue an individual ambition
like their country and their conntry's laws
| seek more the great good OF all humanity than
| any individual attainment; and may We not say
that here in the great city Of Washington, whose
possibility as capital has been made by your
| invention, may come yet to view depaI tment
| devoted alike to the benefit of the people and
as 1t has been, to the support of the govern
nent; that there shall be e1emplitied in all its
different aspects the inventive genius OF our
people, that 1t shall have within it such an
abundance of room that those who labor to
give 10 the patentee his title to the creation Of
his brain shall not be smothered in small COM
partments and crowded rooms.
Let the sectional spirit die out Applause. /
Let sublime intelligence. that comes like the
| sunlight from heaven over all our broad land
| warm the hearts Of the south and of the north
| until they meet in one common aspiration for
| the good OF the nation. IApplausel Let the
| genius OF the land inspire the creative heart of
both sections 10 rivalry and let arms reside in
the background, and if used at all be used
against our foreign foes. Let this bond of
union growing from the soil and inspired by
| the genius of the land find in this beautiful
city, at the capital OF our common country that
home, that beautiful home where all that it has
created shall be exhibited, which il in the
spirit Of the present because the spirit Of the
present has in it all the past has developed, as
| il has also in il all the opportunities of the
future, and Let that hall rise n bssutiful pso-