Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-10-01

the cutpurSe could with advantage leave
his calling, and the footpad abandon the
road, and both seek an easier and safer
method Of obtaining money by prosecuting
business with the several departments of
the government. / submit that it is the
duty Of the commissioner of this bureau
(and every other bureau of the govern
ment and the head of the department to
which the bureau belongs, to see to it
that every citizen transacting business
with the bureau or department Is pro-
tected in his rights. and that no individual,
whether he is a member of the bar or not.
shall utilize his relation to the depart
ment to defraud citizens who have, or who
are induced to believe that they have. bust
hes with the government and intrust that
business to a solicitor"
Speaking further of the failure of the
respondents to appear in person to testify
In their behalf when the commissioner had
not the power to force them to do so, Mr..
Butterworth says:
so far from this open, manly course
they tried to exhibit veneering of honesty
by calling two witnesses who were en-
ployed after the criticism and condemna-
ton Of the methods and practices of the
respondents had become open, notorious
and severe, and those witnesses seem to
have been selected with more reference to
what they did not know about the whole
range of the respondents business meth
DDS and practices than what they did
know.
DemOrnlixing Influence.
ut is proper here to say that it is one of
the worst features of the methods and
practices of Wedderburn & Co. that young
men anxious for employment are employed
and utilized by respondents to write in
praise of, and assist in promoting, business
schemes and enterprises which are repre-
hensible in method and influence, II, in fact,
they escape being criminal, the tendency
being to proclaim to the community, and
especially to young men desiring to en-
pn 100 In nivn and tn A.
neither strict integrity, candor nor the OBJ
servance of the recognized canons of COM
mon honesty are necessary, or, in fact, de-
sirable, In money getting. And there is lit
tie doubt that the demoraliZing influence of
the methods and practices Of the respond
eats as solicitors of patents, during their
brief career. has been far-reaching by rea-
son OF the agencies employed, and has done
more to injure the patent office and to
place the practice before that bureau upon
low moral plane than the combined ef-
forts of all the delinquent practitioners who
have appeared before the Office in a quarter
OF century, and it results that to deal
with those methods and practices sighting
ly, or to treat them If they were over
sights, mistakes, the result Of bad judg-
ment or pardonable indiscretions, Is to
make the department not only an apoiogist
Tor, but an active participant in, the repre-
hensible conduct, and thus bring the gov
eminent and its administration into de-
served contempt.
THE very esserce of the ofYense is the
methods and agencies employed and the
manner of their employment to mislead
and ertrap the unsuspecting, doubtless in
the belief that the victims of the deception
are helpless and without remedy, and that
the vast sums of money realized will en-
able the delinQuents to secure immunity
ard pay for hunting down any Official or
citizen who calls the delinQuents to answer
for their offenses."
Advertised Prize Offers.
The commissioner says the advertised
prize offer Of $500 by We6derburn had
been shown to be false. and that there
were really twelve prize offers of $50 each;
also that the company falsely stated that
II would give free Of cost advice as to the
patentabiiity Of an invention. The placing
Of values on inventions bv Wedderburn &
farce or worse than farce. He further
says:
TT was urged with serious countenance,
strange and revolving as it may appear,
| especially by the attorney who wrote q
part OF the misleading and deceptive liter
ature, that the Information contained in
the literature under consideration was true
In form, even IL for any reason It. was mis-.
leading, ard that Mt the best the use Of
such literature 10 matter of taste and
| that Is all
In regard to that, / may say that II Il
well known that the worst, most deeeptfyt
and DANGEROUS character of lying IL that
which finds expression in the suppression
| perversion or distortion OF the truth. and
It occurs that p lsrGe part Of me CORE,
| spondefce and literature offered Ia evf
dence, and which was sent through fhi
United States mail from thu o6Ifce a. M