People's party paper. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1891-1898, 1897-05-28

AAVAC VIII DC liz P1dCO III 0AO ASAI race
for fusionists or half-beeeds of any
color.
Bishop Potter in a recent address
takes the position that labor saving
machinery is proving curse rather
than a blessing to the people as a
whole. If the effects of labor saving
machinery is to relegate one half the
race to idleness, vagabondage and
starvation then the Bishop is right. If
the effect is to turn the laborer him
self into mere human machine whose
sole business it is to place the raw
product in reach of the iron machine,
again the bishop is right. But the
chief objections that the Bishop charges
to improved machinery lie at the door
of unjust conditions through which
the machine owner reaps all the ad-
vantages and the laborer suffers all the
disadvantages.
If all the conditions of exchange of
products were just and fair, then the
farmer who. with improved implements
could produce four times as great
crops as before and the clothier, shoe
maker and halter could each produce
four times as much finished product as
before, then each could reduce the
~svvyee11akiEfi King day from ten to five hours
and yet each get moro abundant food
eAl,1 u 80 -RAads.4n unuer the oIa metn-
cd after paying literally for the use of
the improved machines. Bishop Potter
is right in declaring that factory work
is dwarfing our laboring people, men
tally, morally and physically. The
remedy is notin destroying the factory
with it's improved machinery, but in so
shortening the hours of labor as to give
ample opportunity for mental improve
ment and physical recreation.
Our present patent laws should be
amended or abrogated These laws
were designed to encourage useful in
ventions and suitably reward the in
ventors. AS a matter Of fact their chief
effect is to multiply the number of
grasping monopolies.
&c "a
after he perfects his invention he is
without means to build and equip a
factory for the manufacture of his ma
chine and is forced to sell his patent
right, often for a bagatelle, to some
man of means, who row having the
sole right to manufacture is monopo-
list pure and simple and wastes no
time in making the public acquainted
with that fact The holder of the
patent on the sewing machine needle
exacted 1000, 900 from the public for
it's use. The Bell Telephone and Bicy-
Gle patents are goug1ng them still
deeper. In fact, the holder of patent
on any necessary article holds the
governments permit to rob the people
ad hbitum.
The patent laws should first protect
the actual inventor by giving him an
inalienable lien to certain per cent
of resulting profits. Secondly the time
should either be cut down to two or
three years, or the patent declared
| forfeit if the article is sold wholesale
at above so per cent on cost of produc-
| ton and no patent should be allowed
to be bought up and held idle in order
to keep it from competition with some
other. While the patentee should be
allowed fair profit on his invention,
the public have some right to protec
ton and the patentees right should be
made to stop where robbery of the
public begins.
We notice from recent issues Of the
Advance Guard, Defiance OHIO and the
! Oklahoma Representative, Guthrie
| Oklahoma that fusion and fusionists
have set our western friends to inquir