The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-02-20

In these figures alone may be seen
an incentive to American genius. and
one of the chief reasons for the thOus-
ands of small patents which have made
fortunes for manufacturers and in
ventors in the United states The
law in this country has imposed no
burden upon the inventor. 1t requires
only that he file in the patent office a
clear description of his invention. SO
that IA skilled craftsman may be able
To duplicate the article when the life
of the patent is ended.
PATENT LAWS STILL FOUGHT.
Recognizing what patents have done
in the progress of the world, it il odd
TO recall that in 1869, when 100000
oxen We're toiing in the yoke in the
United States, that an element in the
English parliament was attempting to
abolish ihc patent laws of that coun-
try. Speaking against the laws. II. a.
McFic held that the state was not
hound to grant patents: that they We're
evidences only of royal favor.
Every patent" he declared, sis a
voluntary transference by the state
to an individual of power for fourteen
years To tax ut pleasure other persons
for making or doing the thing patent
ed aye. if he likes. To prohibit or
withhold the thing altogether"
But since that time Great Britain
became "a member of the interna tional
union. having for its object the pro-
lection of the inventor in foreign lands.
Nearly "A score of countries are i'm the
league. and in any one of them an in
ventor may claim right of priority
for six months following his applica.
tion at home: or. if the country he
across seas, he may have seven months
of time in which to make his applca-
tiOn.
Not all of the animosity to patent
laws has died out. They have been
texts for the adversaries of MONOPOLY
for many years, but tn small practical
results. The vital welfare of the Unit
ed States has been too closely connect
ed with the patent Office to admit of
blocking its progress
At the beginning of the nineteenth
century the farmer was scratching the
SURFACE ot the earth with IA wooden
plow. reaping his grain with the sickle
Oh thousand years ago and treading
II out. as did the ancient Egyptian in
thc time OF Moses. Today the wheat
acreage of the United States is sown
by the automatic drill. cut by binding
machines. the shed and winnowed by
the steam thresher and measured in
total beyond 50O,000,00O bushels year.
THRESHING MACHINES PER.
FECTED.
The American farmer of sixty vears
ago was hard-headed and conservative
beyond reason. His interests were
varied He was hunter. trapper ana
settler, first; for the rest, farmer. His
ancestors had built log cabins, cleared
forests. grubbed stumps and planted.
and for him, only the heavy timbered
river bottoms had attraction. 1t was
common belief that the smooth
prairie land, with Its tough sod, was
worthless for agriculture. and i'm this
very nearly was the death knell of the
forests, sacrificed to an almost wanton
waste. He split walnut trees for rail
fences. that today would purchase the
lands that he toiled for ten times over
he dragged into heaps and burned
sawlogs that would have made his
grandchildren rich. New ground" was
his watchword, and he grubbed and
rugged and toiled, aged long before his
time. ana died at last the victim OF
the philosophy, Daddy did it,"
Today, on a homestead claim, fenced
with a few strands of barbed wire. q
grandson cultivates more upland
prairie than one man ever cleared in
lifetime. and his crop averages are
for more bushels than the grandfather
ever dreamed Of
About the year 1926 the inventor IN