Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1906-05-31
Washington Letter.
(FRoM Our Req LAR CoRREePoNpENT.)
Saturday, May 26, 1906.


(FRoM Our REGULAR CoRREePoNDENr)
Saturday, May 26, 1906.
There is great indignation among in.
ventors and those interested in patents
throughout the country at the condl-
ton of business in the United States
Patent Office, and the information Civ
en- this week by the Commissioner OF
Patents that he will take two months
vacation and will not permit the As
sistant Commissioner of Patents to hear
or decide cases on appeal during his
absence has not allayed the outraged
patience Of this class. The work in the
Patent Office is very much behind hand
in some divisions from Six to eight
months, which means that an inventor
after preparing and sending his inven'
ton to the Patent Office and paying his
fling fee of $l5 to the Government
must wait eight months in some in
stances, before his case is even taken
up for examination by the Commission
or and his corps of able assistants, aud
that unless his case is allowed on the
first action, an extremely rare occur-
renee, it may be from one to three years
before he gets his patent. The condi-
ton of business in the Patent Office is
perhaps worse than it ever was before.
Absenteeism on the part Of the head of
the office and his inability to get work
out of the principal and assistant ex-
aminers of whom there are more than
one hundred, is the cause. There is no
Office under the Government that more
requires the personal attention of the
strenuous parsonage in the White
House than the United States Patent
Office. 1t is, If am not mistaken, the
only Office under the Government that
not only pays its way but brings a sur
plus to the Public Treasury. Every
inventor is required 10 pay into the
treasury fifteen dollars when he pre-
sents his application and twenty dollars
in addition when his patent is granted.
The tens of thousands OF inventors in
the United States in presenting appli-
cations for more than million of pat
ents have built up a surplus fund, after
paying all expenses Of the office. that
now amounts to more than $4,O9O,O0O
and it is simply outrageous that these
inventors, through the absenteeism OF
the Commissioner of Patents and
through the negligence and dilatoriness
of his powerful corps Of assistants must
wait with sickness of heart months and
years for the allowance of their patents.
Other commissioners have kept the
work up to date and there are others
both in and out of the Patent Office
who are capoble of doing it again.
Congress does not often have an OPP
portunity to do better work than it did
Thursday when the Senate passed the
dedatured alcohol bill which had gone
through the House so successfully a
few weeks ago. The impression was
!, general that the bill would be held up
in the committee by Senator Aldrlch
{: who is the friend Of the trusts in gen
eral and the Standard Oil trust in par
ticular. The denatured alcohol bill
which removes the tax from alcohol
used IN the arts will, it is expected rev.
olutionize heating and lighting and re.
duce the cost Of these necessities at the
expense, to great extent, Of the Stand.
ard Oil company. Senator Aldrich al
so predicts that it will practically ruin
the VOID alcohol industry which has a
capital of about thirty millions invest
ed, but on the other hand the advan-
tage to the country and especially to
the west, where unmarketable crops
can he converted into alcohol, is inesti.
mable. The bill does not 20 into effect
until January /, 1907, but there is
great rejoicing over the fact that it was
net held up for the session as it was be-.
lieved Senator Aldrich would be sue
cessful in doing. Its passage is one
more evidence Of the many that have
accumulated of late that when the peo-
pie Of this country make up their minds
to have a thing, and 60 about getting it
with all their strength, even the strong
est trusts will have to stand aside. 1t
Sciatica Cured After Twenty Years Of
Torture.
For more than twenty years Mr.. j.
B. Massey, of 1922 Clinton st., Mime
apolis, Mimi, was tortured by sciatica.
The pain and suffering which he en-
dured duling this time is beyond COM
prehension. Nothing gave him any
permanent relief until he used Cham
berlain's Pain Balm. One application
Of that liniment relieved the pain and