Los Angeles herald., 1910-02-24
PROGRESS AND FINANCE

O IXTY-SEVEN YEARS ago. on Feb
ruary 21, 1S43. John P. Kennedy
~ moved in congress that q bill ap-
propriating $4,000 for testing the
merits of Morse telegraphy should be
approved. The motion was greeted
with peals of derisive laughter. This is
the common fate of all innovations in
modern times. In days of old, the de-
risive laughter was followed by de-
cisive action. and the innovator was
hanged, drowned, burned at the stake
or otherwise removed" As it became
evident progress was not necessarily
blasphemy and was not even witch
craft. the inventor or improver was al
lowed to escape with his life and his
idea; and sometimes managed to de-
velop it, although never to his own
profit.
Even now civilization has not ad-
vanced in this matter as it has in
some others. The progress of invention
has far outstripped the progress of re-
warding inventors and originators. An
inventor, originator or improver,
whether of a piece of machinery,
book, a telegraph code or shorthand
system. must appeal to capital and
accept its terms, or form stock COM
pany and become a shareholder in the
value of his own creation, if he would
derive any pecuniary benefit from his
contribution to the progress of man
kind.
Not yet is there a special govern
mental fund at the. disposal of inven-
tors, authors, etc, a fund which, con-
trolled by a committee of experts"
might save for many ingenious citizens
the rewards of their originality and
thought power.
Nothing more strikingly illustrates
this defect in our civilization (for de-
feet 1t seems to be) than the private
appropriation and capitalization of that
great public utility, the telegraph. The
government of the United Kingdom
saved the telegraph franchise for the
people. But in the United States
Morse telegraphy has been in the
hands of an unscrupulous and greedy
monopoly.
Telegraphy however. is such big
undertaking that even monopoly can
not prevent it from being beneficial to
mankind; and the progress it has made
under artificial influences warrants the
belief that in the next few years, when
the telegraph system of the United
States shall be taken out of the hands
Of the trust and tolls are not prohibi-
tive, the people will realize what
boon was conferred upon mankind
when Samuel Finley Breese Morse, in
an inspired hour, invented the signals
which are still in daily use, and gave
telegraphy an alphabet which ap-
parently was perfect from the hour it
was first drafted.
Why derision and .discouragementI
should be the lot of men who ask the
representatives of the American nation
to finance experiments the results of
which may contribute to peace and
prosperity on earth and the promotion
of goodwill among men is unguessable.
The proverbial attitude of our national
Dfficialdom toward the national
inventor is being illustrated again in
the case of airship construction and
trial. With the exception of a single
solitary case, that of Prof. Langley,
nothing has been done financially to
assist inventors in working out the
problems of aerial navigation.
The progress of aeronautics in this
country is dependent upon the enter
prise of American inventors and pri-
vate fnanciers. With regard to air
ships and other modern NATIONAL
inventions, the much experienced but
untaught nation seems bent upon re-
peating the same old tactical error
which deprived the people of the full
use, benefit and advantage of teleg-
raphy, and will surrender the latest in
ventions to the seizure, manipulation,
operation and exploitation of profit
seeking syndicates, combinations asso-
Citations and trusts.