Perth Amboy evening news., 1912-03-30
UP
TO ROOSEVELT
Taft Trying to Have Supreme
z Court Decision Recalled.

On req. Il COlOnel h~OOseFeIt ueuY-
cred before the constitutional conyen-
ton of Ohio an grafton on "a Charter
of Democracy" In which he denounced
the doctrine of the infallibility of the
courts as q grave danger menacing
American institutions and advocated a
simpliied method for the recall Of
court decisions by the people. At once
he was assailed by the representatives
of big business and Of monopoly as an
advocate of virtual anarchy and a hv-
ing threat against the safety of prop
erty.
OF course at the time he was speak
ing more particularly of state courts,
but in less than three weeks, on
March IL, to be exact, the supreme
court Of the United States handed
down a decision, coupled with the dis
sent Of three members, including that
of the chief justice, vindicating Colo
mel Roosevelt's attitude In every par
ticular. The supreme court caught up
with Roosevelt. And the severe COM
luGutS uIdWu uDOn DiLuoctI itOh Az
advocates Of special privileges ought
now in all justice to be passed on to
the supreme court and especially to
Chief Justice White, for IL ever a hu-
man being voiced a demand for the
recall of a decision Of the courts Chief
Justice White did SO in bis dissenting
opinion.
The case was that of Sidney Henry,
ct al. VS.. the A. 3. Dick company. The
Dick company owned the patent on a
rotary ~mimeograph. 1t sold one Of the
machines to Miss Christina B. Skou of
New York under a stipulation that the
ink, stencil paper and other supplies
used with the invention must be
bought from the Dick company. The
Henry company sold Miss Skou ink
for the mimeograph that vas not Dick
ink, and the Dick company sued the
Henry company and Miss skou for in
fringement Of the patent on the mlmeo-
graph. On March II, with only seven
members of the United States supreme
court sitting, four Of them, constitut-
ing a majority, decided the case and
held that when the Henry company
sold the non Dick ink to Miss Skou and
she used 1t, this constituted an In
frlngement of the patent.
In a dissenting opinion, In which he
was Joined by Justices Hughes and
Lamar, Chief Justice White denounc-
ed this extraordinary opinion In the
most biting language. Stating that the
patent did not cover the ink In any
way, he demanded that the legislative
department of the government amend
the law so as to make 1t impossible for
the precedent established by the de-
cision to be maintained. =
Under this decision 1t is now the
law" declared the chief justice, that
= , " the patentee has the power by
contract to extend his patent rights so
as to bring within the claims of his
patent things which are not embraced
therein, thus virtually legislating by
causing the patent laws to cover sub
jects to which they could not reach,
the result being to multiply monopo-
lies at thegwill of an Interested party
The decision caused a laugh of deri-
sion throughout the national capital.
The advocates OF the doctrine Of the
~infallibiIity OF theEcourts were over
come with ehagrin, while the support
ers OF Colonel Roosevelt inquired with
sarcastic emphasis whether the people
at the polls, 50 frequently denounced
as a mob" by the advocates OF spe-
cial privilege, could ever do anything
worse.
In the meantime the attorney gem
eral and other administration oppo-
nents of Colonel Roosevelt futtered
about in fabbergasted haste to flnd
some speedy way to recall the opinion,
for If sustained this opinion win take
the life out of some of the most spec
tacular trust busting suits the admin
istration has in It's incubator. The
attorney general notified the defeated
litigants that If they were game to
try to ecure a rehearing OF the case
before a full bench Of the supreme
court the administration would be
| glad to lend all the assistance of
which the department of Justice was
capable. AT the same time the attor-
ney general commenced the prepara-
ton of a bill for the amendment of
the patent law with the intention of
setting congress loose at the supreme
court. Other steps for the recall of
the decision were inaugurated by the
commissioner OF patents, who also be-
gan work on a bill to be handed to
congress.
Apparently every legislator in con-
gress wanted a copy of the decision,
some for the purpose of enjoying
themselves and others to study 1t In
the search for q way to recall II.
This is the second piece of sensa-
tional legislation perpetrated by the
United States supreme court within a
few months, but this later instance
could not better serve as an indorsa-
ment OF Colonel Roosevelt's plea for
The recall of court decisions IL IL had
been made to order for that purpose.
The supreme court has Indeed
saught up with Colonel Roosevelt