The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-04-09
United Press Associations By CONWAY P. COE

U. $. Commissioner of Patents
 Washington, April g. (UP)-When President George Washington signed the first national patent legislation 150 years ago, agriculture was the chief occupation of the United States. So predominant it was in our national life that less than 10 per cent of the population was engaged in any other pursuit.
 Much of our manufactured needs was imported from abroad, and few indeed were the convenienceS ot life of that day.
 need not point out the changes that have occurred in the century and a half since then. Under the United States patent system, by which an inventor is guaranteed protection for his brainchlld, we have achieved scientific progress such as has never been seen ln any other century and half since the birth of civilization.
 Hundreds of millions of man. kind in every region of the earth are in some way affected every day of their lives by the past or the present activities of the Patent office. It may seem strange per haps. that the inhabitants of Equa- torial Asia, the jungles of South America. the islands of the South Pacific and other remote places car be influenced by the laws and laborS of & nation wholly unknown tc primitive denizens of inaccessible spots on the earth's surface have been reached by American inven- tors is not hard to supply.
 The airplane, an American ln' vention, has traversed the skies o1 Africa. Asia, South America anc the islands of the farthest seas Missionaries, explorers, traders anc the functionaries of government! claiming sovereignty over thest places and people have acquainted aborigines with pictures and print cameras, firearms, scientific instru ments, utensils and many othe articles either directly or indirect, of American devising.
 In Debt to America
 Next let us look at the people high in the scale of civilization ant culture and nearer our own shores There exists not on person in thi category who is not indebted t. America for a thousand and on articles and instrumentalities tha every day meets his needs and sup plies his comforts.
 The foreigner who mines coa or mans train or operates loor or 1arvests his grain is almost cer tair, to use an American invention If he types letter or telephones c telegraps message, he must than American genius, for the typeWrite the telegraph and the telephone al American contributions to Worl convenience.
 However, the chief beneficiarie of the American patent system ar' z quite naturally, the American pee pie themselves. From birth to deat there is no American who is ire from his obligation to 1t.
 There are some who fear tha we are purchasing improvement i the machinery and methods of in dustry at the. cost of both Socif and economic disturbances result ing from techniological unemploy ment. These observers believe tha we are creating a monster lik Frankenstein's. and that the ma chinery we are constantly improy will eventually destroy us.
 With this I cannot agree. thin the facts contradict any sue theory.
 Inventions in the past 56 year have created many new industrie Each new industry thus establishe has helped other industries by re quiring the products of the latter.