Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-11-10

tainS an interview with James T. du Bots,
then a wellknown pat
roLent Oyster" ent attorney in Wash
Ieie0fotion ington, relative to
Planned meeting of inventors,
manufacturers, officials and business
men in commemoration of the centenary
of the American patent system:
when the commissioner of patents,
Mr.. Mitchell, in a recent report said No
law or legal system in any age or land
has ever wrought so much wealth, prom
ised so much labor for human hands or
bestowed so much material blessing in
every way as the American patent sys-
tenn he sounded the keynote of the pro-
posed meeting, for its object is to impress
upon the Nation the truth that the
grand career of our country in manu-
features and the industrial arts virtually
began with the patent systematic crea-
ton of the Patent Oflce-that our mag
nificent progress stands as the indiSput-
able result of that superb system. The
conditions of life in 1890 are no more
like those of 1890 than the hand loom is
like the great cotton factory. And the
ultimate object of the meeting next
Tuesday is to urge the people of the
United States to show their appreciation
of the deeds of that splendid brotherhood
of men who have so revolutionized the
condition of life as to make 10 years in
the land of Columbia better than cycle
in Cathay.
What the world owes to the inventor
cannot be estimated. We must credit
him with all that the world possesses OF
literature, science and the arts.
1T was only so years ago that most
of the people of this country were clothed
from the products of the domestic spin
ming wheel and hand loom. Then the
itinerant shoemaker went from house to
house, setting up his bench and plying
his vocation in the farmers kitchen.
There were no planning mills, no shops
for the manufacture of doors, sash and
blinds; all the work of the builder in
Guiding the carpenters and joiners'
work, was done by hand. The railroad
and telegraph had not added their pow
were scarce, newspapers were few and
of little value and the home was desti-
tute of a thousand things that now seem
indispensable to a comfortable existence.
In so years the inventive genius of
our land has made a change in all this
more wonderful than some Of the stories
which are told in the Arabian Nights.
To honor the men who have accom-
plished this great change is one Of the
objects of the proposed celebration.
THE best friend of labor is the in
ventor. He has given to the hands of
the toiling millions thousands of avenues
to comfort, luxury and wealth. He has
opened a continent for labor to enter
and occupy. He is still taxing his mind
and body to devise new ways of benefit
ting universal humanity. There are
hundreds of thousands of well-to-do
families in the United States today who
owe their good fortune to invention and
there is no one under our flag who has
been compelled to sacrifice anything for
invention, unless the good of the COM
munity in general demanded such
sacrifice. All of these are under pro-
found obligation to the inventor and
should actively help to make the pro-
posed celebration signal success.
ut is an incontrovertable fact that
the progress of the United States, the
grand career of growth that has been
the marvel of the age, did not really
begin until the inventive talent of the
people was stimulated by the establish
ment of our Patent Office. The truth is,
the growth of the country in wealth, its
progress in art, literature and refinement
has been not only coincidental but COM
mensurate with the development of the
patent system, and yet for years it has
seemed impossible for Congressman to
understand the relations of the Patent
ONCE to the people and equally i'm
possible for Congress to get clear con-
ception of its duties in relation to that
important bureau. 1t has treated it
like charity patent in hospital while
it not only pays its own bills, but has
nearly $4,000 900 of surplus funds now to
its credit In the Treasury Of the United
States"