T 223 
 
 .Zl U5 
 Copy 1 
 
 ill or THE UNITED STATiS 
 
 

 

 
 par-* ^«^" '«» •^e'^d^j* «^ "^u ^^'laBf-^ 'V np "^ "v^' 
 
PUBLICATIONS 
 
 UNITED STATES PATENT 
 ASSOCIATION. 
 
 VOLUME I. 
 
 A DEFENCE OF THE UNITED STATES PATENT SYSTEM. 
 By JOHN S. PERRY, Albany. 
 
 OUR COUNTRY'S DEBT TO PATENTS. 
 By H] HOWSON, Philadelphia. 
 
 Vi':- 
 
 BOSTON: 
 JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY. 
 
 1875. 
 

 Copyright, 187s, 
 lY C. F. STANSBURY, SECRETARY. 
 
 Boston : 
 
 Electrotyped and Printbd by 
 
 Rand, Averv, & Co. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The United States Patent Association is a society which 
 grew out of the Patent Convention assembled in Washington, Jan. 
 15, 1874. The object of that convention was to discuss and pass 
 upon certain propositions enunciated by the Patent Congress held at 
 Vienna in the summer of 1873, in relation to the principles which 
 should govern the protection of the rights of inventors in all coun- 
 tries. The Vienna propositions looked to a gradual unification of 
 the patent systems of civilized nations; and the National Commit- 
 tee appointed by the congress were enjoined to "use all their 
 influence that the principles adopted be made known as widely as 
 possible, and carried into practice ; " and were, moreover, author- 
 ized " to endeavor to bring about an exchange of opinions on the 
 subject, and to call, from time to time, meetings and conferences of 
 the friends of patent protection." The Patent Convention, finding 
 that the time which could be allotted to such a meeting would not be 
 sufiicient for full discussion or intelligent action on all the questions 
 relating to the protection of the rights of inventors, on which an 
 expression of opinion was desired, determined that it would immedi- 
 ately proceed to organize a permanent society, to be known as the 
 UNITED STATES PATENT ASSOCIATION, to which should be 
 referred the various questions submitted to the Convention, and 
 which should be charged with the duty of taking the necessary meas- 
 ures to bring about intelligent and united action by the inventors 
 of the country to secure better protection of their rights, by develop- 
 ing a healthy public sentiment on the subject ; by collecting and 
 
disseminating information relating to the effect of patents upon the 
 industry and productive force of nations ; by urging appropriate 
 legislation upon Congress, especially with reference to simplifying 
 and cheapening the legal remedies for infringements upon the rights 
 of inventors ; by co-operating in tlie movement now making in 
 Europe for the establishment of more just and equitable patent 
 systems abroad ; and, generally, to take such action as might be 
 deemed most for the advantage of inventors and of all who are 
 interested in patent property. 
 
 The Association was accordingly organized Jan. i6, 1874, by 
 the adoption of a Constitution and By-Laws, reported by a com- 
 mittee, and approved by the Convention, and by the election of a 
 Board of Officers and Directors representing all sections of the 
 country, and every form of interest in inventions and patents. 
 
 The second article of the Constitution declares that the " Associa- 
 tion is not formed as a combination against any class or interest^ 
 nor shall the influence or means of this Association be used to aid 
 any individual enterprise, or to promote any personal scheme." The 
 varied character of the Board of Government, consisting as it does 
 of men from all the different quarters of the country, and of 
 different professions, is a guaranty of the good faith of this 
 declaration. 
 
 Provision has been made for the organization of State Associa- 
 tions as branches of the National body, the presiding officers of 
 such branches to be, ex officio, vice-presidents of the National 
 Association. 
 
 One of the most important duties of the Association is the collec- 
 tion and publication of statistical information in reference to the 
 relations of patents to the manufacturing and productive industry of 
 the United. States, with a view to demonstrate the effect of a liberal 
 patent system in developing the prosperity of nations. This branch 
 of its operations will be of special importance in reference to its 
 effect upon sentiment abroad, in encouraging the existing tendency 
 of European opinion in favor of the adoption of a patent system 
 closely assimilated to our own. 
 
It will, also, it is hoped, tend to remove the barrier of ignorance, 
 which has hitherto prevented property in invention from being an 
 object of general interest and solicitude, and to hasten the time 
 when invention, and the rights flowing from it, shall be recognized 
 and fostered, not in theory only, but in practice, as of the highest 
 public concern. 
 
 The following essays, on subjects of the deepest importance to 
 inventors and patentees, in reference to legislation, which has been 
 proposed and advocated in Congress, looking to a disastrous abridg- 
 ment of the protection afforded by existing laws to rights in patent 
 property, are offered by the Board of Government of the Patent 
 Association to all who are interested in the questions to which they 
 relate, as a fulfilment of that part of the duty of the Association 
 which consists in " collecting and disseminating information relating 
 to the effects of patents upon the industry and productive force of 
 nations," with a view to the development of a healthy public 
 sentiment on the subject. 
 
 CHARLES F. STANSBURY, 
 Secretary of the U. S. Patent Association. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Paqb 
 
 A DEFENCE OF THE PATENT SYSTEM OF THE UNITED 
 
 STATES. By John S. Perry 9 
 
 OUR COUNTRY'S DEBT TO PATENTS. By Henry Howson . . 69 
 
 What Patents have done for Us 72 
 
 Reckless Making and Unmaking of Patent Laws . . .85 
 
 Where does the Money go ? ' . . .92 
 
 Valueless Patents 102 
 
 About Inventors 104 
 
 altacks on the patent office i05 
 
 The Cry against Patents and Inventors loS 
 
A DEFENCE 
 
 PATENT SYSTEM OF THE UNITED 
 STATES. 
 
 BEING A REPLY TO THE SPEECH OF HON. HENRY B. SAYLER OF INDIANA, 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
 
 ON THE 7TH OF FEBRUARY, 1874. 
 
 JOHN S. PERRY, 
 
 OF ALBANY, N.Y. 
 
A DEFENCE OF THE 
 PATENT SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 It seems scarcely necessary, 
 in view of the enlightenment 
 of the nineteenth century, to 
 defend the Patent System in 
 general, and that of the United 
 States in particular. 
 
 Since, however, an honorable 
 Representative on the floor of 
 Congress has lately endeavored 
 to bring into disfavor the exist- 
 ing Patent Laws,* a brief state- 
 ment of some of the arguments 
 in their favor may not be con- 
 sidered uncalled for. 
 
 In prosecuting this design, I 
 shall confine myself to two 
 heads. 
 
 First, A review of some of 
 
 * See speech cf Mr. Sayler of Indiana in 
 Congressional Record, Feb. 8, 1S74, p. 12, 
 in favor of Bill No. 1,392. 
 
 the principles upon which Pat- 
 ent Law is founded. 
 
 Second, A reply in detail to 
 the speech of Mr. Sayler, in 
 which, I trust, the specious 
 nature of his arguments will 
 be made apparent. 
 
 It will not be disputed, that 
 man has a right of property in 
 that upon which he bestows 
 labor ; and that, if this owner- 
 ship be taken from him, either 
 by violence, or by the absence 
 of law protecting his rights, a 
 great incentive to manly exer- 
 tion is removed. 
 
 From an early date in the 
 history of nations, this princi- 
 ple has been recognized. When 
 the barbarous has merged into 
 the civilized state, and a solid 
 
12 
 
 form o£ government been es- 
 tablished, laws looking to the 
 protection of inventors have in 
 most cases been speedily enact- 
 ed. It is true these laws were 
 often crude, and, on that ac- 
 count, frequently inoperative, 
 nevertheless the fact of their 
 existence proved their neces- 
 sity as well as their impor- 
 tance. 
 
 In the history of the United 
 States, "patent protection" is 
 coincident with our existence 
 as an independent nation. The 
 Patent Law, as it now stands 
 in the United States, rests on 
 the statutes of April lo, 1790, 
 February 21, 1793, and April 
 17, 1800. These statutes have, 
 however, been modified at vari- 
 ous times, as, for instance, in 
 1836, and again in 1870, when 
 new laws were passed. 
 
 The friends of our Patent 
 System acknowledge that it is 
 not a perfect one, and are mak- 
 ing strenuous efforts to remedy 
 its defects ; yet as it stands, 
 with all its imperfections, it has 
 done much to advance civili- 
 zation, and increase the wealth 
 and power of our country. 
 
 An examination will show 
 that the growth and prosperity 
 of almost every department of 
 industry has been largely de- 
 pendent upon patented inven- 
 tions, of which the steam- 
 engine, the electric telegraph, 
 the mower and reaper, and the 
 sewing-machine will at once 
 occur to the reader as notable 
 examples. 
 
 Take, however, one illustra- 
 tion out of many that might 
 be adduced, drawn from the 
 history of agriculture. The 
 art of husbandry was at a low 
 ebb in England until the four- 
 teenth century, when it began 
 to be practised with consider- 
 able success in the midland 
 and south-western parts of the 
 country ; yet it does not appear 
 to have been cultivated as a 
 science, until the latter end of 
 the sixteenth century ; the first 
 work on agriculture in the 
 English language appearing 
 in 1534. Still, little improve- 
 ment was made in the theories 
 then advanced, for upwards 
 of a hundred years, when Sir 
 Hugh Piatt discovered and 
 brought into use, under a sort 
 
13 
 
 of patent, several kinds of ma- 
 nures for fertilizing and restor- 
 ing exhausted soils. 
 
 Stimulated by this begin- 
 ning, agriculture received a new- 
 impulse ; and in 1 793 a " Board 
 of Agriculture " was estab- 
 lished by an act of parliament 
 at the suggestion of Sir John 
 Sinclair, who was its first 
 president. 
 
 Through the influence of 
 this board, a great number of 
 agricultural societies immedi- 
 ately sprang into existence, 
 both in England and the 
 United States, which, by their 
 publications and discussions, 
 stimulated a spirit of emula- 
 tion, and have produced, from 
 time to time, various inven- 
 tions and improvements in the 
 implements with which the 
 different operations of hus- 
 bandry are performed. 
 
 Instead of the cumbersome 
 and uncouth implement with 
 which the ground was formerly 
 prepared for the reception of 
 the seed, the farmer now uses 
 the light and graceful plough. 
 Where once he scattered his 
 wheat unevenly and wastefully 
 
 by hand, and covered it with a 
 hoe or a bush, he now employs 
 the drill, which, with economy 
 and great exactness, ploughs 
 the furrow, drops the seed, and 
 at the same time covers it to a 
 uniform depth. 
 
 In the primitive cultivation 
 of cotton, the seed was sepa- 
 rated from the boll by hand, — 
 a method so tedious and expen- 
 sive, that little or no profit 
 could be realized ; while by the 
 use of the " saw-gin," and other 
 inventions, now universally em- 
 ployed, the product has grown 
 from that of a garden-plant at 
 the end of the Revolutionary 
 War, to an amount exceeding 
 that produced in all other 
 countries. 
 
 In 1784 eight bags shipped 
 to England were seized, on the 
 ground that so much cotton 
 could not be produced in the 
 United States ; whereas at the 
 present time we have an annual 
 product of four or five millions 
 of bales. 
 
 It is safe to affirm, that were 
 it not for the wonderful ap- 
 pliances for sowing, reaping, 
 and harvesting, which are now 
 
H 
 
 in common use, and which are 
 due to the fostering care of 
 the Patent System, the im- 
 mense cotton and grain fields 
 of our country would lie, to a 
 great extent, still uncultivated. 
 Had the old method been re- 
 tained, the West of to-day 
 would be little in advance of 
 its condition fifty years ago ; 
 and we may fairly assume, that 
 without the vast crops of cot- 
 ton and of cereals which are 
 yearly exported, and which, 
 at no distant day, with pro- 
 ducts of minor value, will se- 
 cure to us the " balance of 
 trade," our present develop- 
 ment and prosperity would 
 become bankruptcy, both na- 
 tional and individual; immi- 
 gration (that public blessing) 
 would cease, commerce would 
 be crippled, our manufactur- 
 ing industry decay, and we 
 recede as a nation, until we 
 stood in the background with 
 those which have failed to 
 appreciate, and therefore to 
 foster and protect, the genius, 
 skill, and inventive power of 
 their people. 
 
 We have not taken into ac- 
 
 count the amelioration of the 
 masses, which the inventions 
 of the age have effected, by 
 giving easier and more lucrative 
 employment to thousands, who 
 would otherwise delve like the 
 serfs in unprogressive coun- 
 tries. 
 
 Since the introduction of 
 labor-saving machinery, para- 
 doxical as it may appear, the 
 demand for labor in every de- 
 partment of activity has greatly 
 increased ; and we may depend 
 that this will continue to be the 
 uniform rule. Inventions pro- 
 duce wealth in proportion to 
 their merits : the increase of 
 wealth gives the power to em- 
 ploy more labor, as well as labor 
 of a higher order. 
 
 A Patent Law compels the 
 inventor, if he would avail him- 
 self of its benefits, to make his 
 inventions known by spreading 
 out a minute description of the 
 same upon the public records 
 of the office, and, if he would 
 reap pecuniary advantage, to 
 publish them to the world, 
 thereby giving an opportunity 
 for their general adoption. 
 
 In Burrow's report, Mr. Jus- 
 
15 
 
 tice Yates says, " that the mere 
 labor and study of the inventor 
 will establish no property in the 
 invention, and no right to ex- 
 clude others from making the 
 same instrument." 
 
 The Patent Law thus secures 
 to the public a direct benefit 
 from the invention. 
 
 Nor, again, do patents, as Mr. 
 Sayler seems to suppose, create 
 monopolies. These rewards 
 have never been considered 
 special favors, like the monopo- 
 lies granted by the British 
 crown to favorites, anterior to 
 the seventeenth century, for the 
 sale of articles of prime neces- 
 sity, but rather as the pay- 
 ment of just debts due from 
 the public for benefits con- 
 ferred, as well as an incentive 
 to further effort. 
 
 In no sense can a patent be 
 considered an injustice to the 
 public, because it takes noth- 
 ing from them which they had 
 ever before possessed : on the 
 contrary, it gives them some- 
 thing new, some increased fa- 
 cility, some more advantageous 
 method, or a cheaper substitute 
 for a rare and costly article. 
 
 The public are under no 
 compulsion and no restraint 
 If they accept the patented ar- 
 ticle, it is because they find it 
 for their advantage to do so, 
 and in spite of the royalties to 
 the inventor. 
 
 Who, for example, is content 
 with a daguerrotype, when he 
 can procure a photograph ? 
 
 Who, if the occasion war- 
 rants it, will communicate by 
 letter, when he can use the 
 telegraph } 
 
 Or what farmer of any means 
 will employ twenty "hands" 
 with the old-fashioned scythe, 
 when one man with two horses 
 and a machine can accomplish 
 more and better work } 
 
 Or what woman will " stitch, 
 stitch, stitch," day and night, 
 when, with a machine, the labor 
 of a score of workers can be 
 accomplished .'' 
 
 The road to the great inven- 
 tions of modern times, though 
 rough and thorny, was equally 
 open to Mr. Sayler and to all 
 of us : that we did not go 
 forth and secure some of these 
 prizes is surely our own fault 
 or misfortune, the penalty for 
 
i6 
 
 which should not be visited 
 upon those who have labored, 
 perhaps for years, and in obscu- 
 rity and poverty, in devising 
 and perfecting inventions which 
 were to bless the world. 
 
 Another prevalent idea, and 
 one often urged against the Pat- 
 ent System, is, that manufactur- 
 ers are injured by the protec- 
 tion thus afforded for a limited 
 time to meritorious inventions. 
 
 It is believed that a little 
 investigation will show, that 
 all energetic and enterprising 
 manufacturers are greatly ben- 
 efited : those of the other class 
 are not of much account, and, 
 as they would reap little profit 
 from any system, it would 
 scarcely be wise to disturb the 
 present relation of things in 
 their favor. 
 
 In reply to a Circular sent 
 out in 1873 by the Secretary of 
 State to the leading manufac- 
 turers of the country, contain- 
 ing a series of inquiries as to 
 the influence of the Patent Sys- 
 tem upon our manufacturing 
 interests, the responses were 
 uniformly, that it was of incal- 
 culable advantage ; and it is 
 
 believed that this must be the 
 opinion of all who give the sub- 
 ject a fair and unprejudiced 
 examination. 
 
 It will readily be seen, that, 
 in any industry, the consump- 
 tion would be largely increased 
 by whatever added to the vari- 
 ety of the products, or made 
 them more desirable. 
 
 From the foregoing remarks, 
 we deduce that the Patent 
 System is in a great measure 
 a gauge of civilization. The 
 aboriginals of this country were 
 not able to avail themselves of 
 the products which the soil 
 of America so lavishly brings 
 forth, simply from the lack of 
 proper implements. Even in 
 the Colonial period, as has 
 been recently remarked by 
 Mr. Edward H. Knight in his 
 excellent paper on mechanical 
 progress, "The people were 
 generally engaged in husband- 
 ry, lumbering, trading, hunting, 
 and fishing. The exports were 
 grain, meat, naval stores, to- 
 bacco, and pelts. But few 
 mechanical arts were carried 
 on systematically, except ship- 
 building. . . . The hand-card, 
 
17 
 
 the spinning-wheel, and the 
 loom, constituted almost always 
 the furnishing of houses. . . . 
 Carts, ploughs, and hoes were 
 made by the country mechanic 
 of such material as he could 
 procure, little metal being used 
 in either. Strips of iron ham- 
 mered out of old horseshoes 
 were the facings of the wooden 
 mouldboards of ploughs." 
 
 In proportion as the Patent 
 System has stinjiulated and de- 
 veloped inventions among our 
 people, have our mechanical 
 arts risen in importance, until 
 our power in this direction 
 has become recognized through- 
 out the world. 
 
 Having thus shown, in a 
 general way, the influence of 
 the Patent System, and some 
 of the arguments that may be 
 adduced in its favor, I will pro- 
 ceed to give a few examples in 
 detail, showing that the chief 
 assumptions upon which Mr. 
 Sayler relies to bring it into 
 disrepute rest upon a poor 
 foundation ; or, in other words, 
 that his premises are not in 
 accordance with the facts. 
 Pie says, — 
 
 " In encouraging and 
 strengthening the Patent Sys- 
 tem, I do not wish to warm in 
 my bosom the serpent which 
 will turn on me, and sting me 
 to death, that will paralyze the 
 hand which has supplied it 
 with the means of life." 
 
 The chief burden of Mr. 
 Sayler's speech, is, that an in- 
 ordinate profit is made upon 
 patented articles. On rubber 
 goods, he states the profit upon 
 the capital invested to be fifty- 
 nine per cent : on sewing- 
 machines, sixty-seven per cent ; 
 and on agricultural implements, 
 fifty-two per cent. He further 
 makes the astounding asser- 
 tion, that the average net profit 
 upon the capital employed in 
 the entire manufacturing busi- 
 ness of the country, patented 
 or otherwise, is about forty per 
 cent. 
 
 Our manufacturers will smile 
 on reading this statement, and 
 wonder at the credulity which 
 permitted it to appear in print. 
 I venture to say there is not one 
 of them who will not bear me 
 out in the assertion, that upon 
 the general business of manu- 
 
i8 
 
 facturing, including patented 
 articles, the net profits upon 
 the capital employed will range 
 from zero to twenty per cent, 
 and that, upon an average, they 
 will not exceed ten per cent. 
 
 Immediately after the de- 
 livery of Mr. Sayler's speech, I 
 put myself in communication 
 with a number of prominent 
 and reputable manufacturers, 
 with a view of ascertaining 
 how much of truth or error 
 there was in it. The results 
 of this investigation will now 
 be presented. 
 
 STATEMENT NO. I. 
 
 [From a retired woollen manufacturer in 
 Massachusetts.] 
 
 " I have taken some pains to 
 inform myself in regard to the 
 questions proposed, and will 
 try to give such information as 
 you call for. Of course, we 
 can only approximate the ave- 
 rage ; for, in the same class of 
 manufacturing, there is a great 
 
 difference in the proportion of 
 labor, stock, and sundries in 
 different mills, owing to the 
 various styles of goods made. 
 
 " Thus in woollen mills, labor 
 varies from twelve and a half 
 to twenty-five per cent of the 
 net cost : so of the item of 
 sundries. My experience and 
 observation, confirmed by the 
 testimony of manufacturers of 
 all classes, lead to the conclu- 
 sion, that the average of manu- 
 facturing throughout New Eng- 
 land does not pay more than 
 ten per cent upon the capital 
 invested. 
 
 " Woollen manufacturers, as 
 a class, have not kept their cap- 
 ital good, to say nothing about 
 interest, for the last eight 
 years. This I know. 
 
 " The percentage of cost for 
 stock, labor, and sundries, with 
 the percentage of profit on the 
 net cost of production, taking 
 one year with another, is found 
 to be about as follows : — 
 
 WOOLLEN GOODS. 
 
 Stock . 
 
 Labor 
 
 Sundries 
 
 68 per cent. 
 20 " 
 12 « 
 100 " 
 
 Estimated profits 10 to 12 
 Mr. Sayler's statement of 
 
 per cent. 
 
 profits 32 per cent 
 
19 
 
 COTTON GOODS. 
 
 Stock S3 per cent 
 
 Labor. 33 " 
 
 Sundries 14 " 
 
 100 " 
 Estimated profit 8 to 10 per cent. 
 Mr. Sayler's statement of profit 18 per cent 
 
 SHOES. 
 
 Stock 63 per cent 
 
 Labor 22 " 
 
 Sundries IS " 
 
 100 " 
 Estimated profit 5 to 10 per cent 
 
 LEATHER. 
 
 Stock 6s per cent 
 
 Labor 16 " 
 
 Sundries 19 " 
 
 100 " 
 Estimated profit 12 to 15 per cent" 
 Mr. Sayler's statement 35 per cent. 
 
 STATEMENT NO. 2. 
 
 [From an experienced and extensive manu- 
 facturer of pig iron in the Lehigh Vallej', 
 Penn.] 
 
 " The assumption that mate- 
 rial and labor alone make up 
 the cost of manufacture is 
 manifestly a most unjust one. 
 This is particularly true of pig 
 iron, where numberless acci- 
 
 dents of all kinds occur, not 
 only materially increasing the 
 cost, but lessening the price, 
 as an inferior grade is the inevi- 
 table result. 
 
 " The average cost of pig 
 iron produced in the Lehigh 
 Valley during the six months 
 ending Dec. 31, 1873, was about 
 ^32.00 per ton at the furnace, 
 made up as follows : — 
 
20 
 
 Stock * . 76^'^ per cent 
 
 Labor 14 « 
 
 Sundries 9^'^ " 
 
 " The statement 
 stand as follows : — 
 
 will then 
 
 " Now" if, to this sum, you add 
 the freight to tide-water, the 
 selling expenses, taxes, losses, 
 &c., you will have a cost of not 
 less than 1^36.00. 
 
 Stock 6S^^ per cent. 
 
 Labor 12/^ " 
 
 Sundries 19^ " 
 
 100 " 
 
 Note. — The nominal price of pig iron last year was 340.00, JP43.00, and $45.00 for 
 Nos. 3, 2, and i respectively ; but large quantities were sold late in the season at $2°-°° ^ 
 $35.00, and some below these figures : the average, therefore, could not safely be put above 
 J40.00, which would give a profit of eleven per cent upon the cost. 
 
 Mr. Sayler's statement of profits is twenty per cent. 
 
 It cannot be doubted, that, in the manufacture and sale of pig iron during the years 1873 
 and 1874, ^^^^ balance has been upon the wrong side. 
 
 STATEMENT NO. 3. 
 
 [From a manufacturer of finely-finished ma- 
 chinery, much of which is patented.] 
 
 " We have much more labor 
 in proportion to the material 
 
 than some others, the fine fit- 
 ting being expensive. 
 
 " We manufacture to the 
 amount of our capital annually. 
 We have looked over one year 
 with the following results : — 
 
 Stock .19 per cent. 
 
 Labor 51 " 
 
 Sundries 30 «* 
 
 " If congressmen would show 
 the amount of money lost in 
 manufacturing, and offset it 
 
 against the few who do make 
 money, it would be ^ more 
 just. 
 
21 
 
 STATEMENT NO, 4. 
 
 [From one of the largest and most successful 
 manufacturers of mowing and reaping 
 machines.] 
 
 " The statement of Mr. Say- 
 ler, that manufacturers of agri- 
 cultural implements realize 
 fifty-two per cent of profit, is 
 too absurd for any correction, 
 
 " I have been connected with 
 this company since 1 85 2, and am 
 well posted as to the business, 
 
 "There are some 90,000 
 mowing and reaping machines 
 manufactured per year in the 
 United States, of which num- 
 ber, probably one-seventh are 
 exported. 
 
 "Of this 90,000, this com- 
 pany made, last year (1873), 
 20,715, or twenty-three per 
 cent of the whole number. 
 
 '* The capital of this com- 
 pany is ^1,000,000. 
 
 " The competition in this 
 line between the makers of 
 different types, each of whom 
 is protected by his own special 
 patents, is severe, and brings 
 prices down where there can 
 be no great amount of extor- 
 tion to the farmer. 
 , " Our company is well organ- 
 
 ized, and manufactures on a 
 large scale, and, of course, can 
 furnish machines cheaper than 
 small makers ; but the results 
 show, that we cannot divide 
 over ten to fifteen per cent on 
 our capital. 
 
 "We have had to purchase 
 patents on machines to protect 
 ourselves ; but this would not 
 amount to one per cent of our 
 outlay. 
 
 "We could not sustain our 
 establishment, if every black- 
 smith and small machinist at 
 every cross-road could make 
 our type of machines, as their 
 neighbors would take machines 
 of them. 
 
 " But the inventor of this 
 type has furnished us with the 
 product of his own brain, by a 
 lifetime of labor and study. 
 
 "By looking at the number 
 of machines this company an- 
 nually turn out, you will see 
 that there would be more clean 
 money to them in receiving 
 ^10 royalty on each, than in 
 manufacturing. But this is 
 based upon the assumption 
 that some one would put this 
 number on the market, which 
 
22 
 
 would not and could not be 
 done ; for no man could make 
 this type of mower and reaper, 
 or any other, and pay ;^io roy- 
 alty, and live." 
 
 Comment. — In view of the 
 foregoing statement, if this 
 company make an annual 
 profit of ten per cent upon 
 their capital of ^1,000,000, it 
 is 1^100,000, or on 20,715 ma- 
 chines, as made in 1873, an 
 average of 1^4.83 each. 
 
 With a profit of twelve and 
 a half per cent, the average is 
 $6,04 each : with a profit of 
 fifteen per cent, the average is 
 ^7.25 each. 
 
 Mr. Sayler's statement of 
 profit on all kinds of agri- 
 cultural implements, patented 
 or otherwise, is fifty-two per 
 cent. 
 
 His impracticable proposal, 
 " to pay a royalty to the owner 
 of a patent right of ten per 
 cent upon the market value 
 of the article manufactured," 
 would have the effect of in- 
 creasing the price of nearly 
 
 every patented article now 
 upon the market. It would 
 double the royalty demanded 
 upon sewing-machines by the 
 combined interest which con- 
 trols a score of patents upon 
 the same. And suppose, for 
 a moment, that these twenty 
 patents, more or less, were held 
 by as many different parties, 
 who, in the name of constitu- 
 tional law, would have the 
 right or the ability to decide 
 with justice what proportion 
 should be paid to each .'' 
 
 In the construction of mow- 
 ers and reapers, as in other 
 things, the patented inventions 
 embodied are numerous, and 
 of different values : could any 
 court of arbitration adjust them 
 with any prospect of doing 
 justice to the patentees, the 
 manufacturer, and the public .•• 
 
 In a machine of which the 
 "market value " was, say, j^ioo, 
 one patented invention might 
 command a royalty of a dollar, 
 or one-tenth of one per cent ; 
 another, of greater importance, 
 might be worth five dollars, or 
 five per cent ; the shades of 
 value varying at different times. 
 
23 
 
 according to the necessities, 
 the fancy, or the caprice of the 
 public, or the state of the art 
 at the time. 
 
 This question, therefore, Uke 
 all others having reference to 
 prices or values, must be regu- 
 lated by the higher power of 
 demand and supply, the ulti- 
 mate arbiter of all such ques- 
 tions, irrespective of legal en- 
 actments from whatever source. 
 
 In respect to agricultural 
 implements, Mr. Sayler uses 
 the following extraordinary lan- 
 guage:— 
 
 "The capital employed in 
 the manufacture of these in 
 1870, as shown by the census, 
 was ^34,834,600. They paid 
 a Httle over ^12,000,000 for 
 wages'; they paid nearly ^21,- 
 500,000 for materials ; and their 
 net profits on the basis indi- 
 cated was fifty-two per cent on 
 all the agricultural implements 
 in the country. 
 
 "The man who pays ^150 
 for his reaper pays $52 as a 
 royalty to-day to the holders of 
 patent rights. ... It is fifty- 
 two per cent, on every dollar 
 invested in the manufacture 
 
 of agricultural implements and 
 machinery, clear profit. . . . 
 In any way you may look at it, 
 you will find there is a duplica- 
 tion every two years. You 
 may burn up and utterly de- 
 stroy every agricultural imple- 
 ment manufacturing establish- 
 ment in the country, and they 
 will yet make four per cent on 
 the invested amount. ;^3 5,000,- 
 000 capital invested in agricul- 
 tural implements doubles itself 
 every two years, and leaves a 
 net profit besides. So it goes 
 on, and on, and on, until, when 
 the ordinary life of a patent 
 right shall have expired, more 
 than ^400,000,000 has been 
 made, or nearly made, by the 
 original ^35,000,000." 
 
 The tales of " The Arabian 
 Nights " are as worthy of be- 
 lief as this statement. I will 
 venture the assertion, and for 
 its truth I refer to every manu- 
 facturer of agricultural imple- 
 ments in the land, that, tak- 
 ing one year with another, the 
 net profits upon the entire 
 product of the country do not 
 average over ten per cent, nor 
 
24 
 
 the royalties to the holders 
 of Patents, over two per cent, 
 upon the value of the patented 
 articles. 
 
 STATEMENT NO 5. 
 
 [Frt)m one of the largest and most success- 
 ful manufacturers of sewing-macliines.] 
 
 " The sewing-machine busi- 
 ness was begun in the United 
 States in the year 1850. 
 
 " Out -of some ten compa- 
 nies and firms who engaged in 
 the business during the suc- 
 ceeding five years, only three 
 are now in existence. The 
 others failed, — some because 
 their machines had no merit ; 
 but most, because the sales 
 were so limited as to make the 
 business undesirable. The pre- 
 judice against the introduction 
 of these machines which the 
 pioneers of the business en- 
 countered was probably greater 
 than that attending the intro- 
 duction of any other labor-sav- 
 ing instrument. 
 
 " From the time sewing-ma- 
 chines were first introduced, 
 large expenditures have been 
 made by the leading manufac- 
 turers in order to popularize 
 
 their use ; and in no section of 
 the country has this business 
 been made to yield a profit, 
 until after those seeking to 
 establish it had first lost large 
 sums in their undertakings. 
 
 "In the year 1856, the own- 
 ers of leading patents united 
 in an arrangement for the pur- 
 pose of more effectually pro- 
 tecting the business against 
 infringers, and for the purpose 
 of granting licenses under the 
 patents to others who desired 
 to engage in the business. 
 
 " Prices at which machines 
 were then sold were more than 
 double what they now are. 
 The license-fee was fixed at 
 $ 1 5 per machine. In the year 
 i860, this license was reduced 
 to $2 per maehine ; and at this 
 rate twelve additional licenses 
 to manufacture were granted. 
 In 1868 it was again reduced 
 to ^5 per machine, and lastly, 
 in 1870, to ^3 per machine ; 
 which sum is the royalty now 
 paid by all licensees making 
 double-thread sewing-machines. 
 No agreement ever existed be- 
 tween the companies as to the 
 prices at which machines should 
 
25 
 
 be sold. Each company could, 
 at any time, regulate prices as 
 it chose. 
 
 " The number of companies 
 and firms now engaged in 
 the sewing-machine business is 
 thirty-one. 
 
 " The amount o£ capital em- 
 ployed in the United States by 
 these thirty-one manufacturers 
 is not less than (;^40,ooo,ooo) 
 forty millions of dollars. This 
 capital is employed as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 " First, In the ownership of 
 patents, and in organizing and 
 perfecting a marketable ma- 
 chine. 
 
 " Second, In acquiring proper 
 manufacturing facilities, among 
 which is included very large 
 expenditures for special tools, 
 and machinery which is only 
 applicable to the manufacture 
 of the particular machine for 
 which it is designed. 
 
 " Third, In the purchase and 
 payment of the necessary ma- 
 terial and labor employed in 
 the various departments of the 
 manufactory. 
 
 "Fourth, In creating and 
 maintaining the selling organi- 
 
 zation necessary to market the 
 machines, to instruct purchas- 
 ers in their use, and to keep 
 them in order. 
 
 ''Fifth, In extending long 
 credits to purchasers, and in 
 the employment of a large 
 force for making collections on 
 the machines sold on the in- 
 stalment plan. 
 
 "The organizations for mak- 
 ing and selling sewing-ma- 
 chines are so dependent upon 
 each other, that it has been 
 found necessary that the par- 
 ties making must also control 
 and supervise the sales. Sev- 
 eral attempts have been made 
 by manufacturers to dispose of 
 the entire production of their 
 manufactories to other parties, 
 who would undertake the in- 
 troduction and sale of their 
 machines ; but each attempt 
 in this direction has proved a 
 failure. 
 
 " The success or failure of 
 any sewing-machine manufac- 
 turer is dependent on the man- 
 ner in which his machine is 
 marketed ; for although large 
 sales may, for a time, be made, 
 unless the necessary expenses 
 
26 
 
 are incurred to properly in- 
 struct purchasers in using ma- 
 chines, and in maintaining a 
 force of agents to adjust, re- 
 pair, and see that machines 
 sold are kept in successful 
 operation, the reputation of the 
 machine will suffer, and sales 
 will diminish proportionately. 
 
 " If the manufacturer of 
 sewing-machines could sell his 
 machine, and the right under 
 his patents to use it, without 
 the additional expenses re- 
 ferred to, he could well afford 
 to accept from thirty-five to 
 forty per cent of the price now 
 charged. 
 
 " Suppose the manufacturer 
 of the little instrument used 
 for transmitting telegraphic 
 messages, which is now sold 
 for about $15, should be com- 
 pelled to support an organiza- 
 tion for the purpose of instruct- 
 ing parties in its use, and 
 keeping it in order, would 1^150, 
 or even ^200, be an unreason- 
 able price at which to sell it ? 
 Or suppose the manufacturer 
 of a piano, which would other- 
 wise sell for ;^500, were com- 
 pelled to do the same thing, 
 
 would ;^ 1,500, or even $2,000, 
 be an unreasonable charge ? " 
 
 " The profits of the sewing- 
 machine business are not to be 
 arrived at by estimating the 
 difference between the cost of 
 making a sewing-machine, and 
 the price at which it is sold. 
 By far the largest item of cost 
 to the manufacturer is the cost 
 of selling machines, and main- 
 taining the necessary organiza- 
 tion for keeping them in suc- 
 cessful operation. There is 
 not a sewing-machine manu- 
 facturer in the United States 
 who would not be glad to enter 
 into a contract with any re- 
 sponsible company, firm, or 
 individual, for ^e sale of the 
 entire production of their 
 manufactory at from sixty to 
 sixty-five per cent discount 
 from the published prices of 
 their respective machines. 
 
 "In the year 1870 a con- 
 tract was entered into by one 
 of the largest sewing-machine 
 companies in the country, for 
 supplying as many sewing- 
 machines (exclusive of stands 
 or tables) as another company, 
 which was organized for the 
 
27 
 
 purpose of marketing this ma- 
 chine, might require, at $14 
 each. The retail price of this 
 machine was fixed at ^70 ; and 
 the last-named company, after 
 having displayed considerable 
 ability in marketing over 100,- 
 000 of these machines, are to- 
 day unable to pay their debts ; 
 and their business is being 
 managed by a committee of 
 their creditors." 
 
 In contrast with this plain 
 statement of facts, we have the 
 following crude opinion of Mr. 
 Sayler, based upon the census 
 returns, which the superintend- 
 ent, as we shall see later, has 
 characterized as being " efitirely 
 untrustworthy and delusive;^' 
 viz., — 
 
 " It takes but a fraction over 
 seventeen months for the sew- 
 ing-machine capital of the 
 country to pay for all the labor 
 it employs, all the material it 
 uses, and all the capital that is 
 engaged in the business. 
 
 " Every two years, you might 
 burn down and utterly destroy 
 every sewing-machine estab- 
 lishment in the country, and 
 
 they would yet have in their 
 pockets all that they had paid 
 for wages and material, all 
 their capital, and in the neigh- 
 borhood of twenty per cent 
 besides. . . . 
 
 " The profit upon a ^60 ma- 
 chine, as shown by the census 
 of 1870, is 1^24. 
 
 " The entire number sold in 
 the United States, up to the 
 present time, reaches in the 
 neighborhood of 3,500,000 ; and 
 the aggregate profit, on this 
 basis, upon the sewing-machines 
 throughout the land, amounts 
 to ^84,250,000, the great propor- 
 tion of which comes from the 
 toilers of the midnight lamp, — 
 from those who are compelled 
 to 'stitch, stitch, stitch,' for a 
 meagre subsistence, while the 
 patent holders are insisting 
 that ^24 out of every $60 that 
 they invest in sewing-machines 
 shall go to them as profit, . . . 
 
 "Taking these two items 
 of sewing-machines and agri- 
 cultural implements, and the 
 aggregate profit of all that 
 have been sold, since their in- 
 troduction, up to the present 
 time, on sewing-machines, and, 
 
28 
 
 up to 1870, on agricultural im- 
 plements, is over ;^ 200,000,- 
 000 of actual profit, clear cut, 
 — thick cut it is true, but clear 
 cut." 
 
 Where, it may be asked, are 
 those two hundred million- 
 naires who are indebted to the 
 manufacture and sale of sew- 
 ing-machines and agricultural 
 implements for their great 
 wealth ? Can Mr. Sayler point 
 out even five ? We cannot. 
 
 In the new law which he 
 proposes, the royalty to a 
 single patentee upon sewing- 
 machines the market-value of 
 which is $60, would be $6. 
 We have seen that the asso- 
 ciation which controls the lead- 
 ing Patents in this branch 
 of industry (a score of them, 
 more or less) are willing to 
 license Mr. Sayler, or any 
 other responsible person or 
 company, to manufacture sew- 
 ing-machines of the most ap- 
 proved patterns, for the small 
 royalty of ^3 each, or five per 
 cent on a ^60 machine. 
 
 If the present manufacturers 
 are such extortioners, and so 
 
 regardless of the interests of 
 the poor, and if the profits in 
 the business are so attractive, 
 why do not some philanthrop- 
 ic and enterprising capitalists 
 embark in it .-' There is no 
 monopoly : the road is open to 
 any who will pay the small 
 royalty demanded. 
 
 In respect to the statement,' 
 that " a greater portion of 
 these milhons comes from the 
 toilers by the midnight lamp," 
 a little investigation will show, 
 that a very large part of this 
 manufacture is absorbed by 
 persons who are above want, 
 by manufacturers, and by for- 
 eign nations. 
 
 STATEMENT NO. 6. 
 
 " In the business of manufac- 
 turing stoves, in which I have 
 been engaged for more than 
 thirty years,' it has been my 
 custom to make up annually 
 statistical accounts of the cost 
 in great detail. 
 
 "A statement of this cost, 
 modified to meet the average 
 condition of stove-founders, I 
 submitted to the National As- 
 sociation of Stove Manufactur- 
 
29 
 
 ers, at their first meeting, held 
 in the city of New York three 
 years since. 
 
 " It has been universally in- 
 dorsed by the trade as being 
 substantially correct. 
 
 " Detailed statements of this 
 character in respect to most 
 
 other branches of manufacture 
 would be far more reliable as a 
 basis for action than the cen- 
 sus returns, which the super- 
 intendent characterizes as be- 
 ing * wholly worthless,^ or the 
 opinions of inexperienced theo- 
 rists." 
 
 The following is a copy of the statement referred to. 
 
 Estimated Cost of manufacturing 3,000 net Tons of Stoves of an 
 Ordittary Quality in ojie Foundry, and in one Cupola, runnittg 
 »273 Days, the Product averaging II Tons per Day. 
 
 Iron at $40.00. If 2,120 pounds are realized from a gross 
 
 ton, the cost per net ton will be $37-73 6-10 
 
 Coal for melting 3,333 pounds of iron, the amount required 
 
 to make 2,000 pounds of cleaned castings, including waste, 
 
 20 pounds per hundred, or 666 6-10 pounds, cost $7.17 per 
 
 gross ton, or 32 cents per hundred net 2.13 3-10 
 
 Coal for engine, 1,400 pounds per day, cost $6.50 
 
 per gross ton, or 29 cents per hundred net . . $4.06 .37 
 
 Coal used in 22 heating stoves, 60 days, 60 pounds 
 
 each, 1,320 pounds per day, 79,200 pounds ; cost 
 
 $6.50 per gross ton, or 29 cents per hundred 
 
 net 229.68 .07 7-10 
 
 Cupola men, and men for breaking and wheeling iron and coal : 
 
 One man breaking and wheeling . . . $2.50 
 
 One man breaking and wheeling . . . 2.00 
 
 One man melting 2-So 
 
 Three laborers melting, at $2.00 . . . 6.00 
 
 $13.00 1. 18 2-10 
 
 Wood for cupola, | of a cord at $7.00 ..... .15 9-10 
 
 Moulding 27.50 
 
 Foreman of moulding shop 2,000.00 .(^ 7-10 
 
 Mounting 7.50 
 
 Amount carried forward. 
 
 $77.32 4-10 
 
30 
 
 Amount brought forward, $77,324-10 
 
 Foreman of mounting shop $2,000.00 .(i() 7-10 
 
 Engineer, $2.75 per day, 300 days 825.00 .275-10 
 
 Oil and waste 7S-oo .02 5-10. 
 
 Moulding sand, \\ ton at $2.00 .... $3.00 
 Fire sand and clay 20 
 
 3.20 .29 I -10 
 
 Facing, i\ bbls. at $3.50 7.87J .71 6-10 
 
 Wheeling, cleaning, and delivering castings at the 
 
 racks 2.10 
 
 Weighing, examining, and piling castings ... .88 8-10 
 
 2.98 8-10 
 
 General labor : — 
 
 Two men carrying flasks, %l.%^\ . . . $3-75 
 
 One man carrying patterns I-87J 
 
 Two men at cinder mills, $1.87^ . . . 3.75 
 
 One man cleaning gangways .... 1.87^ 
 
 11.25 1.02 3-10 
 
 Clerks at foundry, and labor, hoisting, piling, and shipping : — 
 
 One clerk $1,200.00 
 
 One clerk 800.00 
 
 One clerk 500.00 
 
 Five laborers, $600.00 each .... 3,000.00 
 
 $5,500.00 1.83 3-10 
 
 Watchman, 365 days, at $2.00 per day .... 730.00 .24 3-10 
 
 Files $1,500.00 
 
 Tools . 550.00 
 
 Grindstones 100.00 
 
 Emery-wheels 300.00 
 
 Belting . 50.00 
 
 2,500.00 .83 3-10 
 
 Rods, bolts, wire, malleable iron, scrapers, cement, wood 
 
 handles, &c 3.30 
 
 Broken castings, daily, 273 days, 300 
 
 lbs. per day 81,900 lbs. 
 
 Obsolete castings discarded at the end 
 
 of the year 50,000 " 
 
 At 3 cents per pound .... 131,900 $3,957-oo 1.31 9-10 
 
 Amoutit carried forward, $90.83 7-10 
 
31 
 
 Amount brought forward, $$90.83 7-10 
 
 Repairs of buildings and machinery $2,000.00 .(^ 7-10 
 
 Repairs of iron patterns : — 
 
 Moulding $1.00 
 
 Two fitters 6.00 
 
 One scraper 2.50 
 
 $9.50 300 days 2,850.00 .95 
 
 Repairs of flasks, and keeping the stock 
 
 good : — 
 
 Four men, $3.00 — $12.00 . . 300 days 3,600.00 I.20 
 
 Lumber, nails, screws, &c., for repairs of flasks, 
 
 and for new flasks to keep the old stock good, 1,000.00 .33 3-10 
 
 Cartage of dirt, and sundry cartages not charged, 
 
 S2.20 per day .20 
 
 Rent of foundry and warehouse, 10 per 
 
 cent interest on $80,000 $8,000.00 
 
 Taxes on foundry and warehouse . . 800.00 
 
 $8,800.00 
 Insurance on machinery and stock, \\ per cent on 
 
 $75,000 1,125.00 
 
 Gas and oil 700.00 
 
 Stationery and books 300.00 
 
 New wood and iron patterns and flasks .... 9,000.00 
 
 Sundries 1,500.00 
 
 $101.33 
 Store expenses, selling, &c. : — 
 
 Rent and taxes on store . . .' . $1,500.00 60 
 
 Clerks 5,000.00 1.66 7-10 
 
 Two travellers 3,500.00 1.16 7-10 
 
 Expenses of same 3,000.00 i.oo 
 
 Porter 600.00 .20 
 
 ^-as 300.00 .10 
 
 Ldvertising, circulars, posters, and 
 other printing, woodcuts and elec- 
 trotypes 8,000.00 2.66 7-10 
 
 2.93 3- 
 
 10 
 
 •37 5- 
 
 10 
 
 •234- 
 
 10 
 
 .10 
 
 
 3-00 
 
 
 .50 
 
 
 Amount carried forward, $7-60 i-io $101.32 9-10 
 
32 
 
 Amount brought forward, 
 
 Stationery $600.00 
 
 Postage 1,500.00 
 
 Interest on $200,000 capital at 7 per 
 
 cent 14,000.00 
 
 Discount for cash, five per cent on . . 100,000.00 
 Allowances, amount of sales, say 
 $420,000, at $140 per ton ; 1,400 
 customers, at, say, $2.00 each . . . 2,800.00 
 Bad debt, i|- per cent on $420,000 . . 6,300.00 
 Sundry freights, expressage, and tele- 
 graphing during 313 days, at $2 per 
 
 day 626.00 
 
 Legal costs 500.00 
 
 Sundries 2,481.00 
 
 $7.60 I-IO 
 .20 
 .50 
 
 4.66 7-10 
 1.66 7-10 
 
 •93 3-10 
 2.10 
 
 .20 9-10 
 .16 6-10 
 .82 7-10 
 
 From this the following results are obtained : — 
 
 $101.32 9-10 
 
 18.87 i-io 
 
 $120.00 
 
 Stock $45-14 
 
 Labor 43-76 
 
 Tools and Patterns . . . 6.30 
 
 Sundries 24.80 
 
 37tV per cent. 
 36rV " 
 
 5x^0 " 
 
 20tV " 
 
 $120.00 100 
 Estimated average profits 10 to 15 per cent. 
 
 A profit of twelve and a half 
 per cent on the cost, ;^ 120.00 
 per ton, would give an aver- 
 age price for the product, of 
 ^135.00. 
 
 Upon Mr. Sayler's plan of 
 estimating the cost of manu- 
 factured articles, as being com- 
 posed of material and labor 
 only, the net profit upon this 
 
 branch of industry would be 
 fifty-one and eight-tenths per 
 cent, instead of ten to fifteen 
 per cent ; and, for the correct- 
 ness of this statement, I refer 
 to the stove manufacturers of 
 our country. 
 
 For the purpose of ascer- 
 taining, to some extent, the 
 sentiments of persons familiar 
 
33 
 
 with the subject, I lately ad- 
 dressed a series of questions to 
 several who are engaged re- 
 spectively in different pursuits, 
 relative to the effect of our Pat- 
 , ent System, both upon invent- 
 I'ors, and upon the public, and 
 what would be the probable 
 effect, if the bill proposed by Mr. 
 Sayler should become a law. 
 
 The first inquiry was as 
 follows : — 
 
 I. Name of valuable inveniiotts 
 for which the hiventors have not 
 made 7noney, directly or indirectly j 
 also cases in which they have realized 
 a handsome income on the same, and 
 expended it on further inventions j 
 also name of any i7tventors who 
 have been ruined in producing valu- 
 able inventions. 
 
 I quote the following re- 
 pHes : — 
 
 [From an Attorney.] 
 
 " There are numerous cases 
 in which inventors have failed 
 to receive any considerable re- 
 muneration for valuable inven- 
 tions, and others in which they 
 have received more or less, but 
 expended it in further inven- 
 tion, 
 
 " But probably more striking 
 3 
 
 examples than any which now 
 occur to me will be furnished 
 by others to whom your Circu- 
 lar is addressed. Among the 
 cases, however, where invent- 
 ors have been ruined in pro- 
 ducing valuable inventions, I 
 cannot forbear to mention that 
 of Elisha T. Kneeland, the in- 
 ventor of the machine for 
 making lead pipe, who, just as 
 he had attained success, was 
 obliged to sell his entire inter- 
 est in the machine, and also in 
 the invention, to pay the debts 
 he had contracted in its pro- 
 duction." 
 
 [From a Manufacturer.] 
 
 " I had some fifteen Patents 
 in my own right, which, in 
 preparing to manufacture the 
 goods, together with the great 
 expense and trouble in intro- 
 ducing them to the market, 
 have cost me, in the preparation 
 of new tools and machines, and 
 other incidental matters, more 
 money than I ever have, or 
 probably ever shall, through- 
 out the duration of said Pat- 
 ents, realize as profits on the 
 same. 
 
34 
 
 " I am now in quest of new- 
 Patents, both here and in Eu- 
 rope, for new inventions; and 
 am now expending large sums 
 in preparing to make and sell 
 goods under the same. 
 
 " I have, on some few of my 
 Patents, reahzed some profits, 
 but expended much more, 
 which, it is probable, I may 
 never see returned. 
 
 " I have been ruined more 
 than once in my efforts to in- 
 troduce these various improve- 
 ments, though I have never 
 
 failed ultimately to pay all my 
 debts." 
 
 Note. — Has not this man been a public 
 benefactor ? Has he not conferred great bene- 
 fits upon the people, which have cost them 
 nothing? Would it be just to allow an indis- 
 criminate use of his successful Patents by the 
 payment of a royalty, to be fixed by the gov- 
 ernment? Nothing could be more unjust. 
 
 Another correspondent gives 
 a list of twenty-six cases ; 
 but, as none of them have any 
 special reputation, I will omit 
 the details. The result is as 
 follows : — 
 
 14 brought no return. 
 
 3 paid expenses. 
 
 4 paid indirectly to the manufacturer. 
 I realized $2,000. 
 
 I realized $2,500. 
 
 3 are producing fair royalties. 
 
 26 
 
 It appears, that, in these 
 cases, several of the patentees 
 were ruined in their efforts for 
 improvement ; so that the bal- 
 ance of the account will be 
 found in this, as in most other 
 cases of like character, largely 
 on the wrong side. 
 
 Investigation will show that 
 Patents are almost as uncer- 
 
 tain as the wind in their pecu- 
 niary results ; while in their 
 material results, as promoting 
 our national glory and progress, 
 their success has been unex- 
 ampled. 
 
 The rewards are unequally 
 and frequently unjustly divided ; 
 and the same may be said of 
 the general division, in this 
 
35 
 
 world, of property and prosper- 
 ity ; but this belongs to a dis- 
 pensation of things which Hes 
 beyond human control. 
 
 [From a Manufacturer,] 
 
 " We are engaged in improv- 
 ing and manufacturing a spe- 
 cial branch of plumbing work, 
 and have been so for eighteen 
 years past. 
 
 " We have expended large 
 sums of money in taking out 
 Patents, and in perfecting old 
 Patents, and in protecting the 
 same. 
 
 " We own fifteen Patents, and 
 have only during the past two 
 years begun to realize any ben- 
 efits from them." 
 
 The second inquiry was as 
 follows : — 
 
 2. The name of inventions in agri- 
 culture, commerce, inanufactures, and 
 the mechanic arts, of the greatest 
 public Jitility. 
 
 [From an Attorney.] 
 
 "Among some of the most 
 important inventions of the 
 present age, I will mention, in 
 agriciilUire, the mowing-ma- 
 chine, invented by Ketchum, 
 and improved by Forbush ; the 
 
 reaping-machine, with which 
 McCormick and others are in- 
 separably associated ; in com- 
 merce, the steamboat by Fulton, 
 the telegraph by Morse, and the 
 locomotive by Stephenson ; in 
 the mechanic arts, the sewing- 
 machine by Howe, and im- 
 proved by ^Wilson, Fitzgerald, 
 and others. Numerous others 
 might be mentioned, with 
 which you are equally familiar." 
 
 [From another Manufacturer.] 
 
 " Mowing and reaping ma- 
 chines, corn and potato plant- 
 ers, windmills, steam-machinery, 
 railroads," &c. 
 
 The third inquiry : — 
 3. Capital required to itttroduce 
 inve?ttio7is, and the effect that open 
 co7}ipetition would have upon such 
 investment of capital. 
 
 [From an Attorney.] 
 
 "To my knowledge, large 
 amounts of capital are often re- 
 quired to introduce inventions, 
 and properly put them before 
 the public. In some cases a 
 hundred thousand dollars is not 
 more than is necessary for the 
 inauguration of the enterprise, 
 while, of course, in other cases, 
 
36 
 
 a much less sum is quite suffi- 
 cient. 
 
 " It is a very common thing 
 for capitalists to refuse to in- 
 vest money in such enterprises, 
 until they can be assured of 
 the protection of a Patent. 
 Many such cases have occurred 
 under my own immediate ob- 
 servation. 
 
 " In my opinion, the effect of 
 open competition upon such in- 
 vestments of capital would be, 
 that comparatively few men 
 would be willing to incur the 
 risk, the expense and the losses 
 incident to the extensive in- 
 troduction of a new invention, 
 simply to teach their neighbors 
 how to make money by their 
 experience, as soon as the in- 
 vention proved a success," 
 
 [From another Manufacturer.] 
 
 " If an invention be like the 
 ' Creamer Safety Break,' or 
 any thing of that character, a 
 large amount of capital, labor, 
 and perseverance, is required." 
 
 [From still Another.] 
 
 " If the Patent System in the 
 United States was to be mate- 
 rially curtailed, it would destroy 
 
 the ambition of inventors, and 
 place us back in the dormant 
 position of past ages, so far as 
 relates to improvements, 
 
 " To make new articles re- 
 quires additional capital ; and 
 to introduce them in competi- 
 tion with those of estabhshed 
 reputation, and with the oppo- 
 sition of merchants holding 
 such stocks, is always found to 
 be expensive and difficult," 
 
 [From a noted Inventor.] 
 
 " It is my impression, from 
 having visited personally a 
 large proportion of all the man- 
 ufacturing establishments in 
 the United States, that full 
 three-fourths, and perhaps more, 
 of the capital thus invested, 
 has been attracted by the pro- 
 tection offered to Patents ; 
 also, that, by this protection, 
 manufacturers are warranted 
 in making a great outlay for 
 the best machinery, by which 
 means they can not only make 
 a far better article than could 
 be otherwise made, but they 
 can furnish the article to the 
 public for one-half, and some- 
 times one-fifth, or even one- 
 
37 
 
 tenth, the cost to make an arti- 
 cle of a poorer quality, with- 
 out the machinery, and still 
 make a fair business profit 
 by systematizing the business, 
 and doing it upon a large 
 scale. 
 
 " Without any protection 
 they would, in my judgment, be 
 as insane as would a person 
 who should expend his money 
 and time in the building of 
 costly dwellings on lands for 
 which he possessed no shadow 
 of title. 
 
 "I feel quite sure that the 
 unparalleled success of this 
 country is, to a very considera- 
 ble extent, due to the encour- 
 agement which Congress has 
 given to inventors in order to 
 promote the progress of the 
 useful arts. 
 
 " Congress in its wisdom has 
 foreseen the necessity of sur- 
 rounding authors and inventors 
 with the surest protection pos- 
 sible ; and therefore it reserved 
 to itself the supreme control 
 of their rights, as it did of no 
 other class of persons or proper- 
 ty. And who does not see that 
 this very provision has given 
 
 this country a degree of pros- 
 perity not known in ftny other 
 country in the world .'' Stop 
 this protection, and you shut 
 up numbers of the large manu- 
 facturing establishments which 
 now contribute so materially to 
 our national prosperity." 
 
 [From a large Manufacturer.] 
 
 " It has required a large cap- 
 ital to introduce my goods, and 
 for machinery to manufacture 
 the same. The cost for con- 
 testing the validity of my Pat- 
 ents, and preventing infringe- 
 ments, has been great. The 
 effect of an open competition 
 would be to stop the progress 
 of improvement." 
 
 [From an Attorney.] 
 
 " The effect of open compe- 
 tition upon the investment of 
 capital in the introduction of 
 inventions would, in my opin- 
 ion, be detrimental. It would 
 deter capitalists from invest- 
 ing in such enterprises ; and 
 the inventor, together with 
 the most valuable inventions, 
 would seek the required aid in 
 vain." 
 
38 
 
 The fourth inquiry : — 
 
 4. The -proportion of inventions 
 upon which any profit whatever is 
 realized to inventor or manufac- 
 turer. 
 
 [From an Inventor.] 
 
 " I should think about one- 
 eighth made some profit. The 
 balance hardly pay the cost of 
 Patent fees. About two per 
 cent may be said to be really 
 profitable." 
 
 [From a Manufacturer.] 
 
 " From my information and 
 experience, I fully believe that 
 not one-tenth of all the Patents 
 issued in the United States 
 ever give the inventor any 
 profits." 
 
 [From an Inventor,] 
 
 " I do not remember a single 
 inventor who died after the ex- 
 piration of his Patent, that left 
 any property to show for it, 
 unless he .made it by the 
 manufacture of the article ; 
 and that profit he could have 
 made in common with others 
 without any Patent. 
 
 "The men who purchase a 
 right to use a Patent proceed 
 at once to realize something 
 on the invention ; while the 
 patentee is at all times expend- 
 ing his money for still further 
 improvements. 
 
 " Neither do I know of a 
 single Patent in which the ma- 
 chine or article made from it 
 was sold any cheaper by reason 
 of the Patent having expired. 
 It is far more for the interest, 
 or at least in accordance with 
 the inclination of the patentee, 
 to attempt to produce the 
 cheapest as well as the best 
 article, than the one who sim- 
 ply manufactures the articles 
 to sell. 
 
 " In my opinion, it should 
 be the policy of Congress to 
 extend the Patent of every 
 man who took sufficient inter- 
 est in it to ask for an exten- 
 sion ; since it would tend to 
 produce a competition among 
 the owners of Patents to pro- 
 duce the best and cheapest 
 articles, while it would greatly 
 stimulate invention, in order 
 to excel articles already in 
 
39 
 
 [From a Manufacturer.] 
 
 " In our case we have had to 
 pay such large sums for pro- 
 tecting and sustaining our Pat- 
 ents, that we have not realized 
 large, or even fair profits. We 
 believe the proportion of Pat- 
 ents upon which any profit is 
 realized is small ; have heard 
 it stated at one in a hundred 
 of good paying Patents ; and I 
 judge, from my own experience 
 and observation, that this is 
 about a fair estimate." 
 
 [From an Attorney.] 
 
 " The proportion of inven- 
 tions upon which any profit 
 over and above the labor and 
 expense of perfecting the same, 
 and procuring the Patent there- 
 for, and of the efforts to intro- 
 duce it, is realized to inventors, 
 is very small, probably not ex- 
 ceeding one-tenth, and perhaps 
 not one-twentieth. Of the ten 
 or twelve thousand Patents 
 that are granted annually, I 
 doubt if over five hundred of 
 them reahze to the inventors 
 any profit, certainly not what 
 they could have realized if the 
 same time, labor, and money 
 
 had been expended and in- 
 vested in other legitimate 
 mercantile or mechanical em- 
 ployments. The Patents which 
 are very lucrative to inventors 
 or manufacturers are compara- 
 tively few. 
 
 " Some of these few have be- 
 come, after long and toilsome 
 years, and the investment of 
 immense capital, very remuner- 
 ative and profitable. While 
 these few are known and pub- 
 lished abroad, the eighty or 
 ninety per cent are not noticed 
 or taken into account. 
 
 " I think it is safe to say 
 that full eighty out of every 
 hundred of the Patents granted 
 in this country fail to realize 
 to the inventor or the manu- 
 facturer any profit whatever, 
 — I might say the first or early 
 manufacturer; for as soon as 
 it is ascertained that a newly- 
 patented article will not pay to 
 manufacture, that the demand 
 will not warrant the establish- 
 ment of large works, and the 
 investment of large capital, the 
 enterprise is dropped. But it 
 often happens that manufac- 
 turers' calculations are sadly 
 
40 
 
 disappointed ; and after large 
 amounts have been invested 
 in buildings, materials, tools, 
 &c., the foundation, the sub- 
 ject on which success depends, 
 proves a phantom and a fail- 
 
 The fifth inquiry. 
 
 5. The effect of a legal enactment 
 permitting the general use of pat- 
 ented invetttions tipon payjne7it of 
 a royalty of ten per cent zipon the 
 value of the article tnanufacturedj 
 the Patent to re7nain in force but 
 seven years. 
 
 [From an Attorney.] 
 
 " I think that a law permit- 
 ting the general use of pat- 
 ented inventions, upon the 
 payment of a royalty of ten 
 per cent upon the value of the 
 articles, would be disastrous to 
 the last degree. 
 
 " In the first place it gives 
 no exclusive privilege to any 
 one, and consequently takes 
 away the inducement which 
 capitalists now have to expend 
 money in the introduction of 
 new inventions. In the second 
 place, it is not a fair standard 
 of value. Some might be worth 
 
 more; while a much larger 
 number would be dear at half 
 that amount. 
 
 " Furthermore, in many 
 cases the chief value of the 
 invention consists in the ex- 
 clusive right to use a machine 
 in a particular territory. A 
 patented planing-machine may 
 furnish a good and familiar 
 example. The exclusive right 
 to use one such machine in 
 Albany County might be worth 
 one hundred thousand dollars, 
 while the exclusive right to 
 use an exactly similar ma- 
 chine in Wyoming County 
 might not be worth five thou- 
 sand ; and yet it costs the 
 same to build the machine in 
 both cases. 
 
 " To make a law, then, 
 throwing inventions open to 
 the public, upon payment of ten 
 per cent upon the value of 
 the articles in a general mar- 
 ket, would, in my opinion, be 
 seriously unjust, as well as un- 
 fortunate. Seven years is not 
 generally sufficient time for the 
 introduction of an invention, 
 and the remuneration of an 
 inventor."' 
 
a: 
 41 
 
 [From an Inventor.] 
 
 " As a rule, I should think 
 this plan unfavorable. It 
 would produce litigation, com- 
 plication, and trouble." 
 
 [From a Manufacturer.] 
 
 " Were such a plan adopted, 
 I feel confident that not more 
 than one Patent would be is- 
 sued where there are now fifty, 
 and hence the comparative non- 
 use of the present system." 
 
 [From an Inventor.] 
 
 " As to any attempt — for any 
 cause short of the government 
 purchasing the Patent, and 
 thus insuring a proper remu- 
 neration to the inventor — to 
 shorten the life of a Patent, I 
 should think about as wise as 
 to pass laws that all purchases 
 of property from the public 
 domain hereafter should be 
 held by the purchaser for a 
 period of only seven years, 
 and should then revert to the 
 government." 
 
 [From a Manufacturer.] 
 
 "Such a law would, in our 
 opinion, actually kill the Pat- 
 ent business. C^It generally 
 takes as long as seven years 
 
 to introduce a new patented 
 article." 
 
 [From an Attorney.] 
 
 " The effect of any enact- 
 ment which shall permit the 
 general use of patented inven- 
 tions, upon payment of a roy- 
 alty of ten per cent upon the 
 value of the article manufac- 
 tured, the Patent to remain in 
 force only seven years, would, 
 in my judgment, be almost 
 equivalent to stopping 'the 
 wheels of time.' It would 
 dry up all the sources of im- 
 provement in manufactures 
 and the mechanic arts, and so 
 paralyze and cripple the ge- 
 nius of our country as to stop 
 progress at once. How shall 
 an inventor in the New-En- 
 gland States know who is 
 using his invention in the 
 West or the South 1 
 
 " How shall the latter be 
 made to account to the for- 
 mer .!* 
 
 " Our Patent Laws are, for 
 the most part, well enough as 
 they are. They should not be 
 changed except upon great 
 deliberation." 
 
42 
 
 The sixth inquiry : — 
 
 6. The average net profit upon 
 specified patented articles^ after pay- 
 ment of interest on capital em- 
 ployed, and every contingency. 
 
 [From an Inventor.] 
 
 " Taking all patented inven- 
 tions into account, the average 
 would be a loss, in my judg- 
 ment. Among those that are 
 profitable, I should think they 
 might average ten per cent." 
 
 [From a Manxifacturer.] 
 
 " I have been twenty-five 
 years manufacturing patented 
 articles, and have spent very 
 much more money than I have 
 received from them ; and I 
 am assured that my own is an 
 average experience, taking into 
 account the frequent heavy 
 payments to be made to the 
 legal profession for services 
 rendered in the defence and 
 maintenance of rights." 
 
 [From another Manufacturer.] 
 
 " We think about ten per 
 cent, after paying interest upon 
 capital." 
 
 [From an Attorney.] 
 
 " I might, had I the time, 
 specify a few patented articles 
 upon which the net profit is 
 large, over and above all ex- 
 penses and contingencies ; but 
 I could give you a much long- 
 er list of those that do not pay 
 five per cent, and a still longer 
 one of those that do not pay 
 any thing. 
 
 " The company owning Phil- 
 ips's Corn-Husking Machine 
 have built a hundred of them, 
 only to find out that they were 
 insufficient for the work. They 
 have expended a large amount 
 in perfecting and bringing this 
 machine to public notice, and 
 as yet have no returns. 
 \ " So with the Paper Car 
 Wheel, a valuable invention, 
 without doubt ; but the com- 
 pany who have recently erected 
 fine buildings in Hudson, for 
 the manufacture of this wheel, 
 and have all the machinery 
 fitted for the work, have yet a 
 great deal to do and to suffer, 
 before getting their wheel into 
 general use. What if the prof- 
 its of the manufacture of the 
 wheel are large } If there is no 
 
43 
 
 demand for them, it avails noth- 
 ing. It takes money, time, 
 and hard work, to introduce a 
 new invention of any impor- 
 tance or value." 
 
 The seventh inquiry : — 
 
 7. Cite cases showing that the 
 public are not compelled to pay un- 
 reasonable profits upojt the cost of 
 patented articles of pri)7ze necessity. . 
 
 '. [From an Attorney.] 
 
 " This may be answered, per- 
 haps, as well by reference to 
 lamps, as to any article of man- 
 ufacture. There is scarcely 
 a lamp made at the present 
 time, that is not subject to one 
 or more patents ; and yet they 
 are sold very cheap, cheaper 
 than ever before." 
 
 [From a Manufacturer.] 
 
 " Heavy stocks of old goods 
 on hand compel the manufac- 
 turers of new patented articles 
 to peddle them over the coun- 
 try at a heavy cost in order to 
 create a sale for them. 
 
 " The Patent is for the benefit 
 of all alike, enabling the manu- 
 facturer to perfect his articles, 
 and charge a price corre- 
 sponding with same ; while the 
 
 is m open competition 
 reach the market in a half- 
 built and comparatively worth- 
 less condition." 
 
 [From another Manufacturer.] 
 
 " In the case of the special 
 articles of plumbing work be- 
 fore referred to, we do not con- 
 sider that they pay more than 
 ten per cent ; for the public get 
 more than that actual benefit 
 from s,uch articles. Through 
 these patented improvements, 
 the cost of putting up the same 
 has been reduced to about one- 
 half of what it was formerly." 
 
 The eighth inquiry : — 
 
 8. Would capital embark iti the 
 mamtfacture of neiv inventions un- 
 less protected by Letters Patent? 
 
 [From an Attorney.] 
 
 " In my opinion, capitalists 
 would generally be unwilling 
 to invest their money in the 
 manufacture of new inventions, 
 unless protected by Letters 
 Patent." 
 
 [From an Inventor.] 
 
 " For myself I would not 
 undertake the introduction of 
 
V 
 44 
 
 any new article, unless, after 
 the great trouble resulting from 
 the same, I could hope for 
 permanent reward." 
 
 [From a Manufacturer.] 
 
 " Emphatically no ! " 
 
 [From another Manufacturer.] 
 
 " It would not." 
 
 [From an Attorney. ]- 
 
 " It is my decided opinion 
 that capital would not embark 
 in the manufacture of new 
 inventions, to any extent, were 
 it not for the protection prom- 
 ised, and supposed to be afford- 
 ed, by Letters Patent. The 
 idea of a monopoly of the 
 invention stimulates the invent- 
 or to labor, and\to persevere 
 even to the ruin of his present 
 pecuniary condition, and en- 
 courages capitalists to invest 
 in the manufacture of patented 
 articles, when, if not so pro- 
 tected, few inventions would 
 be perfected, and it would be 
 difficult to induce capital to 
 embark in those that were per- 
 fected, for the reason that 
 competition would soon de- 
 stroy the remunerative profits 
 
 that the pioneers and originat- 
 ors deserve and require to pay 
 them not only for the risk, but 
 for the loss in time and ex- 
 pense, in trials and experi- 
 ments, always attendant upon 
 new and untried enterprises." 
 
 '^I will now proceed to con- 
 sider somewhat in detail the 
 statements made by Mr. Sayler 
 in respect to the profits real- 
 ized in the manufacture and 
 sale of certain patented articles 
 as based upon the census re- 
 ports of 1870, and to show, by 
 the same questionable authori- 
 ty, the general range of profits 
 realized in the manufacture 
 and sale of certain unpatented 
 articles. 
 
 '^FiRST, It is not true that 
 "the owner of a Patent^ right 
 is lord of all he surveys.",' 
 
 I. The inventive genius of 
 our people does not allow any 
 monopoly long to continue. 
 Something will be made to 
 equal or excel a former inven- 
 tion, which is not subordinate 
 to it ; or an improvement will 
 be made in some important 
 feature of the machine, there- 
 
45 
 
 by compelling an amicable 
 division. 
 
 2. it is an exception when 
 the owner of a Patent does not 
 allow others to put the same in 
 practice, upon the payment of 
 a reasonable royalty. 
 
 3. If this permission is not 
 freely given, the use of the in- 
 vention is too often taken with- 
 out consent ; and, in a contest 
 of capital against poverty, the 
 former is generally triumph- 
 ant. 
 
 Second, It is not true, as a 
 rule, that owners of Patents 
 " desire to wrench from the 
 labor of the country the lar- 
 gest possible percentage." 
 
 Patentees, like the rest of 
 the world, are doubtless fond 
 of making money ; but they 
 are generally wise enough to 
 discover that such a method 
 of securing it will not bring 
 the greatest permanent suc- 
 cess, as it will surely invite 
 competition in some form. His 
 Honor Judge Emmons has 
 lately said, " We cannot speak 
 with great certainty, but do 
 affirm with much confidence, 
 that the expenses paid in our 
 
 country for Patent litigations 
 are rapidly approximating the 
 entire sum demanded for royal- 
 ties." 
 
 Investigation will show that 
 the manufacturers of patented 
 articles do not generally, at the 
 best, realize more than a rea- 
 sonable income for the risk 
 incurred ; and, further, that 
 only a small proportion ever 
 see any return for their in- 
 vestments in such enter- 
 prises. 
 
 The few who are successful 
 come prominently into public 
 notice ; while the many who 
 fail, or are only partially suc- 
 cessful, are not heard of. 
 
 Of the 1 70,000 Patents which 
 have been issued by our Gov- 
 ernment since July 31, 1790, 
 can it be doubted, that by far 
 the largest proportion have 
 proved unremunerative ? 
 
 Third, The unrestricted lib- 
 erty to put in practice new 
 inventions would bring upon 
 the market a large amount of 
 indifferent work, thus injuring 
 by competition, instead of ben- 
 efiting the public. 
 
46 
 
 In the case of machines em- 
 bodying newly-discovered prin- 
 ciples and adaptations, where 
 a vast amount of laborious and 
 costly experiment must be 
 made before a perfected result, 
 which will be acceptable to the 
 public is produced, nothing can 
 be attempted, except by capi- 
 talists ; and these would be 
 quite certain to withhold their 
 aid, unless assured, for a limited 
 time at least, of governmental 
 protection. 
 
 Little is known by the pub- 
 lic of the trials, the disappoint- 
 
 ments, and the losses of invent- 
 ors and those who attempt to 
 perfect and introduce patented 
 articles. I believe that an in- 
 vestigation would show, that 
 the balance of the Patent ac- 
 count of this country is very 
 largely on the wrong sid^ 
 
 The cost of obtaining the 
 twelve thousand Patents and 
 re-issues granted during the 
 year 1874, including the time 
 devoted to these inventions, 
 may be safely estimated at 
 four and a half millions ; 
 say, — 
 
 12,000 models at $25 $300,000.00^ 
 
 12,000 patent -md attorneys' fees at $roo 1,200000.00 
 
 12,000 inventors' time, each fifty days, at $5 per day . . . .3,000,000.00 
 
 $4,500,000.00 
 
 Of this large number, how 
 small a proportion have, or 
 ever will achieve, even a mod- 
 erate success ! 
 
 Could the history of the dis- 
 appointments and disasters ex- 
 perienced by the inventors and 
 manufacturers of the sewing- 
 machine, the mower, the 
 harvester, the cotton-gin, and 
 other great inventions, be 
 
 portrayed in all their sombre 
 shades, the subsequent success 
 which has ' attended them 
 would be gracefully accepted, 
 as but a small return for the 
 untold blessings which they 
 have conferred, and will con- 
 tinue to confer upon the world. 
 If, in the early days of these 
 and similar machines, such an 
 unrestricted liberty to put them 
 
47 
 
 in practice had been allowed as 
 proposed in the bill, the coun- 
 try would have been flooded 
 with constructions valueless to 
 the public, inflicting an injury 
 and loss a hundred-fold greater 
 than any apparent amount of 
 excessive profits that can now 
 be shown. 
 
 After all this expenditure of 
 labor and capital in perfecting, 
 and placing upon a substantial 
 basis, such inventions, it is 
 quite probable that the general 
 public who have stood by, and 
 jeered perhaps at the supposed 
 folly of those who have risked 
 their all in these enterprises, 
 'would then be glad to enjoy 
 tbe fruits without much cost. 
 
 The simple questions are, — 
 
 1. Would such a course be 
 just.? And, 
 
 2. Would it encourage fur- 
 ther efforts for improvements ? 
 
 Fourth, The bill proposes 
 that a royalty of ten per cent 
 shall be fixed by law upon the 
 market value of the article 
 manufactured, which embodies 
 but one Patent, and where 
 more than one is embodied, 
 
 that the respective royalties 
 shall be fixed by the United 
 States District Court. 
 
 That such an act of tyran- 
 ny would be unconstitutional 
 must be evident to the com- 
 mon sense of the people of 
 this country. 
 
 That it is altogether imprac- 
 ticable must be equally clear, 
 as well as that its effect would 
 be to promote litigation. 
 
 In the adjusting of royalties 
 upon the Patents in use at the 
 present time, there probably 
 could not be found two cases 
 in which the percentage upon 
 the market value of the article 
 would be the same. 
 
 I own a valuable Patent upon 
 an article of manufacture, — 
 
 I charge fifty cents upon 
 those sold by retail at $2$, and 
 a dollar upon those sold at 
 ^50. This is two and a half per 
 cent ; and it is about on this 
 basis that all royalties are paid 
 for the use of Patents. 
 
 In the payment of such roy- 
 alties, the manufacturer should 
 add to his prices, say, 75 cents 
 and $1.2$ each. I think this 
 rate is never exceeded, and, 
 
48 
 
 more generally, not real- 
 ized. 
 
 The same principle is applied 
 to other constructions. Mr. 
 Howe struggled through many 
 years of poverty while perfect- 
 ing his sewing-machine ; but 
 the royalties he received did 
 not exceed, during the life of 
 his Patents, an average of ^3.00, 
 and, during the term of his ex- 
 tension, but ^i.oo each. 
 
 Has any woman in the land 
 ever begrudged this pittance 
 for the boon which he had 
 given to her sex, or even the 
 large profits, if you please, of 
 the manufacturers during the 
 early years of the enterprise ? 
 
 As well might it be at- 
 tempted to establish judicially 
 the rate for wages, or the price 
 of commodities. These must 
 all be left to demand and sup- 
 ply, and to the ten thousand 
 shades of difference, which can 
 only be adjusted as the circum- 
 stances arise, and by the parties 
 interested. 
 
 The bill further provides, 
 "that the person so using the 
 Patent shall protect the owner, 
 by filing in the Patent Office a 
 
 bond \n the sum of ^io,coo, 
 conditioned upon the account- 
 ing every six months for the 
 royalty, and the payment there- 
 of." Could any plan be more 
 skilfully devised than this to 
 aid the rich and embarrass the 
 poor manufacturer.?. 
 
 If the friends of the Patent 
 System had introduced such a 
 proposition in addition to that 
 of increasing the percentage 
 of royalties at least fourfold of 
 the average now paid, it would 
 have justly roused public in- 
 dignation. 
 
 How many thousands of poor 
 mechanics throughout the land 
 who are now using patented in- 
 ventions, and paying the owners 
 for the same under mutual 
 agreement, would be utterly un- 
 able to give bonds for ^10,000, 
 which would be satisfactory to 
 the Commissioner of Patents ? 
 Such a requirement would rob 
 them of the most lucrative part 
 of their business, and transfer 
 it to their rich competitors. 
 
 Again : the inequality of 
 such a statute will be apparent 
 in view of the diverse amounts 
 annually due respectively, for 
 
49 
 
 royalties. They might be ^5,000 
 or ^50,000: therefore a bond of 
 $10,000 might be greatly in ex- 
 cess of the amount, or entirely 
 inadequate as security for the 
 same. 
 
 Again : it is provided, that in 
 case the inventions covered 
 by a plurality of Patents are 
 adopted in one machine, and 
 the first adjustment of the 
 royalty by the District Court is 
 not satisfactory to the owners 
 of the same, " they may, on 
 thirty days' notice, have a re- 
 adjustment, which shall be 
 final." 
 
 The utter impossibility of 
 any court, however able or 
 learned, to make such an ad- 
 justment as shall be mutually 
 satisfactory to the manufactur- 
 er, and also to half a score of 
 patentees, is apparent to any 
 practical mind ; as is also the 
 absurdity of attempting to fix 
 values by law, which " shall be 
 final." 
 
 These ten Patents to-day 
 have a certain value : to-mor- 
 row that value is materially 
 changed by the advent of new 
 inventions and new combina- 
 4 
 
 tions, as well as by new public 
 demands. 
 
 No fixed law could be carried 
 into practice for the proper 
 adjustment of these intricate 
 questions. 
 
 Fifth, Mr. Sayler presents 
 certain statistical statements, 
 based upon the last census, for 
 the purpose of proving that 
 exorbitant profits are realized 
 by manufacturers upon patent- 
 ed articles. 
 
 He assumes the correctness 
 of the authority by adopting 
 conclusions from the same, 
 without any qualifications. 
 
 Let us see, for a moment, 
 what the superintendent of the 
 census says about the returns 
 made of our manufacturing 
 industry, and to what extent 
 they are worthy of confidence. 
 
 " The collection of manufac- 
 turing statistics is made merely 
 an incident to the enumera- 
 tion of population, and, like all 
 other duties incidental, is cer- 
 tain to be neglected, more or 
 less, in all but the rarest 
 cases. . . . 
 
50 
 
 "The assistant marshal, as- 
 suming that he is zealous and 
 faithful in his general service, 
 carries about the manufactur- 
 ing schedule as a tedious and 
 unwelcome duty, — a duty to 
 be discharged in the cheapest 
 and easiest manner. . . . 
 
 " The rates of compensation 
 being most inadequate, in re- 
 spect to the return of manu- 
 factures, this part of the cen- 
 sus suffers most from this 
 cause. ... 
 
 " The investigation of the 
 census ofHce, conducted at 
 great disadvantage, discovered 
 not a few cases where less than 
 one-half of the establishments 
 of productive industry by law 
 subject to enumeration had 
 been returned, or even visited 
 by the assistant marshals. . . . 
 
 " The census returns of capi- 
 tal invested in manufactures 
 is entirely untrustworthy and 
 delusive. The inquiry is one 
 which it is not too much to 
 say, that it ought never to be 
 embraced in the schedules of 
 the census ; not merely for the 
 reason that the results are, and 
 must remain, wholly worthless, 
 
 . . . but also because the in- 
 quiry in respect to capital 
 creates more prejudice, and 
 arouses more opposition to the 
 progress of the enumeration, 
 than all the other inquiries 
 of the manufacturing schedule 
 united. . . . 
 
 " No man in business knows 
 what he is worth, far less can 
 say what portion of his estate 
 is to be treated as capital. 
 
 "The aggregate amount of 
 capital invested in manufac- 
 tures in the United States, as 
 by the following tables, is $2,~ 
 118,208,769. 
 
 " It is doubtful whether this 
 sum represents one-fourth of 
 the capital actually contribut- 
 ing to the annual gross prod- 
 ucts of ^4,232,325,442." 
 
 These few extracts, to which 
 many more rnight be added of 
 the same character, indicate 
 the low estimate which the 
 superintendent places upon the 
 correctness of the returns of 
 our manufacturing industry. 
 
 It is not probable that one 
 manufacturer in twenty-five 
 could state with any certainty 
 
51 
 
 the amount of capital employed 
 in his business, or the amount 
 paid for labor or for materials, 
 or what the annual profits are 
 upon the capital invested. 
 
 The general ignorance of 
 manufacturers as to the actual 
 cost, in detail, of their goods, 
 is almost beyond belief. How, 
 then, can reports be made to 
 the marshals which are reliable, 
 as a basis for the settling of 
 important points in political 
 economy .-' 
 
 Waiving, however, for the 
 present, this question, I will 
 proceed to submit in a tabular 
 form a detailed statement in re- 
 spect to the five patented arti- 
 cles, the two unpatented articles, 
 and the total amount of our 
 manufacturing industry, as cited 
 from the census reports by Mr. 
 Sayler. 
 
 We gain from these tables 
 two points : — 
 
 I. That, according to the 
 census reports, many classes of 
 manufactures which are open 
 to the public, pay a much 
 larger income on the capital 
 invested than the best of those 
 
 which are protected by Patents ; 
 and, 
 
 2. That the superintendent 
 is quite correct in his admission 
 that " the returns of manufac- 
 turing statistics are entirely un- 
 trustworiJiy and delusive ^ 
 
 It is very evident that Mr. 
 Sayler has had no experience 
 in manufacturing, or he would 
 not have ventured the state- 
 ment, that the cost is repre- 
 sented by the amount paid for 
 labor and materials, and that the 
 balance of the amount realized 
 from the sale of the product is 
 net profit, though he qualifies 
 this statement by adding, " This 
 is not the absolute net profit, 
 but approximates to it." This 
 method of arriving at results 
 will not bear the test of in- 
 vestigation. 
 
 PATENT MEDICINES. 
 
 This compounded product 
 Mr. Sayler reports as paying a 
 profit of one hundred and eigh- 
 teen per cent upon the capital 
 invested, and as one of the five 
 patented articles which consti- 
 tute one twenty-second of the 
 
52 
 
 
 
 M 
 
 N 
 
 lO 
 
 o\ 
 
 ,. 
 
 ^ 
 
 (. 
 
 o 
 
 00 
 
 LO 
 
 t^ 
 
 
 •pspodaj SB 
 
 '^i- 
 
 N 
 
 lO 
 
 c-i 
 
 _; 
 
 tA 
 
 CO 
 
 CO 
 
 LO 
 
 
 ;unouiy an^x 
 
 
 CO 
 
 CO 
 
 lO 
 
 vo 
 
 vo 
 
 
 vo 
 
 rj- 
 
 
 •lEiiclEo 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 't 
 
 
 
 ao aSEjuao 
 
 ,_ 
 
 lO 
 
 «J^ 
 
 05 
 
 0\ 
 
 l^ 
 
 oo 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 -jaj JO JU3UJ 
 
 VO 
 
 CO 
 
 CO 
 
 lO 
 
 •o 
 
 vo 
 
 
 t^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 -aiEjs s^ai^ES 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 CI 
 
 lO 
 
 o 
 
 CO 
 
 M 
 
 •^ 
 
 CO 
 
 ON 
 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 
 CO 
 
 00 
 
 M 
 
 VO 
 
 
 
 
 "^i- 
 
 lO 
 
 vo 
 
 
 T}- 
 
 vo 
 
 CO 
 
 f^ 
 
 
 "rt 
 
 OO" 
 
 co 
 
 o" 
 
 ^ 
 
 vo" 
 
 CA 
 
 rC 
 
 vo" 
 
 oo" 
 
 
 
 
 f^ 
 
 r) 
 
 CO 
 
 00 
 
 LO 
 
 ^ 
 
 LO 
 
 o 
 
 
 'B. 
 
 
 
 t- 
 
 co^ 
 
 rf- 
 
 t^ 
 
 
 N^ 
 
 
 d 
 
 " 
 
 ON 
 
 
 CO 
 
 k: 
 
 00^ 
 
 vo" 
 
 co" 
 
 LO 
 
 n" 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 o 
 
 vo 
 
 vo 
 
 >-o 
 
 C) 
 
 CO 
 
 On 
 
 r^ 
 
 
 
 ro 
 
 '=^ 
 
 r^ 
 
 rl- 
 
 lO 
 
 
 t^ 
 
 
 LO 
 
 
 
 
 q^ 
 
 ON 
 
 ■^ 
 
 r-. 
 
 't 
 
 
 Cl^ 
 
 00^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 vo" 
 
 
 
 cR 
 
 O 
 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 
 •^ 
 
 \o 
 
 ■* 
 
 t^ 
 
 o\ 
 
 N 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 •2 
 
 t«= 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 ■^ 
 
 lO 
 
 oo^ 
 
 ON 
 
 On 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 « 
 
 
 ?^ 
 
 lO 
 
 co" 
 
 rj- 
 
 ■-0 
 
 rC 
 
 vo" 
 
 CO 
 
 € 
 
 
 
 Ln 
 
 ^ 
 
 CO 
 
 u-l 
 
 '^ 
 
 vo 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 M 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 c/0 
 
 t^ 
 
 t^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 M 
 
 o 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 VO 
 
 
 00^ 
 
 00 
 
 CO 
 
 ■st- 
 
 t^ 
 
 
 
 tj 
 
 vtf 
 
 oo" 
 
 o" 
 
 vo" 
 
 vo" 
 
 fc 
 
 t^ 
 
 LO 
 
 LO 
 
 
 3 
 
 o\ 
 
 On 
 
 t^ 
 
 vo 
 
 vo 
 
 ON 
 
 LO 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 
 to 
 
 M^ 
 
 
 o^ 
 
 lO 
 
 o 
 
 
 LO 
 
 CO 
 
 
 (i; 
 
 «^ 
 
 
 vS" 
 
 m" 
 
 rF 
 
 rf 
 
 vo" 
 
 (^ 
 
 
 
 
 W-i 
 
 00 
 
 lO 
 
 
 
 
 ON 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 
 1-1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 M 
 
 
 
 tv. 
 
 't 
 
 l-l 
 
 >-o 
 
 C) 
 
 vo 
 
 c^ 
 
 N 
 
 N 
 
 
 
 vo 
 
 00 
 
 o\ 
 
 M 
 
 "* 
 
 CO 
 
 LO 
 
 1^ 
 
 C^ 
 
 
 _<5 
 
 
 00 
 
 •* 
 
 q\ 
 
 r^ 
 
 t^ 
 
 t^ 
 
 ON 
 
 
 fO 
 
 vo" 
 
 vg^ 
 
 
 -t 
 
 LO 
 
 o; 
 
 t^ 
 
 t-C 
 
 
 
 ro 
 
 o 
 
 t^ 
 
 CO 
 
 LO 
 
 
 
 C^ 
 
 
 fe 
 
 
 "st- 
 
 o 
 
 ^ 
 
 "* 
 
 O^ 
 
 CO 
 
 LO 
 
 "^ 
 
 
 rt 
 
 «% 
 
 CO 
 
 CO 
 
 
 tc 
 
 CO 
 
 t-^ 
 
 d; 
 
 
 
 S 
 
 
 0\ 
 
 vo 
 
 M 
 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 >-ri 
 
 C) 
 
 vo 
 
 -^ 
 
 1^ 
 
 oo 
 
 LO 
 
 -Q^ 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 CO 
 
 l^ 
 
 
 O 
 
 t^ 
 
 •^ 
 
 Ov 
 
 s^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 »; 
 
 ^ 
 
 c^ 
 
 5- 
 
 lO 
 
 00 
 
 M 
 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 j> 
 
 'J^ 
 
 oo 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 d\ 
 
 C^ 
 
 l-^ 
 
 LO 
 
 ■^ 
 
 
 rt' 
 
 VO 
 
 ^ 
 
 CO 
 
 lO 
 
 UO 
 
 •<^ 
 
 
 CO 
 
 00 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 rt 
 
 vo 
 
 On 
 
 
 ■J-l 
 
 
 q^ 
 
 
 LO 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 vo" 
 
 tC 
 
 n" 
 
 cs" 
 
 lO 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 LO 
 
 
 
 
 M 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 N 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 tn 
 
 § 
 
 ^3 
 
 ^3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 • V 
 
 0) 
 
 2i 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 a 
 
 a 
 
 in 
 
 
 
 
 
 t 
 
 < 
 
 
 
 
 0) 
 
 
 I 
 
 a 
 ■5 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 o 
 
 Si 
 
 1 
 
 a. 
 
 B 
 
 0. 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 c 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 V 
 
 a. 
 c 
 
 c 
 
 rt 
 
 % 
 
 i 
 
 c 
 
 
 
 U 
 
 s 
 
 1 
 
 % 
 
 1 
 
 o 
 
 1 
 
 'o 
 
 0) 
 
 i 
 
 ho 
 
 • ^ 
 
 rl 
 
 ^3 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 fT( 
 
 C! 
 
 Sh 
 
 
 +J 
 
 (1) 
 
 o 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 <U 
 
 
 
 o. 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 nl 
 
 w 
 
 
 
 X! 
 
 
 aj 
 
 Q 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 (1) 
 
 Ph 
 
 
 
 
 C 
 
 OT 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 >^ 
 
 a^- 
 
 (U 
 
 r- 
 
 ,£3 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 o 
 
 O 
 
 ^ 
 
 s 
 
 i2 
 
 
 
 rt 
 
 u. 
 
 
 
 w 
 
 o 
 
 ^^ 
 
 fl 
 
 
 (1) 
 
 
 6 
 
53 
 
 JO 92E}U33a3J 
 
 0000 0-)N t-^oooo ^^ 
 * rj- a\ 00 1-^ 
 
 N N \0 O O 
 CO On ro N ^^ 
 
 ON ^ 00 
 
 o « o 
 
 On^O" cJn 
 "-1 0\ 
 
 v^ ij-i ri- ro 
 
 "■no On "J^ On 00 
 
 l-^ ►- N On ■^ 0\ 
 
 q^ ^ o^ q^ o ^ 
 
 o" On cT ro ro -<" 
 
 ^ 
 
 CO "1 ON t^ 
 
 CO '^ CO 
 
 CO 
 
 VO 
 
 1^ NO "-, CO ro 
 
 NVO"^CN)Oni-hi-icONOMi-'NOCO"^ 
 
 "0\tC>^ i-'iw"^ 
 L<-i NO CTn CO 00 t^ 
 tOONt^MCO OnOncOCOOsNO u-iu-iO"" 
 
 CO M VO 
 
 M CO " N 
 
 J~^ VO 00 00 "-1 
 CO NO On "J^ NO 
 \0 On -^ NO^ NO^ O^ 
 ro ro o" ocT On no" 
 O N -^ CO 00 ^ 
 On 00 NO lo CO •^ 
 
 CO NO 
 
 - , o oo 
 
 CO "-o On On 
 
 CO 
 
 ON -^ 
 
 On r^ l^ O NO 
 
 CO 
 
 ^O^coiooo 
 coONi^Ovl-Ch-Ti-rtCNC" 
 
 o c^ o o - - - -- 
 
 cocoojvq^ 
 
 d\ Qo codscTod'^'^F 
 
 t-^ t^ N NO 
 
 On lo ^ 
 O ^ 't 
 
 fT cT 1-" 
 
 NO CO 
 I- 00 
 t-^ CO 
 
 O^ CO !>. t-^ 
 
 ^ CO On •^ 
 
 ■^ t-^ O M 
 
 O CO O On 00 
 
 cK no" no" n" 't 
 
 -* NO CO NO ON NO 
 CO NO CO NO 00 M 
 - w „ On O O 
 
 O ^ 00 On 
 
 CO On >J^ N 
 
 cT rf co" 'f N 
 
 ■* CO NO M CO On 
 
 r^ 'O o 'd- >j^ 00 
 
 'f m" no" w" CO 
 On P-. C3N 
 
 CO M 
 00 1^ 
 
 CO I- 
 
 lo NO VD CO 
 
 r^ CO "j-i CO 
 
 O Tt-NO 1-H 
 I •^ CO NO M 
 NO M »^ 00 
 
 t^ r^ O lo -^ 
 
 O 00 CO I- CO Lo 
 
 NO C^ O '^ On 
 
 o OT ►=; o o 
 
 
 w rt J? ^ 
 
 X .9^ 
 
 (u pq 5 M. 
 
 C/5 ^ 
 -73 cri 
 
 ^:2 > ^ ^ 
 
 i^ '^ --i ^ *^ ^ n -^ o 3 rt^:;^^ 
 
54 
 
 •JBltdBO 
 
 fO VO 
 
 N 
 
 
 VO 
 
 ON N 00 
 
 «* VO 
 
 VO 
 
 
 0\ 1- 
 
 c^ 
 
 
 •* vc 
 
 00 11 
 
 to 
 
 loOwNNCOOOO 
 
 c^ lo c^ 00 >- 
 
 « VO d S- g' II 
 
 uo sjgojj 
 
 00 
 
 00 
 
 On 0\ 0\ 0^ 0\ ON O 
 
 o o 
 
 w w CS 
 
 N rj- ur, VC 
 
 ■^ 
 
 JO sSBjuaoaaj 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 cs 
 
 
 N 
 
 ■q 
 
 ^^ r;^^ ^ 8 
 
 CO o 
 
 O '^ c 
 
 C4 VO 00 O N II 
 
 
 vS 
 
 o 
 
 ONioOVOOONONC 
 
 VO 
 
 
 'ocnro>-oi-ia\Ni^c^t^ooN>oascn'^io^ n 
 
 .1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 lO 
 
 o 
 
 <rj- On ON >o lo w N 
 
 ^^ 
 
 00 ^oc^^^^^o rt-coll 
 
 
 <r 
 
 5 C^ CO CO "vt- fl u-i CO 
 
 c^ 00 ^ 
 
 t^ ON i-i -^ "^ 
 
 
 O^ 
 
 r> 
 
 • "-I^ '^ ^ "^ 'i ^ ^ 
 
 Os M 
 
 >-<^OON»^>-iOcO II 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 rf cT VCT lO o" 
 
 c^ ►■ 
 
 lO N "N N II 
 
 
 ■WS: 
 
 
 
 
 
 M 04 
 
 
 
 cn 
 
 CO>J-li- O w '^O "^t-^M 
 
 u^rqu-iO-^ONQvO 1 
 
 
 i^ 
 
 rfO\>ol^OsvO O 0\ ^r\ c 
 
 OnioOn'^OONJ^G 
 
 
 
 CO o^ o^ Lrj oo_^ \q^ t-)^ OC 
 
 ^ N_^vc 
 
 covOT^oo-l^^O« II 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 N O ^ •- " M «^ " 
 
 ^ tC 1- 
 
 "t-Tcfv'^i^toocoi-i II 
 
 a 
 
 
 r 
 
 ON 00 " '^t- -^ ^ OC 
 
 t^ "-1 o -^ CO CO oc 
 
 N OC 
 
 COONCO'OOOOO-^'O 
 
 
 VO 
 
 " CS 
 
 lo N CO O l-^ r 
 
 )■ 00 
 
 tS 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 ci ff vo" -^ d; 
 
 lO 
 
 N H 
 
 " d\ "^ tC CO 
 
 *^ 
 
 
 N ►-< 
 
 
 
 11 CO 
 
 
 
 >-o 
 
 ■o 
 
 rfcor^co^o cococc 
 
 O 00 VO VO 00 r) On Lo II 
 
 
 00 
 
 rl-Tl--<:J-\0 COGOO •=d-'^VC 
 
 o oo ^ 
 
 On CT\ CO LTi N 
 
 
 N 
 
 c? 
 
 ■) O On i-H " t^ CO VC 
 
 VOt^i-i'^OOC^-^'^OvO II 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ts 
 
 m"^ 
 
 COMVOOO w l-^CO ONN l^N IOC 
 
 1 00 "5*- <-■ 1- 
 
 " On 
 
 •a 
 
 N 
 
 COVO '^^OnO o o 
 
 
 Onc^NcS'^GvO'o 
 
 VO 
 
 CO t^ 00^ 00_^ i-j^ On i-^ lo ON oc 
 
 t^OOOOMONOOVO II 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 A< 
 
 VO" 
 
 N 
 
 ►H U-, ^ VO VO >- CS 
 
 >o 
 
 tC f4 w CO N ^ 
 
 N 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 t^ <s CO CO 
 
 
 
 Tt i-c CO - 
 
 
 
 t^ 
 
 Chl-^oot^c^vOr»ONOVOO\oodJ^LnioON'=t II 
 
 
 CO 
 
 t-^Oi-iOcoioNOVO>- 
 
 t^cOt-^Gl^i-ivOC^ 
 
 . 
 
 00^ 
 
 OWO'^w-'^l-OOCA^'Ol-^C^OOOCTS'^i-OOiO II 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 rf 
 
 
 vot^NONwJ^cocooot^ioOcoGcocor^ II 
 
 
 
 lO<-OOVO C^ i-hVO >- 
 
 ONCOwMNCTN'^OO 
 
 0) 
 
 "^ 
 
 
 VOONC^l^C^'^OOtv.'i- COONN_ONONCOO\ II 
 
 rt 
 
 ro 
 
 ^ 
 
 " ^f i-T oT On cT 
 
 00 
 
 CO 
 
 CO -^ "-1 ON 
 
 § 
 
 *«= 
 
 
 CO « « N 
 
 
 
 VO 
 
 
 
 >o oc 
 
 N ^ O O -^ 00 c 
 
 VO c 
 
 VO 00 >- 
 
 On ON 00 O lo II 
 
 
 t-^ 
 
 
 T^^^ONl-lOO•o^NLr,c^ON•o^cooo^^ON 
 
 
 00 
 
 O 
 
 CO'^-^OOi-NCOCO'^'^t^'^'OOO'OOcO II 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■n 
 
 oo" 
 
 10»OCO-<^0\COCOIO^-| t^COOOOVO CTsOnioO II 
 
 hil 
 
 VO 
 
 Ln^ lot^i- loONO 0\ C 
 
 M i-H VO rj- VO VO >- 
 
 O 
 
 rt 
 
 N^ 
 
 •OCOCO^OO CONOO O 1- 
 
 oo^vo c^ " « « o^ II 
 
 ^ 
 
 ■5. 
 
 
 ^ « vo" N i^ 
 
 cT 
 
 i-T 
 
 cn^d^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 : ^ 
 
 • 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 • T3 
 
 
 
 
 
 jjn 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 : 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 "H 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 : (=^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 f 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 '. "t" 
 
 
 
 
 
 rt 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 jri 
 
 
 
 
 
 C/3 
 
 
 
 S 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 S| 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 • pq 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 "3 
 pq 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ighting 
 Caps . 
 Liquor; 
 d other 
 
 
 > 
 
 a. 
 
 c 
 
 ~> 
 
 
 in <- 
 
 11 
 
 
 ' 
 
 S2 ^ 
 
 b 
 
 /) 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 c 
 
 J: 
 
 )acco 
 eelwr 
 s and 
 tilled 
 ad an 
 ket-B 
 
 
 D 
 
 cksmi 
 iting 
 pente 
 
 rl Pm 
 
 "5^ 
 
 
 w 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
 i$ 
 
 ■ tr 
 
 
 c 
 L 
 
 
 n 
 5 
 
 
 Hf2 
 
 i 
 
 fl 
 
 cl 
 
 1 
 ^ 
 
 PL 
 
 1 
 
55 
 
 net aggregate profits of all our 
 manufacturing industry. 
 
 Taking the census report as 
 our authority, we find that these 
 profits represent one twenty- 
 sixth of the whole; but this 
 difference is not material. 
 
 Upon the basis of this report, 
 
 the profits shown upon the fol- 
 lowing non-patented articles of 
 correspondingly small value, 
 would seem to prove that the 
 manufacturers of Patent Medi- 
 cines are by no means unrea- 
 sonable in their demands ; 
 viz., — 
 
 On confectionery io2yS„ per cent. 
 
 On fancy soaps and perfumery . . 74^7^ " 
 
 On blacking loSfV " 
 
 On pocket-books 985-'^ " 
 
 On fans ^^'^ys " 
 
 Or an average profit of c/S^^ per cent. 
 
 RUBBER GOODS. 
 
 Mr. Sayler reports the prof- 
 its upon this class of manu- 
 facture at fifty-nine per' cent. 
 The true amount as reported 
 
 by the census is sixty-one and 
 one-tenth per cent. 
 
 Compare the reported prof- 
 its upon similar articles not 
 patented. 
 
 On saddlery and harness .... 683^^ per cent. 
 
 On clothing 66^^ " 
 
 On hats and caps 92iV " 
 
 On boots and shoes 73^^ " 
 
 On trunks and valises ^^^j^ " 
 
 Or an average of 84 j^^. per cent. 
 
 According to this statement, 
 the charge of extortion cannot 
 be" maintained against the 
 manufacturers of rubber goods, 
 who, as it appears, only ask 
 a profit of sixty-one and one- 
 
 tenth per cent ; while the manu- 
 facturers of the five classes 
 above named, which are not 
 patented, demand an average 
 profit of eighty-four and two- 
 tenths per cent. 
 
56 
 
 If those " two hundred or 
 three hundred dentists in 
 Indiana" had respected the 
 rights of the owner of the hard 
 rubber Patent, which they well 
 understood the Supreme Court 
 had sustained, they would have 
 been saved the cost and trouble 
 complained of, and, perhaps, 
 some portion of the " amount 
 of blood demanded." 
 
 The application of Vulcanite 
 to the art of Dentistry, by Cum- 
 mings, conferred a blessing of 
 untold value to the world. 
 
 The profession had unsuc- 
 cessfully experimented with 
 other substances for years ; and 
 when this was discovered, and 
 brought to their attention, they 
 should have cheerfully paid the 
 trifling sum that was due to 
 the genius and perseverance of 
 the inventor. His efforts to per- 
 fect and secure his invention, 
 and to protect it from infringers, 
 were made at the sacrifice of 
 both health and property. His 
 Honor Judge Emmons, in a 
 late decision, says, " At that 
 time Cummings had become in- 
 solvent, and his health seriously 
 impaired, by chronic disease. 
 
 which ultimately terminated his 
 life. 
 
 " The testimony leaves no 
 room for doubt, that, after this 
 period, he wholly ceased to fur- 
 nish any considerable part of 
 the support of his family. His 
 wife's small separate property 
 was first mortgaged, and then 
 sold, to procure what is proved 
 to be the small and sometimes 
 too scanty expenditure upon 
 which they lived. The praise- 
 worthy efforts of his wife as 
 the keeper of a boarding-house, 
 the pawning of her few personal 
 ornaments, and her general care 
 and support of a diseased and 
 dispirited husband, present a 
 picture as affecting as it is 
 demonstrative of Cummings's 
 inability, from sheer poverty, to 
 prosecute his appHcation." 
 
 This is substantially the his- 
 tory of thousands, the results of 
 whose labors and sacrifices we 
 are now so freely enjoying. 
 
 HOUSE ORGANS. 
 
 It is alleged that the cruel 
 and bloodthirsty manufactur- 
 ers of house organs demand a 
 net profit of sixty-one per 
 
57 
 
 cent, and refuse to abate one 
 "jot or tittle," be the cries for 
 " music, which is so dear to 
 the human breast," ever so 
 pressing. 
 
 It is a pity to spoil this flight 
 of fancy by stating that the 
 profits on house organs and 
 melodeons, as stated by the 
 
 census reports, are only twenty- 
 four and one-tenth per cent, 
 or considerably less than one- 
 half the amount stated by Mr. 
 Sayler. 
 
 Let us now compare the 
 reports from the same authen- 
 tic source upon similar articles 
 not patented. 
 
 On musical instruments generally . 41 ^V per cent. 
 
 On pianos 38^5- " 
 
 On furniture 5 1 ^^^ " 
 
 On clocks loo/o " 
 
 On carpentry and building . . . . 150^*^ " 
 
 It therefore appears that the 
 manufacturers of these five 
 classes which are unrestricted, 
 demand an average profit upon 
 the capital invested of seventy- 
 six and five-tenths per cent ; 
 while house organs and melo- 
 deons pay but twenty-four and 
 one-tenth per cent, or less than 
 one-third of that amount. 
 
 SEWING-MACHINES. 
 
 This great invention, the one 
 of all others which has blest 
 the poor " toilers by the mid- 
 night lamp," appears to have 
 
 incurred the particular dis- 
 pleasure of Mr. Sayler. 
 
 The census returns show 
 upon this branch of industry a 
 profit of sixty-seven and three- 
 tenths per cent, — a moderate 
 amount, truly, in comparison 
 with the extortionate demands 
 of the manufacturers of the 
 following -non-patented articles, 
 which, if we may believe the 
 veracious census reports before 
 referred to, pay an average 
 profit upon the capital invested 
 of a hundred and twenty-nine 
 and eight-tenths per cent ; 
 viz., — 
 
58 
 
 On bread and other bakers' products 93i% percent. 
 
 On scales and balances .... ^^ij^ " 
 
 On blacksmithing 1213^ " 
 
 On painting 146 " 
 
 On lead pipe 167^^ " 
 
 Mr. Sayler states, that, in 
 1 87 1, 610,000 sewing-machines 
 were sold at a profit of ^24 
 each, or ^14,640,000. 
 
 The census returns show 
 the results of 1870 as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 Products $14,097,446.00 
 
 Paid for materials . $3,055,786.00 
 Paid for wages . . 5,142,248.00 
 
 8, 1 98, 034.00 
 
 Profits $5,899,412.00 
 
 578,919 machines sold, averaging a profit of $10.19 each. 
 
 This result is obtained with- 
 out any calculation for other 
 items of cost. 
 
 It will be observed, that, 
 according to the census reports, 
 the manufacture of bread and 
 other products of the bakery 
 is one of the most profitable 
 in which capital can engage. 
 Articles of such prime neces- 
 sity to the people, and espe- 
 cially to the " toilers by the 
 midnight lamp," should not 
 be suffered to pay a profit of 
 ninety-three and two-tenths per 
 cent. 
 
 If the government is war- 
 ranted in establishing the 
 prices for any branch of manu- 
 factures, this should- receive 
 immediate attention. 
 
 The notice of Mr. Sayler is 
 especially called to this subject, 
 and also to the manufacture 
 of cheese, which is reported 
 as paying fifty-three and five- 
 tenths per cent profit on the 
 capital invested. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS. 
 
 This most important branch 
 of our mechanical industry. 
 
59 
 
 against which Mr. Sayler ap- 
 pears to entertain a special 
 grudge, he represents as giving 
 to the manufacturers the prince- 
 ly income of fifty-two per cent. 
 In comparison with several 
 
 of the trades which are not 
 protected by Patents, but are 
 open and free to all the world, 
 this is a meagre sum. 
 
 Thus we find the profits: — 
 
 On upholstery . . . 
 On shovels and spades 
 On watch-cases . . . 
 On wheelwrighting . . 
 On plastering . . . 
 
 ^3to P^"" cent. 
 
 91 « 
 
 240/7 « 
 
 The average profit thus 
 shown is a hundred and ten 
 and two-tenths per cent, or 
 more than double that upon 
 agricultural implements, many 
 of which have conferred bless- 
 ings both upon our farmers 
 and our country, millions to 
 one beyond all the royalties 
 that have been paid upon 
 Patents since the organization 
 of our government. 
 
 I have already shown that 
 the average profit upon the 
 capital invested in the five 
 classes of patented articles 
 specially mentioned by Mr. 
 Sayler, as given in the census 
 reports, is sixty-three and five- 
 tenths per cent. 
 
 Upon the twenty-five classes 
 
 of unpatented articles or in- 
 dustries quoted, the average 
 profit upon the capital em- 
 ployed, as given by the same 
 authority, is ninety-nine and 
 nine-tenths per cent, or thirty- 
 six and four-tenths per cent 
 more than upon the former, 
 which is claimed to be so un- 
 just and extortionate. 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to 
 remark, that neither of the 
 statements embodied in the 
 census reports in respect to 
 the profits upon patented or 
 unpatented articles is worthy 
 of the least confidence : in the 
 words of the superintendent, 
 they are " entirely imtrustwor- 
 thy and dehcsive." 
 
 A true statement of the 
 
6o 
 
 facts would probably show an 
 average income upon the capi- 
 tal invested in our mechanical 
 industries, of about ten per 
 cent. 
 
 Upon patented articles there 
 may be realized from two and 
 a half to five per cent addi- 
 tional ; yet this is by no means 
 to be assumed, in view of the 
 cost of perfecting and intro- 
 ducing new and untried arti- 
 
 cles, and of the uncertainty of 
 their success. 
 
 Untold fortunes have been 
 wasted in these ventures, as 
 well as the lives of thousands 
 whose genius and labors for the 
 benefit of their race deserved 
 a better reward. 
 
 Mr. Sayler states that the five 
 patented branches of industry 
 to which he has specially re- 
 ferred aggregate as follows : — 
 
 Capital • 159,500,000.00 
 
 Net profits 37,828,820.00 
 
 Again : in pig iron : — 
 
 Capital $56,000,000.00 
 
 Net profits 11,666,667.00 
 
 Or less than one-third the profit of the former. 
 Again : the same amount invested in cotton goods produced $10,000,000. 
 
 It must be admitted, that 
 statements upon which impor- 
 tant legislation is to be based 
 
 should be exact, 
 fore give the 
 ures : — 
 
 Capital employed in five branches of patented articles 
 
 Apparent profit 
 
 Profit on same amount in pig iron at 20^% per cent 
 Profit on same amount in cotton goods at 19 per cent 
 
 We there- 
 correct fig- 
 
 $58,156,323.00 
 36,931,219.00 
 12,096,515.00 
 11,049,701.00 
 
 Now let us take five unpatented articles, and apply the same rule. 
 
 Capital. 
 
 Boots and shoes $48,994,366.00 
 
 Tobacco 24,924,33000 
 
 Carpenters and builders .... 25,110428.00 
 
 Trunks and valises 2,185964.00 
 
 Lead pipe 2,054,500.00 
 
 Profits. 
 
 $36,088,850.00 
 
 22,790,095 00 
 
 37,788,729.00 
 
 2,599,652.00 
 
 3,443,070.00 
 
 Or 99^ per cent profit. 
 
 $103,269,588.00 $102,710,396.00 
 
6i 
 
 The same amount of capital invested in the manufacture of 
 
 pig iron would give a return of only $21,480,07400 
 
 And in cotton goods 19,621,222.00 
 
 Mr. Sayler illustrates again. 
 
 " This ;^ 5 9,000,000 of capital 
 invested in these five branches 
 of patented articles constituted 
 one thirty-fifth of the entire 
 capital invested in manufac- 
 tures in 1870. 
 
 " This produced one twenty- 
 second of the net aggregate 
 profit." 
 
 To be correct, he should have 
 stated it at one thirty-sixth of 
 the former, and one twenty- 
 sixth of the latter. 
 
 Now take the five branches 
 of unpatented articles named 
 above. 
 
 The capital invested in these 
 constitutes a little more than 
 one-twentieth of such entire 
 capital; and the profits shown 
 on this are a little more than 
 one-ninth of the entire aggre- 
 gate profits shown upon the 
 entire manufacturing interest 
 of this country. 
 
 Consider, for a moment, that, 
 according to this statement. 
 
 these five unpatented products, 
 most of which are articles of 
 prime necessity, demand from 
 a suffering pubHc nearly one- 
 tenth of the amount of profits 
 realized upon our whole manu- 
 facturing industry. 
 
 But this statement, like the 
 former, is a mere fiction. They 
 both prove just two things ; 
 viz., — 
 
 1. That the superintendent 
 was right when he pronounced 
 the returns as '^ e7itirely tm- 
 tnistworthy and dehcsive." 
 
 2. That Mr. Sayler's state- 
 ments are valueless as a basis 
 for important action. 
 
 Discussions in the Congress 
 of the United States upon 
 measures so important as those 
 proposed in this bill (No. 1392) 
 should be based strictly upon 
 facts. 
 
 Neither romance nor rheto- 
 ric has any place in the con- 
 sideration, or the decision of a 
 great question which will not 
 
62 
 
 only affect millions of our peo- 
 ple, but which also utterly ig- 
 nores the natural right every 
 man possesses to the control 
 of the production of his 
 brain. 
 
 Read the statement which 
 the honorable gentleman delib- 
 erately makes in reference to 
 this subject : — 
 
 "In any way you may look 
 at it, you will find there is a 
 duplication every two years. 
 
 " You may burn up and ut- 
 terly destroy every agricultural 
 implement manufacturing es- 
 tablishment in the country, 
 and they will yet make four 
 per cent on the invested 
 amount. 
 
 "Thirty-five millions of capi- 
 tal invested in agricultural im- 
 plements doubles itself every 
 two years, and leaves a net 
 profit besides. 
 
 " So it goes on and on and 
 on, until, when the ordinary 
 life of a Patent right shall have 
 expired, more than ^400,000,- 
 000 has been made, or nearly 
 made, by the original $35,000,- 
 000." 
 
 In reply to this most ex- 
 traordinary statement, I ven- 
 ture to assert, there is not a 
 manufacturer of agricultural im- 
 plements in the land that has 
 made, or will make for five 
 or ten consecutive years, an 
 annual profit of twenty per 
 cent upon his capital ; that by 
 far the largest proportion have 
 not made ten per cent, while 
 numbers have gone into bank- 
 ruptcy. 
 
 Mr. Sayler inquires " wheth- 
 er, if the commercial commu- 
 nity of this country could 
 make ten per cent net profit 
 upon its sales, it would not be 
 amply satisfied." 
 
 No man, except from patri- 
 otic motives, or to make him- 
 self an occupation, will place 
 his capital at the risk of busi- 
 ness on a promise of ten per 
 cent, when he can loan his 
 money on undoubted security 
 at ten per cent to twenty per 
 cent, as is always the case in 
 this country. 
 
 If a business realizes net ten 
 per cent, after paying interest 
 on capital, and all contingen- 
 cies, it is generally considered 
 
63 
 
 satisfactory, if the magnitude 
 is sufficient. 
 
 It makes a great difference, 
 however, whether this percent- 
 age is on ^5,000, ^50,000, or 
 ^500,000. 
 
 Agricultural implements, 
 sewing-machines, and compli- 
 cated machines of all kinds, 
 require a larger percentage of 
 profit than cotton-cloth or pig- 
 iron ; and any manufacturer 
 who attempts to make the 
 former on a ten per cent profit, 
 without interest on his capital, 
 will surely end in bankruptcy. 
 
 We have shown, that, accord- 
 ing to our census report, the 
 income on the capital invested 
 in our manufactures is forty-five 
 and seven-tenths per cent. 
 
 By the same authority we 
 learn that the percentage of 
 profits upon the cost of the 
 manufactured articles is twenty- 
 nine and six-tenths. 
 
 In the eigm cases before 
 cited, we find the proportion of 
 the cost due to sundries not 
 embraced in the census state- 
 ment, to be seventeen and a 
 half per cent ; thus leaving an 
 apparent net profit of twelve 
 
 and one-tenth per cent, which 
 is probably not far from the 
 truth. 
 
 It is unquestionably true, as 
 Mr. Sayler states, that people 
 have been swindled by bogus 
 Patents and by worthless Pat- 
 ents, and they have also by 
 worthless stocks and bonds, 
 and by confidence-games of 
 various kinds ; and this will 
 doubtless continue, in one form 
 or another, to the end of time. 
 
 The passage of the bill pro- 
 posed, or any other bill, wilt 
 not prevent operations of this 
 kind, while dishonesty exists 
 on the one hand, and ignorance 
 and incapacity on the other. 
 
 The selling of town or county 
 rights in Patents, be they good 
 or bad, has nothing to do with 
 the question of extortion by 
 manufacturers. It should stand 
 upon its own basis ; and while 
 there are, doubtless, individual 
 cases of injustice, as a general 
 rule, there can be found but 
 little cause for complaint. 
 
 The competition in the sale 
 of important machines is too 
 sharp to admit of any great 
 danger of extortion ; and this 
 
64 
 
 competition is increasing every 
 year. 
 
 Suppose, on a reaper now 
 sold at ^150, an ingenious in- 
 ventor makes an improvement 
 which largely reduces the 
 aTnount of power required to 
 move it. 
 
 The manufacturer charges 
 1^25 additional, or 1^175 for this 
 improved machine, and the sav- 
 ing in labor proves to be ^100. 
 
 Is anybody wronged.? Has 
 not, on the contrary, a great 
 benefit been conferred upon the 
 farming-interest. 
 
 The foregoing may be 
 summed up in the following 
 propositions : — 
 
 1. That neither the patentee, 
 nor the owner of the Patent, is 
 able to continue an unjust mo- 
 nopoly of a manufacture, for 
 the reason that ingenuity soon- 
 er or later produces other in- 
 ventions which create compe- 
 tition. 
 
 2. That manufacturers, even 
 oif patented articles, do not, 
 taking one year with another, 
 realize more than a reasonable 
 return for the labor performed, 
 and risk incurred. That it is 
 
 not for their interest to incite 
 competition by demanding 
 prices that are onerous, and 
 unjust to the public. 
 
 3. That only a small pro- 
 portion of patentees, or manu- 
 facturers of patented articles, 
 achieve success, and are there- 
 fore observed. That the great 
 mass who realize disappoint- 
 ment and disaster are wholly 
 lost sight of. 
 
 4. That an inventor who 
 produces a valuable improve- 
 ment, or a manufacturer who 
 makes such an improvement 
 available to the public in a form 
 that is effective and desirable, 
 is a public benefactor, and de- 
 serves recompense just in pro- 
 portion to the merits of his 
 production ; and that it should 
 not be measured by the ordi- 
 nary rule applied to manufactur- 
 ing profits. 
 
 5. That the unrestricted lib- 
 erty for the pi#lic to manu- 
 facture machines or products 
 embodying new inventions, 
 would have the effect to flood 
 the country with crude, and un- 
 perfected work, which would 
 inflict far more loss and injury, 
 
65 
 
 than all the royalties that have 
 been paid on Patents since the 
 first was issued, eighty-five years 
 ago. 
 
 6. That years of labor, and 
 the expenditure of fortunes, 
 are frequently required to bring 
 an invention, even after it has 
 been introduced to the public, 
 to a condition which is avail- 
 able. 
 
 7. That, when such a result 
 has been reached, the general 
 public, who have had nothing at 
 risk, would doubtless be very 
 glad to participate in the bene- 
 fits without cost, labor, or anxi- 
 ety. 
 
 8. That establishing by law 
 a royalty of ten per cent, or 
 any other sum, upon the mar- 
 ket value of patented articles, 
 would be, — 
 
 a. An unconstitutional tres- 
 pass upon private rights, 
 and, — 
 
 h. In most cases an exorbi- 
 tant charge, far beyond what is 
 now made. 
 
 ^. It would promote litiga- 
 tion. 
 
 d. Such a mode of assess- 
 ment, without reference to the 
 
 5 
 
 value either of the Patent, or 
 of the machine, or of the dif- 
 ferent conditions of the market, 
 would be wholly impracticable. 
 
 9. That it is exceptional, 
 when the owner of a Patent 
 does not allow others to put the 
 same in practice upon the pay- 
 ment of a reasonable royalty. 
 
 And, if this permission is 
 not freely given, the use of the 
 invention is too often taken 
 without consent, and to the 
 detriment of the inventor ; 
 since, in such a contest, capital 
 is generally triumphant. 
 
 10. That the census returns, 
 so far as they relate to our 
 manufacturing industry, are, in 
 the words of the superintend- 
 ent, " entirely untrustworthy 
 and delusive^' for the rea- 
 sons : — 
 
 a. That collecting these sta- 
 tistics is " merely incidental to 
 the enumeration of population ; 
 that the service is poorly paid, 
 and a tedious and unwelcome 
 duty, to be discharged in the 
 cheapest and easiest manner." 
 
 b. That few manufacturers 
 can state the amount of capital 
 employed, or the amount paid 
 
66 
 
 for wages and material, or the 
 value of their products ; and, 
 even if they could do so, 
 they would in many cases de- 
 cline, or make a fictitious re- 
 port 
 
 11. That the census returns 
 show nearly double the per- 
 centage of profit upon the 
 capital invested in the manufac- 
 ture of prominent unpatented 
 articles, than on those which 
 are protected by Patents. 
 
 12. That the assumption by 
 
 Mr. Sayler, that the difference 
 between the amount paid for 
 wages and material, and the 
 amount realized from the prod- 
 uct, is all nei profit, clearly 
 shows that he has had no man- 
 ufacturing or commercial expe- 
 rience. 
 
 13. That a statement care- 
 fully and systematically made 
 up from the books of an exten- 
 sive stove manufacturer exhib- 
 its the following result for a 
 ton of stoves : — 
 
 Cost $120,00 
 
 Wages 43-76 31^5 percent. 
 
 Material 45.14 z^^^ " 
 
 Sundries 31.10 22^2^ " 
 
 Profit 20.00 id^^^ " 
 
 $140.00 100 " 
 
 And that this is believed to be 
 a fair representation of other 
 branches, though differing in 
 proportions, and above the aver- 
 age profit. 
 
 14. That reports from the 
 few branches of manufactures 
 that I have been able to obtain 
 in the time at my command, show 
 an average profit of nine to thir- 
 teen per cent, instead of thirty- 
 
 eight per cent, as shown by the 
 census, upon the same branches. 
 15. That the profit on the 
 manufacture and sale of Pat- 
 ent Medicines is stated at 
 a hundred and eighteen per 
 cent, while the average profit 
 upon five unpatented articles 
 of similar character is shown 
 to be ninety-eight and seven- 
 tenths per cent. 
 
67 
 
 Same 
 
 Profit on rubber goods 59 per cent. 
 
 Profit on five unpatented classes in contrast 
 
 Profit on house organs 24^^^ " 
 
 Profit on five unpatented classes in contrast 
 
 Profit on sewing-machines 67 " 
 
 Profit on five unpatented classes in contrast 
 Profit on agricultural implements .... 52 
 Profit on five unpatented classes in contrast 
 Average profit on the five patented articles . 63^^^ 
 Average profit on the twenty-five unpatented 
 
 articles 99j^q- 
 
 Z\^^ per cent 
 
 16. That the net profits on 
 five patented classes are more 
 than three times as great as on 
 the same amount of capital 
 invested in the manufacture of 
 pig iron, or cotton goods. 
 
 That the net profit on five 
 unpatented classes is nearly 
 five times as great as on the 
 same amount of capital in- 
 vested in pig iron, and more 
 than five times the same 
 amount invested in cotton 
 goods. 
 
 17, That the net profit on 
 these five patented classes is 
 one twenty-sixth of the entire 
 amount shown upon all manu- 
 factures. 
 
 That the net profit on these 
 five unpatented classes is one- 
 ninth of this entire amount. 
 
 I have thus endeavored to 
 show, by a dispassionate array 
 of facts and figures, and also 
 by the views of men whose 
 probity and experience render 
 their opinions of weight, not 
 only the unreasonable charac- 
 ter of the arguments advanced 
 by the gentleman from Indi- 
 ana, but the falsity of the 
 premises upon which they are 
 based. 
 
 The disastrous effect of ma- 
 terially changing our Patent 
 System must be evident. Even 
 if there were large profits on 
 patented articles of high merit, 
 as Mr. Sayler alleges, but which, 
 I respectfully submit, has been 
 disproved, the inventor and the 
 manufacturer, who take large 
 risks, deserve it all : they give 
 
68 
 
 to the public far more than they 
 ask in return. 
 
 The present Patent System, 
 as before stated, may have its 
 defects ; but the aim of all wise 
 legislation should be to im- 
 prove, and not destroy. 
 
 The friends of the system 
 desire these improvements, and 
 they will gladly co-operate in 
 
 all proper efforts to secure 
 their adoption. 
 
 Our system is already the 
 recognized model for the world ; 
 and it should be the aim of 
 legislators to still further ele- 
 vate its ■ standard, and thus 
 maintain our position in the 
 foremost rank, in the great 
 march of improvement. 
 
OUR COUNTRY'S DEBT TO 
 
 PATENTS. 
 
 HENRY HOWSON, 
 
 OF PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 INCLUDING 
 
 WHAT PATENTS HAVE DONE FOR US. 
 
 RECKLESS MAKING AND UNMAKING OF PATENT LAWS. 
 
 WHERE DOES THE MONEY GO? , 
 
 VALUELESS PATENTS. 
 
 ABOUT INVENTORS. 
 
 ATTACKS ON THE PATENT OFFICE. 
 
 THE CRY AGAINST PATENTS AND INVENTORS. 
 
OUR COUNTRY'S DEBT TO PATENTS. 
 
 The alliance of Patents with 
 the progress of the useful arts 
 is so intimate, that any attempt 
 to molest or degrade the former 
 by unwise legislation must dis- 
 astrously affect the latter. 
 
 We constantly hear the word 
 " Patents " from the mouths of 
 the manufacturer and mechanic, 
 the wholesale merchant and 
 retail dealer, and the farmer, 
 and always in connection with 
 something that is novel, or of 
 superior quality, or something 
 that can be obtained at a 
 cheaper rate than usual. 
 
 Now and then we hear the 
 word uttered in contemptuous 
 tones, by disappointed speculat- 
 ors, jealous manufacturers, men 
 who would invent, without 
 being inventors, or by those 
 who would attempt to cure the 
 
 minor evils always accompany- 
 ing even the most salutary and 
 beneficent systems of public 
 policy, not by attacking these 
 evils in detail, but by the dis- 
 organization of the whole sys- 
 tem. 
 
 Common as the word is, there 
 are few who are aware how in- 
 intimately related Patents are 
 to our present well-being and 
 comfort, how much we owe to 
 Patents in the past, how much 
 we have to hope from them in 
 the future, and how intimately 
 they are interwoven with our 
 whole social system. 
 
 There are those, however, 
 who have spent many years in 
 acquiring a familiarity with 
 various branches of the indus- 
 trial arts, and have, through 
 choice or necessity, obtained an 
 
72 
 
 extended experience in Patent 
 matters. 
 
 As one of these, I propose to 
 show those who talk fiippantl}^, 
 and write superciHously, about 
 Patents, and especially those 
 legislators, who, without a thor- 
 ough insight into the subject, 
 would subject the Patent Laws 
 to revolutionary tinkering, that 
 Patents pervade, and are insep- 
 arable from, all the artificial 
 surroundings which add to our 
 well-being, comfort, and enjoy- 
 ment ; and I propose to review 
 the subject generally in as con- 
 densed a form as possible under 
 the following heads : What 
 Patents have done for Us ; 
 Reckless Making and Un- 
 making OF Patent Laws ; 
 Where the Money goes ; 
 Valueless Patents ; About 
 Inventors ; Attacks on the 
 Patent Office ; The Cry 
 against Patents. 
 
 what 
 
 PATENTS HAVE 
 for US. 
 
 DONE 
 
 I propose to show how grate- 
 ful we ought to be for our 
 Patent System, not by any 
 elaborate investigation of differ- 
 
 ent branches of industry, not by 
 any lengthy historical and sta- 
 tistical researches, but by con- 
 fining my remarks to familiar 
 objects within my reach in the 
 room which I now occupy, — a 
 library furnished with the ordi- 
 nary accessories which a pro- 
 fessional man requires. 
 
 There is a tapestry carpet on 
 the floor, — a carpet with a 
 tasty pattern woven in brilliant 
 colors. Twenty-five years ago, 
 a skilled workman could weave 
 by hand two yards per day of a 
 carpet like this, but not equal 
 in quality ; and now a single 
 power loom will weave twenty 
 yards per day. " The carpets, 
 moreover," to quote the words 
 of a well-known authority, " are 
 more exact in their figures, so 
 that they are perfectly matched, 
 and their surface is smooth and 
 regular. They surpass, indeed, 
 in their quality, the best carpets 
 of their kind manufactured in 
 any other part of the world." 
 
 To-day these superior carpets 
 can be purchased at half the 
 cost per yard charged for the 
 inferior hand-made carpets of 
 thirty years ago ; that is, if we 
 
73 
 
 take into account the difference 
 in value of money then and 
 now. 
 
 To what shall we attribute 
 this rapid progress in the man- 
 ufacture of carpets ? To Eras- 
 tus B. Bigelow, you will say. 
 I shall not be detracting from 
 the merits of this great Ameri- 
 can inventor in saying, as I 
 believe he himself would say, 
 that the rapid progress of this 
 manufacture is due quite as 
 much to our Patent System as 
 to Bigelow's ingenuity. 
 
 This accomplished patentee 
 spent years of studious applica- 
 tion in the production of his 
 loom. Where was the incen- 
 tive to this laborious mental 
 task ? The reward which our 
 Patent System held out to him. 
 Where was the incentive for 
 capitalists to invest money in 
 the manufacture of these car- 
 pets on a large scale ? The 
 security which Patents afforded 
 for the investment. Mr. Bige- 
 low, although the most promi- 
 nent inventor in this branch of 
 industry, was not the sole con- 
 tributor to its progress. Cromp- 
 ton, and hosts of other patentees, 
 
 have aided in bringing this 
 manufacture to its present per- 
 fection, or rather to its present 
 state of excellence ; for we can- 
 not foresee the end which per- 
 fection implies. We must look 
 for further improvements, based 
 on future patented inventions, 
 providing progress is not ob- 
 structed by legislation tending 
 to destroy the motive to invent. 
 It is safe to say that better 
 carpets may be seen to-day in 
 the cottages of hard-working 
 artisans than were found forty 
 years ago in the houses of the 
 wealthiest citizens ; and this is 
 due to the ingenuity called out 
 by the incentives which Patents 
 have presented, and continue to 
 present. It is not the wealthy 
 alone who are gainers by our 
 Patent System, it is the masses 
 who derive the greatest com- 
 forts from that source. 
 
 Before I leave the carpet, let- 
 me say that its greater durabil- 
 ity is insured by a cheap pat- 
 ented lining, for different styles 
 of which a dozen or two of 
 Patents have been granted, and 
 that the carpet is secured by 
 Patent fastenings, on the pro- 
 
74 
 
 duction of which much inge- 
 nuity has been expended ; for 
 Patents for these little devices 
 can be counted by the score. 
 
 Let us turn to the _paper on 
 the wall, — a paper of neat de- 
 sign, with ribbed and glazed 
 surface studded with gilt sprigs. 
 This is a home manufacture ; 
 for wall paper to the value of 
 over a ;^ 1,000,000 per year is 
 produced in this city alone. 
 The Patents for the manufac- 
 ture of paper, and economizing 
 its production, are innumerable. 
 Patent after Patent has been 
 granted for drying, glazing, 
 printing, and other operations 
 connected with wall paper ; and 
 the result of all this has been 
 the permanent establishment 
 of six large manufactories in 
 this city. It would be impossi- 
 ble, in preparing a history of 
 paper and paper manufacture, 
 to separate it from the Patents 
 which are contemporaneous 
 with the improvements in this 
 branch of industry. 
 
 Then look at the stove, — an 
 elegant, artistic affair, capable 
 
 of heating my large room, at 
 an expense of a bucketful of 
 coals per day. Compare this 
 stove with the open fireplaces 
 in which our fathers burnt 
 cords of wood, or tons of coal, 
 without obtaining a tithe of 
 the heat which that ornamen- 
 tal structure generates. Com- 
 pare it with the old anthracite 
 stove of but thirty-five years 
 ago. I saw one of these obso- 
 lete heat generators the other 
 day, a hideous structure, with 
 metal enough in its composi- 
 tion to make a cannon of small 
 caliber, — metal enough to 
 make four modern stoves of 
 equal capacity. 
 
 There are, perhaps, more 
 Patents for stoves than for any 
 other class of inventions. A 
 wonderful amount of ingenuity 
 has been expended on these 
 household necessities ; and the 
 result has been the establish- 
 ment, all over the land, of man- 
 ufactories, the products of which 
 are a source of admiration to 
 every foreigner who visits us. 
 
 Let me point to a matter of 
 less importance. There is a 
 
75 
 
 picture on the wall, a steel 
 engraving, — an art of which 
 one of the greatest of Amer- 
 ican inventors and patentees, 
 Jacob Perkins, was the father. 
 In hanging the picture to the 
 wall, I objected to the driving of 
 nails, even if they were brass- 
 headed, through the handsome- 
 wall-paper; and I objected to 
 the ridiculous and disfiguring 
 inclined cords, and to the 
 clumsy knot which is usually 
 employed to conceal the nail, 
 but is always an eyesore, a 
 useless excrescence. I looked 
 for a remedy for all this in my 
 list of Patents, and soon found 
 it. I discovered a Patent 
 mmilding which would serve 
 the twofold purpose of a finish 
 for the wall-paper at its junc- 
 tion with the ceiling, and of a 
 ledge, to which could be 
 adapted a gilt hook; and I 
 found patent plated wire cord, 
 almost invisible, with which to 
 suspend the picture from the 
 hook. By these appliances, I 
 am enabled to slide my picture 
 laterally to any position de- 
 sired, and I dispense with wall- 
 mutilating nails, and clumsy 
 
 cords. All this, it may be 
 said, is a small matter ; but it is 
 just such small matters as 
 these which go to show how 
 intimately Patents are con- 
 nected even with what may 
 appear to be trifling comforts, 
 conveniences, and appearances. 
 But I have not done with the 
 picture yet. It has a gill- 
 frame, consisting of a wooden 
 moulding, to whichjthe_compo- 
 sition for receiving the gold is 
 applied by a well-known pro- 
 cess, forming the subject of an 
 expired Patent, and which has 
 reduced the cost of ordinary 
 gilt frames to such an extent, 
 thaf Tfiey are now to be found 
 in the dwellings of the com- 
 paratively poor : whereas, twen- 
 ty years ago, hand-made gilt 
 frames were within the reach 
 of the well-to-do only. Then 
 there is the glass in front of 
 the picture. It is only within 
 a comparatively few years, that 
 sheets of glass sufficiently 
 large and clear for a picture- 
 frame of moderate size have 
 been produced in this country ; 
 and this production may be in 
 a great measure attributed to 
 
76 
 
 patented glass furnaces, and 
 hosts of patented appliances 
 connected with glass manu- 
 factured 
 
 But let us turn to objects of 
 a more utilitarian character. 
 
 Immediately in front of me 
 is an ordinary panelled and 
 moulded door for a closet. A 
 door like this, if made by 
 hand, would cost just double 
 the money for which a door of 
 the same size and character, 
 but of more accurate work- 
 manship, can now be purchased 
 at a large sash and door manu- 
 factory. This economy is at- 
 tributable, in a great measure, 
 and in the first instance, to 
 Woodworth's Patent Wood- 
 planing Machine, which was 
 succeeded by many valuable im- 
 provements in the same class 
 of machinery ; but there are 
 many other patented machines 
 which have contributed to this 
 economy of manufacture, — 
 sawing-machines, tonguing and 
 grooving machines, moulding 
 machines, &c., for which Patent 
 after Patent has been and 
 continues to be granted. Pat- 
 
 ents for wood-working ma- 
 chinery may, in fact, be 
 counted by the thousand. 
 
 There are two very impor- 
 tant things, without which the 
 door could not be completed ; 
 and these are glue and sand- 
 paper. It may surprise many 
 to know that Philadelphia can 
 boast of the most extensive 
 glue and sand-paper factory in 
 the world. It is a factory in 
 which one thousand hands are 
 employed. The foundation of 
 this gigantic establishment 
 was based on a series of valua- 
 ble Patents, on which the pro- 
 prietors, by good judgment and 
 enterprise, have built a super- 
 structure of which this city 
 may well be proud. 
 
 But let us look at the result 
 of Patents in this case, as far 
 as the public is concerned ; for 
 their value cannot be justly 
 measured by the wealth which 
 they bring to the patentees 
 alone. It is but a compara- 
 tively few years since all the 
 glue and sand-paper used in 
 this country were imported : 
 now they are made, owing to 
 patented facilities, so economi- 
 
77 
 
 cally, that much of the product 
 of the factory in question is ex- 
 ported, while the home market 
 is suppUed at a cost less than 
 half that which the imported 
 materials cost a few years ago. 
 
 Sundry_nail§ are used in the 
 construction of the door. 
 Compare the old costly hand- 
 forged nails with the cut nails 
 of the present day, which cost 
 but little more than the metal 
 plates from which they are 
 made. As immense sums of 
 money have been expended in 
 perfecting nail-machines in 
 this country, and hundreds of 
 Patents have been granted for 
 improvements, we must con- 
 clude that the incentive to the 
 outlay and expenditure of in- 
 genuity is to be found in the pro- 
 tection which Patents afford; 
 and hence we may justly rea- 
 son, that these cheap nails of 
 to-day are due to our Patent 
 System. 
 
 Then, again, the door is fur- 
 nished with a lock such as is 
 made in the large manufacto- 
 ries in New England and 
 Pittsburg, — a lock that can 
 be purchased at any hardware 
 
 store at less than one-third the 
 price of one of the old hand- 
 made locks of equal quality. 
 The art of lock-making has 
 made rapid advances in this 
 country ; superiority and econ- 
 omy of construction being the 
 characteristics of our home- 
 made locks. When we take 
 into account the many hun- 
 dreds of Patents which have 
 been granted for locks, it will 
 be evident that the progress 
 of the manufacture is largely 
 due to our Patent System. 
 
 The same remarks will apply 
 to the hinges of the door, 
 which are manufactured at 
 rates which would astonish car- 
 penters of thirty years ago, and 
 the excellence and economy of 
 which are due to patented 
 machinery. 
 
 The celebrated patented 
 machine which turns out com- 
 plete hinges from crude brass 
 plates and wire, automatically, 
 is a marvel of ingenuity, and 
 has resulted in supplying the 
 market with hinges of superior 
 quality at wonderfully low 
 rates. 
 
 Lastly, we have the screws 
 
78 
 
 by which the hinges are se- 
 cured. The patented machines 
 for producing these screws are 
 numerous, and their produc- 
 tion is rapid and economical. 
 Take the Patent gimlet-pointed 
 screw : what facihties it affords 
 for the carpenter's operations ! 
 What tedious manipulation it 
 dispenses with ! 
 
 The houses of our artisans 
 and laborers, the comfortable 
 homes of our struggling West- 
 ern farmers, are a source of 
 admiration and astonishment 
 to inquiring foreigners who 
 visit our country. The cheap 
 wood-work, and cheap building 
 hardware, which enter into the 
 composition of these dwellings, 
 owe their existence to the 
 thousands of Patents which 
 have been granted for the 
 articles themselves, and for the 
 machines for the cheap pro- 
 duction of the articles. 
 
 Let us examine the desk on 
 which I am writing. Both 
 pen and penholder are pat- 
 ented ; and very superior 
 articles they are. It would be 
 difficult to enumerate the 
 
 many patented processes to 
 which the cheap and excellent 
 paper on which I am writing 
 owes its existence. The bottle 
 of ink from which my ink- 
 stand is supplied is marked 
 patented, and so is the ink- 
 stand itself. Many Patents 
 have been granted for ink 
 compositions, and hosts of Pat- 
 ents for inkstands, — some of 
 them absurd and useless 
 enough, it is true ; but the fail- 
 ure of one patentee only in- 
 stigates more successful in- 
 genuity in another, until an 
 article of excellent quality is 
 produced, as in the present 
 instance ; for I would not ex- 
 change the inkstand on my 
 desk for the most costly stand 
 in the market. 
 
 Then I have patented pen- 
 cils, with rubber attached, very 
 useful instruments ; a patent- 
 ed mucilage-reservoir, a cleanly 
 and economical device, to be 
 found in every stationer's store. 
 There is a patented paper- 
 weight, a very attractive, artis- 
 tic affair ; a patented sponge- 
 cup on which to wipe my pen ; 
 letter-scales, a sensitive and ac- 
 
79 
 
 curate instrument for weighing 
 up to ten ounces, — an instru- 
 ment, the low price of which 
 would startle the scale-makers 
 of fifteen or twenty years ago. 
 
 The very spectacles which 
 enable me to write are patent- 
 ed, and are of home manufac- 
 ture. A few words here about 
 home-made spectacles will go 
 to show the bearing of Patents 
 on home industries. 
 
 Within the last two or three 
 years, all our spectacles were 
 imported ; but Patents were re- 
 cently granted in this country 
 for a very ingenious method 
 of graduating the tints of spec- 
 tacle lenses. These Patents had, 
 in the first instance, to be car- 
 ried into effect in Europe ; for 
 there was in this country no 
 glass of proper quality, no 
 proper machinery for grinding 
 lenses. But the spectacles 
 were a success, were approved 
 of by opticians and by all who 
 used them; and the patentee 
 soon found men to invest capi- 
 tal in the manufacture ; so that 
 to-day, there is in Reading a 
 spectacle factory in full tide of 
 success ; the making of the 
 
 glass for the lenses, the grind- 
 ing of these lenses, the manu- 
 facture of the frames, all being 
 accomplished on the spot. 
 
 This is only one of the many 
 instances within the writer's 
 knowledge, of new industries 
 introduced into this country on 
 the strength of Patents. Not 
 only are all our modern manu- 
 factures, with rare exceptions, 
 based on Patents ; but the 
 liberality and justice of our 
 Patent System have attracted 
 to our shores thousands of in- 
 genious and skilled artisans of 
 foreign countries. 
 
 I could point out in this 
 great manufacturing city fac- 
 tory after factory which owes 
 its existence to Patents ; I 
 could point to thousands of 
 artisans for whose skill Patents 
 have created a demand, and 
 whose future prosperity de- 
 pends upon the permanency of 
 our Patent System. Let Mr. 
 Sayler, and others who would 
 disturb Patent property by un- 
 wise legislation, remember this. 
 
 There is on my table a pack- 
 age of beautifully made envel- 
 
8o 
 
 opes, manufactured at a cost 
 but a fraction over that for 
 which the excellent paper of 
 which they are made can be 
 purchased. 
 
 Let our supply of envelopes 
 be restricted to such as are 
 made by hand, and the public 
 complaint would be loud and 
 wide-spread. The grant of Pat- 
 ent after Patent for envelope 
 machines and appliances has 
 resulted in the production of 
 these indispensable articles at 
 a wonderfully low figure. 
 
 Then there are the pins, eye- 
 lets, and other indispensable 
 accessories of a writing-desk ; 
 and there is the device for 
 wetting postage-stamps, — an 
 instrument, which, I am willing 
 to admit, I have discarded for 
 the well-known primitive plan. 
 This may be looked upon as 
 an over-invention ; but the de- 
 vice displays the exhibition of 
 considerable ingenuity, which 
 will, doubtless, find a more 
 profitable and serviceable out- 
 let in future. 
 
 As for the pins» let us re- 
 member that a paper of these 
 cost, in 1 8 1 2, one dollar ; and 
 
 that the pins were much infe- 
 rior in quality to those which 
 can now be purchased for six 
 cents a paper ; that the cost of 
 pins since 1835 has been re- 
 duced one-half, while the qual- 
 ity has been improved in an 
 equal ratio ; and that from 
 seven to ten tons per week are 
 now made in this country. 
 The Patented machines for 
 manufacturing pins, and stick- 
 ing them into papers, are won- 
 ders of modern ingenuity, the 
 result of a succession of inven- 
 tions and of numerous Tatents, 
 the acquisition of which insti- 
 gated the inventors, and cre- 
 ated that spirit of industrial 
 rivalry which always tends to 
 the advantage of the public. 
 
 As for the eyelets and eye- 
 let-machines, for which there 
 are so many Patents, their util- 
 ity is not confined to the secur- 
 ing of papers. Some estimate 
 of the widespread advantages 
 of these little metal fastenings 
 can be derived by inquiring 
 what our wives and daughters 
 could do without them in these 
 days. Machines for making 
 eyelets, and for eyeleting fab- 
 
8i 
 
 rics, are numerous, and are 
 the result of the expenditure 
 of much ingenuity, and of the 
 reward which Patents held out 
 to those who succeeded best in 
 this line of industry. 
 
 Let us look at the furniture 
 in the room. There is a 
 Patent sofa, covered with a 
 Patent fabric. There are num- 
 bers of chairs of elegant de- 
 sign, but comparatively cheap, 
 owing to the Patented machin- 
 ery which has been brought 
 to bear on their manufacture. 
 The very staffing for the cush- 
 ions is prepared by a patented 
 process. If we examine that 
 comfortable reclijiing-chair, the 
 subject of half a dozen Pat- 
 ents, and compare it with the 
 straight-backed abortions on 
 which our grandfathers were 
 content to prop themselves up, 
 we shall conclude that Patents 
 have had a good deal to do 
 with the modern comfort, 
 which is one of the best indi- 
 cations of the advancement of 
 civilization. 
 
 Then there are the Patent 
 casters on the furniture. Hun- 
 dreds of Patents have been 
 
 obtained for these indispensa- 
 ble adjuncts ; and, judging from 
 the accidents which have oc- 
 curred to many of my own 
 casters, I should say there is 
 plenty of room for improve- 
 ment, and for the mental labor 
 of those ingenious men who 
 are looking about for subjects 
 on which to expend their 
 inventive talents. 
 
 There is my pipe. I may 
 be pardoned for alluding to it, 
 when I say that it is to me 
 quite as much an article of 
 necessity as a luxury. It has 
 a meerschaum bowl with a 
 Patent stem ; and let me say, 
 that this Patent stem permits 
 me to smoke common tobacco 
 with more enjoyment than the 
 most costly Havana cigar. 
 
 The very cjoths which cover 
 my tables have been beautifully 
 and cheaply embroidered at the 
 edge by automatic machinery. 
 Then there is a Patent adjust- 
 able table for drawing, or for 
 holding large books at a proper 
 inclination. 
 
 There are the window-blinds 
 with patented spring rollers, 
 enabling me to dispense with 
 
82 
 
 the well-known nuisances, 
 cords and pulleys, which inva- 
 riably get out of order at the 
 most inopportune junctures. 
 
 There are two fine framed 
 • photographs, made in accord- 
 ance with patented processes, 
 and two photo-lithographs, the 
 excellence of which is due to 
 several patented inventions. 
 The rapid growth of photog- 
 raphy and photo-lithography 
 ■cannot be contemplated by any 
 thinking man, without wonder 
 and admiration, and without 
 thanking the Almighty that he 
 has been permitted to live in 
 ain age when such wondrous 
 prdgress has been made in the 
 fine arts, and such facilities have 
 been brought to light for the 
 dissemination of knowledge, 
 as photography and photo-li- 
 thography afford. Compare 
 the wretched daubs which ap- 
 peared on the walls of our 
 well-to-do citizens of twenty 
 years ago with the pictures to 
 be found to-day in the cottages 
 of the poor. Compare the 
 chimney ornaments of our chil- 
 hood, the green dogs and crim- 
 son cats of pottery-ware, the 
 
 plaster casts of impossible men 
 and women, with the chaste 
 and truthful ornaments which 
 can now be procured at re- 
 markably low prices. Look at 
 our children's toys, and com- 
 pare them witlTthe contents of 
 the miniature representations 
 of Noah's ark of but a few 
 years past, — contents which 
 would appear to have been 
 designed with a view of dis- 
 torting the imagination of the 
 rising generation, by making 
 all the animals of one size. 
 
 The rapid advancement of 
 the fine arts within a compara- 
 tively few years must be attrib- 
 uted to the popular taste for 
 the true and beautiful, which 
 photography has created. 
 While the earliest efforts in 
 this direction may be charged 
 to philosophers and experimen- 
 talists, the advancement of 
 the art is due to the hundreds 
 of Patents for valuable im- 
 provements, and to the spirit 
 of emulation which Patents 
 stimulated. 
 
 There are the chandeliers 
 and gas-fixtures. I am not 
 going to make comparisons be- 
 
83 
 
 the tallow candles of our fore- 
 fathers. I would simply point 
 out the excellency of the work- 
 manship of those fixtures, — a 
 workmanship due to patented 
 machinery, processes, and appli- 
 ances ; and I would point to 
 the Patent tips, which insure a 
 flame exactly suited to my pur- 
 poses ; and to the patented mica 
 reflecting-shades, to be deprived 
 of which I should look upon as 
 one of the greatest of hard- 
 ships. 
 
 Then let us contemplate the 
 books in my cases, an amount 
 of literature furnished at a cost 
 which would have astonished 
 our forefathers ; all due to pat- 
 ented improvements in paper 
 manufacture, patented printing 
 processes and machinery, im- 
 provements in book-binding, 
 patented folding-machines, and 
 hosts of inventions, to enumer- 
 ate which would require page 
 after page of printed matter. 
 
 The foregoing remarks have 
 been restricted to objects in one 
 room ; and let me say that I 
 have by no means exhausted 
 the articles with which Patents 
 
 are intimately connected in 
 that room. There are subjects 
 enough left to enable me to 
 continue my observations to a 
 very tedious length. 
 
 If I go to a bedroom, new 
 objects present themselves ; 
 different patented articles in 
 the parlor, a new set of appli- 
 ances in the dining-room, and 
 totally different instruments in 
 the kitchen, all bearing the 
 stamp " Patent," or produced 
 by patented machines or pro- 
 cesses. 
 
 y\MQ cannot make a movement 
 without touching a patented 
 article. Asleep or awake, we 
 are surrounded by Patents! 
 They attach themselves to all 
 our duties, studies, and recrea- 
 tions ; they accompany us iil 
 our travels on foot, in vehicles, 
 by railroad, or by steamboat ; 
 they cling to us in the shape, 
 of clothing and jewelry ; they 
 enter into remedies for our dis-, 
 eases ; and we have the cold 
 comfort of knowing that they 
 accompany us to the grave in, 
 the shape of patented coffins.. 
 We cannot get clear of 
 them, j 
 
84 
 
 If we desire to know the 
 history of the rise and progress 
 of any art or manufacture, the 
 true history can only be deter- 
 mined by that of the Patents 
 connected with it. 
 
 As I said in the outset, Pat- 
 ents are so alHed to the prog- 
 ress of the useful arts, are so 
 intimately interwoven with our 
 duties, welfare, comforts, and 
 enjoyments, with our whole so- 
 cial system, that any attempt 
 to tamper with them by legisla- 
 tion which will tend to lessen 
 their value must be disastrous 
 in its consequences/) 
 VI have said enough to show 
 how far we are indebted in the 
 past to Patents for our manu- 
 facturing supremacy, for our 
 present social advantages, for 
 the advanced state of the arts, 
 for comforts our grandfathers 
 would have looked upon as im- 
 possibilities.^ What have we to 
 expect froni the same source in 
 future ? 
 
 No less than 12,864 Patents 
 were granted by our govern- 
 ment in the year 1873; very 
 many, the majority perhaps, 
 for articles, machines, or pro- 
 
 cesses possessing but few, if 
 any, advantages ; others exhib- 
 iting marked improvements in 
 the arts to which they relate ; 
 and others, of a startling char- 
 acter, presenting unlooked-for 
 benefits. But who can calcu- 
 late the aggregate benefit to the 
 public from this mass of Pat- 
 ents granted during one year ? 
 No one can measure it ; for no 
 one can penetrate so far into 
 the future as to determine what 
 important part many of these 
 patented inventions may play 
 in the future manufacturing 
 history and progress of our 
 country. We know by the 
 past, that, so long as our Patent 
 System retains its integrity, the 
 incentive to invent must con- 
 tinue : if that integrity is re- 
 tained in future, there must be 
 a constant and restless spirit 
 of rivalry to excel in the indus- 
 trial arts, repeated exhibitions 
 of originality, a thirst for inno- 
 vation, stimulated by the tem- 
 porary profit and manufacturing 
 advantages derived from the 
 possession of Patents for the 
 limited term allowed by the 
 law. 
 
■85 
 
 RECKLESS MAKING AND UN- 
 MAKING OF PATENT LAWS. 
 
 Periodical attacks are made 
 in Congress against Patents 
 and the Patent System ; and 
 now we have a legislator who 
 publicly overestimates the value 
 of Patents and Patent property, 
 and declares that an average of 
 over fifty per cent is derived 
 from patented manufactures, 
 whereas fifteen per cent is the 
 highest average. This legislator 
 will not look into the past, and 
 compare the profits derived 
 from inventions with the bene- 
 fits which have accrued to the 
 public at large from the same 
 source. 
 
 If it were possible to calcu- 
 late the sums over and above 
 ordinary manufacturers' profits, 
 which the public has paid for 
 patented articles during the 
 last twenty years, and then to 
 compare the comforts, advan- 
 tages, and improved social con- 
 dition resulting from these pat- 
 ented improvements, we should 
 conclude that the public has 
 had the best of the bargain, 
 and that the reward of the in- 
 
 ventors is an inconsiderable 
 trifle. 
 
 Is this exchange between 
 inventors and the public, an 
 exchange so profitable to the 
 latter, to be arrested by reck- 
 less legislation ? 
 
 Judging from the bills now 
 before Congress, there would 
 appear to be a formidable at- 
 tempt on the part of some 
 obstructionists to wound our 
 manufacturing supremacy at its 
 most vital point. They would 
 attack our well-tried Patent 
 System, on which that suprem- 
 acy is based, and on which our 
 children must rely for the con- 
 tinuance of that progress, the 
 stoppage of which means retro- 
 gression. 
 
 Mr. Sayler's House Bill, No. 
 1392, proposes to allow any one 
 to manufacture, use, or sell any 
 patented machine or other arti^ 
 cle, by paying to the patentee 
 a royalty of ten per cent on 
 the market value of such ma- 
 chine or article ; the royalty 
 never to be less than twenty- 
 five cents. 
 
 In other words, Mr. Sayler 
 would give to an inventor a Pat- 
 
.86 
 
 ent burdened with restrictions 
 which takes away its value, — 
 a species of property against 
 which human nature revolts. 
 
 Make a child a present accom- 
 panied with arbitrary restric- 
 tions as to its use and as to the 
 mode in which he shall share it 
 with others. He may take the 
 first present ; but, if he is the 
 child we like to see, — a child 
 with a spirit of independence, — 
 the weight of the restrictions 
 will induce him to refuse a sec- 
 ond present of like character. 
 
 So it is with an inventor. 
 Give him his Patent as proper- 
 ty which he can retain or dis- 
 pose of as best he likes, a 
 property the reward of his in- 
 genuity, and he will prosecute 
 his invention, make it available 
 to the public, invite capital to 
 carry it out (when capital is 
 needed), and will pursue the 
 course which has heretofore 
 been pursued by inventors, with 
 the result the advantages of 
 which are displayed by all our 
 surroundings. 
 
 But weigh down a Patent 
 with Mr. Sayler's arbitrary re- 
 strictions, and what would be 
 
 the consequences ? In the first 
 place, how many inventors 
 would accept Patents on the 
 terms proposed .-' Very few 
 wise ones ; and it is wise invent- 
 ors on whom we rely for future 
 advancement of the arts equal 
 to that which has prevailed in 
 the past. 
 
 And if the inventor takes 
 this Patent, this property, which 
 is no property at all, where will 
 he find the capitalists to aid 
 him ? 
 
 This measure of Mr. Sayler's 
 would amount to a total aboli- 
 tion of Patents, to the uproot- 
 ing of our Patent System, and 
 to the disorganization of the 
 entire manufacturing interests 
 of the country. 
 
 Let us look into Mr. Sayler's 
 singular mode of rewarding in- 
 ventors. He would not destroy 
 Patents ; but he would reward 
 patentees in a new way, — a 
 way of his own. There is a 
 patented machine for cutting 
 saw-teeth, built at a cost of 
 ^300. It works so rapidly and 
 effectually, that about ten ma- 
 chines will supply the demand 
 of all the manufacturers of the 
 
S7 
 
 country. According to Mr, 
 Sayler's mode of remuneration, 
 all the reward the inventor 
 could receive would be ^300. 
 On the other hand, there is the 
 patentee of a combined tooth- 
 pick and pen-holder, who sells 
 the articles at the corner of the 
 street, for ten cents each. If 
 I feel anxious to sell the same 
 kind of article, I must pay the 
 patentee twenty-five cents for 
 every ten cents I receive. Re- 
 muneration admirable for its 
 equality and foresight. 
 
 Then, again, Mr. Sayler's bill 
 provides for the payment for 
 the use of a machine in the 
 construction of which one or 
 several Patents are combined, 
 by making the amount to be 
 paid subject to the decisions 
 of the courts. What an erup- 
 tion of litigation this measure 
 implies ! There is ample pro- 
 vision here for the benefit of 
 lawyers, but very little comfort, 
 either for the patentee, or those 
 who desire to purchase. 
 
 The House Bill, No. 1757, 
 of Mr. Kasson, would empower 
 the Commissioner of Patents 
 to license any person to use a 
 
 patented machine on payment 
 
 of a royalty of per cent 
 
 upon the actual cost of manu- 
 facture. 
 
 This is, if any thing, worse 
 than Mr. Sayler's bill ; for it 
 saddles the Patent Office with 
 most laborious duties. 
 
 The same bill, moreover, pro- 
 hibits the extension of a Patent 
 under any circumstances, — a 
 measure the advisabihty of 
 which may well be questioned 
 in view of the fact, of which 
 the history of inventions af- 
 fords ample proof, that many 
 inventors derive no benefit 
 from their exertions until to- 
 wards the expiry of their Pat- 
 ents. 
 
 Another member of Con- 
 gress, Mr. Killinger, takes an 
 entirely different view of the 
 matter ; for his bill (872) pro- 
 vides for the extension of any 
 Patent on payment by the pat- 
 entee of a fee of ^100, without 
 any inquiry as to the validity of 
 the Patent, — a measure which 
 would appear to be unjust to 
 the public. 
 
 But it is to Mr. Sayler's bill 
 especially that I wish to direct 
 
88 
 
 attention. (The author most 
 certainly had in his mind some 
 evil to be remedied by his prop- 
 osition. Judging from his 
 speech, this evil consisted sim- 
 ply of the fraudulent acts of a 
 set of Western Patent peddlers, 
 whose practice it is to levy on 
 farmers and others, either by 
 inducing them to purchase 
 some worthless patented trap, 
 or by mulcting them for sup- 
 posed infringements on Patents 
 which they own, or are hired to 
 peddle. Under threats of pros- 
 ecution before the United 
 States Courts, these fellows 
 collect small sums from farm- 
 ers, who are not able to dis- 
 tinguish Patents with broad 
 claims, from those with narrow 
 claims, or are unwilling to 
 make inquiries by which their 
 rights can be determined./ 
 \It is very true that a set of 
 Patent-hawking impostors in- 
 fest not only the Western, but 
 the Eastern and Southern 
 States, and prey upon the 
 unwary and ignorant of all sec- 
 tions. They are the parasites 
 of our Patent System, and cast 
 the same taint on it that un- 
 
 scrupulous hypocrites do on 
 our churches} but are we to 
 get rid of these black sheep by 
 uprooting our churches } The 
 proper plan is to legislate 
 against the parasites who at- 
 tach themselves to our best 
 institutions, not to demolish 
 the institutions in order to in- 
 sure the destruction of the 
 parasites. But do these Patent 
 hawkers cause such mischief 
 as to call for legislative inter- 
 ference ? Their fraudulent 
 proceedings can only be availa- 
 ble with the ignorant and care- 
 less. A member of Congress 
 very properly suggested to Mr. 
 Sayler that it would be best to 
 legislate brains into the victims 
 of these men. 
 
 We cannot legislate impos- 
 tors from the face of the earth. 
 In the wisest law of man's 
 designing, in the most salutary 
 and carefully worded enact- 
 ment, your cunning rascal will 
 find an opening for the prac- 
 tice of his rascality, or he will 
 invent a new knavery to meet 
 the difficulties which the law 
 presents. 
 
 Are there any more knaves 
 
89 
 
 among inventors and those in- 
 terested or dealing in Patents, 
 than in other classes of the 
 community ? 
 
 I think I could point to other 
 classes containing men infi- 
 nitely more dangerous to the 
 public than the most unscrupu- 
 lous Patent peddler you can 
 find. The very man who com- 
 plains so loudly about the de- 
 ceptions of a Patent dealer, or 
 dealer in patented articles, may 
 be the victim of a selfish petti- 
 fogger, or of an ignorant quack 
 who has stolen the name of 
 doctor ; or he may be in the 
 habit of dosing himself with 
 nostrums, which, by a wise dis- 
 pensation of Providence, gen- 
 erally contain ingredients of a 
 character quite as harmless as 
 they are useless, and which 
 now and then may effect a 
 cure, not by any ameliorating 
 relation they bear to any dis- 
 ease, but by the confidence 
 and enthusiasm which the flam- 
 ing advertisements and bogus 
 testimonials create in the mind. 
 
 The atl:acks of Mr. Sayler 
 and other legislators, although 
 ostensibly directed against the 
 
 manufacturers and sellers of 
 patented articles, are, in reality, 
 assaults against inventors and 
 patentees, — the very men of all 
 others who need the fostering 
 care and guardianship of the 
 government. 
 
 The majority of these men 
 are simple minded, engaged in 
 absorbing occupations, credu- 
 lous, and easy victims of the 
 pretentious and incompetent 
 solicitor on the one hand, or of 
 cunning or unscrupulous specu- 
 lators on the other. /I'he true 
 way to remedy the Mifflculties 
 which accompany the fraudu- 
 lent acts of Patent peddlers 
 is to educate the people to a 
 point which will enable them 
 to resist all attempts at fraud ; 
 and this is just what the 
 authorities of the Patent Office 
 are doing by the issue of " The 
 Official Gazette," the increased 
 circulation of which, with its 
 weekly decisions, must soon 
 impart to the community a 
 Patent education, which will 
 render the occupation of these 
 wandering pirates unprofitable. 
 
 Let this Patent Office litera- 
 ture be increased to the extent 
 
90 
 
 which the commissioner de- 
 sires, and we shall soon have 
 such a widespread knowledge 
 of Patents and Patent property, 
 that the proposed purchaser 
 will take the same prudent 
 steps for his security as he 
 would in purchasing lands or 
 merchandise. ,/ 
 
 Let this literature supplant 
 the pamphlets and periodicals 
 published ostensibly to give in- 
 formation to inventors, and in 
 the interests of science and 
 useful arts, but really as ad- 
 juncts to Patent soliciting or 
 Patent speculating estabhsh- 
 ments, and there will be fewer 
 complaints of the victimizing 
 of inventors. 
 
 The attacks of our legislat- 
 ors upon the Patent System 
 appear to be founded on two 
 suppositions : first, that we are 
 paying too much for patented 
 articles of manufacture, or arti- 
 cles made by patented machin- 
 ery, and, second, that this is 
 chargeable to inventors, paten- 
 tees, and manufacturers of 
 patented goods. We are pay- 
 ing too much for all sorts of 
 articles, patented and not pat- 
 
 ented, a subject to which we 
 shall have to refer more fully 
 under the head, " Where the 
 money goes ; " but why legislat- 
 ors should jump at the throats 
 of inventors, and declare them 
 to be the guilty cause, it is 
 difficult to understand. 
 
 The tendency of Patents 
 from the first, as we have 
 already seen, has 'been to 
 economize manufacture, to 
 cheapen articles of utility and 
 luxury, to place us in posses- 
 sion of things undreamed of 
 before, to render the artisan's 
 home of to-day more comforta- 
 ble and attractive than the 
 wealthy man's residence of fifty 
 years ago. 
 
 Let us take a single example, 
 a familiar article of manufac- 
 ture, a hand-saw. Pick up a 
 saw in any part of the United 
 States, and the chances are, 
 that you find on it the" trade- 
 mark of well-known manufac- 
 turers. Ask the user of that 
 saw about the instrument, and 
 he will tell you that it is the 
 best tool of its kind in the 
 country. 
 
 To the uninitiated, it looks 
 
91 
 
 like any ordinary saw ; but it 
 is, nevertheless, the subject 
 of Patents relating to impor- 
 tant features in its construc- 
 tion ; and thousands of dollars 
 have been spent in patented 
 machinery for facilitating, per- 
 fecting, and economizing the 
 manufacture of these saws. 
 As this superior tool is com- 
 paratively cheap, the question 
 arises. How can the manufac- 
 turers afford to sell so superior 
 an article at so low a rate? 
 Because they have the sole 
 right, under sundry Letters 
 Patent, of making saws of this 
 style ; because the knowledge 
 that the Patents secure them 
 in this right for a number of 
 years encouraged the manu- 
 facturers to invest large sums 
 of money in machinery and 
 appliances for economizing the 
 production of these saws. Thus 
 the benefit of a supply to our 
 artisans of indispensable tools 
 of a superior quality, and at a 
 cheap rate, may be traced di- 
 rectly to our Patent System. 
 But this is not all. 
 
 It is but a few years since 
 all the saws used in this coun- 
 
 try were imported from Eng- 
 land ; and now we have in this 
 city the largest saw-works in 
 the world, where constant em- 
 ployment is given to nearly a 
 thousand hands. The rise and 
 progress of this magnificent 
 establishment is, of course, due 
 to the enterprise and energy 
 of the proprietors, and to the 
 invariable excellence of their 
 workmanship ; but they will be 
 the first to acknowledge the 
 aid which they have derived 
 from Patents in the prosecution 
 of their business. 
 
 This is but a solitary in- 
 stance of the beneficial effects 
 of our Patent System. There 
 is scarcely an article within our 
 reach which does not owe its 
 cheapness or superiority to 
 Patents ; and hosts of articles 
 owe their very existence to the 
 encouragement which Patents 
 hold out to ingenious men. 
 
 Almost every day, new 
 branches of industry are' started 
 on the strength of Patents, and 
 new employment found for our 
 artisans. 
 
 Our legislators know that it 
 costs a given sum to manufac- 
 
92 
 
 ture a certain patented article ; 
 they know what it costs to pur- 
 chase it. They are astounded at 
 the difference between the cost 
 of manufacture, and the retail 
 price ; and they at once attack 
 the patentee, and charge him 
 with the absorption of a profit 
 of over fifty per cent, — a most 
 short-sighted and unjust con- 
 clusion. By whom, then, are 
 the large profits absorbed ? We 
 propose to discuss this point 
 under the next head. 
 
 WHERE DOES THE MONEY GO .■* 
 
 If Mr. Sayler, or any other 
 member of Congress who feels 
 disposed to attack patentees, is 
 really anxious to find a true 
 solution to this question, we 
 can point out a very easy mode 
 of doing so. Let him take 
 a walk along Pennsylvania 
 Avenue, and purchase, at dif- 
 ferent stores, a miscellaneous 
 collection of home-made arti- 
 cles, patented or not patented, 
 or, for the matter of that, articles 
 bearing the stamps of foreign 
 manufacturers (for millions of 
 dollars' worth of goods really 
 made in our manufacturing 
 
 districts are sold as imported 
 articles). Unfortunately there 
 are very many purchasers who 
 believe in the super-excellence 
 of foreign-made goods, and are 
 easily persuaded, by unscrupu- 
 lous tradesmen, to pay a high 
 price for articles under the 
 pretence that they are im- 
 ported. 
 
 Having carefully collected 
 his purchases, and noted the 
 cost of each, let our member 
 of Congress proceed to trace 
 each article to its origin, com- 
 pare the manufacturer's charges 
 with the retail price, and he 
 will find the correct answer to 
 his question. 
 
 While the profits of manu- 
 facturers in this country are 
 but little, if any, in excess of 
 those of France, England, or 
 Germany, it costs our citizens 
 at least twice as much to get 
 possession, through jobbers and 
 tradesmen, of the products of 
 our factories as it does a 
 Frenchman or Englishman to 
 purchase the goods made by 
 his countrymen. This has 
 been often remarked by intel- 
 ligent foreisrners who have visit- 
 
93 
 
 ed or become domiciled among 
 us, and by our own observant 
 citizens who have travelled 
 abroad. 
 
 Take an ordinary London or 
 Paris retail store, stocked, say, 
 with eight or ten thousand 
 dollars' worth of standard 
 goods, and you will find the 
 shopkeeper and his family liv- 
 ing contentedly in the rooms 
 above the store ; the sons and 
 daughters being the attendants. 
 
 But let us transplant this 
 store, with the same stock of 
 the same standard goods, to any 
 of our larger cities, and note 
 what a change takes place. 
 
 The other day, wanting a 
 dozen brass hinges of a given 
 size, I visited a moderately well- 
 stocked store, and purchased 
 them at the price of twenty- 
 five cents per pair. 
 
 The hinges were of superior 
 quality, and cheaper than the 
 brass hinges of similar size on 
 sale ten or fifteen years ago. I 
 knew that this superiority of 
 the hinges was due to a very 
 ingenious patented machine 
 referred to in another chapter; 
 and I also knew that the manu- 
 
 facturer, owing to the monopoly 
 which his Patent guaranteed 
 to him, and to the enormous 
 demand for the articles, could 
 realize a handsome profit by 
 charging for the manufactured 
 goods a trifle in advance of the 
 cost of the metal of which the 
 hinges were composed. Curi- 
 osity led me to inquire as to 
 the manufacturer's price for 
 these hinges ; and I found that 
 I had paid the storekeeper for 
 them from four to five hundred 
 per cent more than the manu- 
 facturer's price, — an increase 
 utterly disproportionate to the 
 capital, in money or in brains, 
 required for the mere trans- 
 mission of the goods from the 
 maker to the consumer. 
 
 I bought a pair of fancy 
 stockings for a child. I was 
 unblushingly told that they 
 were an imported article, when 
 I knew very well that they 
 were made by patented ma- 
 chinery in a factory not a mile 
 from the store where I pur- 
 chased the articles at a cost 
 three times that charged by the 
 manufacturer. And so it is 
 throughout our entire trading 
 
94 
 
 system : even a paper of tobac- 
 co, in going from the manufac- 
 turer on one side of a street to 
 the retailer on the opposite side, 
 increases twofold in price. 
 
 There are many articles 
 which can be purchased at a 
 reasonably low rate. A steam- 
 engine, for instance, bought 
 directly from the manufac- 
 turers, or smaller articles made 
 in the stores where they are 
 sold, can be bought cheaply ; 
 but, when the jobber and retail 
 tradesman intervene, articles 
 of every day demand are sold 
 at double, treble, and often 
 quadruple, the manufacturer's 
 charges. 
 
 The conditions attending the 
 growth of this country appear 
 to have given peculiar impor- 
 tance to the tradesman, and to 
 have caused to be centred upon 
 trading pursuits a perhaps 
 excessive degree of attention. 
 Every reader of history is fa- 
 miliar with the circumstances 
 which in colonial days stifled 
 every effort to establish manu- 
 factures ; and those still living 
 among us have had personal 
 knowledge of the events — 
 
 some of external, some of inter- 
 nal origin — which have in later 
 times tended to impede the pro- 
 gress of the practical arts among 
 us. A people of enterprising 
 and original genius, possessing 
 a land peculiarly blessed in the 
 character and multiplicity of 
 its natural products, and the 
 ease with which these products 
 may be secured to the use of 
 man, found the most obvious 
 and ready source of profit in 
 supplying these products to the 
 people of countries less favored 
 by Nature, 
 
 At the same time, there was 
 not the crowded population, 
 nor the abundance and con- 
 sequent cheapness of labor, 
 most favorable to economy of 
 manufacture when carried on 
 by hand. In these respects, 
 and in the possession of artifi- 
 cers whose skill was the in- 
 heritance of successive gener- 
 ations, the older countries of 
 Europe had material advan- 
 tages. 
 
 To an institution now hap- 
 pily among the things of the 
 past, but which, while and 
 wherever it prevailed, tended 
 
95 
 
 as much to the degradation of 
 manual labor as it did to the 
 apparent dignity and actual 
 power of landed proprietorship, 
 we need make no more than a 
 passing allusion. 
 
 Suffice it to say, that the 
 Revolution found the people of 
 this country situated in the 
 midst of natural abundance, 
 without extremes of wealth or 
 poverty, and with habits and 
 tastes quite as cultured and 
 refined as those prevailing 
 among the prosperous classes 
 in European countries. Among 
 these people, their own easy 
 circumstances, and constant 
 mercantile and social inter- 
 course with foreign lands, had 
 bred a lively demand for most 
 of the known conveniences and 
 luxuries of civihzed life. 
 
 For these they had been 
 habitually, though in a large 
 measure against their will, de- 
 pendent upon foreign artisans : 
 their attention had perforce 
 been mainly divided between 
 agricultural and trading pur- 
 suits. Handicrafts were of 
 course established among them, 
 such mainly as are essential to 
 
 the supply of every-day wants ; 
 but manufactures as a source of 
 natural wealth had been little 
 more than dreamed of, and, 
 where the obvious natural faci- 
 lities had prompted their es- 
 tablishment, they had been 
 speedily stamped out by the 
 jealousy of the mother-country. 
 The traders or factors had a 
 recognized standing and impor- 
 tance in the community : they 
 formed the communication be- 
 tween the foreign artisan and 
 the native consumer. Later, 
 rapid as was the progress of 
 the useful arts, the extension of 
 commerce was infinitely more 
 so ; and industry and capital 
 naturally flowed into the chan- 
 nels promising the most easy 
 and speedy reward. While 
 the history of manufacturing" 
 progress has been that of a 
 continued struggle against ad- 
 verse conditions, — a struggle 
 which only indomitable ingenu- 
 ity and energy could have main- 
 tained successfully, — that of 
 the development of commerce 
 displays a career in which the 
 periodical phases of adversity 
 have but been the consequence 
 
96 
 
 of a blind recklessness begotten 
 of excessive prosperity. 
 
 The circumstances which 
 tended to this rapid extension 
 of commerce would seem to 
 have operated far more tardily 
 upon manufacturing progress. 
 
 The opening up of the vast 
 and rich Western territories 
 offered irresistible inducements 
 to the restless and enterprising 
 youth of the older States, and 
 to the better class of emigrants 
 from abroad. New fields of 
 commerce were thus rapidly 
 opened. The emigrants carried 
 with them habits and tastes ac- 
 quired among older communi- 
 ties; and though these would, 
 of course, be more or less modi- 
 fied under the new conditions, 
 it was more consonant with the 
 mental energy of the people to 
 subdue and mould the new con- 
 ditions into the nearest possible 
 correspondence with the old. 
 So the trader formed the con- 
 necting link between these 
 pioneers of a new civilization 
 and that which they had left 
 behind them. 
 
 Towns sprang up in the wil- 
 derness : and these towns were 
 
 essentially trading communi- 
 ties. 
 
 In the mean while, mechani- 
 cal ingenuity accumulated. 
 Capital and cheap labor had 
 operated in the manufacturing 
 countries of Europe, and nota- 
 bly in England, to bring the 
 practical arts to a degree of ex- 
 cellence both as regards quality, 
 and economy in production, 
 with which, chiefly from the 
 scarcity and value of labor, it 
 seemed impossible to compete 
 here. Thus it was that our 
 ever-increasing trade became 
 more and more tributary to 
 the foreign manufacturer ; and 
 that, with our ever-expanding 
 demand, and consequent pros- 
 pect of gain, there was an 
 ever-increasing army of traders, 
 merchants, and storekeepers, 
 great and small, between the 
 foreign manufacturer and the 
 native consumer of his wares. 
 
 fin this connection, too, 
 another circumstance, tending 
 at once to the advancement of 
 commerce, and the temporary 
 repression of manufacturers, 
 must not be lost sight of. We 
 refer to the superabundance, 
 
97 
 
 with which our country is 
 blessed, of certain natural prod- 
 ucts which other countries must 
 ne^d. ) 
 
 (Raw materials for manufac- 
 turing we had in unrivalled 
 plenty ; the facihties and labor 
 for manufacturing we lacked, 
 while other countries had them 
 in excess. To export these raw 
 materials was a ready and ever- 
 growing field of gain for the 
 trader^ ^ 
 
 We do not mean to assert, 
 that, during this time, there was 
 lack of development in the 
 practical arts : on the contrary, 
 their progress, viewed by itself, 
 or in connection with the sur- 
 rounding circumstances, was 
 wonderful. But attention is di- 
 rected to the fact, that this 
 progress, as compared with the 
 wonderful expansion of com- 
 merce, was sl5w and uncertain ; 
 that it was so in spite of cer- 
 tain adverse conditions ; and 
 that, in the merely commercial 
 habits of the people, it perhaps 
 found less of an ally than an 
 ob§.tacle. 
 
 nTrade presented the surest 
 and most profitable invest- 
 
 ments for wealth : manufactur- 
 ing offered harder work, and 
 more uncertain profits.^ 
 
 f Trade flourished apace with 
 the growth and constantly- 
 developing wealth of the coun- 
 try : manufacturing needed the 
 fostering aid of government-' 
 
 ( Under such circumstances, 
 it is not to be wondered at if 
 the spirit of the people at large 
 became essentially a trading- 
 spirit, or if the average youth 
 preferred those employments 
 which promised the least 
 amount of real mental laboiy 
 
 To these causes we are al- 
 most ashamed to add another, 
 which those among whom it 
 chiefly exists would probably 
 be the first to deny. We refer 
 to the preference of trading- 
 occupations, owing to their 
 presumed respecta.bility. With 
 all that is being constantly said 
 or written about the dignity of 
 labor, what a general aversion 
 there is to the external signs 
 of physical work ! to how large 
 a portion of the public is the 
 mechanic associated only with 
 the idea of grime and grease 1 
 and how many fond mothers 
 
98 
 
 and short-sighted fathers pre- 
 fer for their children the medi- 
 ocre respectabihty and ease of 
 storekeeping to the hard work 
 and attendant grime of me- 
 chanical pursuits ! It would be 
 needless to dilate on this sub- 
 ject : it is a matter of taste, to 
 dispute which is an unprofit- 
 able and ungrateful task; at- 
 tention is drawn to it as one, 
 and not the least, of the many 
 causes which have tended to 
 popularize trading pursuits. 
 . Nor should the importance 
 of these pursuits, or the energy 
 and activity to be found among 
 those who follow them, be 
 underrated. He would be a 
 bold man, however, who should 
 assert that trading, as such, 
 does or can expand the facul- 
 ties of mind and heart in any 
 thing like the same degree as 
 those occupations which call 
 into play the observing and 
 creative faculties. Napoleon's 
 well-known fling at the Eng- 
 lish as a nation of shopkeep- 
 ers, had it been true, might, 
 perhaps, have been just ; but, 
 unfortunately for its point, it 
 was uttered just about the 
 
 time when that spirit of origi- 
 nality and creativeness (least 
 characteristic of shopkeeping) 
 was commencing to display its 
 greatest activity among the 
 English. 
 
 In commerce, given its wid- 
 est signification, and viewed as 
 a science, there is room for the 
 exercise of the best faculties 
 of the mind ; but the same will 
 hardly be claimed for mere in- 
 ternal or local trading, the 
 mere intervention between 
 manufacturer and customer. 
 This is the branch of com- 
 merce, however, in which the 
 multitude of traders are every- 
 where engaged, and the branch 
 which, by force of the circum- 
 stances which we have narrated, 
 has chiefly prevailed in this 
 country. It is this class of 
 traders which mould our com- 
 merce, and through whose 
 hands pass the floating wealth 
 of the country. Their numbers, 
 wealth, and power are constant- 
 ly increasing ; and they retain, 
 in these days of ready commu- 
 nication, and of increased and 
 constantly-increasing native 
 industry, a position to. which 
 
99 
 
 they are, perhaps, not so well 
 entitled as in days gone by. 
 
 As domestic manufacturers 
 grow, and become more widely 
 disseminated, and maker and 
 consumer come more within 
 each other's reach, the impor- 
 tance of these middle-men must 
 decrease. In the mean while, 
 long-established custom pre- 
 vails, and their asserted rights 
 are acknowledged, though the 
 necessity for them has ceased. 
 
 They stand between domes- 
 tic manufacturers and con- 
 sumers, as they have been 
 accustomed to stand between 
 the latter and foreign manufac- 
 turers ; and so well established 
 is their power, so much wealth 
 have they engrossed, that they 
 are too frequently able to dic- 
 tate both to manufacturer and 
 consumer the terms upon which 
 goods shall be transmitted from 
 one to the other. And this 
 state of affairs is aided and 
 aggravated by the vicious sys- 
 tem of trading known as long 
 credit, the burden of which 
 falls ultimately upon the con- 
 sumer by adding to the price 
 of goods the interest which 
 
 long credit implies. These, 
 and not the greed of inventors, 
 patentees, and manufacturers, 
 are the causes of those exor- 
 bitant prices of manufactured 
 articles which are so bitterly 
 complained of. (fThe true reme- 
 dy is the dissemination of man- 
 ufactures, the establishment of 
 the factory as near as possi- 
 ble to the consumers, and the 
 consequent narrowing and sim- 
 plifying of trade. Whether 
 this desirable end is. more likely 
 to be attained or obstructed by 
 our Patent System, let past 
 history, and the present gradual 
 establishment of manufactur- 
 ing in the Western States, 
 attest, y 
 
 It would be well for our 
 legislators to direct their atten- 
 tion to the Western jobbers, or 
 commission merchants, who 
 league together, and, like na- 
 bobs, determine what they will 
 pay for manufactured articles, 
 and on what terms they will 
 deliver them to the retailers. 
 So oppressive have the acts of 
 these men become, that manu- 
 facturers have established, and 
 continue to establish, at differ- 
 
[OO 
 
 ent cities, branch depots for the 
 deHvery of goods directly to the 
 retailer, — an effective remedy, 
 which must result in the great- 
 est advantage to the public. 
 
 A spirit of economy has in- 
 duced the consumer to pur- 
 chase directly from the manu- 
 facturers virherever it is possible 
 to do so ; and this must con- 
 tinue, until the occupation of 
 the grasping middle-men must 
 cease, or they be content to 
 accept profits adequate to the 
 amount of intelligence and 
 capital which they have in- 
 vested in the business. 
 
 Farmers and others in the 
 West have been taught to 
 believe that manufacturers of 
 Patent machines realize a profit 
 of over fifty per cent ; and to 
 this belief is due the sudden 
 fit of crude Patent legislation. 
 
 It is an unfounded report, 
 followed by the usual mischiev- 
 ous result of creating that 
 antagonism between different 
 sections of the community, 
 which always ends in attempts 
 at disastrous class legislation. 
 
 (The price paid for many 
 patented machines is well 
 
 known to be much in excess of 
 the cost of production ; and 
 unthinking purchasers charge 
 this excess to manufacturers' 
 profits, — a most erroneous con- 
 clusion. They forget the sell- 
 ers, the merchants, the middle- 
 men; they forget the cost of 
 introducing a new invention, 
 the cost of insuring a perma- 
 nent market by advertising, &c., 
 and of maintaining expensive 
 establishments and salesrooms 
 at points miles the away from 
 manufactories.) 
 
 Take sewing-machines, for 
 instance. The manufacturers 
 of these machines have been 
 over and over again charged 
 with making princely profits at 
 the expense of the purchasers : 
 whereas the cost of selling 
 these machines amounts to 
 quite as much as, or even more 
 than, the cost of production. 
 
 There is not a sewing-ma- 
 chine manufacturer who would 
 not be willing to furnish ma- 
 chines at half their present 
 cost, if all purchasers would 
 consent to fetch them from the 
 factory, or if they could be de- 
 posited in hardware stores for 
 
lOI 
 
 sale, like apple-paring and 
 other domestic machines. But 
 purchasers of sewing-machines 
 expect to be taught their use 
 in well-appointed stores and 
 show-rooms ; and, at distant 
 points, they expect the machines 
 to be brought to their doors by 
 men who can demonstrate the 
 mode of operating them. Such 
 indulgences as these cannot be 
 obtained without payment 
 
 It is the same with hosts of 
 other labor-saving machines 
 which are the subjects of 
 Patents, or the products of pat- 
 ented machinery. And let it 
 be said here, that these travel- 
 ling sellers of patented ma- 
 chines are not always to be 
 despised. 
 
 Many a farmer located at 
 a distant, out-of-the-way place, 
 has to thank the day that 
 brought to his doors the honest 
 peddler of a labor-saving ma- 
 chine, which, but for the 
 trader's enterprise, would, per- 
 haps, have never been known 
 to him. While the dishonest 
 hawker is a curse everywhere, 
 the honorable peddler is a 
 blessing in distant, sparsely- 
 
 settled sections of the coun- 
 try. 
 
 But to return to sewing-ma- 
 chines. They appear to have 
 been pointed out as special 
 objects of attack by Patent 
 obstructionists. It will scarcely 
 do to hazard the assertion, that, 
 but for Patents, there would 
 have been no sewing-machines. 
 But the excellence and econo- 
 my of modern machinery de- 
 pends upon the amount of 
 capital invested in it, and this 
 capital can never be invested 
 without the security which Pat- 
 ents afford. 
 
 Sewing-machines might have 
 existed in the absence of Pat- 
 ents ; but how far they would 
 have progressed beyond the 
 original machine, which was 
 about the size of a hand-cart, 
 it is difficult to say. 
 
 Certainly the manufacture of 
 these machines would have 
 been in the hands of tinkers, 
 small machinists, and black- 
 smiths. No two machines 
 would have been alike. There 
 would have been no such beau- 
 tiful sewing-machines as those, 
 of to-day. 
 
102 
 
 The superiority and economy 
 of our labor-saving machines 
 are acknowledged throughout 
 the world ; and these have been 
 reached by ingenuity stimulated 
 by Patents. We are told by 
 Mr. Brassy, an eminent author, 
 and member of parliament, that 
 we Americans " with our high 
 wages, and our high cost of 
 living, have, by our labor-sav- 
 ing machinery, driven out of 
 the foreign markets some of the 
 most important trades;" all of 
 which is due to the investment 
 of large capital, which insures 
 cheap production, — investment 
 which Patents induce. 
 
 If the cost of selling could 
 be reduced in proportion to the 
 Continued lowering of the cost 
 of production, which is due to 
 our Patent System, we should 
 be the possessors of the cheap- 
 est articles of manufacture in 
 the world ; we should have fewer 
 idle young men, whose senses 
 have been blunted by uncon- 
 genial employment ; and indus- 
 trial occupations would be 
 looked upon as the most en- 
 nobling of all professions. 
 f The answer to the question 
 
 at the head of this chapter is 
 simply this : That the enormous 
 profits paid for manufactured 
 articles by the consumer, over 
 and above the cost of produc- 
 tion, are chargeable, not to the 
 manufacturers, inventors, or 
 patentees, but to the grasping 
 demands of non-producing mid- 
 dle-men."^) 
 
 VALUELESS PATENTS. 
 
 Another line of attack against 
 our Patent System is based on 
 the fact that the majority of 
 patents are granted for things 
 of little or no value to the 
 community. 
 
 True, a weak Patent, or a 
 Patent for a valueless article, 
 may be used for a bad purpose ; 
 but where is the Patent that 
 does not carry with it its les- 
 son } 
 
 ^Inventors are like the rest of 
 mankind in this respect, — that 
 the minority succeed, while the 
 majority fail. Ask any man 
 who has gained an eminent 
 and enviable position, what 
 trials and disappointments he 
 had to undergo, what energy 
 he had to exercise in order to 
 
I03 
 
 reach that position. These are 
 the men who create that spirit 
 of emulation among the ma- 
 jority, without which the world 
 would turn back on its hinges. 
 It is this spirit of emulation 
 which raises men from the 
 ranks of the majority to fill the 
 gaps in those of the minority. 
 
 So it is with inventors. The 
 success of one stimulates an- 
 other, who may fail in his en- 
 deavors in the first instance ; 
 but this very failure is one of 
 the trials that urges him to 
 renewed efforts, which, if he is 
 a real inventor, must eventually 
 result in success. 
 
 Another may think he is an 
 inventor when he is not. Fail- 
 ure, in this case, is the lesson 
 to teach him that he has mis- 
 taken his vocation. A third 
 may yield under the first dis- 
 appointment, and give up in 
 disgust. He belongs to the 
 majority, and was never in- 
 tended to reach the ranks of the 
 minority. 
 
 But what business has the 
 government to grant Patents 
 for things which are of no pub- 
 lic value ? This is another cry 
 
 of those who would attack the 
 integrity of our Patent System. 
 
 Is the application of John 
 Jones for a Patent to be met by 
 a refusal like this from a gov- 
 ernment officer, "Your ma- 
 chine will not work half as well 
 as that for which we granted a 
 Patent to John Brown week 
 before last : you cannot have a 
 patent " ? Such a practice as 
 this, if permitted to prevail, 
 would convert the Patent Office 
 into an inquisitorial star cham- 
 ber, a disgrace to any despotic 
 government. 
 
 The present policy is the true 
 one. If an inventor presents an 
 application for a Patent for an 
 invention having any claim to 
 novelty, if it exhibits ingenuity, 
 if it will perform the duty 
 claimed for it, let the man have 
 his Patent, whether, in the ex- 
 aminer's opinion, it will or will 
 not do the duty better than 
 preceding inventions, or wheth- 
 er or not it is more valuable in 
 a marketable point of view. 
 The policy of our government 
 is to give "every inventor a 
 chance ; for, however frivolous 
 inventions may appear at first 
 
104 
 
 sight, they often lead to suc- 
 cess : an invention which ap- 
 pears trifling to-day may prove 
 of immense value to-morrow. 
 Far better flood the country 
 with Patents of little or no 
 value than attempt to arrest 
 the inventive progress of the 
 community by arbitrary meas- 
 ures which would disgrace our 
 free institutions. 
 
 ABOUT INVENTORS. 
 
 \Then, again, the opinion is 
 by no means uncommon that 
 inventors are a pampered class, 
 set apart by the government 
 for special indulgences and 
 privileges. A more absurd 
 mistake than this could not 
 prevail. The government has 
 established laws for the pro- 
 tection of property in inven- 
 tion, precisely as it has for the 
 security of other property, and 
 for precisely the same purpose ; 
 that is, for the welfare of the 
 community at large, not for the 
 special benefit of individuals. j) 
 The inventor does not ask 
 for indulgences : the law places 
 him above the character of a 
 beggar for government patron- 
 
 age. He goes to the proper 
 department, and says, " I have 
 an invention. It is my prop- 
 erty, for I can keep it to my- 
 self ; but I want the property 
 secured by the grant of a Pat- 
 ent for seventeen years, so that 
 I can practise the invention 
 publicly, and make the most of 
 it during that term. Here are 
 the papers to instruct the pub- 
 lic how to work the invention, 
 and reap all the benefit from it 
 when my term expires ; and 
 here are the fees to enable you 
 to make such searches as are 
 necessary for you to decide 
 whether the property is really 
 mine or not." The govern- 
 ment must comply with his de- 
 mand, and must decide whether 
 or not the invention is already 
 the property of the public, or 
 of a prior inventor. If it is not, 
 and the applicant is otherwise 
 legally entitled to protection, 
 the Patent must be granted. 
 
 The whole affair is a plain 
 business tran'^saction. There is 
 no sentimentality about it, no 
 humble petitioning for special 
 favors on the one side, no ex- 
 hibitions of lofty patronage on 
 
I05 
 
 the other. The seal of the 
 Patent is the sealing of a bar- 
 gain between the inventor on 
 one side, and the government, 
 as agent for the public, on the 
 other. 
 
 If the invention is a valua- 
 ble one, the public get the best 
 of the bargain. If it proves 
 to be of little or no real mar- 
 ketable value, it sinks into 
 oblivion. 
 
 Of course, the government 
 cannot guarantee the validity 
 of the Patent. The possession 
 of a title deed does not pre- 
 clude the possibility of ques- 
 tions of right. The inventors 
 title deed is his Patent ; and it 
 is presumptive evidence of his 
 right to all he claims in that 
 Patent, and nothing more. 
 
 How often do we hear the 
 remark, " What a lucky man 
 that is to hit upon such a profit- 
 able invention ! " I will admit 
 that a man of no ability may 
 accidentally discover a valuable 
 improvement, just as a lazy 
 gold-miner with no more brains 
 than a tadpole may discover a 
 nugget. But these are excep- 
 tional cases. No greater mis- 
 
 take can be made than to sup- 
 pose an inventor's career to be 
 one of continued ease and 
 profit. I have been among in- 
 ventors for thirty years ; and I 
 can say that very few members 
 of the community work as hard 
 as they do. 
 
 Their gains are rarely com- 
 mensurate with their exertions, 
 and still more rarely commen- 
 surate with the benefits they 
 impart to the community. 
 
 ATTACKS ON THE PATENT 
 OFFICE. 
 
 It must be remembered that 
 comparatively few inventors 
 are familiar with Patent mat- 
 ters, or understand their true 
 status as regards the public, 
 and prior inventors : hence 
 they very naturally charge all 
 their disappointments to the 
 inefficiency or short-comings of 
 the officers of the Patent Office. 
 
 Then, again, there is a small 
 army of solicitors who adver- 
 tise themselves as especially 
 qualified to aid inventors in 
 procuring Patents, and who 
 offer all sorts of inducements 
 to secure patronage. 
 
io6 
 
 Candidates for the medical 
 and legal professions must pass 
 through a course of study, and 
 through an examination ; but 
 we know, that, in the ranks of 
 these professions, there are 
 many incompetent and unscru- 
 pulous members. 
 
 The profession of a Patent 
 solicitor is one demanding va- 
 ried accomplishments and ex- 
 perience ; but any one can 
 announce himself as qualified 
 for the profession. He under- 
 goes no examination as to his 
 qualifications. His previous 
 training, his mechanical, legal, 
 or scientific attainments, are 
 never inquired into : he simply 
 adopts the title of Patent So- 
 licitor or Patent Attorney, and 
 on the strength of this title 
 demands the confidence of in- 
 ventors. 
 
 In a profession so easy to 
 enter as this, we must naturally 
 expect a greater proportion of 
 incompetents than in the 
 learned professions, admission 
 to which is dependent upon a 
 previous course of study, and 
 successful examination. 
 
 Of course, the disputes be- 
 
 tween the Patent Office and 
 unskilled or reckless attorneys 
 must be constant ; and such 
 attorneys, to relieve themselves 
 from the charges of incompe- 
 tency, and disguise their own 
 shortcomings, abuse the Pat- 
 ent Office authorities to their 
 clients, 
 
 (To such an extent have the 
 misrepresentations been carried, 
 that inexperienced inventors, 
 and those members of the pub- 
 lic who have neither the time 
 nor inchnation to investigate 
 the subject thoroughly, have 
 been educated to believe that 
 the Patent Office is a tyrannical 
 institution, where incompeten- 
 cy, mismanagement, and favor- 
 itism prevail. 
 
 The authorities of the Patent 
 Office cannot reply to these 
 charges : hence the public hears 
 but one side of the question. 
 
 It would be surprising in- 
 deed, if, among the multitude 
 of officers in the Patent Office, 
 every man should be qualified 
 for his position. Men with er- 
 roneous notions of their duties, 
 and with a tendency to treat 
 inventors illiberally, must al- 
 
I07 
 
 ways be found among the ex- 
 aminers ; but they are excep- 
 tions, and in time either change 
 their views, or are permitted to 
 find some other employment. 
 
 The Patent Office is as well 
 officered as any other govern- 
 ment bureau. It is surprising, 
 in fact, that so many accom- 
 plished men can be found in 
 positions the salaries attached 
 to which are by no means 
 large. 
 
 The rules of the Patent Office 
 may be strict, and the regula- 
 tions of such a character as to 
 render the practice of solicit- 
 ing Patents difficult, and some- 
 times tedious ; but it must be 
 remembered that these strict 
 rules and regulations have been 
 established, and are enforced, 
 for the purpose, mainly, of 
 checking the practices of so- 
 licitors of the class to which 
 we have referred. 
 
 It is not pretended, either, 
 that our Patent laws or the 
 administration of the Patent 
 Office are perfect. From time 
 to time, new laws are demand- 
 ed to meet unforeseen contin- 
 gencies, and new Patent Office 
 
 regulations to meet such new 
 difficulties as may present 
 themselves. Better facilities 
 could, it is believed, be af- 
 forded for the prompt prose- 
 cution of applications, and a 
 greater uniformity of practice 
 might be secured ; but, in spite 
 of sundry defects, it is difficult 
 to understand how a bona fide 
 inventor who is in good hands 
 can fail to secure all the rights 
 to which he is entitled. 
 
 There is one way to set the 
 public right as to the true con- 
 dition and management of the 
 Patent Office ; and that is by 
 the appointment of a congres- 
 sional committee of investiga- 
 tion, which would derive its 
 information from sources cer- 
 tain to develop the truth. 
 
 Such a committee, after fin- 
 ishing its labors, would, it is be- 
 lieved, come to the conclusion 
 that most of the complaints 
 which we see in print are un- 
 founded, and that, where diffi- 
 culties occur, their source will, 
 in the majority of cases, be 
 found outside of the office, and 
 not inside. ;And probably one 
 of the first remedial measures 
 
io8 
 
 which the committee would 
 suggest would be a law to 
 compel every Patent solicitor 
 to pass an official examination 
 as to his competency to fulfil 
 the duties which he has assumed. 
 
 THE CRY AGAINST PATENTS 
 AND INVENTORS. 
 
 As I have said before, the 
 highest average of manufac- 
 turers' profits on the produc- 
 tion of patented articles is fif- 
 teen per cent ; and, the sooner 
 our Western farmers know 
 this, the better. Let the truth 
 prevail on this subject, and we 
 shall have no more exhibitions 
 of petty jealousies between 
 different sections of the coun- 
 try, no more crude attempts at 
 Patent law tinkering, intended 
 for the advantage of one class 
 at the expense of another, but 
 which, if permitted to become 
 the law of the land, must be 
 disastrous to both. 
 
 If there is one class of our 
 community which is more in- 
 debted to our Patent System, 
 and more interested in its 
 maintenance, than another, it 
 is our Western farmers. 
 
 But for the rapid progress in 
 the useful arts, due mainly to 
 that system, the vast tracts of 
 cultivated country in the West 
 would have remained the home 
 of the buffalo and the savage. 
 Let any farmer who is old 
 enough to remember the appli- 
 ances of thirty years ago, com- 
 pare them with those with 
 which his farm has been 
 stocked at such wonderfully 
 low prices ; let him look at the 
 comforts of his home, the many 
 cheap accessories beyond his 
 reach, nay, beyond his concep- 
 tion, thirty years before ; and 
 then let him remember that 
 all these labor-saving applian- 
 ces, all these household com- 
 forts, owe their birth to the 
 encouragement which our Pat- 
 ent System holds out to the 
 inventor. 
 
 I think I hear a short- 
 sighted farmer saying, "Well, 
 we should have had the things 
 anyhow. Patents, or no Pat- 
 ents." Don't believe it. Men 
 do not act without motives. 
 They do not invent without 
 incentives. They may have 
 passing ideas on improvements, 
 
109 
 
 hasty, evanescent conceptions ; 
 but they will not, without pros- 
 pect of remuneration, devote 
 their time and thought to that 
 development and permanent 
 embodiment of their ideas, 
 without which they are of no 
 avail. 
 
 Others may say (and I hope, 
 for the sake of the country at 
 large, that they are very few), 
 " Well, we have inventions 
 enough, and I am satisfied to 
 go on as I am ; and my chil- 
 dren ought to be satisfied." 
 This was substantially the 
 exclamation of/the legislator 
 in Holland a few years ago, — 
 a legislator who successfully 
 advocated the abolition of Pat- 
 ents in that country, and who 
 declared that " it might be well 
 enough for such crude coun- 
 tries as the United States and 
 England to encourage inven- 
 tion by the grant of Patents ; 
 but, when they arrived at the 
 state of perfection reached by 
 Holland, there would be no 
 further necessity for such gov- 
 ernment encouragement." 
 
 Well, the Hollanders abol- 
 ished their Patent laws ; and I 
 
 must say they were bad 
 enough to deserve abolition : 
 but what are the consequences ? 
 The legislators of that coun- 
 try are now contemplating the 
 framing a new and more liberal 
 Patent law. 
 
 No members of the commu- 
 nity have more to expect from 
 Patents in future than our 
 Western farmers. They are 
 crying out for increased facili- 
 ties for gathering and trans- 
 porting their crops. They want 
 cheap appliances, cheap com- 
 forts, and more of them. From 
 whom have they to expect 
 these things } From inventors 
 whom the law encourages ; 
 from the enterprise which 
 always accompanies, and is 
 inseparable from invention ; 
 from manufacturing rivalry 
 which is based on Patents, and 
 which always has resulted, and 
 always must result, in econo- 
 my of production. 
 
 The farmers must not forget 
 the disastrous effect which 
 Mr. Sayler's proposition would 
 have in a monetary point of 
 view. The Honorable Com- 
 missioner of Patents told us in 
 
no 
 
 his speech before the United 
 States Patent Association, that 
 " nine-tenths of all the money 
 invested in manufacturing in 
 the United States is so invest- 
 ed, because of the security 
 which is given to the invest- 
 ment by Patents." If Mr. Say- 
 ler's revolutionary notions are 
 to prevail, the millions invested 
 in Patent property would be in 
 jeopardy. Then would ensue 
 financial consternation, and a 
 panic, compared with which 
 that through which we have 
 not yet passed would be tri- 
 fling. Asa matter of course, the 
 result of all this would be uni- 
 versal distress among the arti- 
 sans, and certainly among the 
 farmersJvvho would be among 
 , the first to cry out, " Give us 
 back our Patent System ! " 
 Legislators may laugh at all 
 this as an exaggeration ; but 
 let them search for the facts in 
 this or any other manufactur- 
 ing city in the Union, and 
 they will soon find how disas- 
 trous to the whole community 
 would be a legislative wound- 
 ing of the alliance between 
 Patents and manufactures. 
 
 I would say to the Western 
 farmers, Do not impair Patent 
 property, do not degrade inven- 
 tion by obstructive laws, do 
 not kill the goose that lays the 
 golden eggs. 
 
 Dispense with your middle- 
 men, your non-producers, who 
 insist upon being the costly 
 mediums of transfer between 
 the manufacturers and your- 
 selves : these are the men 
 to attack, not inventors, the 
 mainstays of manufacturers, 
 the economizers of manufac- 
 tures. 
 
 I do not pretend to say that 
 our Patent System is perfect. 
 There are defects of adminis- 
 tration due to the unforeseen 
 growth of the demands upon 
 the system ; and the question 
 of the proper remedies for these 
 defects demand careful legisla- 
 tive deliberation ; but the le- 
 gislators who could make the 
 mistakes we have referred to 
 above are not the men from 
 whom we can expect salutary 
 remedial measures. 
 
 The integrity of our Patent 
 System must be preserved 
 from the undermining, ruinous 
 
Ill 
 
 attacks of short-sighted legis- i facturing interests, if we wish 
 
 lators, if we desire to maintain 
 the proud position which we 
 now occupy as regards manu- 
 
 our progress in the useful arts 
 in future to make strides as 
 rapid as in the past. 
 

 
 
 
 o 
 
 * 
 
 -3 
 
 ^.^d' 
 
 
 
 
 ^ -Jfe •/*«■■.-"> ;^i \<»* .-Jfe ;*«■#' 
 
 
 '\^^ 
 >>--^