54 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[November 1, 1913. 



registration, copyright, trade-mark, or patent issued 

 by any foreign government protecting any pattern, 

 model, design, copyright, trade-mark, or manufactured 

 article imported for exhibition and exhibited at said 

 Panama-Pacific International Exposition may, upon 

 presentation of satisfactory proof of said proprietor- 

 ship, obtain without charge a certificate from said 

 branch oflice, which shall be legal evidence of such 

 proprietorship." 



Tlien it continues in the next section as follows: 

 "It shall be unlawful for any person without authority 

 of the proprietor thereof to copy, imitate, reproduce, 

 or republish any pattern, model, design, trade-mark, 

 copyright, or manufactured article protected by the 

 laws of any foreign country by registration, copyright, 

 patent, or otherwise, which shall be imported for ex- 

 hibition at the Panama-Pacific International Exposi- 

 tion and there exhibited; and any person who shall 

 infringe the rights protected under this Act shall be 

 liable" — to injunction: to damages: to confiscation of 

 his goods: and. finally, to fine and imprisonment. 



It is a well-known fact that not a few foreign gov- 

 ernments grant certificates of trade-mark, patent, etc., 

 to applicants without making any proper examination 

 of the merits of the application. It would be very 

 possible for foreign exhibitors to come to the fair with 

 goods protected by their own home copyright or 

 patent — and consequently under this law protected in 

 this country — tho their goods were direct imita- 

 tions of goods made in this country without any pro- 

 tection. So that an .\merican manufacturer who had 

 been making a certain line of articles for many years 

 might be held liable for infringement, with all the at- 

 tendant penalties, for the continuance of such manu- 

 facture, simply because some exhibitor from abroad, 

 who had copied these American goods, had secured 

 from his own government a certificate of patent or 

 copyright. 



Here is a law that obviously is in need of amend- 

 ment, and it is hoped that some alert member of 

 Congress will make such a move forthwith. The Na- 

 tional Registration League of Philadelphia has taken 

 the matter up and is bringing it to the attention of 

 American manufacturers. Anyone who desires a copy 

 of this remarkable law (.\o. 7595) can secure it from 

 that Icasrue. 



SELF INTEREST THE BEST PROMOTER OF 

 EFFICIENCY. 



PROBABLY every considerable business man, 

 whether manufacturer or distributor, has been ap- 

 proached a great many times during the last five or six 



years by the "Efficiency Expert," or by his representative. 

 It is a ver\' alluring story which they have to tell — larger 

 production with fewer hands, bigger out]JUt at a lower 

 cost, increased income, decreased outgo. 



It is not to be wondered at that a good many men have 

 succumbed and have invited the efficiency expert to come 

 in and do his utmost. Some concerns have undoubtedly 

 been benefitted. Here and there a business house may 

 be found, that has come down from father to son, that is 

 still moving in the footsteps of the founders and that has 

 become generally fossilized. Here any sort of modern- 

 izer who will come in and scrape oft the barnacles will 

 prove helpful, liut there are not many such instances. 

 As a rule, business men aim to be abreast of the times 

 and intend to have their equipment as modern as that of 

 their competitors. At least, tiiis is certainly the situation 

 among rubber manufacturers. 



The efficiency expert appeals for employment on the 

 theory that anyone who comes in from the outside enters 

 without prejudice or bias, and therefore is able to judge 

 everxthing and ever\bod\ ])urelv on merit. But this very 

 ignorance of the special case is often the obstacle on 

 which the expert comes to grief. He does not have time 

 to get thoroughly acquainted with the situation or to 

 diagnose the individual case. He goes through the mill, 

 takes copious notes, carries them back to the office, and 

 then they are discussed by himself and his associates. 

 They probably have all business enterprises classified un- 

 der certain heads, and they finally decide that the con- 

 cern under consideration belongs to, let us say, Group 

 B. and therefore they ])rescribe for it some Group B 

 medicine, which may act as a cure, or may act quite in 

 the contrary direction. 



After all is said and done, the liest promoter of effi- 

 ciency is self-interest, where each man stands on his own 

 feet, and is ])aid according to the work he individually 

 does. Where he is rewarded in proportion to his pro- 

 ductive power he can be relied upon, as a rule, not to 

 waste much of his energy in futile motions. If a man is 

 going to get $4 a day anyway, irrespective of what he 

 produce^ during that time, he is liable to get into the habit 

 of watching the clock for the day to end. But where his 

 day means to him $3, or with twice the application of 

 energv and brains $6, the greater application is likely to 

 be forthcoming. Of course, this system of piece work 

 is not applicable in clerical departments, but in manu- 

 facturing it generally is applicable, and, taken all in all. 

 it is undoubtedly the best promoter of genuine efficiency 

 vet devised. 



