1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



767 



I have just one other illustration to give you; 

 and I have been thinking that perhaps I may he 

 a little more out of the way than the good friend 

 whom I am goingto criticise justalittle. When 

 I heard that beautiful hymn for the first time in 

 St. Louis, "The King's Business," I spoke of it 

 in these Home papers, and I said the most I could 

 remember of it was the closing words, " Be ye 

 reconciled to God." Just as soon as that journal 

 had gone out, somebody tore a leaf out of his 

 hymn-book and mailed it to me, giving the words 

 and music. I mentioned it in Gleanings, and 

 promised to give our readers the words and hymn. 

 After I got the electrotype plate of it, however, 

 Mr. Calvert called my attention to the fact that 

 it was copyrighted, and that I could not print it 

 in Gleanings, nor even have copies printed for 

 use in mission Sunday-schools in Michigan and 

 Florida and other places, without permission. I 

 accordingly wrote to the owner of the copyright. 

 I also inclosed some copies of other hymns, words 

 only, that I had been using in Sunday-schools so 

 the pupils and all could sing the new pieces as 

 they came out, even if they did not have the 

 books. Below is his reply: 



Bear Mr. Root: — 1 am very glad indeed that you discovered 

 that "The King's Business" was copyrighted, for under no con- 

 ditions do I allow anybody to reproduce the hymn. It is too val- 

 uable a copyright; and, while you might tnink it would be a 

 good advertisement to send free copies out, at the same time I 

 prefer to advertise in another way, so you will please not distrib- 

 ute any copies of the song as per your reproduction. 



Chicago, 111., July 13, 1907. E. O. Excell. 



Of course, I felt a little hurt, but let the mat- 

 ter drop. Some time afterward, however, it oc- 

 curred to me that friend Excell would probably 

 have no objection to my using the -Tvoj-ds only 

 without the music, and I wrote him, telling him 

 I wanted to use the leaves to distribute to poor 

 children who had no money to buy books. Be- 

 low is his reply to that: 



Dear Mr. Root: — I have yours of the 27th. Replying I will 

 say I am not in the habit of allowing my copyrighted hymns to 

 be printed words only. The fact is, it might vitiate the copy- 

 right, inasmuch as my songs are all copyrighted, words and music. 

 You ought to be very careful in printing Sunday-school songs 

 words only, for fear that you print some copyrighted hymns and 

 thereby throw yourself liable. There is a fine of $1.00 for each 

 copy so printed. I am sorry I am not in a position to accommo- 

 date you this time. E. O. Excell. 



Chicago, III., Aug. 30, 1907. 



Now, I shall have to confess that it seemed to 

 me a little severe that a great Christian worker, 

 whose fame extends all over the world, should 

 object to letting these beautiful hymns revive 

 and gladden the Sunday-schools of our land,* 

 but that other text, about " great peace " and not 

 being " offended," brightened me up again. And 

 then I remembered that friend Excell might have 

 said, in defense of his course, that the very hymn 

 I wanted, with a dozen others, including the cele- 

 brated " Glory Song," were published in pamphlet 

 form for just the purpose I needed, at the exceed- 

 ingly low price of $2.00 a hundred; and that if 

 these poor children could not afford two cents 



*When I was tempted to feel hurt at the position friend Ex- 

 cell takes, it looked to me something like this: The hymn sup- 

 poses an ambassador has been sent from the King of kings — • 

 "An ambassador to be 

 Of realms beyond the sea;" 

 and this ambassador has a message from the King;in fact, the cho- 

 rus reads: 



"This is the message that I bring — 

 A message angels fane would sing." 

 Well, this "message" the "ambassador" brings, I should 

 have given you all had not brother Excell objected. 



for a copy the superintendent and officers of the 

 school could easily raise the sum needed. 



It is my privilege, without question, to give 

 Ni]' time and money and inventions to the world 

 without charge; but I should certainly be out of 

 place, and a very poor Christian, if I should say 

 that a// inventions should be given to the world 

 without the protection of any patent. Friend 

 Lewis says in that editorial I alluded to that the 

 world would be very much better off without re- 

 volvers, or perhaps without so many revolvers. 

 He says, "A few drinks and a ready revolver is 

 a combination that has sent many a man and wo- 

 man too to an untimely death, and many more to 

 the gallows, and prisons for life, or for a long 

 time." 



Well, in looking back over the years, and es- 

 pecially in getting the Patent Office Reports, as 

 we do regularly, I am forced to believe that not 

 only could we get along with fewer rcx'ol'uers but 

 also with fewer patents and patent rights. The 

 man who copied my extractor very soon stopped 

 making honey-extractors, and for years nobody 

 else went into the business — at least very much; 

 for while I had no patents, my profits were so 

 close there was not much temptation to try to 

 "cut under" my prices. When foundation- 

 rolls came out, there were half a dozen or more 

 invented and as many patented; but although I 

 never applied for any patent, I rested for security 

 on making a machine at so low a price that no- 

 body else would care to undertake it. In just a 

 little while the trade gradually and peaceably set- 

 tled down into our hands. We have had no trou- 

 ble in litigation or in fighting rivals; and so with 

 all or nearly all of our other improvements in 

 bee-supplies; and over and over again, as the 

 years have passed, have I seen money wasted in 

 getting out patents, and perhaps more still wasted 

 in fighting claims, when in a little time, had the 

 owner of the invention waited, he would have seen 

 something come up much better, or else found 

 that the great busy world did not need his im- 

 provements, and that he would have been better 

 off in dollars and cents, and still better off in hav- 

 ing a good time in this world of ours had he fol- 

 lowed that wonderful text, " Give, and it shall 

 be given unto you;" and in a few years, or only 

 a few months or weeks, he would have had rea- 

 son to believe in the promise in the other part of 

 the text, " Good measure, pressed down, shaken 

 together, and running over." 



A great part of the exhortation of our Lord and 

 Master while here on earth was against selfishness. 

 Over and over again he begged and entreated and 

 implored humanity to forget self and to find hap- 

 piness and enjoyment in laboring for the good of 

 others. What a tremendous rebuke his pure 

 and unselfish life is to the grafters of the pres- 

 ent day! Just think of it, friends. We hunt 

 the world over to find honest men — men who 

 can be trusted with our public funds and our 

 public business. Some good man, or one who is 

 supposed to be so, is appointed as inspector of the 

 fertilizers manufactured for the use of farmers. 

 A great good has been accomplished along this 

 line; but every little while some greedy manu- 

 facturer goes to this inspector and tries to buy 

 him off; and they can afford to give him large 

 sums of money if he will favor their particular 

 brand, or persuade him to "look the other way" 



