1884 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUUE. 



019 



patent-system. I am further in favor of all legal 

 and honorable efforts to do away with the system 

 and office; but while it is in power by the will of the 

 majority, I am not in favor of any careless state- 

 ments that may be construed into admonitions of 

 recklessness and lawlessness, in cheerfully abiding- 

 by its edicts. 



Let us give the system credit for the good within 

 it. It has had much to do with blessing mankind by 

 way of calling forth important and valuable discov- 

 eries. It has gi%'en support to men who were intel- 

 lectual giants, and physically almost incompetent. 

 It has been a source of revenue to the government. 

 It has opposed another class of monopoly. It is a 

 law in nature for which no man is responsible, that 

 the more goods a man manufactures, the cheaper 

 he can make them; a law which brings about cap- 

 italists and monopolists, allowing the rich man to 

 get richer, clearing him from the competition of his 

 poorer fellow-man. Now, if the poor man has a 

 patent on the article of manufacture, that exclusive 

 right to make it protects him until he can get ahead 

 so as to compete with his more wealthy brother, 

 thus preventing that unjust natural condition of 

 industry, that the big fish shall eat the little ones. 



I think, among no other class is the idea that a 

 patent is a wrongful monopoly, a radical injury to 

 all except the patentee, and said patentee a crim- 

 inal, so prevalent as among bee-keepers. I have 

 carefully watched the general result and effect of 

 the existence of a patent upon numerous articles of 

 manufacture, several in our own line, and in very 

 many instances have I seen this exclusive right of 

 manufacturing prove a great blessing to the con- | 

 suming public. I will mention one well known to 

 our brother bee-keepers. All have heard of Rev. L. 

 L. Langstroth, also of his valuable inventions, and a j 

 vast majority of you have tasted the fruits thereof. ' 

 Nearly all who have held correspondence with him, 1 

 or made his personal acquaintance (i)f which I am i 

 one who has had those honors), have been strongly ] 

 impressed, not only with his determined path in the 

 line of exact justice, but his keen perception as to 

 what constitutes justice. 



Mr. Langstroth obtained a patent, and a valuable 

 one it was. After 14 years' experience with it he ap- 

 plied for 7 years' extension, which was granted by 

 the commissioner. The money received for rights, 

 was the means, and I think the only means, at his 

 command for educating the jieople to the sujicrior- 

 ity of his system of honey-producing. I paid f 10.00 

 for my individual right, only two years previous to 

 the expiration of the patent; that $10.00 brought 

 the agent to my place. It not only was the incentive 

 to his coming, but alone made it possible for him to 

 come. His coming blessed mo hundreds of dollars. 



The principle of a patent is applied to books under 

 the head of copyright. Mr. Langstroth's valuable 

 work on bee-keeping is copyrighted. Prof. Cook's 

 valuable Manual is also copyrighted; and you, Bro. 

 Koot, told us plainly that the names of your sub- 

 scribers were a secret; that you could not afford to 

 sell them to us at the cost of arranging and printing 

 them, with a margin added. You were quite right. 

 They are an aggregation of your labor, extending 

 through yeai-s, and you can not give them away and 

 do justice to yourself and those dependent upon you. 

 We do not ask you to. We do not wish you to. We 

 are aware that you recognize the propriety and 

 justice in a reward for merit and intellectual labor, 

 jn go much as you have sent out many dollfir? to dif- 



ferent ones whohave invented valuable devices. The 

 only difference I can see between these acts of yours 

 and the patent-system is, that in your case you are 

 at both ends of the bargain, while with that of the 

 patentee it takes two to make the bargain. The of- 

 fice assigns to him the privilege to fix the amount 

 of reward lor his intellectual labors. If all man- 

 kind had a clear perception of justice, and were 

 honest enough to do that justice to all their fellow- 

 men, no laws would be needed; but, alas I such is 

 not the case; and until it is, we must have the ex- 

 penses, trouble, and hatred growing out of enacting 

 and enforcing said laws. Some persons have an 

 honorary standard of inventors' rights. We have 

 several supply dealei-s who do not, and will not 

 make and sell the inventions of a brother so long as 

 he is engaged in the manufacture and sale of them, 

 except as they buy of him to sell again. Our sense 

 of justice recognizes a moral quality about such 

 men that leads us to deal with them, while the far- 

 seeing are afraid to send their cash with their orders 

 to parties who sit idly in the shade, and sleep the 

 sleep of the sluggard, until some more industrious 

 brother, by unceasing energy, wrenches from na- 

 ture a valuable secret, and then hasten todi\-ide the 

 natural profits of that secret. So far as I know of 

 patents upon implements in our line, I do not know 

 of a single case where one cent is added to the pi-ice 

 of the article because of the patent. So far as I 

 have witnessed, the infringements are, in price and 

 quality, just what I should expect would come from 

 him who is deterhiined to live upon the merits of 

 others, and openly violate the laws of his country, 

 in the hope of accruing a few illegal dollars. That 

 the inventor of an article (whether he haveitpatent- 

 ed or not) should make the best job for the price, is to 

 be expected. He entertains greater pride in the arti- 

 cle and its success. No one understands all its bear- 

 ings better than he. If he had it patented, knowing 

 that all the reputation it gains must redound to his 

 exclusive interest and honor, he is all the more anx- 

 ious to advertise it by the best material and work- 

 manship. 



I want the readers of Gleanings to look at this 

 question fairly. No matter what may or may not 

 seem to be your interetft in the matter, let your 

 principle stand first, and do justice to all in thought, 

 speech, and act. James Heddon. 



Dowagiac, Mich., Sept. 6, 1881. 



I heartily agree with you, friend II., in say- 

 ing that it is desirable tliat such expensive 

 controversies as the Forncrook suit may be 

 avoided as far as possible ; and to that end I 

 took pains to have a personal talk with Mr. 

 r., telling him exactly how it seemed to me, 

 and getting his ideas as fully as possible in 

 the same way. It was only" after I found 

 that nothing andd be done in the way of 

 settling without expensive litigation that I 

 decided to go on. I am cjuite willing that a 

 man should monopolize his own property ; 

 and even if he wants a great price for that 

 which belongs to him, he has a right to it, 

 if he can get it, for aught 1 know. I, too, 

 want to be a law-abiding citizen, recogniz- 

 ing, of course, the purpose for which laws 

 were framed, and endeavor in all things to 

 carrv out the spirit of our laws. Perhaps 

 the state of affairs that we lind in bee cul- 

 ture grows out of the fact that it is so rare 

 that any valuable invention is the work of 

 one bee-keeper. We are all more or less in- 



