BARB WIRE FENCES. 229 



be more proper : Is the price in any respect much too high 

 now? For instance, I have been told that the price, eleven 

 cents a pound, includes some four cents a pound royalty. 

 That is what the Western people are complaining about. I 

 think this audience would be glad to have this matter cleared 

 up uuderstandingly. 



Mr. Smith. That question, to borrow a town-meeting 

 phrase, is hardly " in the warrant," but I will say a word or 

 two about the Western complaint. The inquiry comes. Will 

 barbed wire be cheaper? Well, let us first consider the pres- 

 ent price of the wire. I make the statement, which could be 

 verified to any committee that might be sent from this Board 

 to any manufacturer who is making the wire, that barbed 

 wire is being sold with less profit to the manufacturer, derived 

 from the royalty, than any one of the agricultural machines 

 which 3'ou buy that pays a royalty. It is the bulk, the 

 large quantity, that has made the disturbance. 



It is called a monopoly. Well, I want to make one other 

 suggestion : that, if the farmers of the United States, who 

 desire to use the new article of barbed wire, had to deal with 

 the claims of this man who owns this patent, and that man 

 who owns another, they "would not know when they were 

 safe in buying the barbed wire. That is not " in the war- 

 rant," this question of patents ; but if there is anything of 

 value to the public, it is having these patents tested in the 

 courts, which saves the farmers from the trouble and annoy- 

 ance of meeting the different claimants Avho come forward 

 and interfere with their right to buy what they think they 

 have a right to buy, — of which they had some experience in 

 the " drive wells." I have no hesitation in saying that the 

 trouble arose from parties who wanted to manufacture wire 

 fencing without paying anything for the patent, and it was 

 very easy, with the sensitiveness on the subject that pre- 

 vailed at the West, to make a great disturbance over a very 

 small matter. 



Mr. Myrick. When do the patents expire? 



Mr. Smith. The patents are so interwoven with each 

 other that I don't think any man could tell when they expire. 

 One patent is dependent upon another. It has taken some 

 time to get this invention into general use. Take the tele- 



