Evening Star Newspaper, February 20, 1921, Page 29

{ | NATIONAL PROBLEMS ' | SPECIAL ARTICLES [ | EDITORIAL PAGE e ' 7 - . EDITORIAL SECTION ‘ he Sundiy - Stae. Part 2—18 Pages INDUSTRY CONTROL STIRS BITTER FIGHT Regulation of Business Dealing With WASHINGTON, D. C, SUNDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 20, 1921 Democrats in Congress to Be Alert : to Detect Executive Encroachments VAST ROAD-BUILDING- PROGRAM IS ASSURED Action Taken in Congress to Authorize Necessaries Occupies Forefront of § Popular Attention. BY G. GOULD LINCOLN. O regulate or not to regulate— business controlling necessa- ries of life. That is a question which to- day is vexing the people and Con- gress, and is worrying not a few of the business interests that may be affected. Concretely, the question arises before Congress in the effort to put through the Kenyon bill regu- Jating the meat packing business and the Calder bill regulating the coal in- dn::;oflgh these bills have not yet become laws, should the Congress enact them either at the present ses- sion or in the next Congress, and the President approve them, how long would it be before a drive was made for the government regulation of the clothing industry, the ‘building mate- rials required for housing purposes and the foodstuffs? The next five years, in the opinion of some members of Congress ‘who have given thought to this question, will see & great economic struggle in the United States to bring about the government regulation, or super- vision at least, of industries dealing with the necessaries of life. Beth Capital and Labor Concerned. On the other hand, a conflict of in- terests is massing the opposition to government regulation in a manner that threatens the entire ‘movement. Capital, for instance, meaning busi- ness, is strenuously opposing govern- ment regulation of industry. The United States Chamber of Commerce has thrown down the gauntlet to thoee intent upon putting through the bill regulating the packers. It has announced a great campaign to defeat the measure. The Calder coal bill will undoubtedly be fought just as vigorously by business. Organized labor also aking a fiing at government regulation—par- ticularly at the Calder coal bill at present—just as it did at the Esch- Cummins transportation act. It sees in the Calder bill an opportunity for the regulation of wages, prevention of strikes, ete. On the other hand, there are plenty of people—the people who must buy fuel and food and clothing—favora- dle to regulation of both capital and labor; the latter so that their sup- plies of food and fuel may not be cut off, with disastrous effects upon them. The atitude of capital is friendly to the regulation of labor, and the attitude of labor toward the regula- tion of capital is favorable. In other words, it merely depends upon whose bull is gored. it also, and that the bill will then go to the President for his approval. Fourth, the radio bill for the gov- ernment-regulation of air communi- cation through a federal commission. The 'bill has beemr introduced in the Senate, and extensive hearings have been had on it. Senator Poindexter of Washington fathered the measure. Fifth, the Poindexter bill to prevent strikes on interstate carriers. The bill has passed the Senate, after being favorably reported from the Senate Jjudiciary committee. A motion to re- consider the vote by which it was passed is now pending, having been offered by Senator La Follette. The bill is regarded as a bitter blow at organized labor by labor unions. Sixth, the Sheppard-Towner bill to i 8ive federal aid and instruction to future mothers, the special maternity bill, which has been “mothered” by the National League of Women Voters. The measure has been passed | by the Senate and reported favorably to the House, Seventh, the Smith-Towner Bill for | the establishment of a department of education and the extension of gov- ernment aid in educational matters. The last two bills are designed to promote education and the public, health, the federal government co- operating with the states. Neverthe- less they provide, in a measure, for regulation by the government. Regulation Now in Effect. Now glance for a moment at the federal legislation providing for gov- ernment regulation of various activi- ties, which has been put through hitherto. The list of these measures is not complete, but it serves to indi- cate the trend in favor of regulation. First and foremost is the inter- state commerce act with its various modification, including the last, the Esch-Cummins transportation act. The provisions of the transportation act establishing the Railroad Labor Board, while less stringent than the provisions of the bill as it passed the Senate, are still regulatory in effect. And of course the railroads them- selves are vigorously regulated by the measure, even to the earnings and issue of securities. Then there is the merchant marine act, whose primary object, it is true, is to aid in building up @ great Ameri- can merchant marine, but which regulates in large measure shipping. The La Follette seamen’s act is an- other case in point, regulating as it does the employment of seamen. The acts creating the federal reserve sys- tem, the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Power Commission all provide government regulation of l ‘ BY N. 0. MESSENGER. RESIDENT-ELECT HARDING'S tele- grams o Senator Lodge, republican leader in the Senate, and to Represenfa- tive Mondell, majority leader in the House, suggesting his desire that ‘all the ap- propriation bills of this session be cleared be- fore March 4, were not received in Congress as by any means intrusion of pre-executive au- thority upon the functioning legislative body. In point of fact, it would not be out of the way to intimate that the telegrams were' solic- ited at this end of the line. The legislative situation in the House and Senate at the be- ginning of the week was well nigh desperate, With the tremendous log jam of bills, and, con- sidering the brief space of time intervening be- fore the Sixty-sixth Congress expires by limita- tion. Senator Lodge found himself between the upper and nether millstones of pressure from chairmen in charge of appropriation bills, and Senators Penrose, Smoot and McCumber with the emergency tarift bill. What more natural, it was urged, than that the incoming President be asked to “get behind” the leaders with a little “boost.” "In the cloakroom gossip some democrats grinned at the republicans with the suggestion, “How about executive encroachment on Congress, even before your man takes his seat?” but they were not serious. * k ok % Dembcrats served warning, however, that they intend to be ever on the watch tower for any signs pf possible presidential pressure on Congress. Fact is, they are terribly sore over the lambastings they have had to endure from the republicans during the regime of President Wilson, on the score of alleged executive domi- nation of Congress, and if President Harding ever deviates from a chalkline they will come down hard on him. * % k¥ From now on Congress will be about the busiest going concern in the country, working overtime. Night sessions will be held by Sen- ate and House constantly, and for the last two calendar days preceding March 4 both houses will be in continuous session, with short re- cesses to allow tired senators and representa- tives to catch a nap and a bite to eat. After all the bills are through and signed by President Wilson there may be expected the usual outery against imperfect legislation, over “jokers” in’ bills, and all that sort of thing. ’Twas ever thus and probably ever will be. At the beginning of every Congress the leaders, whateyer party is in power, make wondrous promises of reform, having in mind the latest experience of abuses, and start out with a flour- ish of trumpets to push appropriation bills along. But as the_session progresses the bills bog down here and there in committee, in prolonged * .am mighty poor business. and altogether irrelevant debate in both houses, in stubborn contests in conference committees. Meanwhile, as has been remarked, “it beats all how time does fugit,” and first thing they know, they are riding up to the same old set of hurdles and water jumps. * % x It is noted that in Washington at this time there is an unusual number of senators and representatives-elect getting their bearings for the work which will face them a few weeks hence. The fact that an extra session of Con- gress is due within probably thirty days after the President takes office is one reason why the new men are trooping in, and another is that they desire to be here when the distribution of patronage commences, which will be, according to a hint from the President-elect, about the middle of the afternoon of the day he takes his seat. . ‘When it-was suggested that a formal lunch- eon follow the inauguration Mr. Harding is quoted as saying: “I don’t want any set affair; I intend to get back to the White House, take off my coat and go.to work.” He will have plenty of it. It is no idle fancy to picture long lines of statesmen and plain politicians trooping to the executive offices, the breast pockets on the righthand side of their coats bulging with recommendations for appointment to office. * % X % ‘Who recalls the pathetic figure in a play which had popular vogue years ago of the would-be “Minister to Dahomey” moping on the Capitol steps and muttering, “Dis office-seeking It was a true pic- ture. Many are called, but few are chosen, and * Washington has often been described as the “city of dread disappointments.” They come in droves, the office seekers, and the Initiated can note their waning fortunes as they drift from the first-class hotels, down to thenext grade, and finally disappear through the boarding- house doors, to fade away home. Old-timers in Congress often ask each other what is the lure that bringsimen to Washing- ton after public office, ofttimes leaving a pros- perous business, which necessarily in most cases must languish in their absegce, to pay court to the appointing power. And the answer to that is the counter question, what induces scores of men in Congress, once they have ex- perienced a session, to cling so desperately to the chances of re-election time after time, until, as in so many pathetic cases of the past, they find they have overstayed their welcome with their constituents and are ousted by some am- bitious young man who rallies to his own sup- port a younger generation which has over- looked the patriotic services rendered by the elder statesman? In the case of some of the higher offices at the disposal of the President, it is said that it is not the lure of office, but a sense of patriotic J Conditions Today in U. S. Patent Office Declared a Menace to American Industry duty which impels mai ¢w make keen personal sacrifices and come to Washington. * %k % % This is the reason assigned by the friends here of Charles E. Hughes in taking the secre- taryship of state—which no one thinks he sought. The prospect of his acceptance of the cabinet post is still the talk of the town. Here is a man, they say, who has had honors in large , meed. Governor of the Empire state, a position by some regarded as second only to the presi- dency; associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, a post entirely to his lik- ing, and which he was induced to abandon for the presidential candidacy only after repeated urging, he has filled the public eye for years. .Since his political experiment he has devoted himself to law, and all kinds of stories are told as to the fabulous value of the practice he has built up. At any rate, he has figured in more than a majority of the great cases that have come up in the court since he began practice, and is declared to have the pick and choice of clients and fees. The opinion prevails stréngly in many quar- ters here that Mr. Hughes will eventually be made Chief Justice of the United States, which his friends declare will involve public service more to his choice than in any other post, and preferable, indeed, to the practice of law. * ¥ ¥ X The extraordinary session of Congress, fore- cast for early April, will be a boon to the back- ers of an enormous grist of bills inevitably doomed in this Congress. Some of them are the fruition of years of effort in Congress, now on the verge of enactment, but facing defeat through lack of time for the finishing touch. They will die with the Congress and must be commenced from the ground and go through all the stages of committee legislation, but will have the advantage of the preliminary shaping up-to-date to start them more smoothly through the mill—partially finished products, rather than crude raw materials, pigiron or lumber in the rough, so to speak. There is speculation already among senators and representatives as to how long the extra session will continue. The best judgment is that with the tariff and taxation questions both to be handled, and with the great number of admittedly important bills of domestic charac- ter, and with the solution of international prob- lems pressing for attention, the session will run throughout the summer months, and pos- sibly well into the fall. It is*pointed out that the republicans must make their record for the congressional cam- paign of 1922, which will furnish the first acid test of popular approval of the party which was vested with power in all branches of the government by the staggering majority of seven millions of votes, including former democrats as well as original and reclaimed republicans. (Copyright, 1921, by The Washington Star.) X BY WILL P. KENNEDY. EFINITE action by Congress giving assurance that the pledge of both of the major political parties for contin- uance of federal aid in road building is going to be fulfilled has brought rellef to all of the forty-eight states, and especlally to thirty-five states which wouid have to suspend their road construction program at the be- ginning of the new fiscal year. The House has passed the Sells bill, supported by the Secretary of Agri- culture, by the chief of the bureau of public roads and by the state high- way departments of the forty-eight states. It authorizes the expendi- ture by the federal government of $100,000,000 during the fiscal year be- ginning July 1, in fifty-fifty co-opera- | tion with the several states, the fed- eral funds being apportioned among the states on a composite basis of | population, area and mileage of mail routes. To expedite action in the Senate so that the states may know at the ear- ltest possible moment whether they | can continue their road-building pro- gram, Senator Swanson of Virginia has offered an amendment to the post office appropriation bill carrying this same amount. Senator Swanson was | most active In putting through the original act for federal aid in con- struction of better highways in 1912. The benefits of good roads construc- tion generally throughout the coun- try are too well known to require re- counting here, but briefly it may bg pointed out that the assurance of con- tinued federal co-operation now means that employment on the high- ways will be given to many persons | in practically every state in the CUnion, they will furnish an avenue for getting perishable food products to market, they will work for greater contentment on the farms by making them nearer to the pleasures and en- tertainments of the cities, and in these H days of universal automobiling they | stretch out in great interlocking high- | ways for tourists from every state in | the Union. i i Reason for Federal Participation. H i | Federal participation in this building | { only on the ground that the central gov- ernment should aid in development of vlhe outlying territory, but because the | federal government itself uses those | highways. * For example, during the war | the great highways of Penneylvania, New York and Maryland, which were the best in the entire country were torn to pieces by the heavy Army trucks. No state can tax the government for juse of these roads, even though the| {Bovernment trucks do more damage to | program is justified, Congress feels, not | Distribution of $100,000,000 Among the States. ground that states east of the Missis- sippi river and north of the Ohio and Potomac rivers pay 84 per cent of the revenues and therefore are unduly taxed to pay for federal aid in road building in all the states, S. E. Bratt, superintendent of highways in the state of Ilinois, submitted to the com- mittees of Congress tabulated statis- tics showing the relative contribution based on production of the basie necessities of life. That tabulation in- cluded minerals, lumber, wool, poultry and eggs, dairy products, domestie animals and agriculture. It showed, for example, that Towa supplies 4.85 per cent and gets back in federal ald 2.95; New York pays in 3.05 and geta back 5.13; Connecticut pays in .35 and gets back .63; Florida pays in .64 and gets back 1.18; Tlinois pays in 5.08 and z6ts back 4.51; New Jersey pays .49 and gets 1.23, and Kansas pays 373 and gets 2.96. Connecticut is one of ten states that would have funds with which to bulld only fifty miles of road if the federal aid appropriation failed. New Jersey is one of sixteen states that could build only 100 miles. This was made emergency legista- tion, as explained by Representative R. Walton Moore of Virginia, a mem- ber of the House roads committee, Beé= cause the construction of a great sys- tem of good highways is possible only under Ssome permanent plan express- ing the deliberate purpose of the gov- ernment. It is essential that the state ! should know whether or not the pres- ent plan is to be continued. In order to co-operate in the federal plan legis- lative action is generally required in the states, and a large number of state legislatures are in session this winter and will not be in session again until 1923 2 Preparing to Push Construction. New that conditions are becoming more normal, labor and materials more plentiful and transportation facilities improved. the §tates are pre- paring to push road construction with great rapidity to relieve local needs. They are providing funds, employing engineers, organizing their activities and contractors are entering the field for competition. Thercfore any mis- | givings as to the policy or action of | the federal government have actually | delayed the work of the states. and | the official representaiives of ail the states have so assured Congress. Regarding the primary and growing limportance of better highways— | nothing more directly contributes t€ | the prosperity and contentment of the | entire country, both urban and rural, than to furnish better means of travel and better means of transportation The era activities at oné time carried on with little, if any, government regulation. The act providing for the leasing of coal and oil lands on the government domain, while opening up mineral resources of the great west, has put a new wrinkle into the business of prospecting and developing coal and oil properties. The government, through Congress, Peopular Demand. | It is this opposition to regulatory | legislation from so many sources that is giving the friends of gov- ernment regulation in Congress so much worry. But it is the fixed con- viction of some of the senators and representatives backing the p‘cker and coal regulatory bills that’ the American people Wil mot stand—for long —the unregulated monopoly of things they must have to keep body and soul together. The people have already forced the enactment of laws, federal, state and municipal, relating to transpor- tation by raflroad, street cars, the water supply and gas and electrjc lizhting. These activities have been | put in a class by themselves and dubbed *“public utilities,” and it has become recognized that the public has a peculiar interest in them. But food, clothing and shelter are public necessities, if not utilities, and the men who handle them might as well take warning, sa~ the proponents ¥ t = ';“rz':;:l"x;?f::a:::{ e S [ala in vocattonal ‘education, Tor ffed- ?:d,'::, their operators ran wild ¢Tal aid in the rehabilitation of those in industry, for the federal | injured farm loan system, for the postal sav- labor—after a bitter fight waged by employers. The Supreme Court of the United States has, temporarily at least, halted such regulation, by its decision in the child labor case, hold- ing the law unconstitutional. And now the effort is being made to reach child labor employers through the Power of taxation, and this, too, has led to a contest in the courts. Other Regulatory Meffsures. Other regulatory measures dare the pure food and drugs act, the act pro- viding for federal aid in the con- struction of good roads, for federal for a time; they are well regulated | today. While there has been no at- tempt by the government. except in a certain degree during the war, to|regulation of dealing In cotton fu- regulate the n- - of foodstuffs, vet |tures. the pure ¢ <~ nacted by The government attempted to regu gress n e classed as allate the hours of rising and going to xegu . lwork in the sugmer months during Al ¢ ulatory m res in {the war and pul through the day- the past have been fought biti =iy (Cor:*=.se1 on Thi the men engaged in the ac s pro- - posed to be regulated. And the con- 2 tests in the future will be no less bit- Expected to S!ay Aboard ter or protracted srobability. Mayflower Under Hardi g Pending Reguiating Bills. . In this connection may be well to briefly the regulatory meas- i process of enactment into law. the bill to regulate the meat It has passed the Senate by a substantial vote—the majority was 12 for the bill. It has been reported to the H from the committee on agriculture with an amendment in the nature of a substitute, which places in the hands of the Secretary of Agri- culture®certain duties which the Sen- ate bill gave to = federal live stock commission. S opponenis o the measure have been able to pre vent action in the House itself Second, the Calder coal bill to regu- late the coal industry. It has the ap- proval of the Calder committee on re- construction and production, and, it 18 expected will be favorably reported to the na‘e from the committee on manufactures by Senator La Follette, chairman of that &mmittee. There is practically no chance of getting ac- tion on the bill in the Senate or the House at the present session of Con- gress. Third, the bill rezulating the cold storage business, limiting the time CAPT. RALSTON S. which foodstuffs may be kept in ¢old |\who has beem in con e storage and then put into interstate |presidential yacht. It is almost. as- commerce. This bill has passed both |wured that Capt. Holmes will be the houses. The conference report was |Chief officer on board the yacht when $ the mew administration take: 3 adopted last week by the Senate, and a-:p.. Holmes is one of t -:« ,-:;- : i $moxpacted the Houso will agrec 4o 'ulax Navy oficern in Washingtomy (A Rurves ure fuf the HOLMES, has tried its hand at regulating child | :been devised and been working long | ings system, for the parcel post, for BY EDWE Chairman of the Committee on Pat- ents of American Engineering Counell. HILE the American revolu- tion gave us political free- dom from England, we did not obtain freedom from England’s ‘manufacturing domination until the American patent system had enough to develop a class of Ameri- can invefitors. Our position as the leading country of the world in manufactures and the production of inventions is due, more than to anything else, to our patent system. Americans are not naturally imore inventive than Europeans, for | we are all either Europeans or de- scendents of Europeans. We have great natural resources, but so have other countries. The only tangible reason which can be pointed out for the g0 common existence in this coun- try of the power to invent is that it has been developed through seeking ifor the rewards held out by the | American patent s$stem. * X ¥ ¥ N ! As a single example of what the American inventor has done to in- crease our wealth and reduce the cost of labor, the changes which he has wrought in agriculture may be taken. Before the establishment of our pat- ent system the art of agriculture had remained practically at a standstill for many thousands of years and was conducted almost wholly by manual operations. The American inventor has provided the farmer with so much more efficient tools and with so many automatic or semi-automatic ma- chines that it is a very conservative estimate to state that one man today can do the labor of from ten to fifteen men with the tools available at the time of the Declaration of Independ- ence. While the farmer of the revo- lution did most of his work by the unaided use of his hands, the farmer of today works through his brain, with machinery which he only to guide and watch, and which even saves him the trouble of walking. This marvelous change, in but 1 years, in an art which had stood still so long, is due wholly to the Ameri- can patent system. Think where the allied countries would have been dur- ing the war, and would be today, if the American farmer were only able to produce at the rate ut which he was producing before our patent sys- tem brought forth these inventions. Untold milllons would have perished from starvation and would now be starving, not for lack of money, but for lack of food at any price. What is true of agriculture is equally true of many other arts and industries in our country. * k ok % Aside from the right granted to the inventor, in exchange for a disclosure of his invention, to monopolize the child | he might have kept secret and so might possibly have monopolized for a much longer period, although less advantage- ously, the principal attraction of our an examining force in the patent office, whose, duty it is to. make a search of world and of the state of unpublished knowledge in the United States before granting the patent, to determine wheth- er the invention is new, so that when the inventor receives a patent there shall be a very strpng probability that the patent is valid. The granting of patents under such circimstannces raises a legal presumption that the patent is valld and puts the burden on the infringer of proving invalidity, and thus greatly en- chances the salability of our patents. Without it there would be produced but a/fraction-of the number of patents now produced, and we would surely lose our lead over other countries in inventing and ultimately in manufacturing. Let the American nventor once fully get the idea that it is not worth while to invent, and it would take a generation to rebuild a class of inventors after the mistake was realized. No ordinarily cautious business man would be likely to purchase a patent without having such an examination made, either by the patent office or by attorneys employed at his own expense. As there are over 1,350,000 United States patents and several million foreign pat- ents, to say nothing of the enormous j amount of technical literature which {should be considered, the making of such a search requires a great deal of technical knowledge and sKill. The patent office has classified about half of the patents, 50 as to simplify the searches, but it will be a generation be- fore the classification is made complete if it proceeds only at the rate which the present limited force permits. * k% % "The expense of a search to deter- mine whether a patent is valid, when mage by attorneys outside of the pat- ent office, is unavoidably so high that individuals. who might otherwise purchase a patent are frequently de- terred from purchasing on account of the expense, and in many Instances even manufacturing concerns would refuse to buy a patent rather than in- cur the expense of a search thus made. Where inventors would like to exploit their own. inventions, it there were no examination system within the patent office, they would not usually think it worth while to make the invention, because the ex- pense of a search through attorneys, added to the expense of developing the invention, frequently would be prohibitive. On the other hand, a suf- ficiently large and properly qualified examining force in the patent office would be able to make good exami- nations, or reasonably certain exami- nations, at a cost which would enable the patent office also to print and is- suc the patent for a total uniform harge of $40 to $45 per patent. This | patent system has been the provision of] {all the patents and publications of tbe| the labor each examiner would be en- abled to work on a particular class or subclass of inventions for years, which would enable him to become so familiar with that class and with the limits within which it would be safe to confine his examination that guch an examination would consume very much less time than if made by per- sons whose successive searches neces- sarily related to inventions in many different classes and arts, as must be the case with attorneys. * ok ok ok For many years the patent office has been getting farther and farther behind in its work of examining ap- plications for patents. The number of applications for patents has been steadily increasing for many years, until now over 100,000 applications are received in the patent office each year, including those for trade mark registration, the number of applica- tions having increased 36 per cent in the last three years. Every patent granted in this or in other countries adds to the fleld of search which must be gone over in examining later ap- plications for patents. The €xamining force has not been increased in pro- portion to the increase in work. The result has been that the patent office has gradually been losing more and more the race with its work, until to- day an inventor frequently has to wait a year before recelving the first ‘action from the patent office on his application, which he has to await be- fore he can begin the series of argu- ments and amendments usually neces- sary to overcome or obviate the ob- jections of the patent office and obtain a patent. If the inventor has made arrangements for capital, this delay may cause loss of interest of the pro- posed investors in the enterprise or the diversion of the proposed capital to other enterprises, and may be just as seflous for him as the refusal of a patent altogether. , The entirely insufficient number of examiners in the patent office at the present time unavoidably results in the granting of many patents which are partially or wholly invalid. Many of these patents, when finally found to be invalid, have resulted in heavy losses of time and money on the part of the inventor or those engaged in exploiting the invention, and they frequently become the cause of long, expensive and fruitless litigations, which not only mean large losses to those interested in the patent, but heavy expense to the manufaoturer who has to resist the suit. These) suits, taking as they do the time of the courts, put the public to large ex- pense. Thus a little money is saved in the patent office and a great deal of money is lost in private and public expenditure in consequence. * x % % The positions in the examining corps of the patent office ought to be| Research Council, at the request of the | Pias . premier, He came to retire to hix ramch in i com- | Californin, and stated that he would | best interests of those who servediim very attractive to a fine class of men. The examining corps has a record for} missioner of patents, appointed a e6.hin-bexdn Lox sov0htoon Fars, which in Heoamze bE srsat subdivision of -the- stxictest -honoaty -Rhatin unex- b celled by the judges of any state or country, or by any organization of men to whom are intrusted most val- uable secrets. The primary exam- iners' (who are the chiefs of divi- sions) are in effect the commissioner of patents in 97 per cent of the cases, for there is no appeal from their favorable decisions on applications for patents, and their final unfavor- able decisions are accepted in most! cases, because of the expense of ap- peal from them. They pass upon in- ventions often of very great value, and their positions, if they were ade- quately compensated, would, because of the dignity and security attached to them, be attractive to men of high qualifications and ability. Today, { however, the pay is so inadequate| that an educated man can barely eke out an existence. Men without a col- | lege education, or the equivalent thereof, could not pass the examina- tions for positions on the examining | force, and yet owing to the present| meager compensation examiners are unable to send their own sons to col- lege. Many of the best examiners have been forced to resign and go into the private practice of patent law, where, at the outset, the aver- age compensation—of primary exam- iners, for instance—from patent law- vers for large corporations Is consid- erably more than twice their patent office salaries, with the certainty that they will earn progressively more, it they prove capable. It has become a common practice for men to go into the patent office for two or three years' experience, with no intention of staying, but only to get sufficient experience so that they can enter the employ of patent lawyers or mel patent departments of large corpora- tions. Thus the patent office is, to a large extent, merely a training school for patent lawyers. Today examiners receive but 10 per cent mors than the pay fixed for their positions in 1848. Then their pay was equal to that of members of Congress and of United States district judges, whose salaries have been increased 300 per cent or more since that date. 3 The resigsations from the examining corps have for ten years been going on |at the rate of 25 per cent per annum,' and today over 10 per cent of the ex- aminers are temporary appointees. As it takes at least two or three years for an examiner to become sufficiently fa- miliar with the class of in. ons to which he is assigned to be c..cient in his work, the frequent rotations due to the constant stream of resignations re- sults in many of the classes of inven- tions being examined all of the time by men insufficiently familiar with them. * % % % The patent office is now so far behind in its work that it cannot go much farther without breaking down. The situation is so serious that the National Secretary of the fnterior and the com- ~ 4Continued—on Third- Paged 4 met appear in_concert. 3 _ for the products of the soil. them than other traffic. Uncle Sam also | of railroad building has passed and uses all the roads throughout the coun- | the time has come when, if traffic is try for delivery of the mails. By heip-]to move at all, an appreciable part ing to build these roads the federal gov-| of it must move over the highwa: ernment proposes to do its share fairly | 1t stimated that during the last towards the several states. calendar year approximately 350,000, The national government has appropri- | 000 tons of farm products and vege- ated §$275,000,000 on this good roads]tables were hauled to market in motor program during the last five years, and | trucks by the farmers and gardeners these funds run out on July 1. They|of the United States. During the are now all under contract but $77,000,- Herbert Hoover demonstrateds 000. - that about 50 per cent of the perish- 4 There are now ten states, Delaware, |able food products did not reach & Florida, Georgia, Idaho, lllinois, Louis- | market, owing to lack of transportas ville, Maryland, Rhode Island, Washing- | tion. 2 ton and West Virginia, which have en- tirely exhausted their road-building| . states that will have all of their funds A : 1922 1o the several states on the basig under contract before July, when the . / of population, area and mileage of present appropriation expires. These & T % thirty-five out of the forty-eight states | by o, s '® 43 follows: Alabamu, could not go ahead with thelr road buila- | 31 1 IH AL ATizons .*dsxnn'u;f;::‘ile' ing program if Congress failed to pass | . el ininine L is war Apgortionment of Fund. the federal aid appropriation. : ARt < While the act provides that the fed- | 3 Sotllosmeimings ! Florida, $1.147, Georgia, eral aid cannot be spent for more than | sl 0.96; Idaho, §1, 93 - 50 per cent of the construction, in reality | 5 the states have been putting up their| ° funds on an average proportion of 601 . > ‘to 40. Thomas H. McDonald, chief of | > the federal bureau of public roads, at a | Ouisiana. $1 meeting of roadbuilders in Chicago re- | pREESEw i cently, stated that the federal aid pro-| ¢/ USells, $1.47 gram during the next year will have | .. Minnesota, more than a billion doliars’ worth of | LSSt $1.807, road construction under contract. This| 5> Montan program contemplates continuous roads | - . Nevada, $1, connecting the leading market centers, |- 094443 New Hampshi $414, both intrastate and interstate. 836.93; New Jersey, $L18 New : Mexico, $1,5985.467.85; New York, In reply to o t sl e ovDosifion oo thel ) North Carolina, : North Dakota, $1, R Ohio, $3,706, Famous Pianist Returns, | {705 ¥4 005 Bu@ to Become a Rancher| vania. $4.591,946.05: Rhode RS $233,256. South Carolina, 019.04; South Dakota, $1 : Kansas, Kentucky, $i,951,755.43; : Maine, $960 98.61; Massa- Michigan, §: $366, 3; Pennsyl- Isiand, $1.436.- | Tennessee, $2.261,913.90; T. $5.- $61,598.46; Utah, $1,129,575. Ver- mont, $450.077.09; Virginia,s $1,977.- 673.83; Washington, $1,444 795 West Virginia, $1,060,152.77; Wiscon~ sin, $2,544.945.35; Wyoming, $1,233,- 715.84. _— VETERANS DISCUSS BILLS. Committee Meets to Consider Legis- lation for Service Men. Commander - in - chief Robert G. ‘Woodside of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and the members of the legisli- tive committee of that order met at the Harrington Hotel yesterday and discussed the outlook for action by Con~ gress on bills now pending in the in- terest of men who served in the armed forces of their country. “We do not expect the present Con- gress to accomplish much more “in the way of legislation, but we are very much interested in the program of the Sixty-seventh Congress” said Commander Woodside. “This organ! IGNACE JAN PADEREWSKI, |zation has no ax to grind, and we statesman and former Polish | working in harmony with .,mr;) ganizations of service men for ‘tis has arrived in this country. the Army, Navy sad Marine Corpa i ']