The Sewing-machine Squabble

i'i-om the X York World, April 2!). Sc.arcely anybody can havu av - knowing that an applicatiou is now pending beforo Congres for an extensión of the Wilson patent on sewing machines. But vary few people aro awaro preoia&ljr on what grounds the application is mado and 0.1 what groumü u is reeisted. We. therofore give place to tvvo exparto statements of tlie case. Of cours the presumption is that r. patent twioe extended has lasted lung enough to roniunerato the patente, and that the public interests deniand that at that point, if not before it, the patented artiole shall be open to freía trade. This preaumption it rests upuu tho applieant to oveithrow. In tho present jase he maintams botli that ho has not been sufliciently couipensated for his invention and that tika public interests domand that he should ratain his inonopoConsidering the rast numbnr and tho :)igh cost of tlio sewing machines made which embody tho Wilson patent itseems is if tho patentee could hardly be sorious in putting forward thü ürst of these ilaims. And vet it is altogether possible that it is truc. On his behalf it is strenuously denied that the protits upon sewing machines are anything like so largo is bas been representad. But unluckily the patontee doe3 not subrnit tho figures whioh must be in his possession and which would enable us to see procisuly what thoso profits re. We know that tho machine is sold for a sum very far iIh;Vi; its primo cost, and vury fcir also above what would be tho prieo of it if the manufacturo were a subject of cornpetition instead of monopoly. But how much ot' this differenoe between prime cost and ultímate prico goes into tho pockotof the manufacturer, wlio is also tno patontee, we have no mcans of knowing. We can say that if his business wero conduoted with the ördinary shrewdness of business men ho would havo derivod enormous woalth from his patenta. But tho trade in sewing machines is not conducted in tho ordinary manncr. ïho patontoo is also rnanufacturor, wholésale dealer, jobber, andretailer. Inalmostevery branch of business these functions are divided, and at each stop in tho progress of the manufacturad article there is n. nnv tradcsinan, who has the keenopt personal interest in proven ting swindling and waste. In this cas; all tho intermedíate proeessos are carried on by agents. The hirelmg, wo know of old, whose own the shoep aro not, careth not for the shoop. And innvitably when a man undertakes to supply the división of modern labor and the difierontiaiiou of modern trade by this system of agencies his expenses and his waste are iuevitably incroased. But if Mr. Wilson has not made grc;tt profits it is because ho has not conducted his business on proper principios. It is his own business, however, and not ours. And we have no inore cali to indemnify him for tho raoncy whieh ho has lost or failid to malee by not doing his business toan we would have to reimburso him if ho h a;l ventured tho protits of his patont in rooUow speculation and lost thom. The claim that tho public interests demand the extensión of this patent is sv:p portod by what cannot be callodan argument. Tho combination which holds tli snu'ing machine patents has a veto power upon ever}' now patent and upon oew manufaoturers of süwing machines. Any new sewing machine must be developed out of tho old, and any new patent foundod upon tho patents aire ady granted and held by this combination. lts membors eannot prevent tho grant of a new patent : but they can ptvveut tlve embodimont of it in a machine. They hold a strict monopoly of their business. They deniand tho prolongation of this monopoly upon the singular ground that if computition were suostitiited for it customors would ho deludod into buying an inferior machine because it could b ïuads more cheaply ; as it the uiistoraor did no-t now run his risk of boing cheated with evon the restricted chote.' that the monopoly leavos hiui, and as if ovory buyer of evorything wero not subjected to the samo risk. Bosides it is not true, a peoplo say, that thero would be nnv stronger tomptation to makers than thero is now " to direct their cfforts to oheapening in.'-tead of perfectiug" tho machine. bupposo an inventor should oometothèfie people to-morrow with a machino which, while it might embody some 0110 of the multitudinous patents they hold, r--volutionÍ7.od tho art of raaking sewing :nichiii'" and supplanted all the maohines now in usb. Does anybody tliut they woull wolcomo an invontion which made all their machines useloss, and thif they wüuld not: rathor fight the inventor to their last dollar 'i Yet tho public interest in that oase would lx; clcurly with the inventor, and againstthom. Tho pr:post,!rous principie they lay down would justify the conversión of every p business into a strict monopoly, aml enablo the monopolist to extort for ovory artiolo of trade a sum limited only by his avarioe. When a moasttoos monopoly invokes sucb sophistry to dofond itself it is pretty evideutly indefensiblo. Tho 7iow public, library ai Loitisvillo, Ky., was formally o})(?ned to tho public Saturday ovoning. Tho shelven contain 20,1)00 volumes and n largo and valuable cabinet of goólogical specimens, besidos the poriodicals and papers of tho day. Tho man scarco lives win is not more crodulmis than he oughs to be ; the natural disposition of man inclines him to believe ; expevienco alono touches inoredulity, and seldom teaches it suffioiently.