should start to make a little noise about it, the guardians of our traditions would unite in condemning him. Repulsed everywhere, scorned and baffled, the inventor receives only injuries and misery, to such an extent are new things taboo among us.

"Just think of it! The extent to which some new thing might derange our habits and established customs."

To the Editor:

I have been intensely interested in the appearance each month of the JOURNAL OF THE PATENT OFFICE SOCIETY and I find it a most profitable procedure to carefully digest each page. It appears to me that it is a perfect God-send to the Industrial activities of the country, making for a clear understanding of the patent provision of the Constitution.

The article in the November number of the JOURNAL by Examiner Lightfoot has impelled me to get my file, labeled "PATENT OFFICE EXPANSION," into shape so as to formulate a few ideas along that line. These I have embodied in a brief "paper" which I am enclosing for the use of the Society, in any way that may be deemed desirable.

I am convinced, in view of the correspondence that I have had with different Congressmen and the interviews I have had with the Chairmen of the Patent Committees of both Houses, and the interview with Vice President Marshall, relating to the needs of the Patent Office, that outside pressure must be brought to bear on the members of Congress from the "folks back home" to induce them to in some way atone for the awful neglect of which they are guilty.

The suggestions I have volunteered to make are also based on a personal survey I made of the Patent Office Building on May 15 and 16, 1918. I do not claim originality for all of the suggestions. Some of them must necessarily overlap just as important conceptions made by others.

With best wishes for the Society and kindest personal regards, I beg to remain,

Very truly yours,

Valparaiso, Ind.

N. S. AMSTUTZ,
Research Engineer.

NEEDS OF THE PATENT OFFICE.

Some of the urgent needs of the Patent Office appear to be as follows:

1st. An increase of staff to meet the increase of business submitted to the Office and combat the expanding area of search that such increase of business inevitably produces.

2d. An increase of equipment commensurate with the ever expanding activities of the Office.

3d. A radical increase of compensation for the staff, at least as large as that found necessary in carrying forward the Industries of the country, through skilled assistants of the same order of qualification as is demanded by the Patent System.

4th. An annual study period, of at least one month, preferably three months, for each principal Examiner and Assistant Examiner, under full pay and reasonable expenses, while directed by the Commissioner as to available periods, etc., conditioned on a full time study of the practical phases of the Industries of the same subjects allotted to them in their official capacity as Examiners. That a formal report of such observations be made and filed in the Division archives for reference.

5th. The establishing of a complete fire-proof laboratory in the Patent Office building, for making physical, chemical, mechanical and electrical qualitative tests. The laboratory to be supplied with a full complement of accessories, self-recording devices, etc., in charge of a staff of assistants, comprising a physicist in each branch, a general mechanician, etc. So that any questions arising in the course of prosecutions as to the actual performance of processes or mechanisms could be answered by authoritative tests made without going outside of the Office. In this way definite results would be secured under the proper surroundings, as to privacy, conformable to the secrecy of the Office Archives. The findings in every case to be made the subject of a formal report to become a part of the file to which it relates.

6th. The installation of an automatic system of ventilation to insure the proper amount of air for each occupant, adequately humidified and cleaned.

7th. The inauguration of a more thorough system of hygiene and sanitation, coöperative with item 6.

8th. An arrangement of quarters, probably impossible in the present building, giving each principal Examiner and each first and second assistant a private room with a stenographer's room entirely separate, so as to surround these highly skilled men with the same kind of environment as is supplied as a matter of course in the Industries and the Professions.

9th. Arrange a plan for a carefully coördinated study department, in the law, physics, mathematics, the prac tical sciences, equivalent structures, etc., etc., for all under assistants. This feature to be made obligatory so as to form a standard system of instruction within the Office from which to develop qualifications on which staff can depend for recruits.

10th. Form a Board on Standards of Practice so as to secure uniformity of procedure among the different Divisions and the Attorneys practicing before the Office.

THE "PATENT SYSTEM."

In Its Relation to the Ethics of Industrial Service.

Does it reflect a general business obloquy or merely handicapped professional ethics? As a factor of social activity is it any more deserving of harsh criticism than the ethical system of other vocations?

The patent profession should be considered as an activity of specific public service, differing as to the letter but not as to the spirit from the medical and theological professions or any other branches of service now desir ing the appellation of "profession." Patent practitioners are but a part of a social system according to which some people desire the grant of a governmental monopoly to their individual advantage. These people wish to have a special benefit emanate from their inventive judgment. The patent lawyer is obligated to serve them to the end of procuring, in cases where justly entitled. such legalized monopoly of broadest proper scope.

A physician is obligated to mitigate pain and cure, if possible. None wishes his immediate consideration to be "why have you this pain?" or "do you think it is a good thing to have?" He simply gives you credit for

the reasonableness of your conclusions and proceeds to prescribe accordingly.

A theologian is obligated to soothe with a revivification of faith. He is so gratified at the knowledge of your signifying the need of it that he does not presume to ask why you think you need it. He, on his part, simply assumes you should or actually do need it, and ministers accordingly.

It is not for the patent lawyer even conscientiously to disparage and condemn. To do both of these at times, when absolutely certain of being well informed by data furnished through previous experience, may be justifiable. When this is done it reduces the income. It is well known how many shysters there are in the legal profession. It may be less often realized that there is an equal percentage of "unprincipled persons" in other professions. It is true that some persons prey upon the cupidity or inferior judgment of others. How to exclude this class from professional practice is truly a problem. Perhaps a fixed scale of charges or standardized fees for specific service would lessen the evil.

Every business presents, however, a similar problem. The manufacturing business in which any reader of this article chances to be engaged also involves sharp practices, discreditable dealing and all too often a heartless inconsiderateness of labor-of the daily wage-earner who, if he is not the sole producer, is certainly a big producer with a soul.

With specific reference to the manufacturing business, or code of business ethics, I ask:

Does the manufacturer inquire into the commercial merits (salability) of articles submitted to him for production? NO! This is so not merely because he cannot afford to do so, but also because he ought not to presume to be all-knowing in this regard. It may be true that he could judge aright in the great majority of cases and as often magnanimously disparage and discourage. It is, however, convincingly not his duty to do so. It is not even proper, for in doing so he foists his judgment upon an individual likely to place reliance thereon. His judgment must occasionally be incorrect and irreparable damage, however small, ensue in consequence. Quite incidentally, such procedure would be woefully poor business and insure the family of him who practiced it few

worldly goods and comforts. The majority of competitors will never follow suit.

Now this last:

Let us assume that a patent solicitor today procured a patent upon an. article which in a certain manufacturer's disinterested opinion should be pronounced a worthless idea, a useless contribution to inventive and industrial progress. Tomorrow this patentee just chances to come to this same manufacturer with the request that he manufacture the same article. Is not the manufacturer's disinterested opinion at once a nullity? Does he tell the patentee what he would have had the solicitor tell him? INDEED NOT, nor does anyone else. The manufacturer would be right in saying: "That's none of my business"-and there you are.

It just simmers down to this:

A manufacturer is not a benign industrial expert in the service of a suspicious and ungrateful public. A patent lawyer is not a general industrial adviser.

All of us should concentrate, specialize and strive intensively to know a little of everything and everything of one thing, and then advise others only in respect to that about which they seek advice of us in our individual capacity as experts, not in respect to extraneous phases. Indulgently submitted for earnest reflection,

CURT B. Mueller.

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, STATE OF NEW YORK.

Mr. E. J. Prindle, who is Secretary of the Patent Office Committee of the National Research Council and who has recently been elected Chairman of the Patent Committee of the American Chemical Society, reports that, through the efficient efforts of Mr. Welding Ring, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the New York State Chamber of Commerce, the chamber referred to adopted, at its meeting on May 1, the following resolution:

"RESOLVED, That the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York favors the enactment of legislation by Congress, in line with the report of the National Research Council, that will increase the efficiency of the Patent Office in the handling of all matters pertaining to inventions and patents, facilitating quick and more thorough research, prompt determination of the rights of inventors, and avoidance of unnecessary litigation in the courts."