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TRACT SOCIETY 456 TRADE MARK Poor, not, like the former, confined to the Church of England, but embracing Christians of all denominations. The Religious Tract Society (1799) originated with the Rev. George Burder. Its be- ginnings were humble, but it soon ex- panded, translating the Bible and tracts into over 200 languages. In 1825 the American Tract Society was founded and since then it has been publishing books, tracts, and periodicals, representing the best Christian literature approved by all Evangelical Christians, and is the almo- ner of their gifts to the destitute. Its total issues at home, in 20 languages, number 479,400,000 copies. It has helped foreign missions, in 100 languages, to many millions of copies. Its colporteurs have visited 14,985,116 families. TRACY, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, an American lawyer; born in Oswego, N. Y., April 26, 1830; was admitted to the bar in 1851; served as district attorney of Tioga CO. in 1853-1854; and was a member of the New York Legislature in 1861-1862. He raised the 109th and 137th Regiments of New York volunteers in July and August, 1862; took a distin- guished part in the operations at the front in 1862-1865, and in the latter year was promoted Brigadier-General of vol- unteers for gallantry in battle. He was United States district attorney for the Eastern District of New York in 1866- 1873; judge of the Court of Appeals in 1881-1882; Secretary of the NaTr in the cabinet of President Harrison in 1889- 1893; president of the commission which drafted the charter for Greater New York in 1895-1896 ; and unsuccessful can- didate for mayor under the new charter in 1897. He died in 1915. TRACY, LOUIS, an English author, born at Liverpool, in 1863. He was edu- cated privately in Yorkshire and in France, and began journalism on the Northern Echo, Darlington, and then at Cardiff. He went to Allahabad, India, in 1889, returned to England in 1893, and helped T. P. O'Connor to start "The Sun" newspaper in London. He then traveled in the United States and In- dia, and when the war broke out became Commandant of the Whitby District Vol- unteers. He came with the British War Mission to the United States in 1917, and bad charge of a British propaganda bu- reau in New York. His works include: "The Final War"; "The Postmaster's Daughter"; "The Revellers," TRADE, BOARD OF, in the United States a body of men selected from among the business men of a city, and appointed to represent and act for the whole busi- ness community in advancing and pro- tecting their^'interests. TRADE MARK, the name or mark under which any one trades. It is a mode of connecting certain goods in the mind of the public with a particular manufac- turer or seller; and its function is to give a purchaser a satisfactory assurance of the make and quality of the article he is buying. A trade mark is the prop- erty of the person legally adopting it, and he has a right — antecedent to and independent of the various trade mark acts — to prevent any one else from us- ing it to his prejudice. Water marks on paper, dating from the 14th century, are among the oldest trade marks. Trade marks appear to have become a prominent feature in the industrial life of England in the early part of the 18th century. The law re- lating to them has pursued the following course of development: (1) At first no right of property in a trade mark was recognized, and only the actual, fraudu- lent, and injurious use by one person of the mark of another was restrained and punished. (2) In 1838, however, in the case of Millington versus Fox, Lord Chancellor Cottenham granted a perpet- ual injunction against the defendant, though no intentional fraud was estab- lished. Since that time the English Court of Chancery has uniformly inter- fered to prevent the infringement of trade marks on the principle of protect- ing property alone, and it was unneces- sary for the plaintiff to prove that hia rights had been intentionally invaded. (3) The Courts of Common Law did not imitate the wise liberality of the Court of Chancery, and down to 1873 proof of fraud on the part of an infringer was of the essence of a common-law action for damages. The Judicature Act of 1873 provided, however, that in any conflict between the rules of law and of equity the latter should thenceforth pre- vail. The Registration of Trade Marks. — At common law a trade mark could be acquired only by actual user; it must have been "so applied in the market as to indicate to purchasers that the goods to which it was attached were the manu- facture of a particular firm." By the English Trade-marks Registration Act, 1875, a Register of Trade Marks waa established at the Office of the Commis- sioner of Patents (now the Patent Office), and it was provided that the reg- istration of a trade mark should thence- forth be equivalent to public user. This provision is in substance repeated in the Patents Acts, 1883-1888, by which the