14 PHENOMENA, ATOMS, AND MOLECULES 



There are, of course, many factors which have made America such a 

 great industrial country. I think that the progress resulted primarily from 

 the many types of incentives which were active in this country. First of 

 all, by our Constitution an unusually fine patent system was established. 

 A patent is essentially a contract between the Government and an inventor 

 by which the inventor renounces all advantages of secrecy and publishes 

 a full description of the invention in exchange for a limited 17-year 

 monopoly. I believe that this patent system more than any other single 

 factor has been responsible for the great industrial progress in our time. 

 The benefits that have accrued to inventors through the use of their patents 

 have been almost negligible compared to the benefits the public has received 

 through the rapid development and use of the inventions stimulated by 

 the wholesome profit motive, which was given by the patents. Some defects 

 in the patent system have developed and should be cured but it would be 

 disastrous in my opinion to weaken the patent system. Even compulsory 

 licensing removes much of the incentive to the inventor and to those who 

 are able to develop inventions. Without adequate patent protection indus- 

 try would be forced to attempt to keep inventions secret. This would 

 greatly retard our industrial progress. 



Another important factor that has stimulated progress is that America 

 had the pioneering spirit. We believed in men. We pushed forward into 

 the unknown. There was keen competition among such leaders and the 

 rewards were great. There thus grew up a system of free enterprise. I 

 think that any careful analysis would prove that even the great fortunes 

 amassed by Carnegie, the Vanderbilts, the Rockefellers, etc., were a cheap 

 price to pay for the tremendous advances made by our steel, railroad, and 

 oil industries. I do not mean for a moment to argue that we should again 

 encourage all the abuses that occurred during the early stages of the 

 development of these industries, but I believe the abuses should have been 

 corrected without destroying the major part of the system of incentives 

 that had proved so valuable. 



Perhaps, through the sense of fairplay that was characteristic of our 

 love of sports, there developed in America a remarkable spirit of team- 

 work and cooperation which has been a vital factor in our progress. 



The system of free enterprise is part of the capitalist system. The 

 greatest merit of the capitalist system I believe is the very great incentive 

 given to individuals to forge ahead in new fields. We have learned in 

 recent years that the capitalist system has serious defects. The greatest, 

 I think, is its tendency toward instability. Thus, when a depression starts 

 and people lose confidence they stop buying anything more than the neces- 

 sities of life and thus more people are thrown out of employment. This 

 aggravates still further the causes that led to the depression. In the early 



