THE I5IKTJI OF INVENTIOX. 609 



Tlic eailit'st imeiitioii was a single liomogeiuMtus act, an original sugges- 

 tion, a liappy tbouglit. Tlie patent on this was an immediate and indi- 

 vidual benefit. A sharper knife of fiint, a Ix-tter scraper, a h)nger 

 spear, a stouter tliread wrought better and the reward was more exe- • 

 ention. Now, the man who made tlie best wea])ons killed the most 

 game, from that game he got better food, that food made him st longer, 

 that strength made him chief, that chieftaincy gave him more wives, 

 more children, mon^ cohorts to sn])port his tlirone. The best woman 

 to cook or sew or carry loads got the best husband ; that was her pat- 

 ent. From these simple methods of inventing and rewarding invention 

 we co'neon to the Olympic games, the mono^xdies, the patent system. 

 And now, in the inventor's lab(mit<ny of Graham, IjcII, or Edison the 

 climax is readied, wiici'c one machine is the co-o])erative result of any 

 number of trained minds, and the reward is meted out to each by the 

 uianufacturer; or, in this Tateut Congress itself, we may have a still 

 more highly organized unit, wherein the inventors of America l>ecome a 

 body social, and together shake hands under the sea with the P^mperor 

 of Germany, who s(nids liis congratulations to-day on the o(;casion of 

 our meeting. 



The law of ))rogress in the dcNelopment of tin' thing invented, of the 

 process of mind and hand in the act of inventing, of the reward i)aid 

 to the in\'entor, of tin* (changes in society itself through the invention, 

 is from the homogeiu'ous to the heterogeneous, as Herbert Spencer has 

 well indicated. This applies to tiie uses of materials, the conquest of 

 natuial Ibices, the d(na^loi)nuMit of the (pialities of things, the perfec- 

 tion of the instiiiiiients and mo(h*s of a|>|)lyiiig tliem, and the wants 

 which are gratilicd ami to lie gratified b.\' tin* finished prodru'ts. 



Tlie great chisses of industry that you are trying ever to serve are 

 one and all your i)er])etual (h'bt(U's. l*roducers, like farmers, fisher- 

 men, lumbermen, miners, briM'ders, or hunters, have passed through the 

 foregoing s<'hool of <'xp<*ricnce. 



No less indebted to you for lifting tlieir burdens are the coiiimon 

 carriers of tlie world, since you have trained the winds, the waters, the 

 animal kingdom, to undertak*' for mankind journeys that Avould 

 have utterly discouraged them. It is easy to show, in fac^t, that the 

 common carrying organizations are as much an evolution or elaboration 

 as the tools they use. 



But what shall 1 say of the nianufactiirer — Ids methods, his rewards, 

 his guilds, his inteiest in ))olitics? rari passu with those efficient 

 tools, that complicated machinery iu his hands and about him, he him- 

 self has been invented. He is no longer bke the primitive artisan Aviio 

 struck the first Makes from britth^ stone. He is in touch with many 

 others, who together with him constitute the higher unit of an o]-ganized 

 factory or association of factories. It was once said that it takes nine 

 tailors to make a man, but, suiely, it takes niiu^ hundred men and 

 w'ouuMi to make a suit of clothes, or a house, or a lo(;omotive. The 

 ir. Mis. 114 ;'.!> 



