610 THE BIRTH OF INVENTION. 



co-oidiiiatioii and organization of these industrial cohorts, 1 afliriii and 

 repeat, is invention of the highest order. There are no hitters patent 

 on them. They enjoy natural patents, that is, by selection and the 

 • survival of the fittest; tliose who do the best and work together the 

 best, get the reward. 



Tlie commerce of the world is an excellent example of invention 

 affecting men as well as their tools. Merchants and bankers, ex- 

 changers of goods and exchangers of the ])rices of goods, have been 

 also invented. It would hardly be affirmed that this world-encircling 

 current of activity called trade had come about by merely following 

 suit or following the fashion. Were that so, Wall street bankers and 

 A^ew York merchants wonld now be standing naked on the shores 

 of Manhattan Island bartering i)eltiies for clams. Patent Congresses 

 would never have been thought of, and this essay would not have been 

 written. At first eveiy man was his own exploiter, carrier, manufac- 

 turer, merchant, banker, and customer. But now all men are servants 

 of all men. By a system of credits only one one-thousandth part of 

 the world's business is done for cash or barter. The human species, 

 regardless of race or langnage or education , has become a universal com- 

 bine for mutual helpfulness. And this combine has more parts playing 

 into j)arts and wheels working into wheels than may be seen in a vast 

 cotton factory. All this is the result of excogitation, of invention. The 

 trader is the son of the trapper, the storekeeper is the son of the 

 trader. In the direct line come the retailer, the wholesaler, the firm, 

 the importer, the trust. The gatherer of cowries is the father of the 

 wamijum maker, and the son of the latter is maker of metallic slugs 

 bearing the stamj) of a domestic beast 5 his son issued the first coins, 

 and the family tree brings you straight down to the llothschilds, who 

 have handled at least once all the money of the world. 



Now, what have I to say abont the consunu'r, who, after all, is said 

 by doctrinaires to pay all the bills? The consumer also has been 

 invented, from my i^oint of view. The first consumer wore out little 

 clothing, dwelt in an inexpensive habitation, and his bill of fare was 

 limited. His service, equipage, variety of enjoyments, were circum- 

 scribed. Can you think of any one so bereft ? In our cities, if we found 

 wandering about a person so poorly endowed, our hearts would be filled 

 with commiseration. Now, from that man to any successful modern, or 

 more correctly to our whole modern time combined, is the road along 

 which consumers have been invented. The kinds of wants have been 

 refined and increased in number. Each want has become more exacting 

 aiul discriminating. Intellectual, social, jiesthetic, moral, and political 

 wants have been <a^eated. And these, n.ot in single persons only, but 

 there have been composite wants, world- embracing wants and ambi- 

 tions thought out, whose gratificatiiui come to Inunan beings in families, 

 clubs, guilds, corporations, cities, congresses, nationalities, and interna- 

 tionalities. And these, C(msmning what they have produce<l. Hud that 

 the earth is inexhaustible. 



