INVENTION AND AMERICAN WEALTH 275 



dollar, 68 per cent. The world has never before witnessed 

 such results anywhere. 



Now what is it that enables an operative in three fourths 

 of the time to produce nearly double what he did forty years 

 ago? It is simply invention — the inventions embodied in 

 improved machines, tools, and processes. Ten jTars ago the 

 American import of manufactures was double the export; to- 

 day the export is double the import. 



That this wonderful increase in American manufactures 

 is mainly due to inventions encouraged by the patent system, 

 cannot be doubted by any one who will examine the subject. 

 Commissioner Leggett, in his report for 1873, said that from 

 three fourths to nine tenths of all American manufacturing 

 is based on patents — that is to say, patented articles are 

 manufactured, or patented machines and processes are used 

 to manufacture articles that are not patented. 



The Iron Age has said: ''It should not be forgotten by 

 those who sneer at inventors that out of the $8,000,000,000 

 invested in manufacturing in the United States, patents form 

 the basis for the investment of about $6,000,000,000, or three 

 fourths of the whole." And it adds: ''The one thing that has 

 enabled our manufactures to make so wonderful a progress 

 has been our patent sj^stem." 



But the benefits of the patent system have not, as many 

 suppose, been confined to manufactures. The system has 

 done as much for agriculture. The American corn crop 

 amounts to over 2,000,000,000 bushels per annum. Were it 

 not for corn planting and cultivating machinery what would 

 the com crop amount to, and, without the corn, where would 

 be the pork and beef, either for use or export. Suppose we 

 were to strike out of existence the dozen or more leading 

 inventions used in the preparation of the soil, the seeding, 

 harvesting, threshing, storing and transporting of the crop, 

 what then? Not a bushel could be exported, because, by 

 hand, it could not be produced; and even if produced, it 

 would cost so much that it could not be delivered in Europe 

 cheaply enough, and Europe would, therefore, not buy it. 



In the words of Senator Vance, "American labor saving 

 inventions form an epoch in the history of the race;" and, as 



