INVENTION AND AMERICAN WEALTH 277 



1865 the productive capacity of skilled laborers has been in- 

 creased threefold, and that is mainly due to the adoption of 

 labor saving machinery invented by Americans. 



According to a recent statement of the commissioner of 

 labor, by the use of labor saving machinery operated by 6,000,- 

 000 horsepower, less than four and one half millions of oper- 

 atives produced in one year of manufactured articles an 

 amount that would have required 36,000,000 operatives using 

 the old hand methods. Thirt}^ six million operatives repre- 

 sent a population of 180,000,000, — two and a half times as 

 many people as there are in the United States. 



Commenting on this, the commissioner saj^s the state- 

 ment seems fantastical, and is difficult to comprehend. The 

 truth even smacks of fairy tales, or the statements of a statis- 

 tical Munchausen, and yet it is based upon figures produced 

 by the bureau of labor under authority of congress. 



All great writers agree that invention is not only one of 

 the noblest avocations, but that it is one of the greatest factors 

 in the increase of national wealth. The founders of the 

 United States government builded better than they knew 

 when they placed in the constitution that little clause author- 

 izing congress to promote the progress of science and the use- 

 ful arts by the grant of patents, for then and there they laid 

 the foundation for the material prosperity of the country. 

 And while giving full credit to statesmen and soldier heroes, 

 it may safely be asserted that no class of citizens has done 

 more for the prosperity and glory of the United States than 

 its inventors. 



The patent office is the only self sustaining bureau the 

 government has or ever had. Besides paying a large portion 

 of the cost of the erection of the patent office building, it has 

 defrayed its own expenses since the enactment of the law of 

 1836 which required it to be self sustaining, and to-day has 

 a surplus in the United States treasury of over $5,000,000, 

 every dollar of which has been paid by the inventors and those 

 interested in patents, and who, in addition, have paid their 

 full share of the expenses of the government the same as all 

 other citizens. 



