Support of State Laboratories by Patent Fees. 189 



source from which their labours should be remu- 

 erated by the State. 



Strong arguments might be adduced both against 

 and in favour of the application of this money for the 

 purpose. Inventors are a great wealth-producing 

 class of the community ; they are at present very 

 highly taxed, and receive but little advantage in re- 

 turn ; to tax them without giving them equivalent 

 advantages, strikes very near to the root of commer- 

 cial prosperity, by diminishing improvements in arts 

 and manufactures. If an inventor is poor and his 

 patent is valuable, he is also frequently harassed out 

 of it by litigation. Inventors are usually poor, and 

 but little able to pay taxes on patents at all ; their 

 pecuniary position in this country is not greatly better 

 than that of discoverers ; they are largely at the 

 mercy of manufacturers and capitalists ; and the in- 

 justice to which they are sometimes subjected is 

 notorious and disgraceful. On the other hand, the 

 fund already exists ; inventors also receive an equiv- 

 alent from investigators, discovery is the indispensable 

 basis of nearly all invention ; patented inventions are 

 formed by means of the knowledge obtained by pure 

 scientific research. The poverty of a man does not 

 justify his taking the fruits of the labours of another 

 man without paying for them. If also the patent fees 

 were thus applied, the cost of research would then be 

 paid for by all classes of the community, somewhat in 

 proportion to the benefit derived, because the cost of 

 patents in general ultimately falls upon the public at 



