Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 485 
monopolies here. The General Government early established one 
which has been silently but surely gnawing away at the vitals of 
labor and industry ever since. We refer to the monopoly of inven¬ 
tion. As I do not wish to dwell on this subject, I cannot do better 
than to quote from an address which I delivered before the State 
Agricultural Society at Milwaukee, in 1872, on Labor and Capital, 
published in the Transactions of the Society for 1872-3, page 147: 
u Our Government has intended to be generous to labor of the 
brain, while it cruelly neglected the labors of the hand. But in 
this particular the Government has compelled its toiling and pro¬ 
ducing millions to contribute to this bounty. I do not complain 
that the Government is generous to inventors, but the way in 
which it is accomplished is of doubtful propriety. Every year the 
agricultural interests of this country are pa} T ing millions of tribute, 
not to the poor inventors of agricultural implements, but to the 
capitalist, who, taking advantage of the poverty of the inventor, 
purchased his right for a trifling sum. And it is a scandal upon 
honest legislation that repeated renewals of patents are obtained, 
in order that the price may be kept up. All this is the busy work 
of capital, while labor is compelled to contribute to its own dis¬ 
comfiture by aiding those who unjustly burden it. Again, trifling 
improvements are annually (or periodically) made to agricultural 
implements, so as to keep up the price to the old standard, that 
capital may be richly rewarded at the expense of thoughtless, care¬ 
less labor. What is true of agricultural implements is equally 
true of other inventions which are in general use. In reference to 
s 
all of these the labor of the country is paying heavy tribute, not 
to the inventor, for whom the law was designed, but to the gam¬ 
bling and unscrupulous speculator, for his skill in robbing the 
inventor of his invention. This is the rule; there may be excep¬ 
tions to it.” Here we have a monopoly created by the Government 
which affects the interest of every class of industiy in the land in 
more ways than could be told in a good-sized book, and to a greater 
extent than can be easily calculated. There is also another mo¬ 
nopoly established and maintained b} T Government, whether for 
good or for evil we need express no opinion, that is of grander pro¬ 
portions, and vastly more extensive in its effects and influence on 
the industrial interests of the country than perhaps all others com¬ 
bined. We refer to the monopoly of the tariff. This reaches every 
