Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 10.djvu/216

 THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS

vourers of consumable wealth. In order to have more consumable wealth you must have an incen- tive for creation. Wealth will never be made unless a consumer stands ready. More consuma- ble wealth, therefore, depends upon a broadening market. This I have already shown, does not mean more purchasers, but purchasers with better purses, tho, for that matter, in this coun- try we have both.

But how can you make more wealth with the same number of workers? By using forces of nature and by utilizing human brains. How can you do that ? By incentives. The brain no more works without incentive than the body does.

To hear the discussion in Congress you would suppose that invention dropped from heaven like manna to the Jews. You would suppose that James Watt reached out into the darkness and pulled back a steam engine. It was not so. All invention is the product of necessities and of pressure. When the boy who wanted to go off to play and so rigged the stopcocks that the engine went itself, he was not only a true in- ventor, but he had the same motive — his per- sonal advantage — that all inventors have, and, like them, was urged on by business necessities.

What originated Bessemer steel? Sir Henry Bessemer? No; but the necessities of railroads, under public pressure for lower rates of traffic, which would every one of them have been bank- rupt without steel rails. If Sir Henry had not invented the process somebody else would. It

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