The landlord does not make the land, he does not till the land, he does not improve the land; he only draws the rent, and he draws that _for ever_. _His_ patent never lapses; and the harder the workers work, and the more wealth inventors and workers produce, the more rent he draws--for nothing. The inventor _does_ make his invention. He is, upon Mr. Mallock's showing, the creator of immense wealth. And, even if he is lucky, he can only draw rent on his ability for fourteen years. But suppose the inventor is a poor man--and a great many inventors are poor men--his chance of getting paid for his ability is very small. Because, to begin with, he has to pay a good deal to patent his invention, and then, often enough, he needs capital to work the patent, and has none. What is he to do? He must find a capitalist to work the patent for him, or he must find a man rich enough to buy it from him. And it very commonly happens, either that the poor man cannot pay the renewal fees for his patent, and so loses it entirely, or that the capitalist buys it out and out for an old song, or that the capitalist obliges him to accept terms which give a huge profit to the capitalist and a small royalty to the inventor. The patent laws are so constructed as to make the poor inventor an easy prey to the capitalist. Many inventors die poor, many are robbed by agents or capitalists, many lose their patents because they cannot pay the renewal fees. Even when an inventor is lucky he can only draw rent for fourteen years. We see, then, that the men who make most of the wealth are hindered and robbed by the law, and we know that the law has been made by capitalists and landlords. Apply the same law to land that is applied to patents, and the whole land of England would be public property in fourteen years. Apply the same law to patents that is applied to land, and every article we use would be increased in price, and we should still be paying royalties to the descendants, or to their assigns, of James Watt, George Stephenson, and ten thousand other inventors. And now will some non-Socialist, Mr. Mallock or another, write a nice new book, and explain to us upon what rules of justice or of reason the present unequal treatment of the useless, idle landlord and the valuable and industrious inventor can be defended? CHAPTER V THE LANDLORD'S RIGHTS AND THE PEOPLE'S RIGHTS Socialists are often accused of being advocates of violence and plunder. You will be told, no doubt, that Socialists wish to take the land from its present owners, by force, and "share it out" amongst the landless. Socialists have no more idea of taking the land from its present holders and "sharing it out" amongst the poor than they have of taking the railways from the railway companies and sharing the carriages and engines amongst the passengers. When the London County Council municipalised the tram service they did not rob the companies, nor did they share out the cars amongst the people.