This is a simile for thousands of inventions, only that the inventor is seldom situated to plant the corn on his own land and reap the harvest. Then which of you will say that he has not a just lien on every man's crop raised by his process for a per cent of the gains thereby? There is a bill before Congress favoring a periodical taxation of patents under the pretext of removing useless patents from the path of later inventors. Let me show you how one inventor looks at that. My neighbor has a vacant lot on which he is unable to build; but joined to mine it would increase the value of my property vastly. Now can't you legislate that old heap of rubbish into my possession somehow? Of course he is waiting for the rise of property around him to sell his lot well; but can't you make that appear unnatural, and that he is a dog in the manger? It is also said that sharpers get control of old patents and lay an embargo on legitimate business. I reply, first, no one could be damaged by the owner of a patent unless he infringed that owner's right; second, if he does infringe, it shows that said patent is valuable, otherwise he need not infringe; and if valuable why should not he pay for it? Mr. B, in the employ of Mr. C, watches the machine he uses, and spends his leisure hours in working out an improvement, which he patents and offers to C for sale; but as the invention is useless except as attached to C's machine, he thinks B can't help himself, and adopts the improvement without paying for it. When a few years have built up a great industry, and C is rich from his spoils, B steps in with a few friends at his back, incorporated especially to make C shell out. Of course this is bad and ought to be legislated against. If it were not valuable C need not use it. It is not becoming to the Congress of a great nation to spend its time in legislating worthless patents out of existence. All such will die a natural death. And if there is sufficient worth in any patent to claim your consideration, the inventor is entitled to its price, whether he waits four years or fifteen for his pay. I speak of myself, not as an individual, but as representing in this letter a class, without whose achievements America, in her proud length and breadth, could not to-day have been. For the last half of my past life, over twenty years, I have been an inventor. Schooled in adversity, accustomed to disappointment, sometimes successful, enjoying no luxuries but the conquest of obstacles, and often forced to simple pursuits to keep the pot boiling, yet I expect to spend the rest of my life inventing, feeling strong in the school of experience, and hoping for such prosperity as will enable me to work out some of the larger problems in view.