“A patent system,” said Mart, “is intended to be a form of remuneration to a discoverer in return for the use of his work. In the case of —”
“Well, now, just a moment, Dr. Nagle. The reward offered by a patent is in the nature of a monopoly, and that is the crux of our present problem. You cannot say that it would be justifiable to grant a person a monopoly on just any kind of a discovery because he happened to be the first to discover it.”
“I did not use the word monopoly,” said Mart. “I said remuneration. In the case of —”
“Well, now, Dr. Nagle. You say remuneration. All right, we’ll use the word remuneration. But it is obvious at once that if you wish to place the magnitude of the remuneration in direct proportion to the magnitude of the discovery, there rapidly appears a point at which it is ridiculous to allow a single individual to control or realize the rewards of certain discoveries which will be of the utmost magnitude. Do you not agree that this is so, Dr. Nagle?”
Mart shrugged and smiled and said nothing. He glanced at the watch on his wrist, hoping he had not misestimated the time at his disposal.
Baird hesitated, waiting for Mart to make a statement which could be interrupted and shouted down. But Mart remained silent.
“Will you tell our audience, then, exactly how you view your own present, controversial discoveries in the light of our present Patent System?”
“I will,” said Mart quietly, “if you will allow me to finish my statements without interrupting before I am through. If I am interrupted again, I will allow the audience to make its own decision as to why I am not permitted to state my case.”
Baird grew red in the face, and it looked as if he were going to explode. Just in time, he glanced at the ever-present cameras.
Mart let his breath out slowly. He had been right. The cameras were the one check that would keep Baird in line. The commentator’s bottled up rage would scarcely permit him to interrupt now.
Through thin lips and blazing eyes directed toward Mart, and momentarily out of range of the camera, he said. “Please continue — Dr. Nagle.”
Mart looked directly into the glistening, opaque eyes that were like some stupid inquisitors out of space. “We have built our nation,” he said slowly, “on the principle, among others, of just rewards for conscientious labor. The correctness of this principle can be determined quite easily by comparison of our society with those based on other principles which require that both the man and his labor belong to the community.
“In the beginning, it was easy to make our labor principles work. A man staked out a farm and produced his crops and traded with his neighbors. Afterwards, there came to be so many kinds of labor that it was difficult to evaluate one in terms of an other, with a just remuneration for all.
“Among the most difficult was the labor of a man who devised machines to lighten the burden of his neighbor and himself. How much should he be paid for such devising? Once he built and sold such a machine he had no reward for the days spent in thought and creation. When the secrets of the machine were revealed, any man could make it for his own.
“The man who invented did so because he loved that kind of labor, just as the farmer loves the earth. But even inventors must eat and provide for their families. How could the farmers as a group properly repay the inventor for his creation? In its attempt to provide justly for these men, society has made laws that grant limited monopolies to the inventor for the exploitation of his discovery. This is intended to be his reward and remuneration.
“In the exploitation of the resources of the land, we followed the same plan. A man was allowed the land which he staked out and put to use. He was allowed to mine and sell the minerals and oil found within it, for his own profit.
“Nowhere have we ever challenged the right to exploit and make a profit from that which a man discovers — except in one field. The intangible field of Man’s exploration of the principles and laws upon which the world of nature operates. A housewife can make a small fortune by devising a simplified method for cleaning out the family plumbing. The man who discovers the forces that hold together the building blocks of the Universe gets nothing.
“It has been said that the thrill of discovery is all the reward that such a man needs or wants. That is a fool’s answer. We live in a real world that demands that we be fed and clothed and housed adequately and that our families are well cared for, if we are to embark on the longest voyages which the mind of man can make.
“We have made it possible for housewives and garage mechanics to reap fortunes for a few weeks’ work in basement or shop. But we have not made it possible to reward the man who discovers a basic secret of the Universe.
“I have given myself for an example. I made a toy, a trivial gadget of little worth. For this, you paid me a substantial sum. But I also discovered what force it is that reaches out across the depths of space from planet to planet and from sun to sun. And it is demanded — literally demanded by Mr. Baird and others — that I give this for nothing!
“I have done this to show you what happens to scientists who try honestly to devote their talents to the good of all. What I cannot show is the amount of waste of intellectual ability that results from the failure of our Patent System to reward those who discover new Laws of Nature. Our great corporations would like to promote vast programs of research into the secrets of the Universe. But there is no way for you, the workers and stockholders in these companies, to profit directly from such research. There is no way for an individual to engage in a career of pure, basic research with the hope of profiting thereby, unless he turns maker of gimmicks, as I have done.
“But I do not wish to be a gadgeteer. Neither do thousands of others who are forced to do so because they can get a reward in no other way. Further than this, it is fundamentally impossible for us to make such a switch of profession and do it adequately. There are theoretical research minds, and there are engineer-type-thinkers. By their very nature, these are not interchangeable in the kinds of work that each is competent to perform. Each needs the other. If both are forced into one mold, then both suffer alike, as a result.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Mart saw it coming. It was almost as if Baird had drawn back his arm and were aiming a polished haft and gleaming point in his direction.
The television reporter leaned forward, his eyes shining with malice. He had timed it just right, Mart thought. For a moment he felt a little sorry for Baird. You always knew what a mind like Baird’s was going to do next. The rut it traveled in was old and very deep.
When he spoke now, Baird’s voice was low and modulated with his special kind of phony sincerity. “Suppose that the present hearings before the Congressional Committee were decided against you, Dr. Nagle. Suppose it is decided not to reward you with a monopoly on what has long been considered a Law of Nature so that you can profit therefrom. This is a time when your country needs these discoveries very badly, so the scientists tell us. Your country, which is perhaps the only one under the blue sky of Earth where you could have the freedom sufficient to make these discoveries. Will you give them to that country of yours freely, even if the decision is against you? Or will you bury them as you have threatened to do — until someone else who can equal your great genius comes along and rediscovers them? Which will you do, Dr. Nagle?”
Baird drew back, grinning triumphantly. Mart paused long enough to let him enjoy that triumph. Then he faced the cameras squarely again.
“I will give my work freely, of course,” he said. “What I have done has been merely to bring this tragic injustice to the attention of the nation, which is being harmed so irrevocably by it. I have done this because I believe in my fellow citizens. I believe they will no longer permit this injustice to continue — driving out of my profession those whose life work ought to be the uncovering of the great secrets of Nature.