Boulton & Watt, the capitalist with the inventor, gave the world the steam engine, finally, in such form and in such numbers that its permanent establishment as the servant of man was insured.  The capitalist was as essential an element of success as was the inventor, and, in this instance, as in a thousand others, the race is indebted to that much-abused friend of the race, the capitalist, for much that it enjoys of all that it desires.  The industry and patience, the skill and the wisdom required for the accumulation of this energy stored for future use in great enterprises is as important, as essential, as inventive power or any other form of genius.  Talent and genius must always aid each other.  This firm was established in 1764 and its main resources, aside from the bank account, were Watt’s patent, about expiring, and Watt’s genius, and Boulton’s talent as a man of business.  The patent was extended for twenty-four years, the new inventions of Watt, now beginning to pour from his prolific brain in a wonderful stream, were also patented, and the whole works were soon employed upon the construction of engines for which numerous orders soon began to pour in upon the now prosperous builders.  The patent law established Boulton and Watt and the firm paid back the nation with handsome usury, giving it unimaginable profits indirectly through its control of the work of the world and large profits directly through the business brought them from all parts of the then civilized globe.  There has never, in the history of the world, been a more impressive illustration of the value to a nation of that generous public policy, that simply just legislation, which gives to the man of brain control of the products of his mind.  For a hundred years, Great Britain has, largely through her encouragement of the inventor and her protection of his mental property by securing the fruits of his labors, in fair portion, to him, gained the power of dictating to the world and has gained an advance that cannot be measured.  Watt and Arkwright and Stephenson and Crompton and their ilk, protected by their government and its patent laws, made their country the peaceful conqueror of the world.  The story of the work of the inventor is a poem of mighty meaning and of wonderful deeds.  The inventor proved himself a mightier magician than ever the world had seen.

    “A creature he called to wait on his will,
    Half iron, half vapor—­a dread to behold;
    Which evermore panted, and evermore rolled,
    And uttered his words a millionfold.”

Such was the outcome of this grand modern “trust,” a combination of the wisest legislation, the most brilliant invention, and the most wisely applied capital.  There are “trusts” of which the outcome is most beneficent.