Astounding Science Fiction, British Edition — page 44: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

42 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION _ —what he meant by declaring that Sir Isaac Newton should have been able to patent the Law of Gravity. And that he, Martin Nagle, should be allowed to patent the atom. At the end of the final session, Senator Cogswell took his hand. “There'll be some changes made,” he promised. “It may be rough going to get it done. We may have to call you back again—more than once. But in the end you people are going to get what you want. Generations of scien- tists to come are going to be grateful because you endured the personal sacrifice of staging this demonstration which brought to our attention the inadequacies of a system of which we were unjustly proud.” It was not until they were back in New York clearing out their tempor- ary Offices for a move to a more reasonable environment that they saw Don Wolfe at any length. He came in the morning after their return and sat down without a word in a chair opposite the desk where Mart was examining a file of papers. Berk was acking a carton of reports on the other side of the room. “I want in,” said Don Wolfe finally. “It was all over before the full crux of this thing hit me like a sandbag on the noggin. You shoved it through so fast that you almost put it over on me, too.” ““Come again?” said Mart. “You put on a show and bribed them with antigravity and teleport- ation to change the whole Patent System, and not one of them guessed what you were really doing—what they were actually letting themselves in for.” Mart glanced across the room towards Berk, his eyebrows slanted in a frown. “So? Now we have secret designs and untold motives?” Wolfe nodded. “If you had lived in ancient Salem, they would no doubt have burned you for witchcraft. They were more clever at catching on to these things back in them days. But I’m not entirely sure it won’t happen yet. You have just delivered one of the deadliest rabbit punches ever given to the glorious age of scientific superstition, and I don’t think its high priests are going to let you go entirely unscratched. “Dykstra is not the only one. He just happened to be in the minority at the Committee meetings. The others would have come if they had known you had a chance of winning. The universities are bulging with them. There are plenty, too, in the commercial labs. The AEC and the Bureau of Standards are salted liberally with them.” Mart laughed and gave up the work he was trying to do. He leaned back and looked at Don Wolfe. “I’m afraid I haven’t the least idea what you are talking about, Don.” “The old way was a good way because it was essentially designed to discourage new thinking. It encour- aged a man to try to make a million by selling a new and patented writing tool that wouldn’t work. It encouraged file clerks to invent collar holders and tie clips. It got ten million tinkers and garage mechanics to spend their week- ends thinking up dimestore ding- whizzits and mail order thingoolies so they could get enough to retire. “And it kept nicely under its thumb the thousands of good brains that might have been engaged in new, basic thinking on how the Universe is put together—which is what its chief purpose came to be. Oh, not consciously, of course! You know that better than I. The human organism is far more devious than that. But that’s been the effect. “Now it’s blown wide open. You Comicbooks.co ie AA