Part 2 (1/2)

In 1853 the question of a copyright convention with Great Britain was again under discussion, the measure being favored by Mr. Everett, at that time Secretary of State. Five of the leading publis.h.i.+ng houses in New York addressed a letter to Mr. Everett in which, while favoring a convention, they advised--

1st. That the foreign author must be required to register the t.i.tle of his work in the United States before its publication abroad.

2d. That the work, to secure protection, must be issued in the United States within thirty days of its publication abroad; and

3d. That the reprint must be wholly manufactured in the United States.

Shortly afterwards Mr. Carey published his ”Letters on International Copyright,” in which he took the ground that the facts and ideas in a book are the common property of society, and that property in copyright is indefensible. In 1858 a bill was introduced into the House of Representatives by Mr. Morris, of Pennsylvania, providing for international copyright on the basis of an entire remanufacture of the foreign work and its reissue by an American publisher within thirty days of the publication abroad. The bill does not appear to have received any consideration.

In March, 1868, a circular letter headed ”Justice to Authors and Artists,” was issued by a Committee composed of G. P. Putnam, Dr. S.

I. Prime, Henry Ivison, James Parton, and Egbert Hazard, calling together a meeting for the consideration of the subject of international copyright. The meeting was held on the 9th of April, Mr.

Bryant presiding, and a society was organized under the t.i.tle of the ”Copyright a.s.sociation for the Protection and Advancement of Literature and Art,” of which Mr. Bryant was made president and E. C.

Stedman secretary. The primary object of the a.s.sociation was stated to be ”to promote the enactment of a just and suitable international copyright law for the benefit of authors and artists in all parts of the world.”

A memorial had been prepared by the above-mentioned Committee to be presented to Congress, which requested Congress to give its early attention to the pa.s.sage of a bill ”to secure in all parts of the world the rights of authors,” etc., but which made no recommendations as to the details of any measure. Of the 153 signatures attached to this memorial, 101 were those of authors, and 19 of publishers.

In the fall of 1868 Mr. J. D. Baldwin, member of Congress from Worcester, Ma.s.s., reported a bill that had been prepared with the co-operation of the Executive Committee of the Copyright a.s.sociation, which provided, That a foreign work could secure a copyright in this country provided it was wholly manufactured here and should be issued for sale by a publisher who was an American citizen. The benefit of the copyright was also limited to the author and his a.s.signs.

The bill was recommitted to the Joint Committee on the Library, and no action was taken upon it. The members of this Committee were Senators E. D. Morgan, of New York, Howe, of Wisconsin, and Fessenden, of Maine, who were opposed to the measure, and Representatives Baldwin, of Ma.s.sachusetts, Pruyn, of New York, and Spalding, of Ohio, who were in favor of it. The bill was also to have been supported in the House by Michael C. Kerr, of Indiana. Mr. Baldwin explains that an important cause for the shelving of the measure without debate was the impeachment of President Johnson, which was at that time absorbing the attention of Congress and the country. No general expression of opinion was therefore elicited upon the question from either Congress or the people, and in fact the question has never reached such a stage as to enable such an expression of public opinion to be arrived at.

It is my own belief that if the issue were fairly presented to them, the American people could be trusted to decide it honestly and wisely.

The active members of the committee of the Copyright a.s.sociation, under whose general suggestions this bill of Mr. Baldwin's had been framed, were Dr. S. Irenaeus Prime, George P. Putnam, and James Parton.

Dr. Prime published in _Putnam's Magazine_ in May, 1868, a paper on the ”Right of Copyright,” which remains perhaps the most concise and comprehensive statement of the principles governing the question, and which sets forth very clearly the necessary connection between Carey's denial of the right of property in books and Proudhon's claim that all property is robbery. In 1871 Mr. c.o.x of New York introduced a bill which was practically identical with Mr. Baldwin's measure, and which was also recommitted to the Library Committee. In 1872 the new Library Committee called upon the publishers and others interested to aid in framing a bill.

A meeting of the publishers was called in New York, which was attended by but one firm outside of New York; the majority of the firms present were in favor of the provisions of Mr. c.o.x's bill, already referred to. The report was dissented from by a large minority on the ground that the bill was in the interests of the publishers rather than that of the public; that the prohibition of the use of foreign stereotypes and electrotypes of ill.u.s.trations was an economic absurdity; and that an English publis.h.i.+ng house could in any case, through an American partner, retain control of the American market. The report of the minority was prepared by Mr. Edward Seymour, of Scribner, Armstrong & Co. During the same week a bill was drafted by Mr. C. A. Bristed, representing more especially the views of the authors in the International Copyright a.s.sociation, which provided simply that ”all rights of property secured to citizens of the United States by existing copyright laws are hereby secured to the citizens and subjects of every country the government of which secures reciprocal rights to the citizens of the United States.” The same result as that aimed at in Mr. Bristed's bill would have been obtained by the adoption of the recommendation made by Mr. J. A. Morgan in his work on ”The Law of Literature,” published in 1876. He suggested that the present copyright law be amended by simply inserting the word ”person”

in place of ”citizen,” in which case its privileges would at once be secured to any authors, of whatever nationality, who complied with its requirements.

A few weeks later the meeting was held in Philadelphia whose resolutions in opposition to international copyright (which, as we have shown, were equally forcible against any copyright) we have already quoted.

These four reports were submitted to the Library Committee of Congress, together with one or two individual measures, of which the most noteworthy were those of Harper & Bros., and of John P. Morton, bookseller, of Louisville.

Messrs. Harper, in a letter presented by their counsel, objected to any measure of international copyright on the broad ground that it would ”add to the price of books and interfere with the education of the people.” This consideration is of course open to the same criticism as the Philadelphia platform; it is equally forcible against any copyright whatever. As Thomas Hood says, ”cheap _bread_ is as desirable and necessary as cheap books,” but one does not on that ground appropriate the farmer's wheat-stacks!

Mr. Morton was in favor of an arrangement that should give to any dealer the privilege of reprinting a foreign work, provided he would contract to pay to the author or his representative 10 per cent of the wholesale price of such work. He advised also that the American market should be left open to the foreign edition, so that the compet.i.tion should be perfectly unrestricted.

The proposition that all dealers who would contract to pay to the author a royalty (to be fixed by law) should be at liberty to undertake the publication of a work was at a later date presented to the British Commission by Mr. Farrer and Sir Henry Holland, first with reference to home copyright, and secondly as a suggestion for an international arrangement. In this last shape the writer had the opportunity, in 1876, of presenting to the Commission some considerations against it. These will be referred to further on.

A similar suggestion formed the basis of a measure submitted in 1872 by Mr. Elderkin, of New York, to the Library Committee of Congress, and known afterwards as the Sherman Bill.

In view of the wide diversity of the plans and suggestions presented to this Committee, there was certainly some ground for the statement made in his report by the chairman, Senator Lot M. Morrill, of Maine, that ”there was no unanimity of opinion among those interested in the measure.” He maintained, further, that an international copyright was not called for by reasons of general equity or of const.i.tutional law; that the adoption of any plan which had been proposed would be of very doubtful advantage to American authors, and would not only be an unquestionable and permanent injury to the interests engaged in the manufacture of books, but a hindrance to the diffusion of knowledge among the people, and to the cause of American education.

This report closed for the time the consideration of the subject.

The efforts in behalf of international copyright have been always more or less hampered by the question being confused with that of a protective tariff.

The strongest opposition to a copyright measure has as a rule come from the protectionists. Richard Grant White said in 1868: ”The refusal of copyright in the United States to British authors is in fact, though it is not so avowed, a part of the 'American' protective system.” And again: ”With free trade we shall have just international copyright.”

It would be difficult, however, for the protectionists to show logical grounds for their position. American authors are manufacturers, who are simply asking, first, that they shall not be undersold in their home market by goods imported from abroad on which no (owners.h.i.+p) duty has been paid,--which have, namely, been simply ”appropriated;” and secondly, that the government may facilitate their efforts to secure a sale for their own goods in foreign markets. These are claims with which a protectionist who is interested in developing American industry ought certainly to be in sympathy.

The contingency that troubles him, however, is the possibility that, if the English author is given the right to sell his books in this country the copies sold may be to a greater or less extent manufactured in England, and the business of making these copies may be lost to American printers, binders, and paper men. He is namely, much more concerned for the protection of the makers of the _material casing_ of the book than for that of the author who creates its essential substance.