CONGRESS. (INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT.) 



219 



II ami pleasure and sell it to tho people of 

 states. This hill departs from that 



and adopts a new , to give to the 



ln> n^lit of authorship and the i-xrl 



hi- books in I In- I'niti-d States of 

 I'.ut it goes beyond that. It gives to 

 publisher employed by tin- author tin- i-xi-lu- 

 . publish the 'book without competi- 

 .1 h foreign countries. It is that theory and 

 inemle which has been twice negatived by 

 ided vote of tlie Senate, and that now has 

 , r rendered. 



etTc-ct of the proposition as it now stands 

 ,ake the copyright granted an exclusive 

 Iv tn publish a book in the United States 

 it any competition from foreign countries 

 that" contained in two provisions. First, 

 I will refer to tho provision offered by the Sen- 

 .in Kan-as. It takes the heart and life 

 out <>f that proposition. The proposition of the 

 r from Kansas was to allow magazines 

 newspapers of current literature to come 

 the country free. Most of it comes in free 

 1 duty whatever under the existing law. 

 t now if the London 'Times' contains a 

 chapter of a book that is copyrighted in this 

 country it must be excluded. Take the great 

 uies with which we are familiar, 'Black- 

 '- ' and the various other magazines pub- 

 lished in Kngland, some of which, it is said, have 

 H larger circulation in the United States than in 

 England. If such a magazine contains portions 

 of chapters or extracts from an author, in cer- 

 tain eases it would be in violation of this rule, 

 mill consequently it could not to be imported here. 

 " The liability of any book or magazine or 

 naper being confiscated by the revenue officers 

 ' it contains matters that have been copy- 

 righted in this country would bo a new de- 

 parture from anything that has ever happened 

 before. It would be an embarrassment without 

 limit. It practically nullifies the clause inserted 

 upon motion of the Senator from Kansas. All 

 who are familiar with the ordinary quarter- 

 '1 reviews and monthlies of England know 

 that the great body of those magazines rest npon 

 reviews and criticism involving extracts from 

 works that are copyrighted in this country or 

 that are supposed to bo copyrighted in this 

 ntry. 



Now as to tho other proposition, the object 

 the amendment that was finally formulated 

 by the Senator from Kentucky, the idea of which 

 I first siiLT^ested, is that there ought to be com- 

 petition Ix-tween tho publishers in England and 

 the publishers in our own country, a competition 

 in accordance with our general laws, which by 

 dm ies on imported books gives to the home pub- 

 lishep a great advantage. 



" These 1 looks can not be introduced here, except 

 that two copies may be ordered bv a single per- 

 son. So if 1 desire to send to England fora 

 book that has been copyrighted in this country, 

 1 have the privilege to do so, but at what cost 

 and expense! If I send an order for two books 

 to a London bookseller and have them directed 

 to me here. 1 have the right, according to this 

 proposition, upon paying the duty, to import them. 

 Bat what is that right worth t In the first place, 

 1 have to buy the books at the retail price. A man 

 can not get'books into this country except by a 



triplicate invoice. Anybody who undertakes to 

 jinrehase a suit of clothes or anything oi that 

 kind from abroad has to have a triplicate in- 

 voice signed by the consul in London, the cost 

 of which I do not know, but it is considerable 

 for every invoice. It costs just as much to make 

 out an invoice, for two books as it would <-<M for 

 a thousand books, and he can only make this in- 

 voice for two books and no more. He has to pay 

 at least from $1.50 to $3 for the expense of in- 

 voicing. Then, further, is the expense of trans- 

 portation, and besides he has to pay the duty; 

 so that in effect the cost would be added to so 

 great an amount in this favor that is granted to 

 the American people to import books from 

 abroad that no one except a very rich man could 

 afford to import any books whatever. 



" In other words, it is a denial to the people of 

 the United States of the right to import any 

 books that have been copyrighted in this coun- 

 try except at an expense which would place this 

 privilege far beyond the reach of ordinary peo- 

 ple. So none but the rich, who are indifferent 

 to the cost of importation, could indulge in this 

 bounty given to the people of the United States. 



' Now, the right to import books, the right to 

 read books, the love of books, is more general in 

 this country than anywhere else, as I said this 

 afternoon ; and yet this right which every Amer- 

 ican citizen has enjoyed since the declaration of 

 American independence is so limited and cribbed 

 by the operations of this proposed law that it 

 can not be exercised practically : and it would 

 be better entirely to strike out this provision and 

 leave it to a broad inhibition to prohibit abso- 

 lutely the importation of any books from 

 abroad." 



In condemnation of these criticisms, Mr. Kv- 

 arts, of New York, said : 



" Mr. President, we can not discuss the fun- 

 damentals'of copyright. What we are to discuss 

 is how we will extend the privilege of copyright, 

 which involves the monopoly of copyright of 

 foreign authors for the benefit of the people of 

 this country. Two arguments reach the subject: 

 the benefit we are to have from foreign author- 

 ship made in our country valuable to the writer, 

 and the reciprocal advantage to our authors in 

 their authorship in the foreign country. 



" We have been treated this afternoon to an 

 hour's discussion on minor and trivial topics. 

 The arrangement now laid before the Senate 

 would dispose of all those objections. We were 

 told that a rich man or a scholar loving books 

 should be" at liberty to have handsome books, 

 costly books, with good type for his failing ejea 

 We were told it was absurd that returning trav- 

 elers bringing their books for their use on ship- 

 board should have to throw them overboard when 

 they reach here. That has been disposed of. 



" We were told that foreigners coming here 

 should not be cut off from their relations to 

 their foreign authorship and their foreign affec- 

 tions in literature. That has all been di- 

 of. All these things are now brought into the 

 discussion by the enemies of the copyright. But 

 these objections amount to nothing. 



"What is there left, then! It is seriously 

 nothing but this, that whereas now all foreign 

 literature may be appropriated to the consump- 

 tion and the enlargement of knowledge there- 



