New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-07-17

cause there they write not Tor property pu' ""s'o'
and SO escape from bad statute law to the common
law Of England and the United states.
But this impairs the just balance OF
ephemeral and lasting literature. 1t creates
an excess of journalists; this appears by four tests
the small remuneration of average journalists, the
number of native journals compared with native
hooks the too many personalities in those too many
Journals and the bankruptcy of 600 American
Journals per annum. Now am ashamed to say all
this injudcious knavery Mt home and abroad had
its root in England. 1t was here the words were
first spoken and written, which. being thonght-
lessly repeated by statesmen by judges, by wrtcis
of law books, and now and then 10y pubcists' nave
gradually deluded the mind and blunted the con-
science Of thcAng'o-Saxon. That great race ID III
ferior TO none in common respect for property
small az well as great, and impartial justice
To be false to all these its characteristic and most
honorable traits il must he under some strong de-
msions | will enumerate these, and show that
they have neither truth reason, common law
nor antiquity to support them; and hope Win
Gods help and the assistance of those may con-
vince, to root them out of the Anglo-Saxon hiihu'
and so give the Anglo-Saxon conscience far play.
roUR pEIusroxs FROM WHICH AUTHORS SUFFER.
The four main decisions that set the public heart
against authors rights are,
First: THE ETHEREAL MANIA That an author Is a
disembodied spirit and so are his wife and children
That to refuse an unsalancd fisherman an exclusive
title to the fish he has labOred for III the pubic sea-
would starye the fisherman and s family; put tne
same course would not starve the unsaaiied author
his wife, and bis children. Those little ilnpS may
seem to cry for bread; but they are squeaklhg lor
ideas. The ethereal mania intermits IKE oNay
other It's lucid intervals coincide with the VISITS W
the rent-gatherer the taXgatherer, and the trades
Al. os<,.oc of Ull-
mits that an author is a solid and ought to pay or
smart but returns to ether, when the funds are 10
be acquired, without which rent, taxes, and trades
men cannot DO paid life, far less respectabibty
sustained. No AngO-SaxOn can look the ethereal
crotchet in tho face and not laugh al IT, lei 80
subtle and rsdous is Prejudice, that you shall ma
your Anglo-SaXon constantly arguing ana acting as
If this nonsense was sense; and, pray believe me,
the most dangerous of all our lies are those silly
sapsp:ag falsehoods which a man Is ashamed to
STATE yet let's them secretly influence his mind ana
conduct. Lord Camden, the great enemy OF Authors
IN the last century, example. Compel inu TO
look the ethereal mania in the face. ana his good
sense would have revoted. Yet dissect his aIgu-
ments and his eoquence, you will find thoJ are boih
secretly fc:inded Oh tie ethereal MANIA and stand 0f
fan with i
Second An HIsroRCaL FNsEHoOD That intel
iectual property is not founded on the moral SENSE q"
mankind nor on the common law of England. but Is
the creature of modern statutes and an arbitrary IN
vasion of British and Amercanliberty Thsfalsehood
is as dangerous as it looks innocent III crosses the
Atlantic and blunts the American conscience ana II
even vitiates the judicial mind at home. 1t works
thus down at Westminster. The judges there hate
and dcspise acts of Parliament They make no
secret of it they at them openly on the Judg-
ment seat filling foreigners with ainaZehent.
Therefore when they get into their heads that
property exists only by statute, that turns Their
hearts against the property and they feel bound 10
guard common law liberties against the arbitrary
restrictions of that statute. Interpreted III THIS
spirit a statute and the broad intention OF those
who framed it, can be balled in many cases that the
Legislature could not foresee, OF which SHAH give
glaring examples
Third: The laws protecting intellectual property
enable authors to make money than they dc
serve and that piratca publishers sell books not
for love of lucre but of the public and for half the
price Of copyrighted books. viii annihate tins
falsehood not by reasoning but by palpabe facts
and figures.
Fourth: The worst dclusioD Of all is, that what an
thors and the Legislature cal intellectual property is
neither a common-aw property nor property created
by statute but a monopoly created by statute.
NATURE OF COPYEIGHT-A CHALLENGE.
This confusion of IDEAS unknown to our ancestors
and at variance with the distinctive ttIIns they
used was first advanced by Mr. Justice Yates III the
year 1863. He repeated it eight times, i'll 1hliar
sgt TAYLOR; and indeed without it his whole argu
ment falls to the ground The fallacy has never
been exposed with any real mental power, and has
stutifed Senatorial and legal minds by tho thou
sand 1t was adopted and made popular by Macau- |
lay in the House of Commons Feb. II. 1871. lie
was a subject that required logic he substituted
rhetoric; and said striking things. He said
downright is Monopoly and produces all the effects
the general voice OF mankind attributes to mOnop |
oly.y In another part OF bis Rhetoric Le defined
copyright "a tax on readers to give bounty to au
thors" and this lac evidently thought nonstrous the
remuneration to producers in general not being all
item that falls on the public purchaser; but where
he learned hat only God, who made him.
knows In another part lac stgnatized copyright
as a monopoly IN books" He did not carry out
these conclusions honestly: holding them. it was his
duty TO advocate the extinction OF intellectual prop
erty But if his conclusions weak bis pre-
misses were deadly. lie took poisoned arrow out of
the custody of few pettioggers and put it into the
hands of ton Thousand knayos and fools: where the
respected word Property had stood for ages lie and
the pettifogger Yates whom he echoed, set up the
hated word Monopoly. Rank weeds do grow
apace" this fallacy spread swiftly from the Senate
to the Bar from the Bar 10 the Bench. ! have with
nv own ears heard the BaTons OF the EXclrquor call
copyright a monopoly; nor is the expression con-
fined to that court II is adopted by writoTs OF law
books and so nfects the mind of the growing law
yers But only consider The effect. Here is prop
erty the great public never reads about nor under
stands and is therefore at the mercy Of its public
teachers. 1t hears the mouthpcces of law and the
mouthpieces of opinion declare from their tribunals