Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-02-22
MOST sTUpEEDoUs EXAMPLE OF EF-
PRogrERY.

We have already referred briefly to the
sinister measure proposed to copyright
news for twenty -four hours after publica-
ton by any paper publishing it, Refec.
ton is not needed to disclose the infamy of
the scheme. 1t is an attempt TO legalize
nonsense; it is an effort TO clothe stupid,
unreasoning and abstract injustice with the
mantle of legality. II California Senators
and Representatives in Congress give this
type of false ideas the sancity of law and
the protection of the Federal statutes,
they may as well pack their party grip.
sacks and prepare to retire to that per.
sonai and political obscurity from wbish
not even the merciful disposition of tie
. people will ever permit them to emerge
II 5heyNvote for the measure, let them IN.
derstand in advance that the record They
make viii be that of their own eternal ia.
fanny confession that they are the COW
ard slaves of the most dangerous
monopoly that has ever arisen in the his
tory of civilization. But we have no fear
that these representatives. of an intelligent
people viii for moment even coquette
with, much less yield to the blandishments
of this new hsrlot that proposes to Shear
the strength of the press.
Let us look at the proposition for mo.
ment and Illustrate it's practical working
Il will establish in the hands of seven pa
pers in New York, four in Chicago, two IN
Cincinnati, one in Louisville and two Ia
st. Louis, the most gigantic and dangerous
form OF monopoly that has ever been at
tempted in the United States. It will
close to the many and confirm to the few
the chief avenue of intelligence by which
the people of the United States are in
formed o. thu grea. transactions of the
day, and out of the debate of which
t5At we denominate public opinion
-xiises. Suppose for instance, to Use
a homely illustration, the case of the re.
0ut deplorable snowshed disaster in the
upper Sisrras. By the law of nature the
sun rises before it sets, and by journalistic
necessity our evening local contemporary
and the San Francisco Bulletin send out
their issues for the reading public in the
afternoon of each day. The disaster re-
ferred to happens just prior to such issu-
ance, whereby it falls to their duty as it is
their privilege, to report the unhappy
occurrence; and by the same exigency its
recording in the RECORD. UNION, the Ma
rysville Appeal and the morning papers of
San Francisco must be deferred until the
next morning, or &c hours thereafter
How, in good conscience or common de-
cency, can the Congress of these United
States confer upon the evening papers ex.
elusive property right in such news simply
because the event giving it birth happened
at an hour that enabled them to print it
prior to the publication hour of the morn
ing papers
Or, suppose the morning papers had
no agent at the point, how can
Congress prevent the morning papers
taking the facts from the Bulletin
presenting them in their own Ian
guage and publishing the intelligence ? Or
suppose a popular convocation to be in as
sembly at night, how can Congress under
take to say that the evening papers shall
not use the record OF the transactions as
printed in the earlier journals as prefa-
tory to their own supplement of later pro-
ceedings?
Copyright is intended to secure to the
author the parental right to the child of
his brain; patent is intended to reward
inventive genius and vest in the discoverer
Of novel and useful methods of doing
things the exclusive right to make and
nd for time deemed adequate to repay
him roundly for the outlay of his means,
the sacrifice of his time. and the applica-
ton Of his intellect. The policy which
actuates governments to these ends is
wise one. 1t is based on the benefit that
accrues to mankind from the exertions of
human genius not only to stimulate
but TO toward the inventive faculty for its
valuable results. So it is that copyrights
are given to the producers of books. and
patents TO the inventors Of labor-saving
machinery and discoveries in the half
explored field of science. But the great
and underlying reason for copyright and
patent laws is the benefit to the whole
people.
Now whence this new bill? It is the
offspring of the Associated Press OF New
York. II has the authorship of Mr.. Wat.
terson. What does it do? Itreverses the
policy we have outlined, and instead Of
benefiting proposes to practically deliver,
. bound hand and foot, to a few great jour.
mails the publishing and reading
public Of the Union. 1t is in the