Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-04-22
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES.
The Breckenridge Copyright Bill-The
Dunn Free Ship Bill.

lie breckenridge copyright DIII-ine
Dunn Free Ship Bill.
WASHINGTON, April 21.-The Brecken-
ridge copyright bill was today reported to
the house by Mr.. Collins, from the
judiciary committee In the report the
committee says at last and for the first
time, authors, publishers, type settlers,
eIectrotypers, binders, booksellers and all
others ged in making and distributing
books, have, with singular Unanimity,
agreed upon bill which they ask con gress
10 pass Under its provisions the Ameri
can author viii have the protection for his
work which is now denied him abroad be-
cause OF our denial of the rights of all
others. The passage of the bill will en-
courage and stimulate American author
ship, designing, engraving and all the arts
that enter into the making of good books.
By it our authors obtain a wide market
that of the whole world. 1t will unques-
tionably raise the standard of literature
also By banshing the trashy and the gas
light literature from the field. 1t needs
no angel from heaven to tell US all the
harm that such stuff has done our youth.
IL is certain that the besC
books written by men and women
all over the word VIII, under international
copyright be sold in the United States for
less than they are sold now and the gener-
al opinion and argument pushed almost to
a demonstration is all other books will be
sold for as low a price as they are low.
When solvent and sagacious American
publisher obtains the sole right to the
American market for a foreign authors
works, lie can make it better and as cheap
at least as ten publishers who pirate such
a book under the present arran gement
run a cut in competition for its sale. BY
way of illustration it may be said that a
copy of book in an edition of 10000 cop
les cost SIX times as much as one IN an edI-
ton of 5000
The Dunn free ship BILL as reported TO
the house committee on merchant marine
and fisheries, is identical with the bill re-
ported to the last congress, with the ex-
! ception of two amendments limiting the
business Of the foreign built vessels admit
ted to American registry to the foreign
trade and expressly prohibiting them from
engaging III the COaSt-WlSe trade of the
United States. The majority report salso
similar to that which accompanied the
bill when II was reported during the last
congress with the addition OF a few tables
( from the report OF the commissioner of
/ navigation, and the statements that to
longer retain in force the sUperanuated laws
of sO-called protection to our merchants,
marine and ship building interests of our
country which have produced the present
disastrous and humillating conditions,
would seem to be worse than ordinary
folly, and would be protection run mad"
\ minority report is signed by Messrs.
Dingley, Farquhar, Hopkins, FELTON,,
Cummings and Clark. 1t says the bill
originated in remarkable manner, for
aside from the bare majority of the mem
bers of the committee who voted to report
the bill favorably to the house. and the
individual who advocated the inclusion
OF our cOastwise trade in the
provisions of the bill, not a person nor COM
pany, nor a maratime association, nor a
board OF trade, nor trades guild or union
Of workinGmen, nor single Knight of
Labor, nor an American sa Tor, nor an
American merchant, nor ar. American
shipper has, by personal appeal or petition,
asked tor the enactment of the bill into
law. In this respect the free ship policy
OF revIvlng and restoring the American
merchant marine Is unique, to say the
least. 1t is ii serious injustice to the ship
building industry IN that 1t proposes
to place on the free list
a completed manufacture of the
most complicated character, while every
other completed manufacture imported
q
OF at least 30 per cent. 1t is true that a
section allows the importing of ship build
ing materials free of duty, but this is only
a mockery for the reason that the mater
ials for even an iron vessel constitute but
a small part Of her cost. \ free ship policy
looks 10 the purchase abroad of the vessels
we may want for the foreign trade and
would result in the destruction of
the ship building industry of this
country. The average wages in an Ameri-
can ship yard are At least 80 per cent.
higher than in an English ship yard. With
this disadvantage no capitalist would IN
vest the money required to establish ex-
tenSive snip yards IN this country with the
knowledge that he must compete with
English builders in the common market.
While the bill on its face limits
the free transportation and registery
of foreign built vessels TO such as
are intended for foreign trade, vet every
one practically acquainted with the sub
jeCr understands that no one would i'm
port and register 4 foreign built vessel
unless he believed that the law would be
ultimately so modified as to allow him to
use the vessel in the coastwiSe as we'll as
the foreign trade. 1t would be impossible
from every man who imported and
registered such a vessel To allow
him to use the vessel in all trades
Good lawyers maintain that when a vessel
j granted an American register she can
not he denied all the privileges which the
laws grant 10 other American vessels and
that the law in this respect would be void
Therefore the passage OF the law would be
justly regarded a. the entering wedge for
the admission OF foreign built vessels to
our coastwise aS well as foreign trade.