The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1890-05-15


Hartford, whether living at home or in
foreign lands.-N. Y. Tribune.
INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT BILL
REJECTED BY THE HOUSE.
The copyright bill was considered by |
the House Friday. The vote stood 1876
nays to 9S yeas-Vermont was not re-
corded as voting either way. The oppo- |
sition to the bill is summed up as fol- |
lows; Mr.. Hopkins of Illinois said that
the ostensible purpose of the bill was to |
extend the rights of American authors |
to foreign authors. But the measure |
meant vastly more than this. The inevi- |
table result of it would be to create a
gigantic publishing monopoly, which
would raise the price of every book and
periodical printed in this country, and
would impose tax on every reader of
books, from the boy with his primer to
the college professor with his scientific
work. 1t would affect the reader of
every periodical, and even the reader of
the rural newspaper would suffer. The
argument that the foreign author was
robbed of something that was his just
due when his works were published here,
and that the American author was sub
ject to the same species of robbery
abroad, was based on the idea that the
author was indebted to the State and the
people for nothing, and that his works
were not the creation of his surroundings
and his associations. The most casual
observer knew that this was not true.
The State and the people had done as
much for the author as he had done for
them. The American author was pro.
tnata1 in fha lahnr of his hpnin for q
period of 43 years. Free schools and
free libraries had given him a constitu-
ency of over 60,000,000 people, who re-
joiced in his success and paid him will
ingly the price he put upon his works.
The bill could not be passed on the idea
of justice to American authors. The
rights of the American people should be
considered. The benefit derived from
the cheap editions of foreign books
could not be too highly estimated. They
had gone everywhere, and the result was
that to-day America was the greatest
book market in the world. Congress
could not afford to tax every American
reader for the benefit of the foreign
author. Foreign authors were paid
enough in their own country without in
vading American soil and taxing the
American reader. Congress should not
yield to the false sentiment urged by the
| friends of the measure, but should look
| to the needs of the American people and
legislate in their interest against all the
world. He denounced as damnable the
third section of the bill, which he de-
clared prohibited the importation of for
eign books. The foreign authors had
| formed a combination with certain labor
organizations for the purpose of making
trust and controlling this market. The
labor organizations when they came to
understand the question would denounce
the measure. These foreign authors
were using the type-setting unions as a
catspaw for the purpose of securing
J their aid in getting a copyright law. If
this bill passed, it would cause hostile
legislation in foreign countries which
would result in international conference.
A treaty would be entered into and all
the features which the labor Organiza-
tions favored would be stricken out and
the English author would have control
of the American markst.
| Mr.. Lodge, of Massachusetts, in behalf
of the measure, said that all property
was the creation of law. The good old
rule, the simple plan that they shall take
who have the power, and they shall keep
who can, had been replaced in the grad
ual progress of civilization by law. The
law of giving property in the ideas of
the mind dated back in England to the
statutes of Anne. 1t was recognized in
the Constitution of the United States.
The United States recognized the rights
of property of a foreigner who came to
its shores, but it did not recognize his
property to his book. To his thinking
| hnt liglArngf Nafinna1 hnnnr did
not seem the burden of the story of the
opposition. When Rob Roy lifted the
black cattle the cattle were cheaper than
after he had been hanged; but he, Mr..
Lodge, did not think that it altered the
ethics of the question. The argument OF
the opposition was that the bill was GO
ing to made literature dearer to the
American public. 1t would do nothing
of the kind; that was the barest assump-
ton ever made. France had had an in.
ternational copyright for years, and
series of books were issued there for five
cents and even two cents n number, and
those books the best literature of France
not the off-scouring of the literary gut
ters of other countries. 1t was the sam,
with Germany. The effect of this law
would be to substitute for the works o
, France the works of American authors
, He Uodge) wanted to say a word in be
half of the writer's of America, of thos
r who wrote and made the books, of tn
) men who welded the pens, the journalist
the essayist, the writer of fiction, tn
, writer of history, and of the printer
who aided them in the construction o
r their books-they did not come here ant
! ask for subsidies or protection. The
asked simply for justice; that the,
n should not be Disseminated against
/ That was all; nothing else. Speakin
as one who had followed, in an humbl
= way, the career of literature, he aske
! whether any one could imagine that TIL
{ American author would not desire
I great circulation and the correspondent
5 profit of cheap literature. 1t was wha
!. the author would rather have, but II
n American publisher would attempt t
4 print American books in any of thes
cheap editions because he had TO pay til
/ American a royalty and the foreign al
|. thor none. 1t was a direct discTimini
8 ton against the American author. An
q the combination and monopoly that wei
e talked of-where were they possessed
n There was one lying dormant in til
, cheap reprints. If this measure wei
% defeated, that trust would leap into lif'
| HtIt WIS Olt OtutI dDpttl Ht NdlNN
i to make, and that was that COngre'
II should furnish to the reading public,
4, the girls and boys, to the young me
M and women of an impressible age, bool
a which were American books, not foreiG
le books, not the cheap books of Fran,
:. dedicated as Matthew Arnold had sai
Il to the Goddess of Lubricity; not Il
At second class of English novels abo
- Dukes and Duchesses and Lords al
Ladies'; not books which contained ide
hostile to our institutions, but Americ;
books that would breathe Americi
ideas and teach them to respect and a
mire American government and societ
ID and not n system of government al
I'd society wholly alien to them. In q
re name of these young men and wome
ne he asked for the passage of this la,
of In the name of American writers, {
IN men who used the pen, he asked for
d. He asked for it in the name of {
ic printers, 10000 of whom stood behil
I'd the bill, because they saw in it an
II. crease of work for American workme
w He asked it in the name of nation
honor.
40 ------------
& ARMED TO THE TEETH
nc Is a very common expression, but we think Il
I'd armed to embellish and preserve them to a n
e old age Is decidedly more appropriate. This c