Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-03-22

ASA seem to be the order OF
| S%Rr. the day. Trifiing bene-
l7rlW W06O fits are to be received
| N!QlIHl lE' with fitting thanks.
| u" that an author is
\NTTTlW ~ conceded rights in his
own work abroad, he
may in time be allowed rights in it at home.
| At present these are limited to what pub
| fishers choose to allow him, and to what the
rest of the world does not find worth steal
| ing. American writer's lent their hands to
working for copyrights to benefit publishers
| and printing offices. The author all over the
world counts last, after the "jour" printer,
who sets up the pages Of his book, and the
! paper folder, who sorts the leaves. The
printer gets his pay weekly, as Saturday
comes round, and the publisher is much
obliged that he does not raise mis- price few
cents a thousand between two Mondays.
Authors Asking for Money.
Authors get their checks-when there are
| any-after long waiting, with all pub
lisher's scorn for gentleman who wants
money. Wasn't it one of the Bentleys, Lon
don publishers, who said to William
Hewitt, "How can I feel respect for an
the feeling is not extinct to this day.
Unfortunately, gentlemen who write for
love of literature, who can afford to let their
accounts run two or three years without
thinking of them and take the check pub.
Usher sends without scrutiny OF accounts,
are not frequent enough to support the pub
lisher's business, and he is obliged to fall
back on the impecunious writer who occa-
sionally has to be paid, with contempt.
Serves him right for being fool outside
everything but pen and ink, and not learn
ing the business part of literature as we'll as
its creative part. He offers himself SO
meeklY to the plucking and pinfeathering
that he ought to be punished for putting
temptation in the way OF publishers of weak
virtue.
The Lop-Eared Meekness of Writers.
That be should enthusiastically sign pc
tition for copyright to benefit publishers
and printers is precisely what was to be ex-
pected from his enduring, lop-eared meek
ness, and he is very Justly taunted bv the
Typographical Union that all the authors
in merica could not have gained inter
national copyright if the printers had not
helped them. What printers and pub
fishers worked for in copyright was not au-
thors' interests, but their own, and there
was no occasion in the very limited bill
which passed for authors to catspaw the
chestnuts out of the fire.
Only cne literary man in the country, so
far has the shrewdness to see how little the
copyright bill helps authors. Mr.. Arlo
Bates, of the Boston Courier, had the can
dor to say that he hoped the bill would not
pass, because it was unsatisfactory, as all
compromises are, and would benefit the Ty-
biographical . MON more than anyone else.
hot tha MT 0f tn he
public?" hear you asking
Just this, let me tell you. While you
lament the prevalence of not only vile. but
weak, injurious literature, which does In
credible mischief in social life, remember
that authors depending solely on slender,
hand TO mouth earnings will be tempted to
cater to weak, vicious tendencies, 70 feed
your children and women with sugar and
chalk trash instead of the sweet and strong
which makes them alive and glad.
The Power of Literature.
Your women and children mind what they
read in story books, magazines and weekly
papers lar more than the teachings of church
and home, it is to be feared. Their ideals,
their ambitions are shaped by stories of
imaginative, exceptional if not impossible
successes, failure to realize which embitter
life and turn their energies away from
worthier, kinder effort. Nothing has ever
been SO inspiring 10 individual, social or
national life as pure literature; nothing SO
demoralizing as weak sentiment, although
it may be we'll meant.
n We will have writing which is a force for
every best interest when the full rights of its
craft are respected and secured, just as we
shall have manly and outspoken clergy
when every minister does not have to suit
his sentiments and expressions to the ideas
of half-educated Pensioners on penalty of
losing his living.
s'Do you know what Literary men are
worth in a mere business way to business
men?" it is not long since heard manu-
facturer say to one of them, writer re-
preached for putting too much work in his
writing" by other newspaper men.
Literature in Business.
" have been irving to bring my inven-
ton to the notice of the public for years. L
have spent thousands upon thousands of
dollars for it, and it has not begun to do me
the good your article has done me in a bus-
ness way." That was the value of clear
thinking and writing to the point, of culti-
vated insight and expression, two things
which create literature.
Equally significant is the fact that pop
ular story paper passes over hundred
"popular" writers to choose for its conduc-
tor a man whose literary taste Is OF the most
exacting order, because his work pays and
lasts. Whether in editing or writing, good
taste and high taste are conditions of sue
cess, felt to be such by the best business
men.
We are in danger Of passing over the
highest tribute lately paid to our American
women. Its value lies in Its not being in
tended as a compliment, but an unsIudied
expression of fact. After the late elections,
explaining the defeat OF his party charged
enormously to the representations of news
papers about the Mckinley bill, Speaker
Reed said tersely: 'The shopping women
did it." He is in position to know what
he says, and his opinion is shared by most
thinking people.
What Women Can Accomplish.
Do you see what you have been able to do,
women who read this, and to do it without
ballot or electioneering, or rushing around
in the mud oi wintry streets and party poll
tics. You have not had to drive about dis
tributing tickets or kissing greasy butchers
for votes; you have not had your names
smIrched or motives impugned. You see,
mesdames, what you can do without one