The White Pine news. [volume] (Ely, Nev.) 1906-1910, 1907-07-01
MARK TWAIN
ON COPYRIGHT
Law AT BANQUET
AT Dinner Given by Ambassadors
Reid i'm London Mr.. Clemens Elk.
pounds His Views.

LONDON, June 20. = What
I desire to say upon COPY
right will doubtless be my last med
ding in this present life with that
vexatious question. Last winter ]
went to Washington in that interest
and If I may will reproduce con-
versation which l had.-with a member
of Congress who desired to qualify
himself to vote upon the Copyright
bill, by inquiring into the particulars
of the interests involved. 1t was
like this
Question-Mr. Clemens, you are
here to represent whom?
Answer-The authors
p. All authors?
A. No. There are perhaps ten
thousand American authors, but
have been appointed to represent on.
ly % of them.
@. Why only twenty-five out OF
the ten thousand?
A. Because all but the twenty.
five are amply protected by the Copy.
right law now in existence.
@. How do you mean?
A. The new law proposes to ex.
tend the copyrights life block be.
yond the existing limit, which is AZ
years. 1t is possible that the books
of twenty-five living authors may
still be selling profitably when they
reach the age of AZ and perish. The
books of the other ten thousand
amounting to an annual output OF
five or six thousand volumes, will all
be dead and forgotten long before
the forty-twO year limit is reached
therefore, of our ten thousand au-
thors, only twenty-five are pecuni-
arily interested in an extension of the
existing copyright limit
@. Are there other persons inter-
ested in the making of books and be-
cuniarily affected by the copyright
laws?
A. Yes. To begin with, the pub
fishers.
Q. How many publishers are
there?
A. About three hundred They
publish an annual output Of about five
or six thousand new books, and pre-
sumably the result is an average
profit of thousand dollars upon
each-say an aggregate profit of five
or six million dollars; presumably,
also, they get as much more out of
books whose copyrights are dead and
on which they pay no royalties to au-
thors or their families.
@. 1t is not the authors, then,
that get the bulk of the money re-
sulting from authorship?
A. No; far from it. The ten
thousand cannot be expected to pro-
duce more than half a book each
year If one of these divides the
profits with his publisher, he perhaps
makes a thousand dollars out of his
book, but it takes him two years 70
do it. And while he Is making $500
out of his book, his publisher may
publish forty books and make $40,-
900.
@. BY this it would appear that
authorship is mainly important to
the publisher only, and not to the
author?
A. 1t is true. Pecuniariiy, no one
concerned is perhaps SO little inter-
ested in authorship as are our ten
thousand authors. Fortunately for
them, they do not get their living
by authorship; they get 1t in other
and securer ways; with them author
ship is pastime.
@. Very we'll, then. AS l UNDER
stand 1t. authorship is worth several
millions year to publishers, and
worth merely several pennies to the
authors? Is that it?
A. Yes; to the ten thousand; that
is what ! am meaning.
Q. Then 1t seems plain that au-
thorship is one of the most trifiing
OF all imaginable trades. / cannot
recall to mind another trade that
matches 1t for pecuniary humbleness.
Do you know of one?
A. No; none except whitewashfng
fences. That would be better