Los Angeles herald., 1908-01-30
CLEAR. CRISP AND CLEAN
CoNFIScATIoN

III URING the last two sessions OF
congress, when the legislators
~ had not anything better TO oo'
they applied themselves to the ques-
ton of copyright, and alas, succeeded
only in showing once more the aoso-
lutte unfitness of a body of business
and professional men to deal with a
subject so many sided and so thorough
ly technical. The Washington wise
acres have managed to mix up the
question of the copyright OF BOOKS
with the question OF musical copy
right in relation to phonograph
records and the rolls used in mechan-
ical piano players! The constitution
provides that congress is empowered to
promote the progress of science and
Of useful arts by securing for "lim-
tied times" to authors and inventors
the exclusive rights to their respective
writings and discoveries. Authors are
at last beginning to ask why they and
the inventors, and they and the in
ventors only, should be thus discrim-
mated against.
Public opinion is still in such hope
less fog as to the rights and wrongs
of writer's. that although these indus
trious producers have seen Grub street
methods improved upon and are not as
a rule patrons of soup kitchens, they
still find themselves called upon to
fight the popular belief that as soon
as they have created a literary prop
erty it is either coincidently
public property or must revert
to the public at the earliest
possible time. 1t is easily possible that
the widow of the most successful lit
erary man of his day might be starving
to death, while a printing house was
coming a fortune by retailing to the
public copies of her husbands works.
If we are to have literally free trade
in books. then make it free. Print
them at government printing houses
and distribute them gratis and be done
with it, But in the name of common
sense and common decency and COM
mon humanity don't perpetuate con-
dition which protects the material with
which books are printed and bound
and refuses to protect the matter
which makes the use of the material
possible. AS soon as the paper dealer
begins to supply paper for nothing and
the compositor to set type for nothing
and the binder to bind books for moth
ing and the wholesaler to distribute
books for nothing and the retailer to
give away books for nothing we will
acknowledge that the writer ought to
write books for nothing or that his
heirs are not entitled to share in the
returns from posthumous editions
which are enriching publishing houses
that are issuing publications into the
profit and loss account of which a
trihing consideration like authors roy
atty is not allowed to enter. We would
like to see fewer Franklin Square
libraries and more Franklin square
deals Authors are entitled to all the
protection they can get. In business
matters they are as a rule a helpless
class at best, and when the law itself
aids and abets the fallacy. which would
make them alone among all the pro-
ducers easy marks for sharks and
shysters, truly they may consider
themselves the unbefriended orphans
Of civilization. The president of the
United States is an author Of marked
ability. and every writer in the country
viii naturally look to him TO prevent
the decay of the literary arts in this
republic. And they will surely decay
il men with the possibilities Of useful
authorship in them become convinced
that a pursuit of the industry for
which they are especially fitted will
only end in disaster, and as the old song
says will send the wife and the BARNS
over the hill to the poor house." II
is remarkable that lawmaking agen-
cies, which are rabidly opposed to
Socialistic tendencies in ordinary man.
ufacturing and business, should foster
Socialist tendencies in literature BY
conhscating the authors product fol
the benefit of the public, and--here's th'
rub--of the publisher and bookseller