Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-06-15

TN Law believe they call II a bill to in
i tervene. this privilege we all have of bor-
rowing trouble by asking the courts to permit
US 10 butt in, as they say nowadays in the
House of Commons on the side OF plaintiff
OF defendant usually in the interests of JUS
tice and postponement to the next calendar
with costs, etc. Why any one in search of
excitement should ask leave to intervene in
a lawsuit when the same effect may be more
speedily obtained by buying $4,000 worth
of lridescert Copper Motors common at
ninety-eight below par and jumping off the
Brooklyn bridge is, as a rule, hard to under
stand. But there exceptions.
One such exception. | am convinced, Is the
Authors League, which should lose no time
in applying for leave to intervene in the
suit brought by Harper & Bros. against
Mitchell Kennerley. The Harper people were
and are Mark Twains publishers or at least
the publishers of such material as Mark
Twain produced in his lifetime. Mr. Ken
nerley, as the people in Franklin Square
might put it. has set up as Mark Twains
astral publisher by giving to the world
novel dictated by the spirit of Mark Twain
to the ouija board. The Harpers have sued
to restrain Mr.. Kennerley from proceeding
with the distribution of the book on the
ground t'
Well, the exact legal grounds are to the
present writer unknown, and l snail not
bother to find out. in the first place because
it's too much trouble, and in the second
place | wish to lay foundation OF ignor-
ance and irresponsibi-i;y in case 1t should
turn out that these lines involve libel or
malversation or caveat emptor or something
else that you expose yourself to when you
intervene in a lawsuit without hrst asking
the courts permission. At the same time
don't imagine it's attempting to pre,udice
the case for either side or Influencing the
jury-not yet empaneled-if one JUST & sus
eests the gorgeous possibilities, given three
or four good legal minds and half dozen
copyright experts. Does international copy
right extend to the bourne whence no trav-
eler returns? Are the rights OF trshsat,on
reserved for all languages. including the
Swedenborgian? Does the defense OF
writer's reputation as vested In his publishers
extend only to that part of his reputation
based on the books in said publishers nsts,
or have they general supervision over ms
total frame? Here is matter enough TO tie
up the Federal courts for dozen years
and food for any number OF hve-to-tour-oeci-
sions at Washington. 1t wouldn't De pao
fun to have the son of oliver Wendeil
Holiness opinion on the rights Of spiritstic
authorship.
DUT as far as the Authors League is con-
ID cerned, there's nothing funny about 1t
at all. 1t means bread and butter. And II
the league intervenes it should be, 1t seems
to me. on the Harpers' side Though why,
looking at 1t from a cold-blooded, practical
point of view the Harpers should be so put
out by the super terrestrial Mark Twain
volume is hard to understand. II one may
Judge from the stories in the notoriously un-
reliable daily press, Mark Twain's old pub
fishers make 1t their chief complaint that
the intersteller successor to "Huck Finn and
'The Connecticut Yankee" is poor literary
stuff. This may be rather fine spirit OF
reverence in publishing house, but poor
business. It's enough to make good pub
licity man bite his nails and shout at the
stenographer Imagine: Has Mark Twain s
Style Degenerated Since He Passed Into the
Silences? Compare his latest from some-
where in the constellation of Andromeda
with Tom Sawyer and Judge for yourself. "
/ repeat: From the business point OF
view It hardly matters whether the super
spatial Mark Twain is better or worse
than the man who wrote in Emira. Hart
ford and Redding, Conn. The questions All
viii ask are X better, how much better? II
worse, how much worse? IRNeither case the
reference for comparison must be to the
earlier works printed with ink on paper and
SO the older publishers do not suffer The
| only ina ginable case for damages is where
some one who has never read the terrestrial
Mark Twain picks up the extra solar Mark
| Twain and does not like him. That may be
| prospect gone, but very dim prospect
| considering how long such possible reader
| has remained immune.
| T9uT - 10 the Authors League sao er3ee
| (Z ou6 t1t<er HpiinE conpletne1 = 1141
/ l11I 3 eool1 ~ a>o,It 6zno :