The sun., 1919-04-27
A Fear That Congress Might BE a
Literary Pirate.

The subjolned inquiry will interest
all persons Of literary genius:
ITO THE EDITOR OF THE SuN-str:
have a great political idea which
contemplate putting into a book OF
about $4,000 words. II would have
a natural sale Of millions OF copies.
A friend of mine tells me that the
copyright laws would not prevent a
Congressman from having my entire
book printed in the Congressional
Record ana sent broadcast, thus kill
ing my profits. Is this true?
NEW York, April 25. j. J. Y"
The relation of the copyright law
to the Congressional Record has been
the subject Of occasional, but not final,
discussion. On March q, 1900, Rep
resentative TALBERr Of South Caro-
lima asked consent to have the Clerk
Of the House read an article by AMOS
]. CUMMINGS, then representing a
New York district, which had been
printed in the Washington Post and
other newspapers When the Clerk
read the words Copyright, 1900, by
AMOS J. CUMMINGS" Representative
LACEY Of Iowa interrupted:
"Mr. LAcEY-I observe that this
article has been copyrighted. un-
derstand that the Public Printer has
been annoyed somewhat by litigation
growing out OF the publication OF
copyrighted articles in the Record"
Mr.. LACEY made the point Of order
that the copyrighted article could not
be printed In the Record without the
consent Of Author CUMMINGS. Mr..
RICHARDSON suggested that the point
Of order was supplementary.
mr.. LAcKY--It Is always unpsr-
Elementary to violate the law. The
Ten Commandments say Thou shalt
not steal A copyrighted article
published by any publishing house
becomes the subject of litigation.
The holder OF the copyright is en-
titled to protection in this House as
much as anywhere else. Suppose tho
gentleman, instead OF publishing this
article, had introduced a novel that
could be read within his time. a
novel which was copyrighted. Would
II be commended that that might go
into the Record'
'Mr. TALBERr-The gentleman is
dealing in supposition. Suppose the
gentleman had no nose
In the end the Chair. JAMES s.
SHERMAN of New York. made the fol-
lowing ruling:
This is question which the House
must settle. and not the Chair. The
Chair must therefore override the
point Of order. II the House prefers
not to hear the article, not to have
It published in the Record, that is
for the House to determine, not for
the Chair
No appeal was taken from Mr.. SHER-
MANS ruling. and the Clerk pro-
ceeded to read the copyrighted article
into the Record. 1t is only incidental
to the parliamentary aspect Of the
case that Mr.. TALBERT explained that
Mr.. CUMMINGS had orally consented
to the publication Of the article. The
proceedings indicated beyond doubt
that If the House consents to the
reading Of a copyrighted article into
the Record in goes the article.
We have observed that great
many magazine articles have been
literally quoted from, perhaps used
entire, in the Congressional Record,
with nothing in that sometimes inter-
esting publication to indicate that the
consent Of the author had been OBJ
tanned. Books are freely quoted from.
For a recent instance Of a Reprcsen-
tatlve causing to be read Into the
Record a part Of copyrighted book
let us turn to Volume So, Part Is,
Appendix Of the Record. Under leave
granted by the House to extend his
remarks, Representative AUGUSTUS
p. GARDNER of Massachusetts, caused
the insertion Of the following extract
from a copyrighted book, WOODROW
WILSON'S History Of the American
People:
Now there came multitudes OF
men OF the lowest class from the
south of Italy and men Of the meaner
sort out of Hungary and Poland,
men out OF the ranks where there
was neither skill nor energy nor any
initiative of quick intelligence; and
they came In numbers which in
creased from year to year. as IL the
countries of tho south OF Europe
were disburdenlng themselves of the
more sordld and hapless elements OF
their population. The people OF the
Pacific coast had clamored these
many years against the admission of
immigrants out OF China. and in May,
1892. got at last what they wanted
q Federal statute which practically
excluded from the United States all
Chinese who had not already ac-
qulred the right OF residence and
yet the Chinese were more to be de-