An Act to create a National Monument Commission and for other purposes
PL 83-742 (H.R.6455), enacted 08/31/1954

68 S T A T . ] 
PUBLIC LAW 742-AUG. 31, 1954 
this Act, plus such additional amount, if any, as may be required by 
reason of changes in the costs of construction of the types involved in 
these projects, as shown by engineering indices. There are also au-
thorized to be appropriated such sums as may be required for the 
operation and maintenance of said works. 
Approved August 31, <1954. 
1029 
Public Law 742 
CHAPTER 1160 
AN ACT 
To create a National Monument Commission, and for other purposes. 
August 31, 1954 
[H. R. 6455] 
Be it enacted hy the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled^ That there is hereby 
created a National Monument Commission. 
Said Commission shall 
be composed of four Senators from the Senate of the United States to 
be appointed by the Vice President of the United States, four Repre-
sentatives of the House of Representatives of the United States to be 
appointed by the Speaker of that House, and four eminent citizens of 
the United States to be appointed by the President of the United 
States. The Commission shall be bipartisan and the terms of the 
first Commissioners shall be for one, two, three, and four years and 
subsequently shall be four years. Vacancies in the Commission shall 
be filled by the respective designator who appointed the original 
member. Members shall serve until their respective successors are 
appointed. 
The President shall, at the time of appointment, desig-
nate one of the members appointed by him to serve as Chairman. 
SEC. 2. It shall be the function of said Commission to secure plans 
and designs for a useful monument to the Nation symbolizing to the 
United States and the world, the ideals of a democracy as embodied 
in the five freedoms, speech, religion, press, assembly, and petition, 
sanctified by the Bill of Rights adopted by Congress in 1789 and later 
ratified by the States. 
Such plans shall be approved by the Secre-
tary of the Interior, the National Capital Planning Commission, and 
the Commission of Fine Arts, and thereafter submitted to Congress 
for legislative authorization. 
SEC. 3. Said monument shall be located on federally owned land 
within the George Washington Memorial Parkway adjoining the north 
boundary of Arlington National Cemetery west of Arlington Ridge 
Road and south of Arlington Boulevard on the heights overlooking 
the Potomac River. 
The monument, upon its completion, shall be 
administered by the Secretary of the Interior through the National 
Park Service, Department of the Interior. 
SEC. 4. Said monument shall serve as an international shrine and a 
continuing memorial to the principles of the five freedoms and to all 
peoples and nations who have contributed to the establishment, pro-
motion, and defense of those principles in the preservation of democ-
racy throughout the world. It may include an appropriate structure 
or structures to house cultural displays and exhibits or symbolic fea-
tures of national and international significance designed to accomplish 
the objectives of section 2 of this Act. 
SEC. 5. (a) Said Commission may establish rules and regulations 
governing its actions in carrying out the purposes of this Act. 
(b) The Commission members appointed from the Congress shall 
serve without additional compensation. 
Commission members ap-
pointed from private life shall receive $50 per diem when engaged in 
the performance of Commission duties. All Commission members 
shall receive reimbursement for necessary traveling and subsistence 
expenses incurred by them in the performance of Commission duties. 
National M o n u -
ment Commission. 
Creation. 
Function* 
L o c a t i o n 
of 
monument. 
Administration. 
Rules and regu-
lations. 
Compensation of 
members. 
1030 
Un c ompensated 
personnel. 
Appointments 
and expenditures. 
63 Stat. 972. 
5 use 1071 note. 
Federal agency 
assistance. 
Reports. 
Termination. 
Appr 
opri 
ation. 
PUBLIC LAW 743-AUG. 31, 1954 ' 
[68 
S T A T . 
(c) The Commission is authorized to accept and utilize services of 
voluntary and uncompensated personnel and to pay any such per-
sonnel necessary traveling and subsistence expenses when engaged in 
the work of the Commission. 
(d) Within the limits of its appropriations, the Commission is 
authorized to appoint such personnel, without regard to the civil-
service laws and the Classification Act of 1923, as amended, to procure 
such printing and binding, and to make such expenditures as, in its 
discretion, it deems necessary. 
(e) The Commission is authorized to request and secure the advice 
or assistance of any Federal agency. Any Federal agency furnish-
ing advice or assistance to the Commission may expend its own funds 
for this purpose, with or without reimbursement from the Commis-
sion as may be agreed upon between the Commission and the agency. 
(f) The Commission shall report annually to the President and 
Congress its progress and recommendations pertaining to such a 
memorial. Upon the conclusion of its work, the Commission shall 
promptly submit a final report. 
(g) Thirty days after the submission of its final report the Com-
mission shall cease to exist. 
SEC. 6. There are hereby authorized to be appropriated such sums 
as may be necessary for the expenses of the Commission. 
Approved August 31, 1964. 
August 31, 1954 
[H. R. 6616] 
Copyrights. 
61 Stat. 655. 
Works of aliens. 
\'. A» 'if^^H^ 
Public Law 743 
' 
CHAPTER 1161 
AN ACT 
To amend title 17, United States Code, entitled "Copyrights". 
Be it enacted hy the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the 
United States of America in Congress asseTnbled, That section 9 of 
title 17, United States Code, is amended to read as follows: 
"§ 9. Authors or proprietors, entitled: aliens 
"The author or proprietor of any work made the subject of copy-
right by this title, or his executors, administrators, or assigns, shall 
have copyright for such work under the conditions and for the terms 
specified in this title: Provided, hoioever, That the copyright secured 
by this title shall extend to the work of an author or proprietor who 
is a citizen or subject of a foreign state or nation only under the 
conditions described in subsections (a), (b), or (c) below: 
"(a) When an alien author or proprietor shall be domiciled within 
the United States at the time of the first publication of his work; or 
"(b) When the foreign state or nation of which such author or 
proprietor is a citizen or subject grants, either by treaty, convention, 
agreement, or law, to citizens of the United States the benefit of 
copyright on substantially the same basis as to its own citizens, or 
copyright protection, substantially equal to the protection secured 
to such foreign author under this title or by treaty; or when such 
foreign state or nation is a party to an international agreement which 
provides for reciprocity in the granting of copyright, by the terms 
of which agreement the United States may, at its pleasure, become 
a party thereto. 
"The existence of the reciprocal conditions aforesaid shall be deter-
mined by the President of the United States, by proclamation made 
from time to time, as the purposes of this title may require: Provided, 
That whenever the President shall find that the authors, copyright 
owners, or proprietors of works first produced or published abroad 
and subject to copyright or to renewal of copyright under the laws of