International Copyright Part 3

3. That for a limited term, say ten years, the stipulation should be made that the republishing be done by an American citizen.

4. That for the same term of years the copyright protection be given to those books only that have been printed and bound in this country, the privilege being accorded of importing foreign stereotypes and electrotypes of cuts.

5. That, subject to these provisions, the foreign author or his a.s.signs shall be accorded the same privileges now conceded to an American author.

I believe that, in the course of time, the general laws of trade would and ought to so regulate the arrangements for supplying the American public with books that, if there were no restriction as to the nationality of the publisher or as to the importation of printed volumes, the author would select the publishing agent, English or American, who could serve him to best advantage; and that that agent would be found to be the man who would prepare for the largest possible circle of American readers the editions best suited to their wants.

The foreign author would before long recognize that it was to his interest to be represented by the publisher who understood the market most thoroughly and who had the best facilities for supplying it. If English publishers, settling here, could excel our American houses in this understanding and in these facilities, they ought to be at liberty to do so, and it would be for the interest of the public that no hindrances should be placed in their way.

The experience of our American houses, however, who have had business with English authors and publishers is that it takes some little time for them to obtain a clear perception of the requirements of the American market and of American readers, and of the very material differences existing between the status here and in Great Britain. And it would be my fear that, if the copyright were granted at once without restriction, there would be an interregnum of some years, during which these authors and publishers were obtaining their American education, before the American readers could obtain freely the books they wanted in the editions they were willing to purchase.

Our friends on the other side could not resist the temptation of experimenting, before providing what was really wanted, as to how long our market would stand their expensive $7, $5, and $3 editions of books that we have been accustomed to buy here for $2.50, $2, and $1; and as a consequence, they would sell books by dozens or hundreds that ought to be sold by thousands; their authors would receive an inconsiderable copyright, and the American public would be badly served and would become indignant.

But if the channels of communication between the English authors and their American readers were once fairly established, as they would be, I think, under the arrangements suggested, it would not, I believe, be possible at a later date to interfere with them, even if all restrictions were removed. When American readers were buying by thousands a suitable edition, at a moderate price, of a work by a standard English author who was himself receiving a good return from his enlarged sales, this author would be as little likely, at the expiration of the ten years, to restrict those sales by insisting that his work should be sold here in the costly and unsuitable English edition, as to stipulate that it should be sold here in a Russian translation. It is probable, also, that the including in the measure of these restrictions, even if but for a limited term of years, would gain for it some support that would be important for its success. It seems probable that, if the present conditions of trade are maintained, American book-makers need not be especially troubled ten years hence by the compet.i.tion of books manufactured in England, and that, if the various duties affecting the manufacture could be abolished, we could well spare the duty on books themselves.

I can, however, imagine no state of affairs in which it would be economical or desirable to insist upon two settings of type for a book designed for different groups of English-speaking readers; and the more generally this first and most important part of the cost of a book can be economized by being divided between the two markets, the greater the advantage in the end to author, public, and publisher.

A proposition will doubtless be made in the course of a year by the British Government for the appointment of an International Commission for a fresh consideration of the subject, and our government ought to prepare for this International Commission by the early appointment of a Home Commission to give due consideration to the several interests involved in the question, to collect again the different sets of opinions, and to harmonize these as far as practicable.

By the time our English friends are ready to talk the matter with us, we ought to have informed ourselves definitely as to what kind of a measure is on the whole most desirable, and how much of this it is at this present time practicable to carry into effect.

There has undoubtedly during the past ten years been a growth of enlightened public sentiment on the question, but I should still be indisposed to entrust its settlement to the House of Representatives, and should suppose that it could probably be handled to best advantage by the Senate in the shape of a treaty.

It is due to American publishers to explain that, in the absence of an international copyright, there has grown up among them a custom of making payments to foreign authors which has become, especially during the last twenty-five years, a matter of very considerable importance.

Some of the English authors who testified before the British Commission stated that the payments from the United States for their books exceeded their receipts in Great Britain. These payments secure of course to the American publisher no t.i.tle of any kind to the books.

In some cases they obtain for him the use of advance sheets by means of which he is able to get his edition printed a week or two in advance of any unauthorized edition that might be prepared. In many cases however, payments have been made some time after the publication of the works, and when there was no longer even the slight advantage of "advance sheets" to be gained from them.

While the authorization of the English author can convey no t.i.tle or means of defence against the interference of rival editions, the leading publishing houses have, with very inconsiderable exceptions, respected each others' arrangements with foreign authors, and the editions announced as published "by arrangement with the author," and on which payments in lieu of copyright have been duly made, have been as a rule not interfered with. This understanding among the publishers goes by the name of "the courtesy of the trade." I think it is safe to say that it is to-day the exception for an English work of any value to be published by any reputable house without a fair and often a very liberal recognition being made of the rights (in equity) of the author.

In view of the considerable amount of harsh language that has been expended in England upon our American publishing houses, and the opinion prevailing in England that the wrong in reprinting is entirely one-sided, it is in order here to make the claim, which can, I believe, be fully substantiated, that in respect to the recognition of the rights of authors unprotected by law, their record has during the past twenty-five years been in fact better than that of their English brethren. They have become fully aroused in England to the fact that American literary material has value and availability, and each year a larger amount of this material has had the honor of being introduced to the English public. According to the statistics of 1878, ten per cent of the works issued in England in that year were American reprints. The acknowledgments, however, of any rights on the part of American authors have been few and far between, and the payments but inconsiderable in amount. The leading English houses would doubtless very much prefer to follow the American practice of paying for their reprinted material, but they have not succeeded in establishing any general understanding similar to our American "courtesy of the trade,"

and books that have been paid for by one house are, in a large number of cases, promptly reissued in cheaper rival editions by other houses.

It is very evident that, in the face of open and unscrupulous compet.i.tion, continued or considerable payments to authors are difficult to provide for; and the more credit is due to those firms who have, in the face of this difficulty, kept a good record with their American authors.

One London publisher in London made a custom for years of sending a liberal remittance to the author of the "Wide, Wide World" for each new volume sent to him. But the compet.i.tion of the unauthorized editions had proved so sharp that he told me he got no profit from his purchases, and did not see how he could continue them.

The fate of the author of "Helen's Babies" was still harder. Of his first book seven editions were issued by different British houses, aggregating together an enormous sale, from which he received hardly a penny. For the advance sheets of the sequel to this one firm paid him 50. But so fierce was the scramble for it among the half dozen or more publishers who hurried through their reprints from the American journal in which it was appearing as a serial, that one energetic house sent it out to the British public minus the concluding chapter, while another, still more enterprising, had the last chapter of his edition added by an English hand, and the moral of the story was entirely transformed.

Of the books of Longfellow, Lowell, Holmes, Mrs. Prentiss, Mark Twain, Dr. Mayo, Miss Phelps, Miss Alcott, Mrs. Stowe, Bayard Taylor, and most of our more popular authors, there are, in like manner, various rival editions, and no one house, however good its intentions, can afford to make a practice of paying these authors, as its neighbors cannot be depended upon to respect its arrangements.

On the other hand, the leading English authors, like George Eliot, Miss Mulock, William Black, R. D. Blackmore, Wilkie Collins, Thomas Hardy, Mrs. Alexander, Tyndall, Huxley, and very many others, have received and are receiving liberal payments from their American publishers, who are accustomed, as I have said, not to interfere with each others' purchases.

In past years there have been sharp criticisms on the other side of an American habit of "adapting" and reshaping English books, so that the authors, in addition to the grievance of receiving no compensation for their American editions, had the further cause for complaint that these editions were not trustworthy and did not fairly represent their productions. It was also charged that English material was occasionally "annexed" bodily by American authors, without any credit being given. For both sets of charges there have doubtless been grounds, but the instances have certainly during the past quarter century grown very much fewer. Indeed, the last kind of appropriation would to-day be almost impossible, as the knowledge of English current literature is so thorough that detection would follow at once.

"Appropriated" material could not be sold. In England, however, while American literature is, as I have shown, beginning to be appreciated, it is not yet at all thoroughly known, and there is therefore much less risk in making use of it. As a matter of fact it has been so made use of by literary hacks to a considerable extent, and there are some amusing instances in which the English publishers and English critics have been imposed upon by material that was _not_ original. Mr.

Randolph, the publisher, relates how he was innocently led to reprint some essays brought to him by an English friend, which seemed to him very fresh and original, and which proved to have been taken bodily from one of Henry Ward Beecher's volumes. Mr. Randolph promptly called Mr. Beecher's attention to his own felonious conduct, and handed him a check for the considerable amount due him for copyright on the sales.

A translation by Charlton T. Lewis of Bengel's "Gnomon of the New Testament" was reprinted in London as the work of "two clergymen of the Church of England." Mr. Lewis' version was followed verbatim, with the single exception of the omission of some Latin quotations.

Dr. S. Irenaeus Prime had sent to him a volume bearing the name of an English author, with the inquiry as to whether, in his judgment, it was likely to prove of interest for American readers. He found he was hardly in a position to give an impartial answer to the inquiry, as the book was one of _his own_, for several editions of which the American public had already shown a hearty appreciation.

These are but incidental examples of one kind of appreciation that has been accorded to American literary work, which may be complimentary but can hardly be called satisfactory. I refer to them not because they can be considered as any legitimate extenuation of similar American misdeeds, for I do not admit that in questions of equity, the _tu quoque_ forms any argument or defence. They are worth mentioning only for the sake of emphasizing to our English friends, what they have not fairly appreciated, that there are at least two sides to the evil of the present state of things, and that the demoralization produced by it has not been confined to our side of the Atlantic.

These instances of misappropriation are not of course fairly representative of the English publishing or literary fraternity, any more than similar American instances, which have formed the text of various English homilies, can be accepted as indicating the standard of literary and trade morality with us. We Americans simply say for ourselves that the evils and demoralizing tendencies of the lack of international agreements are fully recognized by us, and that while certain conditions of manufacturing have heretofore formed a troublesome obstacle in the way of the establishing of such agreement, we are glad to believe that this obstacle is now in a fair way of being overcome. In the meantime, we claim that, in the absence of law, our American publishers, especially those of the present generation, have, of their own free will, given to English authors a large part of the advantage that a law would have secured to them, and have done this without any corresponding advantage of protection for themselves.

We are also fully appreciative of the credit due to such of the English houses as (in the face of perhaps greater difficulties) have made similar efforts to do justice to American authors.

One of the not least important results to be looked for from international copyright is a more effective co-operation in their work on the part of the publishers of the two great English-speaking nations. They will find their interest and profit in working together, and the very great extension that may be expected in the custom of a joint investment in the production of books for both markets will bring a very material saving in the first cost, a saving in the advantage of which authors, publishers, and public will alike share.

It seems probable that the "courtesy of the trade" which has made possible the present relations between American publishers and foreign authors is not going to retain its effectiveness. Within the last year certain "libraries" and "series" have sprung into existence, which present in cheaply-printed pamphlet form some of the best of recent English fiction. Those who conduct them reap the advantage of the literary judgment and foreign connections of the older publishing houses, and, taking possession of material that has been carefully selected and liberally paid for, are able to offer it to the public at prices which are certainly low as compared with those of bound books that have paid copyright, but are doubtless high enough for literature that is so cheaply obtained and so cheaply printed.

These enterprises have been carried on by concerns which have not heretofore dealt in standard fiction, and which are not prepared to respect the international arrangements or trade courtesies of the older houses.

To one of the "cheap series" the above remarks do not apply. The "Franklin Square Library" is published by a house which makes a practice of paying for its English literary material, and which lays great stress upon "the courtesy of the trade." It is generally understood by the trade that this series was planned, not so much as a publishing investment, as for purposes of self-defence, and that it would in all probability not be continued after the necessity for self-defence had pa.s.sed by. A good many of its numbers include works for which the usual English payments have been made, and it is very evident that, in this shape, books so paid for cannot secure a remunerative sale. It seems safe to conclude, therefore, that their publication is not, in the literal sense of the term, a _business_ investment, and that the undertaking is not planned to be permanent.

A very considerable business in cheap reprints has also sprung up in Toronto, from which point are circulated throughout the Western States cheap editions of English works for the "advance sheets" and "American market," of which Eastern publishers have paid liberal prices. Some enterprising Canadian dealers have also taken advantage of the present confusion between the United States postal and customs regulations to build up a trade by supplying through the mails reprints of _American copyright works_, in editions which, being flimsily printed, and free of charge for copyright, can be sold at very moderate prices indeed.

It is very evident that, in the face of compet.i.tion of this kind, the payments by American publishers to foreign writers of fiction must be materially diminished, or must cease altogether. These pamphlet series have, however, done a most important service in pointing out the absurdity of the present condition of literary property, and in emphasizing the need of an international copyright law. In connection with the change in the conditions of book-manufacturing before alluded to, they may be credited as having influenced a material modification of opinion on the part of publishers who have in years past opposed an international copyright as either inexpedient or unnecessary, but who are now quoted as ready to give their support to any practicable and equitable measure that may be proposed.

I have endeavored to give in the foregoing pages an outline sketch of the history and present position of the question of international copyright, and to briefly indicate some of the relations in which it stands to ethics and political economy.

We may, I trust, be able, at no very distant period, to look back upon, as exploded fallacies of an antiquated barbarism, the beliefs that the material prosperity of a community can be a.s.sured by surrounding it with Chinese walls of restrictions to prevent it from purchasing in exchange for its own products its neighbors' goods, and that its moral and mental development can be furthered by the free exercise of the privilege of appropriating its neighbors' books.

FREE TRADE,

AS PROMOTING PEACE

AND

GOOD WILL AMONG MEN.

_A paper read before the New York Free Trade Club, Feb. 20, 1879, by Charles L. Brace._

To the moralist, Free Trade is not most of all important as a means of producing and distributing wealth, (though in that it be the most efficient) but rather as a portion of that movement of humanity which, receiving its greatest impulse eighteen centuries ago, has been steadily ever since removing prejudices, lightening burdens, doing away with abuses, and bringing together into one, different cla.s.ses and peoples and races. Living under the influence of this great humane impulse, we do not enough remember what effects it has already accomplished, what slow but permanent victories it has won, and what it proves itself adapted to win in the centuries to come.

It will better show us what changes await the world in such parts of its progress as relate to Free Trade, to note, briefly, a few of the improvement wrought by the spirit of humanity and by right reason in Europe during the last thousand years.