International Copyright | Page 6

looked after the rights of the makers of its sewing-machines, its
telephones, and its mouse-traps, but it appears to have entirely
forgotten the makers of its literature. The position taken by our
government in securing for an American author the benefit of the sale
of his works at home, while practically estopping him from obtaining
any advantage from their sales abroad, is somewhat analogous to its
treatment of American ship-owners, who are allowed to pick up all the
freights that offer inland and along the coast, but are forbidden to earn a
single penny on the high seas.
It is not easy to understand the cause of this continued indifference to
the claims of our literary workmen; they do not come into competition
with the Delaware River or with any manufacturing interests for
subsidies; they ask simply for markets.
It is true that there have been in the history of our country governments
which seemed impatient of the claims of any "literary fellers;" but the
majority of our administrations have shown a fair respect for such
"fellers," and even a readiness to make use of their services.
The difficulty has really been, however, not with the administrations,
but with the people at large, who have failed to fairly educate
themselves on the subject, or to recognize that an international
copyright was called for not merely on principles of general equity, but
as a matter of simple justice to American authors.
These have suffered, and are suffering from the present state of things
in two ways. In the first place, they lose the royalty on the sales of their
books in Europe, Canada, Australia, etc., that ought to be secured to

them by treaties of copyright reciprocity. These sales have become,
with the growth of American literature, very considerable, and are each
year increasing in importance. Even a quarter of a century ago there
were enough American books whose fame was world-wide to have
rendered a very moderate royalty on their sales a matter of great
importance to their authors and to the community. "Uncle Tom's
Cabin," Irving's "Sketch-Book" and other volumes, Thompson's "Land
and the Book," Warner's "Wide, Wide World," Webster's Dictionary,
James' "Two Years before the Mast," and Peter Parley's histories are a
few random specimens from the earlier list, which is a great deal longer
than might at first be thought.
In an official report of the 25th Congress it was stated that up to 1838
not less than 600 American works had been reprinted in England.
According to the "American Facts" of G.P. Putnam, 382 American
books, acknowledged to be such, were reprinted in Great Britain
between 1833 and 1843, while a large amount of American literary
material had been "adapted," or issued under new titles as if they had
been original British works. Among these last he quotes Judge Story's
"Law of Bailments," Everett's "Greek Grammar," Bancroft's
Translation of Heeren's Histories, Dr. Harris' "Natural History," etc.,
etc.
Secondly, the want of an international copyright has placed American
authors at a disadvantage because it has checked the sales of their
wares at home. Other things being equal, the publisher will, like any
other trader, manufacture such goods as will give him the largest profit,
and as he can sell the most readily.
If he has before him an American novel on which, if he prints it, he
must pay the author a royalty, and an English novel of apparently equal
merit, on which he is not called upon by law to pay anything, the
commercial inducement is on the side of the latter. If, on the score of
patriotism or for some other reason, he may decide in favor of the
former, his neighbor or rival will take the English work, and will have
advantages for underselling him. As a matter of fact, as I shall specify
further on, it is the custom of the leading publishing houses to make

some payment for the English material that they reprint, but as they
secure no legal title to such material, they cannot, as a rule, pay as
much for it as they would for similar American work. There is also the
advantage connected with English works that they usually come to the
American publisher in type, in convenient form for a rapid examination,
and that he can often obtain some English opinions about them which
help him to make up his own publishing judgment, and are of very
material assistance in securing for the books the favorable attention of
the American public. It has therefore been the case that an American
work of fiction has had to be a good deal better than a similar English
work, and more marked in its attractiveness in order to have anything
like the same chance of success. And what is the case with