COPYRIGHT, NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL. AN ADDRESS Delivered before ¡tie Book Trade Association of Philadelphia, on Occasion of their Annual Dinner, February 23, 1884. HENRY CAREY BAIRD. PRESIDENT OF THE ASSOCIATION* PHILADELPHIA: HENRY CAREY BAIRD & CO., INDUSTRIAL PUBLISHERS, BOOKSELLERS AND IMPORTERS, 810 Walnut Street. 1884.Copyright : NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL. It had been my intention on this occasion to have had something to say to you of the past, and of the pre-eminently great American of the last century who adorned the profession of printing, that profession which is the grand central figure around which the book trade clusters; but unfortunately I am obliged to allow the dead to bury their dead and to sing their dirges, while I speak of the living—the present and its ever present and pressing issues. Some six and twenty years ago a distinguished friend of mine dined in Paris with the Société des Economistes, and there was a natural desire among those savants to learn from an eminent American something of the United States and its people, and especially of their acquaintance with economic questions. He was, therefore, asked by tliem whether political economy was much studied in the United fêtâtes, tto ‘which he replied : “ No, my countrymen have no need to study political economy. They are all born economists.’ Ask one of them to make you a pair of boots, a hat, or a coat, and he will probably tell you he was not brought up to the trade of bootmaker, hatter or tailor ; but ask him to make you a tariff, a constitution or a system of laws, and he will reply: ‘With the greatest pleasure imaginable; nothing can be easier, nothing more agreeable/ ” ‘ Thus it is that men who are incapable of making a hat, a coat, or a pair of boots, and justly consider themselves sq, because they have never learned ; any of these trades, are ceaselessly at Work tinkering with our laws, when of the effect of that tinkering they are just as ignorant as they are of the trades of the hatter, the tailor and the boot-maker. Thus was it that The Book Trade Association was forced into existence by reason of the threatened chaos of these ignorant law-makers, and especially to head off the tariff-tinkers and international copyright-cobblers among them; and throughout the twelve years of its existence, it has always been ready to meet these tinkers and cobblers in combat, and it has never failed to head them off, until it enjoys a fame which' has spread throughout the land, and even to the other side of the Atlantic, and in London it has obtained the well-earned sobriquet of “ The Philadelphia Obstructionists. ’ ’ It is pervaded with such a broad Catholic spirit, that I believe it must long continue to be “ the ever victorious army.” There is I believe in this country no other organization of so many allied branches of an industry standing shoulder 0)3 to shoulder in unselfish defense of a common interest, and so free from mere egoism, as is The Book Trade Association of Philadelphia. Herein lies the secret of its marked success. It invites all men who are connected with the manufacture of a book in any department to unite with it, and I rejoice to know that the invitation has been pretty generally accepted-—the latest comers being the respectable body of Lithographers, who are here for the first time represented at the festive board, and who I need hardly say are most welcome. To them I know I may pledge the association for the same loyal devotion which it has always extended to every branch which forms a part of it. The raison d’ etre of this association was never more manifest than at present, when we have in Congress diligently at work both tariff-tinkers and international copyright-cobblers—men who lack either the ability or the industry to originate new measures, but who would engraft their laws upon already existing, imperfect and even absurd ones. The tariff bill before Congress is an attempt to reduce duties 20 % without any examination as to Whether those duties are too high, too low or just right; while the copyright bill, a mere extension of the old laws, would allow all foreign authors and publishers under it to prohibit the publication of their books in this country, would grant a monopoly to authors whose books are written in foreign languages, and who could prohibit the translation into English of all such books or any portions of any of such books; where the monopoly would really be of no advantage to them, and would simply seal these books to ninety-nine out of one hundred of the people of the United States, who do not understand the original languages in which they were printed. The granting of a twenty-eight year monopoly privilege in our market to British authors and publishers, whose books, made in Great Britain, would thus contain no American labor or materials, is a manifest injustice to our own producers, whose market has been created by the expenditure on education of hundreds of millions of dollars, raised by domestic taxation, which cannot and will not for one moment be tolerated or entertained. Granting a long monopoly to an author whose book only exists in a foreign tongue is even more indefensible—is simply absurd. Great Britain has long had treaties with various European nations by which books in foreign flnguages are without republication protected for two years from the date of publication, and what is the result ? Scarcely any portion of the rich contemporary literatures of France and Germany is now translated and published in England. How different is it in this country, where these two great mines are now beginning to be worked and with such great advantage, as well in the enjoyment as in the enlightenment of the American people; and not in the least to the detriment of the French and German authors, whose books are thereby being made known to the many American readers of French and German. It will not pay a publisher4 to give a royalty to the author of a book in a foreign language, and compensation to a translator in addition, and these books will under the reign of monopoly, simply, not be translated. Striking evidence of the disadvantages of international copyright between peoples using entirely different languages is unconsciously conveyed by the London Saturday Review in a recent article entitled “ England in America,” wherein it says: “ Where English influence in America might be supposed to be strongest is in literature. There is no denying that it is strong. But the influence of other countries, and especially of France, is also strong. There are many more translations from the French and the German published annually in the United States than there are in Great Britain. French authors little known in England are widely read in America; and of authors of importance more works have been translated. In New York it is possible, for example, to get a uniform edition in English of all of M. Taine’s writings, and of nearly all of Turgenief *s.” Not only is this true, but the state of facts herein presented is becoming more strikingly so every day. Just now are we commencing adequately to appreciate the wealth of German literature in science, in the arts, and in fiction, and that of France, in the latter. But the American Copyright League of Authors claims that “Americans have no chance of competition on equal terms with the productions of foreign authors,” and they “ask that in offering their wares they may not be confronted by wares that have not been paid for.” But these foreign “ wares ” now have no copyright monopoly, and for this reason do not themselves “compete on equal terms” with American ones which have; and what is the result ? Let me once more quote from the article in the Saturday Review« The Review says : “ The unfortunate condition of copyright law has driven the better class of American publishers to give up English novels and English books of general literature, and more and more to confine themselves to American books, with a consequent increase in the quantity and quality of the latter.” The foregoing expresses in a considerable degree the facts—-but not wholly. American publishers have abandoned the republication of English books, not merely on account of the state of copyright law in t^iis country, but because English publishers now, through their own branch houses, or through American publishers, largely supply the American market with English editions— many American publishers preferring to buy ioo to 500 copies of an English edition to taking the risk of a set of stereotype plates or an American reprint edition of 1,000 to 2,000 copies. Since the close of the rebellion no branch