Chapter III: Front Matter (3)

In order to keep within the time limit provided in the program I have been obliged to refrain from even touching upon many points, but have endeavored to present certain general principles governing copyright in books. I shall, therefore, only attempt to make clear, as briefly as possible:

1. What is copyrighted, _i.e._, what can properly be designated as a "book" in order to secure copyright protection thereon;

2. What is the nature of the protection secured under the copyright law;

3. The limitation in time during which the protection applies, and its territorial limitations;

4. Who may obtain protection--the difference between an "author" and a "proprietor";

5. International copyright;

6. What conditions and formalities are required to be complied with in order to secure copyright;

7. The functions of the Copyright Office; and

8. Possible copyright law amendment.

1. _What is copyrighted?_

The copyright statutes enumerate the articles or classes of articles subject-matter of copyright, and first in the list stands "book." The first consideration is, therefore, What is to be understood by the term "book" as thus used? or, in other words, What is a "book," as that designation is employed in the copyright law?

The answer is indicated in the provision of the federal constitution upon which our copyright legislation is founded. This paragraph of the constitution (section 8 of article 1) grants to Congress--"in order to promote the progress of science and useful arts"--the right to enact laws to secure "to authors ... the exclusive right to their ... writings...." This provision is, of course, to be broadly interpreted, but, using the exact wording of the law, it is the _writing_ of an author--his literary composition--the prose or poetical expression of his thought--which makes his "book," as the term is used in the copyright law. In order to be a "book," subject to protection under the copyright law, the author's production must have this literary characteristic. The _quality_ of the literary ingredient is not tested, but its presence is requisite. Hence not everything which may ordinarily be called a book is fitly so nominated, in order to indicate the subject-matter of copyright; while some productions not ordinarily designated as "books" may properly be thus classified in order to be registered as a preliminary to copyright protection.

That an article possesses the corporeal characteristics of a book is of little consequence. The _literary_ substance, not the material form, primarily determines the matter. An article contributed to a newspaper or a periodical--although but a few paragraphs in length--is a "book" under the copyright law, while a bookkeeper's ledger, to all outward appearance answering the description, is not a "book" so far as registering its title to secure copyright is concerned. A calendar whose main features are literary may doubtless be properly registered as a "book," but a pack of playing cards with pictures on the backs, even though each card may be furnished with a linen guard and all bound up, with a plausible title-page, so as to resemble a book, is not a "book" in the meaning of the copyright law.

Orderly arranged information produced in a form which would commonly be termed a chart cannot be registered under that designation which in the copyright law is applicable only to a chartographical work, but may properly be called a "book"; while a so-called book of coupons, or railway tickets, or of blank forms, cannot be thus entitled.

In brief, it should be a book in the ordinary understanding of a work of _literature_ or art, and may not include a production whose main feature is some original idea, however ingenious or fanciful its form may be, or is of the character of something invented. Invention must look for protection to the patent law.

2. _The nature of the protection secured._

What is the nature of the protection secured? Copy-right, _i. e._, the right of copy--the right to make copies. According to the words of our own statute, the author of a book "shall have the _sole_ liberty of printing, reprinting, publishing, completing, copying, executing, finishing and vending the same." The _exclusive_ liberty of reproducing his work, and the restriction of the liberty of every one except the author to multiply copies constitute the literary property. It is a much-discussed question whether the author's privilege of copyright is a natural right or was created by legislation. Granting the production a proper one, it would seem that the author of a literary creation has a natural right to the unrestricted use and enjoyment of it. As Professor Langdell recently put it: "he has the right of use and enjoyment, because he can exercise such right without committing any wrong against any other person, and because no other person can prevent his exercising such right without committing a wrong against him." The author's creation is his own, and he has a natural right to the use of it without interference. The state does not create this right, but recognizes it and protects it. Protection is secured by restricting the liberty of other people in the use of the author's creation. Just how far this restriction should go is still a moot question. The law says, however, that you may not reproduce in whole or in part an author's book without his written consent, signed in the presence of two witnesses. It does not say that you may not read the book, nor are you forbidden to read it in public, even for profit, although in the case of musical and dramatic compositions public performance or representation for profit without the author's special--not implied--consent is not only directly prohibited, but is punishable by imprisonment. The International Publishers' Congress, which met in Paris in June, 1896, passed a resolution to the effect that the reproduction of a literary work by means of public readings, in case such readings were held for purposes of profit, ought not to be permitted without the consent of the copyright proprietor. By the Act of March 3, 1891, the exclusive right to translate or dramatize his book is reserved to the author. In this unrestricted and unlimited exclusive right of translation and dramatization our law has exceeded the usual trend of legislation in regard to the author's control over his work in these directions. Foreign legislation usually only reserves to the author the exclusive right to translate or dramatize for a limited fixed period of time, and if he has not himself produced a translation or dramatization within that period, another person may.

It has occasionally been intimated that the efforts made by the public libraries to secure the constant circulation of the same book is a trespass upon the rights of the author, as he is presumably thus subjected to the loss of readers who would otherwise also become purchasers of his book. A case has just been decided to test an author's right to object to having copies of his own copyright editions of his books sold in a manner not indicated by himself as volumes of a so-called collected edition of his works. The decision, on first hearing, was adverse to the author's contention.

It is the _literary expression_ of the author's thoughts and ideas which is the subject-matter of the protection, and not primarily the thoughts and ideas themselves. These last may or may not be original with the author, but once he has made public a thought or an idea he has given it away; he cannot control its use or application. The author of a translation of a book--the original work being in the public domain--may obtain a copyright upon his own translation, but doing so will not debar another from producing an original translation of his own of the same work and obtaining copyright registration for the same.

Copyright does not give to any one monopoly in the use of the _title_ of a book, nor can a title _per se_ be subject-matter of copyright. It is the book itself, the literary substance which is protected, the title being recorded for the identification of the work.

3. _Time and territorial limitations of copyright._

A few countries still grant copyright in perpetuity, but usually the term of protection is limited either to a certain number of years, or to a term of years beyond the date of the author's death. This last provision is the more general, and the term varies from seven years after the author's death in England, for instance, to eighty years after the author's death in Spain. The two most common terms are thirty years to fifty years beyond the life of the author. Our own legislation provides for two possible terms of protection. The first being for twenty-eight years from the date of the recording of the title in the Copyright Office, and the second, an extension of fourteen years from the expiration of the first term.

Besides the time limit, copyright--especially as far as the authors of the United States are concerned--is limited territorially, not extending beyond the boundaries of the United States. Whether the protection which follows registration and deposit shall extend so as to include Porto Rico, Hawaii and the Philippines is a matter of some question. Probably as regards the Philippines the answer would be in the negative, but as concerns Porto Rico, since the passage of the "Act temporarily to provide revenue and a civil government for Porto Rico" (April 12, 1900) and Hawaii, since the taking effect (June 14, 1900) of the "Act to provide a government for the territory of Hawaii," the response would be in the affirmative.

The obtaining of copyright protection by a compliance with the United States statutory requirements as to registration of title, deposit of copies, and printing of notice of copyright, does not secure extension of this protection in the territory of any foreign country, the United States not being a member of the International Copyright Union. An American author must comply with the requirements of the copyright laws of a foreign country, just as if he were a citizen or subject of that country, in order to obtain copyright protection within its borders. Presumably, however, the obtaining of valid copyright protection in one of the countries of the International Copyright Union, England for example, would secure protection throughout the various countries of that Union.

4. _Who may obtain copyright._

It is the _author_ of the work who is privileged to obtain copyright protection for it. As I have already pointed out, the constitutional provision enacts that Congress is to legislate to secure to _authors_ the exclusive right to their _writings_. When, therefore, the law states that the author "or proprietor" of any book may obtain a copyright for it, the term "proprietor" must be construed to mean the author's assignee, _i.e._, the person to whom he has legally transferred his copyright privilege. It is not necessarily transferred by the sale of the book, _i.e._, the manuscript of the author's work, as the purchase alone of an author's manuscript does not secure to the proprietor of the manuscript copyright privileges. Prior to July 1, 1891, no foreign author could obtain copyright protection in the United States, hence the purchase by a publisher of one of Dickens's novels in manuscript, for example, would not enable the buyer to obtain copyright on the book in this country. No author who has not the privilege of copyright in the United States can transfer to another either a copyright or the right to obtain one. He cannot sell what he does not himself possess. Under the United States law copyright comes through _authorship_ only. It is not a right attaching to the thing--the book--but is a right vested in the creator of the literary production, hence does not pass to a second person by the transference of the material thing, the book, and evidence must be offered showing that the transference of the book carried with it the author's consent to a conveyance of the privilege of copyright.

This same principle is embodied in the provisions of the law as to renewal of the copyright. The second term of protection must also start with the author, or if he be dead, with his natural heirs, his widow or children, but not with his assigns, the "proprietors." The right to the extension term is in the author if he be living at the period during which registration for the second term may take place, _viz._, within six months prior to the expiration of the first term of twenty-eight years. If the author be dead, the privilege of renewal rests with his widow or children. Whether the author may dispose of his right of renewal so that the transference may be effective for the second term, even though the author should have died before the date of the beginning of that term, is a question upon which the authorities differ. The language of the statute would seem to give to the author an inchoate right which reverts to his widow or children should he be married and die before the expiration of the first term of the copyright.

5. _International copyright._

The idea of nationality or citizenship governed our copyright legislation for more than a century, from the earliest American copyright statute of 1783 to July 1, 1891, so that until the latter date copyright protection in the United States was limited to the works of authors who were citizens or residents. By the Act of March 3, 1891, commonly called the international-copyright law, which went into effect on July 1 of that year, the privileges of copyright in this country were extended to the productions of authors who were citizens or subjects of other countries which by their laws permitted American citizens to obtain copyright upon substantially the same basis as their own subjects. The existence of these conditions is made known by presidential proclamation, and up to this time ten such proclamations have been issued extending copyright in the United States to the citizen authors of Belgium, Chile, Costa Rica, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain and her possessions (including India, Canada, the Australias, etc.), Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland. The privilege of copyright in the United States is extended only to authors who are subjects of some country in whose behalf a presidential proclamation as to copyright has been issued.

It is well to point out, perhaps, that these copyright proclamations are not equivalent to copyright treaties, but are only notices that certain conditions exist. Only in the case of one country, _viz._, Germany, has anything been entered into approaching a convention or treaty. Under date of Jan. 15, 1892, an "agreement" was signed with that country to issue a proclamation extending copyright in the United States to German subjects upon an assurance that "Citizens of the United States of America shall enjoy, in the German Empire, the protection of copyright as regards works of literature and art, as well as photographs, against illegal reproduction, on the same basis on which such protection is granted to subjects of the empire."

In order to obtain copyright abroad, therefore, an American citizen must ascertain the requirements of the law of each country in which he desires to protect his book or other production and comply explicitly with such requirements. He can, of course, only avail himself of the legal protection accorded, so far as it is within his power to thus comply, and therein lies the difference between the privileges secured under the present international-copyright arrangements, and such as would be obtainable under copyright conventions or treaties. A citizen of the United States may find himself unable to meet the obligations or conditions of the statutes, just as a foreign author may find it practically impossible to comply with the requirements of the United States law, and in either case there would be a failure to secure the protection desired. In the case of a photograph, for example, the English law requires that the "author" of the photograph must be a British subject or actually "resident within the Dominions of the Crown," and the United States law requires that the two copies of the photograph to be deposited in the Copyright Office "shall be printed from _negatives made within the limits_ of the United States," two sets of conditions difficult of fulfilment. By means of a copyright convention exemption could be obtained in either case from these onerous conditions.

6. _Conditions and formalities required by the copyright law._

Two steps are made prerequisites to valid copyright by the laws now in force in the United States. The first of these is the recording of the title in the Copyright Office. For this purpose the statute requires the deposit of "a _printed_ copy" of the title-page, "on or before the day of publication in this or any foreign country." For a number of years it has been the practice of the Copyright Office to accept a typewritten title in lieu of the _printed_ title-page, but in this, as with all other requirements of the law regarding copyright, the preferable course is a strict compliance with the letter as well as the spirit of the law.

The clerical service for thus recording the title requires the payment of a fee, which should accompany the title-page when transmitted to the Copyright Office. The fee for this, as fixed by law, is 50 cents in the case of the title of a book whose author is a citizen of the United States, and $1 in the case of a book whose author is not an American but is a citizen or subject of some country to whose citizens the privilege of copyright in the United States has been extended, under the provisions of the Act of March 3, 1891. If a copy of the record thus made of the title (commonly called a certificate) is desired, an additional fee of 50 cents is required in all cases.

In order to have this essential record of title properly made, in the form exactly prescribed by the statute, it is necessary to furnish the Copyright Office with certain information, namely:

_a._ The name of the claimant of the copyright. (This should be the real name of the person, not a _nom de plume_ or pseudonym.) _b._ Whether copyright is claimed by applicant as the "author" or the "proprietor" of the book. _c._ The nationality or citizenship of the _author_ of the book. (This is required to determine whether the book is by an author who is privileged to copyright protection in this country, and, also, the amount of the fee to be charged for recording the title.) _d._ The application should state that the title-page is the title of a "book." _e._ A statement should be made that the book is or will be "printed from type set within the limits of the United States."

The second prerequisite to copyright protection is the deposit in the Copyright Office of two copies of the book whose title-page has been recorded. These copies must be printed from "type set within the limits of the United States," and the deposit must be made "not later than the day of publication thereof, in this or any foreign country." The stipulation as to American typesetting applies to works by American authors as well as to those written by foreign authors.

The statute provides, as regards both the printed title and the printed copies, that the articles are to be delivered at the office of the Librarian of Congress, or "deposited in the mail, within the United States, addressed to the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C." Just what would be held to have been secured under the latter provision in case the deposit in the mail were made and the book failed to reach the Copyright Office has not been determined by judicial decision. The law provides for the giving of a receipt by the postmaster in the case of the title and the copies, if such receipt is requested.

The third step required for obtaining a defendable copyright is to print upon the title-page or the page immediately following it in each copy of the book the statutory notice of copyright. The form of this notice must be either "Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year ----, by A. B., in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington;" or, "Copyright, 19----, by A. B." The name printed in this notice must be the real, legal name of the proprietor of the copyright, and must be the same as that in which the entry of title has been made; the date, also, must be the year date of the record of the filing of the title-page. A judicial decision is on record to the effect that printing the year date in this notice one year later than the date of actual recording of title barred the defence of the copyright. A penalty of $100 is imposed on "every person who shall insert or impress such notice, _or words of the same purport_ in or upon any book ... whether subject to copyright or otherwise, for which he has not obtained a copyright."

An American author may obtain for his book copyright protection in Great Britain, by a compliance with the official instructions as to publication, deposit of copies and registration. The protection, under English law, dates from the day of _first_ publication, but such first publication must be on English territory, and registration may follow, but cannot precede publication. The term of protection in the United States, on the contrary, dates from the day of registration of title in our Copyright Office, which must precede publication, and be followed by deposit of copies made "not later than the day of publication thereof in this or any foreign country." The point to guard, therefore, is _simultaneous publication_ in this country and in Great Britain. Registration in England is a secondary matter. As stated in the official circulars of instructions issued by the English Copyright Office, "Copyright is created by the statute, and does not depend upon registration, which is permissive only, and not compulsory, but no proprietor of copyright in any book can take any proceedings in respect of any infringement of his copyright unless he has, before commencing his proceedings, registered his book."

Under existing legal conditions, in order to secure valid copyright on a book in this country and in England, the following steps should be taken, and in the order stated. 1. Record title in the United States Copyright Office. 2. Print book from type set within the limits of the United States. 3. Deposit two copies of such book in the United States Copyright Office. 4. Send sufficient copies to London to

_a._ Place copies on sale and take such usual steps as are understood,
under English law, to constitute "publication" on a prearranged day,
on which same day the book is published in the United States.

_b._ Deposit copies: one copy of the best edition at the British
Museum, and four copies of the usual edition at Stationers' Hall for
distribution to the Bodleian Library at Oxford, the University
Library at Cambridge, the Faculty of Advocates Library at Edinburgh,
and the Trinity College Library at Dublin.

_c._ Register title of book and day of first publication at Stationers'
Hall, London.

7. _The United States Copyright Office._

One frequently hears the expressions "has obtained a copyright," "issued a copyright," etc., giving the impression that copyrights can be granted somewhat after the manner in which the Patent Office issues letters-patent. But Congress has established no office authorized to furnish any such guarantee of _literary_ property as is done in the case of patent monopoly. The Copyright Office is purely an office of record and simply registers _claims_ to copyright. The form of record prescribed by law being the effect that A. B. "hath deposited the title of a book the right whereof he _claims_ as author or proprietor in conformity with the laws of the United States respecting copyrights." The Copyright Office has no authority to question any claim as to authorship or proprietorship, nor can it determine between conflicting claims. It registers the claim presented in the prescribed form for a proper subject of copyright by any person legally entitled to such registration without investigation as to the truthfulness of the representations, and would be obliged to record, not only the same title for different books, but the same title for the same work on behalf of two or more different persons, even against the protest of either one, were such registrations asked for. No examination is therefore made when a title reaches the office as to whether the same or a similar title has been used before. As I have already stated, the title _per se_ is not subject to copyright, and no one can secure a monopoly of the use of a title by merely having it recorded at a nominal fee at the Copyright Office.

If any one, wishing to use a given form of title but desiring to avoid possible duplication of one previously used, writes to the Copyright Office asking whether such a title has already been recorded, an answer is made stating what is disclosed by the indexes of the office. It must be frankly explained, however, that an absolutely conclusive statement as to whether a given title has been previously used cannot always be given. The copyright records of entries of title previous to July 10, 1870, are but indifferently indexed and rarely by title, usually only under names of proprietors of the copyright. The copyright entries since July 10, 1870, to May 31, 1901, number 1,217,075. The index to these entries consists of more than 600,000 cards, many of which contain a number of entries. These cards index the entries primarily under the names of the proprietors of the copyright, and this proprietor's index is understood to have been kept up continuously and to be complete, so that under the name of each copyright proprietor there is a card or cards showing the titles of all articles upon which copyright is claimed. In addition to the proprietor's index there are cards under the titles of periodicals and under the leading catchwords of the titles of other articles, besides cards under the authors' names for books. Unhappily there are periods of time when what may be called the subsidiary index cards were not kept up.

In addition to cards under the proprietors' names, cards are now made: for _books_, under the names of their authors; for _anonymous books_, _periodicals_ and _dramatic compositions_, under the first words of the titles (not a, an, or the), and for _maps_, under the leading subject words of the titles, _i.e._, the names of the localities mapped. It is doubtful if an absolutely complete index of all copyright entries by the _title_ of the book and other article--in addition to the cards at present made--could be justified by even a possibly legitimate use of such an index. When it is remembered that the copyright entries last year numbered 97,967, the magnitude of the task of making several cards for each entry is easily conceived, and it is a question whether it could be rightfully imposed upon the Copyright Office under the present provisions of the law and so long as the registration of a title does not secure the use of that title to some one person to the exclusion of all others.

8. _Amendment of the copyright law._

The possible amendment of the copyright laws is a subject which my time does not permit me to consider in detail, even were that deemed desirable. The law now in force consists of the Act of July 8, 1870, as edited to become title 60, chapter 3 of the Revised Statutes, and ten amendatory acts passed subsequently. Naturally there is lacking the consistency and homogeneousness of a single well-considered copyright statute. It is possible that Congress will presently be willing to take under consideration, if not the re-codification of the copyright laws, then, at least, some amendment of them. An increase in the period of protection has frequently been urged, with some advocacy of perpetual copyright. As the Federal constitution, however, distinctly provides that the protection granted the writings of an author is to be for a _limited time_, an amendment of the constitution would be necessary before Congress could enact perpetual copyright, and such alteration of the fundamental law of the land is not probable.

Much might be said for an increase in the period of protection. It is for a shorter term of years than that provided by most modern copyright legislation, and the trend of such lawmaking has been in the direction of an increase in the length of time during which the author or his heirs could control the reproduction of his work. It should be borne in mind that for books of little value the length of the term of protection is of no great consequence. "Dead" books are not affected by the length of the term of copyright. In the case also of popular new books, the great sales and consequent disproportionate remuneration comes within a short period of time after publication, and are not likely to continue during a long term of copyright. On the other hand, many books of great and permanent value not unfrequently make their way slowly into popular favor, and are not fully appreciated until many years after publication. For such books--the results, perhaps, of long years of study and labor--an equitable return cannot be secured except by a long term of protection.

Perhaps the most urgently desirable forward step in respect to copyright is the adhesion of the United States to the Berne convention, thus securing the inclusion in the International Copyright Union of our country, the leading one of the three great states not yet members of this admirable association of nations. Were the United States a member of the Berne Union a compliance with the statutory provisions of our own laws alone would secure copyright protection not only within the limits of the United States, but practically throughout the whole book-reading world--Great Britain, all Europe (except temporarily Russia, Austria, and Scandinavia), Canada and Australia, India, Japan and South Africa--thus increasing the possible reading public of American authors many fold. It would seem that considerations of justice to our large and constantly increasing national contingent of literary and artistic producers requires this advance of such great practical importance. It is the easier of accomplishment because it involves the adoption of no new principle, but only the extension of the principle embodied in the Act of March 3, 1891, namely, reciprocal international exchange of copyright privileges, and in return for the advantages which would accrue to our own citizens, only obligates the extension of copyright in the United States to the subjects of such countries as are members of the Union. Of the members of the International Copyright Union, all the great nations already enjoy copyright in the United States, and it would only remain to extend this privilege to the citizen authors of the six minor states that are members of the Union, namely, Hayti, Japan, Luxembourg, Monaco, Norway and Tunis.

THE RELATIONSHIP OF PUBLISHERS, BOOKSELLERS AND LIBRARIANS.

BY W. MILLARD PALMER, _Grand Rapids, Mich._

In accepting the president's suggestion to give "expression of the _business_ side of the subject rather than the theoretical or sentimental," I wish at the outset to recall certain functions performed by publishers, booksellers and librarians, and to acknowledge my indebtedness to Mr. J. W. Nichols, secretary of the American Booksellers' Association, for material along this line.

Casual observers have come to regard publishers as bookmakers or manufacturers, who merely put the product of authors into merchantable form, and distribute it to dealers, for sale to the reading public. If this were the only function of the publisher, his task would be an easy one; indeed we might soon expect to see all publishers supplanted by one great co-operative factory, to which authors might take their manuscripts, and have them transformed into books and distributed through the ordinary channels of commerce, like any other commodities. Some superficial observers have recently made bold to conjecture that this will be the final outcome of the present troubled state of the general trade of publishing and selling books. But, alas! the actual making of the book--giving to it an appropriate, artistic and really attractive form--is perhaps the least of the publishers' trials, though this, in itself, is a difficult task, requiring an artistic taste, well trained and skilful judgment, and much technical knowledge.

To one who has had an insight into the publishing business, the enormous mass of manuscript that is annually submitted to each of the great publishers is simply appalling. They are compelled to employ a corps of "readers" to cull out that which is worthy of consideration by an intelligent and skilled publisher. Much that come to hand has been hastily prepared by persons who lacked the time, experience or special training necessary to enable an author to prepare an acceptable manuscript, while the great majority of young authors have really no message to tell that is worth recording. Here comes the most difficult and trying task of the successful publisher--_the selection of proper material for publication_. It often happens that a rejected manuscript contains some good work--a promise of something better to come. Then the publisher points out the best features and encourages the incipient author to try again.

Thus books are made, not after a given pattern, like certain fabrics, but each is a creation in itself. The responsibility of the publisher, for the character of the creation, is by no means unimportant. He acts as arbiter of the standard of excellence that must be attained by an author before he is introduced to the public. The publishers' criterion is simply a question of cash. "Will the public buy the book and pay for it?" Nor can any other standard be adopted with safety. The whole question of supply must always depend upon public demand.

But the publisher is not infallible. He often makes mistakes. Between him and the readers is the dealer. The retail bookseller stands closest to the reading public. He acquaints himself with the essential character of the new book, points out to his customer enough of interest to cause him to glance through it, and finally sells it to him; for the intelligent bookseller knows the taste and reading habits of his customers. He has his leading customers in mind from the time he orders a new book till he has shown it and sold it to them. If they are pleased with it, and recommend it to their friends, who call at the store for it, the bookseller re-orders it, and, if he is so fortunate as not to be restrained by unfair local competition, he advertises the book and pushes its sale with energy, so long as interest in it can be kept alive.

Thus the retail booksellers in every city and hamlet throughout the country, standing close to the reading public, knowing what their customers will buy, are the real monitors of the publishers.

When the publisher considers the advisability of bringing out a new book, he cannot undertake to look beyond a few hundred booksellers. It is through them, and only through them, that he has learned to gauge the taste of the reading public. The paramount question for him to decide is, "How many copies of this particular book can I sell to dealer A, dealer B and dealer C; how many copies of this book can I hope with certainty to sell to all of my customers in the trade?" The publisher well knows that the dealer is governed by the same criterion as himself: "Will it pay; will this book be a ready seller, or will it cost me all of the profit I make on it to sell it?"

Thus the product of the author is subject to the immutable laws of supply and demand from the time he submits his first immature manuscript until he makes two, three, four or more trials, and finally has a manuscript accepted. But even then the publishers prepares only a small edition for a new author, and the dealers are very conservative in ordering a new book--especially by an unknown author. The conscientious bookseller awaits the verdict of certain patrons, knowing that, if the book is commended by one whose judgment is respected by local readers, he can safely re-order a goodly number.

Thus the author is dependent upon the publisher for the standard of excellence he must attain in order to achieve success; the publisher is dependent upon the dealer, not only in forming his judgment of the character of books that will sell, but also for the number that he may safely print; while the dealer is dependent upon his best and most critical patrons. Hence the relation of author, publisher and dealer is so close--indeed they are so mutually interdependent--that one factor could not be removed without vitally crippling the other.

A distinguished librarian, who has been a pioneer of progress in the library movement, has recently suggested the propriety of abolishing book stores (_see Publishers' Weekly_, May 11, '01, p. 1149) and allowing public librarians to receive orders and forward them to the publishers. If the distinguished gentleman did not have in view visions of personal gain for public librarians, he should have carried his philanthropic suggestion farther, and proposed to abolish both booksellers and librarians, and to allow the public to procure their books directly from the publishers, thus saving that moiety of gain that would be made by either in return for the service rendered. It cannot be supposed that so able and conscientious an administrative officer ever contemplated maintaining an extra corps of assistants, at an extra expense to the municipality or to those liberal benefactors who have endowed public libraries, in order that opulent citizens may still further indulge their tastes by purchasing larger private libraries, without paying the small commission or profit that is usually allowed to retail booksellers. On the other hand, if this proposal was made for the purpose of allowing libraries maintained by taxing the municipality, to engage in gainful occupation, this is carrying the socialistic idea farther than even our populistic friends have ever yet proposed.

However, inasmuch as this question has been raised, we are bound to treat it from an economic point of view. The question is, "Shall the bookseller be abolished and his office merged into that of the librarian, and can the librarian perform the offices of the bookseller?"

No one has ever questioned the value of the public library from the burning of the Alexandrian Library to the present day. The value of a library, as a _librarium_, or storehouse for the permanent preservation of books, has always been manifest.

Again, the public library gives a larger opportunity and a wider range than is possible in the private collection; and scholars, historians and students of all classes are daily made grateful to the trained, professional librarian, who has so classified the contents of the library as to make the whole available at a moment's notice.

Still another inestimable feature of the public library is that it maintains a public reading room for children as well as adults.

Finally, the library furnishes reading at home to those who are not yet in a position to become owners of books. The benefit derived from reading of this character is often of questionable value. The _habitué_ of the circulating library makes his selections from misleading or sensational titles. Little care and less intelligence is exercised in choosing either title or author. As a result librarians are constantly complaining that only the trashiest and most worthless books are read.

The circulating department of the public library is now supplemented by others that are conducted for cash profit. These have sprung up in many cities. And now we have the "Book-Lovers' Library," a corporation with capital stock, engaging in business for profit. It has the advantage of certain trust features. It proposes to organize branches in all of the principal cities and towns in the country. For five dollars a year it proposes to supply fifty dollars' worth of reading to each subscriber. An automobile is employed, with an attendant to deliver the books to subscribers each week and take up those that have been read. Having paid five, ten or more dollars, at the beginning of the year, the subscriber can read from morning till night, while the new books come and go with the lightning speed of the automobile.

As in many other circulating libraries, new copyrighted fiction is the chief staple supplied by the "Book-Lovers' Library"--the sweetest pabulum automatically administered.

After a season of such dissipation call in a neurologist to diagnose your patient, and he will advise you that by continuing the treatment the mind will be reduced to a sieve, if not ultimately to absolute imbecility. Having abandoned the more serious literature that calls into use all the faculties of the mind, the reader of nothing but fiction converts what would otherwise be a healthful recreation into dissipation, that is enervating and permanently debilitating to all the faculties of the mind, when carried to an extreme. Had the reader been denied the use of this automatic machine, and been compelled, as formerly, to browse through the book store in search of something to read, more serious books would have been selected--history, travel, descriptive writing or popular science, with an occasional novel by way of recreation.

But to continue the argument, suppose we abolish the bookseller, as has been proposed. This would not be a difficult matter. Most of them would gladly be "abolished" if they could sell out their stock for anything near what it cost them. Their profits have been so reduced by unfair competition that they are not sufficient to pay the cost of doing business. They have been compelled to carry side lines, as stationery, newspapers, periodicals, sporting goods, _bric-a-brac_, wall paper, etc., in order to make a living. By this means they have learned that other lines of merchandise yield a better profit than books. As a result most of them have greatly reduced their book stock, or entirely abandoned the sale of books, and put in more profitable lines of merchandise.

The causes that have led up to this result are manifold: 1st. They were strenuously urged, and they finally consented to allow discounts:

(_a_) To ministers of the gospel, since they are public benefactors.

(_b_) To school teachers, since they are public educators and
benefactors.

(_c_) To public libraries, since they are for the most part
eleemosynary institutions, and hence entitled to charity.

Indeed, when I recount the charitable benefactions that have been exacted and received at the hands of the retail bookseller, he seems to me to have been the most saintly character that has lived in my day and generation. And right here it is of interest to note that these ministers, these teachers, these physicians, these public librarians were actually receiving out of the hands of the public stated salaries that exceeded by far the annual net profit of the average bookseller.

2d. Having secured from the local dealer a discount equal to the best part of his profit, many librarians have gone behind him and appealed directly to the publishers for a larger discount. This has been granted in most cases, so that most librarians have recently been receiving as large a discount as local dealers.

3d. Commission agents have purchased complete editions of popular-selling books from the publishers, and re-sold them at a slight advance:

(_a_) To dry-goods stores, where they have been put on "bargain
counters" and sold at less than cost, to attract customers to their
stores.

(_b_) To publishers of local newspapers, who give the books away as
premiums or sell them at cost prices, to increase the local
circulation of their papers.

(_c_) To mail-order agencies, who advertise the books at less than they
are usually sold for by dealers.

4th. Many publishers have been advertising and mailing their books directly to retail customers at reduced prices, or at the same price they recommended local dealers to ask for them, and they have prepaid the postage, thus _competing directly with their distributing agents, the booksellers, in their own field_.

5th. Finally, some local librarians, who a few years ago were appealing to local booksellers for a discount, having been granted the discount, have recently been supplying books "at cost prices" to other patrons of the local booksellers. Thus our friends, the librarians, having inverted the good old practice of returning good for evil, having helped to rob the local bookseller of his livelihood, now propose to abolish his office.

To carry the proposition to its conclusions, suppose we abolish the bookseller. Can the librarian take his place and send the orders in to the publishers? If so, if this is all there is to the bookselling business, why should the publisher pay a commission to the librarian for doing what the people could as readily do for themselves? But a general business cannot be carried on in this way. Publishers have tried it for years, yet only comparatively few people are willing to order books that they have not had an opportunity to examine, and of this class librarians are the most conservative. They, too, want to know what they are buying before they place their orders. Hence, this postulate: If the librarian is to succeed the bookseller, he must become a merchant; he must order stocks of books and take the speculative chance of selling them. But the librarian has had no experience or training in merchandising. Can he afford to hazard his own capital in an untried field; can he induce his friends to supply him with capital to invest in a business of which he confessedly has no knowledge? It would manifestly be a perversion of the funds of the institution in charge of the librarian, to invest them in a gainful occupation.

From what I have said, it must be apparent that booksellers, as well as librarians, have a province of their own, and perform a service that cannot be delegated to another. And hence it is desirable that we live and dwell together in peace and amity.

But in these days of combinations, reorganizations and revolutions in the conduct of business, the publishers have looked farther, in their quest for more economical purveying agents. For the past ten years they have been trying to induce the dry-goods merchants to carry books. But, after all this time, not more than half a dozen department stores carry fairly representative stocks of books. They confine themselves, for the most part, to new copyrighted fiction, and of this they handle only that which is widely advertised.

Of late, department stores and dry-goods stores have met severe competition in clothing stores, that make no pretext of carrying a book stock. They simply buy an edition of a popular-selling book and advertise it for less money than it actually cost. They do this simply as an advertising dodge, to attract customers to their stores. Then, too, the mail-order agencies have cut the price of the most popular books so low that it is no longer profitable to handle them. The result of this has been that many of the most promising new novels have been killed before they were fairly put on the market; for _as soon as they ceased to be profitable no one could afford to re-order them_.

The effect of this recent drift of the trade has been to stimulate the frothy side of literature to an extreme degree. The more serious literature is being neglected. The latest novel is the fad. Its average life is reduced to little more than one year, though the copyright lasts for twenty-eight years, and with a renewal it may be extended to forty-two years.

This shortening of the life of books has had a baneful effect:

(_a_) Baneful to the bookseller, since it frequently leaves him with a
dead stock of books on hand that cannot be turned without loss.

(_b_) Baneful to the publisher, since the book stops selling and the
plates become valueless before he has had time fairly to recoup
himself for the expense of bringing it out, advertising it, and
putting it on the market.

(_c_) Baneful to the author, since by shortening the life of his books
the value of his property in them is reduced.

But perhaps the most baneful effect of this craze for ephemeral literature is upon the people themselves. As the standard or degree of civilization for a given age is marked by the character of the literature the people produce and read, we cannot hope for a golden age in American letters, unless the present system is reversed. Work of real merit is never done by accident, nor is it the product of mediocre talents. If we are to develop a national literature that shall fitly characterize the sterling qualities of the American people in this, the full strength of the early manhood of the nation; at the time when the nation has taken its place in the vanguard of civilization; at the time when the consumptive power of the nation is equal to one-third of that of the entire civilized world; at the time when men of talents and genius are annually earning and expending, for their comfort and pleasure, more munificent sums than were ever lavished on the most opulent princes; I say, if we are to produce a literature that shall fitly characterize this age of our nation, we must hold forth such rewards for the pursuits of literature as will attract men of genius, men of the most lustrous talents, men who are the peers of their co-workers in other walks of life. But this will not be possible so long as the present strife to furnish cheap literature to the people continues.

It should be observed that the bookseller has not suffered alone in this cheapening process. The publisher has suffered. Within the past few months two names that for half a century were household words, synonyms of all that is excellent in the publishing world, have met with disaster, and others were approaching a crisis.

Fortunately one firm stood out so prominently, as a bulwark of financial strength and security, that its president, Mr. Charles Scribner, of Charles Scribner's Sons, could afford to take the initiative in calling for reform. He invited the co-operation of other publishers, and a year ago this month they met in New York and organized the American Publishers' Association. Their organization now includes practically all of the general publishers who contribute anything of real value to current literature.

The publishers canvassed thoroughly the causes that had led to the decline of the trade, and they appointed a committee to draft reform measures.

In reviewing the decline of the trade, two facts stood out so prominently that it was impossible to disassociate them as cause and effect. The three thousand booksellers, upon whom, as purveying agents, the publishers had depended a generation ago, had shrunk in number until only about five hundred could be counted who were worthy to be called booksellers. The other fact, which doubtless made quite as deep an impression upon the minds of the publishers, was that the long line of books, on each of their published catalogs, was practically dead. Those books of high standard character, by eminent authors, books that for years had had a good annual sale, no longer moved. These standard books have been a large source of revenue to publishers and their authors for many years. But now so few of them are sold that it hardly pays the publishers to send their travellers over the road.

Few dry-goods merchants, druggists, newsdealers and stationers, that have recently been induced to carry a small number of books, feel sufficiently well acquainted with salable literature to warrant their carrying anything more than the most popular-selling new copyrighted novels and cheap reprints of non-copyrighted books that sell for twenty-five cents or less. As stated above, there are a few large department stores that carry a more general stock, but they are so few that the support received from them is not sufficient to compensate, in any measure, the loss sustained through the sacrifice of the regular booksellers. Moreover, the regular booksellers that still remain in the business have not been buying many standard books of late. Seeing their profit in fiction sacrificed by unfair competition, many of them have ordered only enough of the new copyrighted novels to keep alive their accumulated stocks of standard books, until they can sell them out or reduce them to a point where they can afford to abandon the book business.

From the character of the reform measures adopted by the American Publishers' Association, which went into effect on the first of May, it is evident that the publishers have determined to restore the old-time bookseller. This can be done only by the publishers enforcing the maintenance of retail prices, the same as is done by the proprietors of the Earl & Wilson collar, the Waterman fountain pen, the Eastman kodak, and many other special lines of which the retail price is listed.