The CHAIRMAN. I appreciate your cooperation with our committee. Thank you. STATEMENT OF CARL L. CANNON, REPRESENTING THE BOOK BUYING COMMITTEE OF THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION YALE UNIVERSITY, NEW HAVEN, CONN. Mr. CANNON. I don't want to make any speech about any part of the bill except that which may affect importation by American libraries. The American Library Association desires to see in any legislation that may be enacted the present right of American libraries to import any book duty free, in other words, to retain the same provision, the same clause, as in effect at present. The CHAIRMAN. Let me ask you, for the sake of the new members of our committee, what is the present law as it affects the libraries of our country? That permits you to do what? Mr. CANNON. It permits libraries to import any book duty free. The CHAIRMAN. And you want that same privilege to be put into the new bill when we write it? Mr. CANNON. Yes. The CHAIRMAN. Otherwise you have no objection? Mr. CANNON. Otherwise we have no objection- that is, the Amer ican Library Association. The CHAIRMAN. You heard the distinguished representative here, Mr. Meyer, who represents all the learned societies of America, ask the committee to give these learned and distinguished scholars who are writing the great scientific works of our country, the right to bring in books from England any time they may need them instead of going through this rigamarole which handicaps them in bringing! in books. I asked Mr. Meyer how many books these learned scholars bring in to America, and he replied two or three hundred. Are you in sympathy with that? Mr. CANNON. Yes; I don't know how many books are imported each year. Mr. MEYER. I don't think more than two or three hundred. Mr. RICH. Is it possible to get from some department the number of books that come into this country? Mr. MEYER. Yes; I can perhaps get that. The CHAIRMAN. I think you could get that from the Department of Commerce. Mr. RICH. Let me ask this question: With reference to the libraries, do you feel that if the libraries should get these books in free of duty, an individual who wanted a book for his own private use should get it free of duty? Mr. CANNON. No; I don't think so. Mr. RICH. Then, why should we allow the libraries to get it free if we are trying to protect American labor by having a tariff on books and manuscripts? The CHAIRMAN. I presume those are publications that are only published in England and not in America. I wrote to the American Federation of Labor asking them to be kind enough to send a representative here if they were opposed to any legislation that we are going to enact into law, and they told me over the wire, through the representative of Mr. Green, that there is no legislation at the present time that they are objecting to; so I told them to come here, anyway. Mr. CANNON. There is another distinction between libraries and individuals. The libraries import duty-free and sign a statement that these books are imported for use and not for sale. I can see that there might be abuses if individuals had the right to sell them. That is why libraries are importing free, because they are for use, not for sale, for the most part. The CHAIRMAN. What percentage? Mr. CANNON. About 1 book in 12, that are published in England, are for sale here. The CHAIRMAN. This is for the benefit of the public. Mr. RICH. If we are trying to protect Americans from cheap labor in foreign countries, I don't see how you can draw the line for a library rather than for individuals. I think we ought to protect America so far as labor is concerned, which naturally would protect American publishers. We expect to give these people an opportunity to work, which is one of the greatest things we have confronting our people to-day. The CHAIRMAN. You were here before. Did the American Federation of Labor object to that? Mr. CANNON. They objected to importations by individuals. STATEMENT OF GEORGE HARRIS, OF HARRIS & EWING, REPRESENTING THE NATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHERS' ASSOCIATION Mr. HARRIS. I feel quite out of place because I am just a plain photographer, and I have been listening to some wonderful speakers here and I feel out of place here. Our feeling in the Photographers' Association is that the copyright law as it has been in the past has been very satisfactory to us, and we are very sorry that there are two or three things that have come up to be changed. The CHAIRMAN. We are not changing anything at the present time. We are asking you as the representative of the photographers, do you want to have any changes in the present law? Mr. HARRIS. Yes; I think there is one change that can be made. Mr. Solberg and I have talked it over. The CHAIRMAN. You are in favor of the present law as it applies to photographs, with what exception? Mr. HARRIS. That a penalty apply to the photographers. As it is now, any photographer can copyright any photograph in his mind, when he has had no intention to copyright it. If there is a penalty for failure to copyright, we would be in a much better position. The CHAIRMAN. I do not understand you. Give us a concrete illustration of what you mean. Mr. HARRIS. Now we copyright a photograph by applying for it to the Copyright Office. The CHAIRMAN. Let us say you take a photograph of the dome of the Capitol. Mr. DIES. Or some Congressman, it would be much better. The CHAIRMAN. Suppose you take a photograph of Congressman Dies, of Texas, and you want to copyright it. Mr. HARRIS. We now copyright that picture by sending a copy of the picture that Mr. Dies O. K's to the Copyright Office. We put the copyright notice on all our pictures that go out. These are some photographs that have been marked "copyrighted and sent out all over the country without any intentions of copyrighting them. The CHAIRMAN. Why don't you follow it up and see if it is registered here? Mr. HARRIS. It is pretty hard to do. In the first place, very few of these pictures are published under the man's name. The CHAIRMAN. Where a photographer takes a photograph of Congressman Dies and sends that picture through the United States mail, it has the copyright protection if it carries the copyright notice, and if the copyright were taken out, a penalty is provided for failure to do so. Mr. HARRIS. That party has committed a misdemeanor and is subject to a penalty or a fine. The CHAIRMAN. Will you be kind enough to give this committee a little brief on that subject? We will be glad to incorporate it and take it up when we prepare the bill. We want to please the photographers. We don't want to put in things that are harmful. Mr. HARRIS. In the last two bills proposed here there is no question about that but you are starting out altogether new again. The CHAIRMAN. Our committee is seeking information. Mr. DIES. We may not even follow these bills. The CHAIRMAN. Anything that is good and no one objects to it, we will not change. If there is something that will help your organization, we are going to do it. You can submit a little brief to us as to why the present law should be left alone. Mr. HARRIS. I will be glad to do that. STATEMENT OF J. W. SCOTT, VICE PRESIDENT PHOTOGRAPHERS' INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA, BALTIMORE, MD. Mr. SCOTT. Mr. Harris has told the committee all I care to say and I request the privilege of having our attorney submit a brief. The CHAIRMAN. And you request that little amendment be put in to protect you? Mr. SCOTT. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. Will you direct your attorney to submit it as quickly as he can? Mr. Scorт. I will communicate with him to-day. The CHAIRMAN. I will now call Prof. Henry Gratton Doyle, Professor of Romance Languages, George Washington University, Washington, D. C., and representative of the American Association of University Professors. (No response.) The CHAIRMAN. Is there anyone else who would like to be heard on this matter? If not, we will adjourn. 113839-32—11 GENERAL REVISION OF THE COPYRIGHT LAW MONDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1932 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, The CHAIRMAN. The committee will please come to order. I am going to call upon Mr. Naulty first. STATEMENT OF EDWIN FAIRFAX NAULTY, OF NEW YORK CITY Mr. NAULTY. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, through the courtesy of the chairman, I am permitted to give a brief synopsis of the first radio program that was ever presented. It was done here in Washington in August, 1919, and was a complete program beginning with an invocation by Rev. David A. Covell and ending by an address by Vice President Marshall. The story is short and perhaps interesting. During the consideration, by the Senate, of the treaty of peace with Germany, and the League of Nations, it was thought that the public would find interest in such discussion conducted away from the Senate. So, several citizens of Washington and I formed the Trinity Forum which had its establishment in the Trinity Church at Third and D Streets, Washington, to provide a public platform for discussion. Twelve Senators appeared for and against the treaty. To close the series, it seemed essential that some new step be taken to put a fitting period to a very interesting discussion. I made the arrangements as secretary of the Trinity Forum. I went to Gen. George O. Squier, at that time Chief Signal Officer of the United States Army, and in conference with him and with his assistant, Gen. C. McK. Saltzman, now radio commissioner, though I was a civilian not connected with the Signal Corps, I obtained permission to install at Trinity Church a complete broadcasting equipment to be furnished by the Signal Corps of the United States Army for the purpose of introducing the people of the United States to the possibilities of radio, or wireless as we called it then, as a means of general communication along instructional, educational, amusement, and entertainment lines. General Squier and General Saltzman agreed that it might have possibilities of benefit to the Signal Corps and appointed Colonel Pollock, a nephew of General Pershing, to be in charge of the installation. The installation was begun. We used the choir for the equipment and separated the altar from the rest of the church, by putting an American flag in front of the altar rail. Then the question was to get the final speaker. Vice President Thomas Riley Marshall was approached and agreed to make the concluding speech. So, the first radio program ever given was formed. It consisted of an opening address, explaining the idea behind this program, |