voted upon by the House and received a vote of 139

to 95 on its final passage.

In the Senate there was a notable debate lasting Senate desix days, February 9, 12-14, 17-18, 1891, in which bate, 1891 Senators Sherman and Carlisle championed an amendment permitting the importation of authorized foreign editions which was opposed by the Typographical Unions as violating the manufacturing clause, and by authors and publishers as a restriction on authors' rights of control. Senator Frye on February 9, 1891, advocated an amendment extending the manufacturing clause beyond books to include maps, charts, dramatic or musical compositions, engravings, cuts, prints, photographs, chromos and lithographs. With these and other amendments, the bill passed the Senate 36 to 14, February 18, 1891. On February 28, 1891, the House voted 128 to 64 non-concurrence in the Senate amendments, and a Conference Committee was appointed.

This first Conference Committee, reporting on Passage of March 2, 1891, disagreed on the Sherman amend- act of March 4, 1891 ment, and accepted the other Senate amendments; the report was accepted by the House, 139 to 90, on March 2, 1891. The Senate, on March 3, refused by a vote of 33 to 28 to recede from the Sherman amendment, and a second Conference Committee was appointed. This second Conference Committee modified the Sherman amendment, and after an all-night session the copyright bill was passed, 127 to 77, by the House, March 3, and was also passed, 27 to 18, by the Senate at half past two in the morning, March 4, 1891.

The bill as passed was in the form of amendments to the Revised Statutes, omitting the limitation to citizens or residents of the United States, confining copyright, in the case of a book, photograph, chromo or lithograph, to works of which the deposit copies

Approval by
President
Harrison

Review of

ing situation

should be "printed from type set within the limits of the United States, or from plates made therefrom, or from negatives or drawings on stone, made within the limits of the United States or from transfers made therefrom," and extending copyright to citizens of a foreign country only when such country protects American citizens "on substantially the same basis as its own citizens," or is a party to international arrangements, as determined by proclamation of the President.

The signature of President Harrison was promptly affixed before the close of the legislative day, and the United States at last, though in a restricted form, accepted international copyright after an exciting and dramatic contest, which began more than half a century before. The bill became effective July 1, 1891.

There had been a continuous growth in the United the publish- States, though displayed somewhat intermittently, of an active sentiment in favor of international copyright. For some years the question was less insistent, from the practical point of view, because of what was called "the courtesy of the trade," by which a publisher who was the first to reprint an English work was not disturbed by rival editions of that and of succeeding works by the same author. Under this custom, the leading American publishers voluntarily made payments to foreign authors, in many cases the same ten per cent paid to American authors, and reaching in one case of "outright" purchase of “advance sheets" $5000, though there was no protection of law for the purchase. American and English works then competed on much the same terms. In 1876 the cheap quarto libraries" were started, reprinting an entire English novel, though on poor paper and often in dangerously poor type, for 10, 15, or 20 cents. They presently obtained the advantage, by regular

66

issue (one "library" at one time issuing a book daily, others weekly), of the low postal rates for periodicals, of two cents a pound, and thus obtained a further advantage over books by American authors. These quartos gradually gave way to the "pocket edition," in more convenient shape, but not always in better print, at 20 or 25 cents. The sales of corresponding American books had meanwhile definitely fallen.

The history of the movements for international Lack of copyright in America shows that there had been no unified policy continuous and well-defined policy on the part of the government authorities, or of publishers, or of authors. While authors almost unanimously, and publishers generally, favored international copyright, the division lines as to method were not between authors and publishers, but between some authors and other authors, and between some publishers and other publishers. There were those, in both classes, who objected to any bill which did not acknowledge to the full the inherent rights of authors, by extending the provisions of domestic copyright to any author of any country, without regard to other circumstances. There were others, at the other extreme, who opposed international copyright unless it was restricted to books manufactured in this country, issued simultaneously with their publication abroad, and of which the importation of other than the American copies was absolutely prohibited. The act of 1891 Compromise was finally passed with the assent of the advocates of 1891 of authors' rights who were willing to waive the abstract principle in favor of any moderate measure which should be at least a first step of recognition, and which might justify by its results, even to the opponents of international copyright, further steps of future progress.

While the act of 1891 was unsatisfactory to the

Need of general revision

Ad interim copyright act, 1905

friends of copyright, who desired rather that the United States might grant unrestricted international copyright and become a signatory power in the convention of Berne, it was thought fair and right not to attempt broader legislation for some years. Copyright legislation had become, however, confused and uncertain in the multiplicity of statutes, and the need of revision was emphasized in annual and special reports by Thorvald Solberg, an expert in copyright and skilled bibliographer, who had been appointed Register of Copyrights on the creation of that office in 1897 with the approval of the Librarian of Congress, Herbert Putnam, who had been appointed in 1899. In 1903 the Register of Copyrights presented a special report on copyright legislation which was made part of the report of the Librarian of Congress for 1903, and accompanied by a list of all copyright statutes by the original states and by the United States, the text of the revised statutes with notations of later provisions and a list of foreign copyright laws in force, which three documents were also published as separate pamphlets.

In 1905, March 3, an act was passed granting ad interim protection for one year to works in a foreign language published in a foreign country, pending manufacture in America within one year of the original work or a translation thereof. This protection was conditioned on the deposit within thirty days from publication in a foreign country of a copy of the foreign edition bearing copyright notice and a reservation in the following form: "Published 19. Privilege of copyright in the United States reserved under the Act approved March 3, 1905, by which was also to be printed on all copies of the foreign work sold or distributed in the United States.

On January 27, 1905, Senator Kittredge announced Copyright (in Senate Report 3380) that the Committee on conferences, 1905-06 Patents purposed to "attempt a codification of the copyright laws at the next session of the Congress" and in a letter to the Librarian of Congress suggested that he call a conference of the several classes interested in such codification. Accordingly on April 10, the Librarian of Congress announced such a conference, of which sessions were held at the City Club in New York, May 31 to June 2, and November I to 4, 1905, and in the Library of Congress, Washington, March 13 to 16, 1906. At these conferences, organizations representing authors, dramatic and musical as well as literary, artists, publishers, printers, lithographers, librarians, the legal profession and the public, participated through delegates, and discussed first a basic memorandum presented by the American (Authors) Copyright League and thereafter successive drafts of a copyright measure prepared by the Register of Copyrights. As a result of these discussions, presided over by Librarian Putnam, the final draft was prepared under the immediate direction of the Librarian of Congress, which became the basis of the bill "to amend and consolidate the acts respecting copyright" introduced into the Senate. by Senator Kittredge (Senate bill 6380) and into the House by Chairman Frank D. Currier (H. R. bill 19853), May 31, 1906.

1789-1904"

In connection with these conferences, a number of "Copyright valuable documents were prepared by Register Sol- in Congress, berg and published through the Copyright Office, among them a chronological record of "Copyright in Congress, 1789-1904," with bibliography, summarizing all Congressional proceedings in relation to copyright through the second session of the Fiftyeighth Congress.