The first thing I want to do, by request, this morning is to present to you a statement left with me for that purpose by Mr. M. Llewllyn Raney, the chairman of the copyright committee of the American Library Association and the librarian of the Johns Hopkins University. It is very brief and I will read it. It is dated April 6, 1926, and reads as follows: The American Library Association is not yet directly concerned with radio legislation, but as its members are large users of the products of authorship it can not remain unmoved when the rights of authors, so hard to win, are imperiled. Copyright means what it says, i. e., the exclusive right to multiply copies. It is the author's constitutional right. If he alone has the privilege for a term to publish, he can charge what he likes, whether by himself or in company with others. If he abuses this privilege by exorbitant prices, then the purchasers should either let his work alone or so starve him to terms, or organize for effective bargaining with him and his associates. There is no more reasonw hy Congress should interfere in this economic adjustment than fix prices in any other direction. Paternalistic and sumptuary legislation is their business. At the outset I would like to do what we have always done before in hearings, and that is introduce the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, and in the introduction to offer for the record a list of its members, its officers, and its directors, together with its complete personnel. I might say in introducting it, that the membership has shown constant growth during the entire history of the society, since the year of its organization in 1914, and that in that history it has had but two resignations. That should in a word answer the accusations that we induce our members to continue their membership by subjecting them to some sort of internal pressure, making it unwise for them to resign. The list of membership referred to is as follows: Abrahams, Maurice (Inc.). Bond, Carrie Jacobs & Sons. Breau & Tobias (Inc.). Chappell-Harms (Inc.) Clark & Leslie (Inc.). Denton & Haskins Music Co. Dixon-Lane Music Publishing Co. J. Fischer & Bro. Sam Fox Publishing Co. Gamble Hinged Music Co. Harms (Inc.). Charles K. Harris. R. L. Huntzinger (Inc.). Ross Jungnickel (Inc.). Edward B. Marks Music Co. Jack Mills (Inc.). William A. Pond & Son. G. Ricordi & Co. (Inc.). Shapiro, Bernstein & Co. (Inc.). PUBLISHERS Harry Von Tilzer Music Publishing Co. Ager, Yellen Bornstein (Inc.). Boston Music Co. Broadway Music Corporation. Curtis, L. B., music publishers. Enoch & Sons. Fischer, Carl (Inc.). Harold Flammer (Inc.). Forster Music Publisher (Inc.). Estate of Hamilton S. Gordon. F. B. Haviland Publishing Co. Kendis, Brockman Music Co. (Inc.). E. T. Paull Music Co. Weil, Milton, Music Co. (Inc.). Maurice Abrahams. Milton Ager. Harry Akst. Frank H. Anderson. Lily Strickland Anderson. Harry Archer. Gus Arnheim. Gene Austin. Katharine Bainbridge. Philip H. Batholomae. Karolyn Wells Bassett. Ben Black. Eubie Blake. Walter Blaufuss. Marty Bloom. Carrie Jacobs Bond. James A. Brennan. George H. Broadhurst. James Brockman. Lewis J. Browne. COMPOSERS AND AUTHORS Monte Carlo. Amy Ashmore Clark. C. Whitney Coombs. Walter Danrosch. Mme. Fred. De Gressac. Vaughn De Leath. Jessie L. Deppen-Ball. Walter Donaldson. A. Dubin. Wm. C. Duncan. Harry Edelheit. N. Shepard Edmonds. Clara Edwards. Gus Edwards. Leo Edwards. John C. Egan. Sammy Fain. Roland Farley. William Arms Fisher. B. Sherman Fowler. Freer, Eleanor Everest. Hugo Frey. Rudolf Friml. Est. of Louis A. Hirsch. Samuel R. Gaines. Lewis E. Gensler. John L. Golden. Edwin Franko Goldman. Alfred Goodman. Frank Goodman. Jascha Gurewich. Walter G. Haenschen. Clude Hager. Carl Hahn. Bernard Hamblen. Oscar Hammerstein, 2d. Lou Handman. Ray Henderson. Est. of Victor Herbert. Frank E. Hersom. Art Hickman. Walter Hirsch. George V. Hobart. Sidney Holden. Abraham Holzmann. Sidney Homer. Brian Hooker. Lucius Hosmer. Joseph E. Howard. Raymond Hubbell. Bruno Huhn. Henry Holden Huss. Arnold Johnson. Horace Johnson. James Kendis. Max Kortlander. Mahew Lester Lake. Harold Levey. Roger Lewis. Samuel M. Lewis. Benton Ley. Georga A. Little. George A. Lockhart. Frederick Knight Logan. Darl MacBoyle. James G. MacDermid. Ballard MacDonald. Estate of Glen MacDonough. Edward Madden. Frank Magine. Jack Mahoney. Mme. Manna-Zucca. Joseph Kaufmann Meyer. Estate of Theodore Morse. Kenneth M. Murchison. Arthur Nevin. Mrs. Ethelbert Nevin. Anna Caldwell O'Dea. Nat Osborne. H. O. Osgood. 93693-26 -16 Harry Owens. Raymond W. Peck. Lew Pollock. Alice Barnett Price. Max Prival. Sergei Rachmaninoff. J. Russel Robinson. Ed Rose. Vincent Rose. Walter L. Rosemont. Louis Victor Saar. Harry Tobias. Wm. G. Tracey Roy Turk. Daniel S. Twohig. Eric Von Der Golts, jr. Albert Von Tilzer. Sam Ward. Harold Weeks. Percy Wenrich. Emerson Whithorne. R. Huntington Woodman. Ed Wynn. Jack Yellen. Vincent Youmans. Joseph Young. J. S. Zamecnik. Next I want to introduce for the record the form of agreement between the society and its members under which it secures the right to do police duty for them, to protect their rights against infringers, all and sundry. (The agreement above referred to is follows:) Agreement made between the undersigned (for brevity called "owner") and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (for brevity called "society") in consideration of the premises and of the mutual covenants hereinafter contained, as follows: The owner sells, assigns, transfers, and sets over unto the society for the term hereof the entire exclusive right of public performance (as hereinafter defined) in each musical work: Of which the owner is a copyright proprietor; or Which the owner, alone, jointly, or in collaboration with others, wrote, composed, published, acquired, or owns; or 1 |