Mr. REMICH. Yes, sir. I took this leaf from the report, and I will read it. This is the last year's report of the office:

The earned fees paid into the Treasury for the year ($78,518) exceeded the amount expended for salaries, which was $74,600.37. The additional expenditures during the year for stationery and other supplies can not at this date be obtained from the chief clerk of the Library, but for the first six months of the year they amounted to but $309.63, and the year's contingent expenditures, therefore, should be under $1,000. The yearly average for the last five years has been $954.29.

Then they say:

The appropriations for 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1905, and the first half of the fiscal year 1906 include the sum of $25,740, to be used in bringing up the arrears of work prior to July 1, 1897, which amount should therefore be deducted from the total sum for appropriations for service as not properly a charge upon the current work of the office, leaving the excess of fees earned over appropriations used for service $125,675.39 for the eight and one-half years.

The copyright fees are not, however, the most valuable assets of the office. During the year the articles deposited and credited numbered 213,498 articles. This large deposit of books, periodicals, maps, music, engravings, photographs, etc., includes many articles of considerable value which the Library of Congress would otherwise be required to purchase, and these articles therefore represent an annual acquisition of property to the value of many thousands of dollars.

Mr. CHANEY. But they do not produce any money.

Mr. REMICH. They do not produce any money-that is so; but they save you making an appropriation. This saves the Appropriations Committees of both House and Senate from appropriating money each year to buy these things that you would otherwise have to buy to place upon the shelves of the Library. Now, I want to do my share, and I want my business to do its share, toward supporting this Government. But I do not think, in view of this report, that there is any good reason why this great, rich Government should place this increased burden upon our industry.

Mr. CHANEY. Do you not argue unfairly when you undertake to bring in the Library as against the proposition?

I

Mr. REMICH. I am not trying to bring in the Library as against the proposition. Every author has to file two copies of his book, and they are placed in the Library. I say that if they did not do that, Mr. Putnam, the Librarian, would have to take money out of his appropriation and buy these books. I should suppose that that would be so. Otherwise he would not say that they were of great value. am willing, if they want to make a certificate of every view we have and send to us, for any convenience of the office, to take them; but to force us to pay for thousands and thousands of certificates, which will make it impossible for us to make a profit in the manufacture of our goods at the close margin under which the business is conducted under our contracts, would be a hardship, and I do not believe you want to drive us out of business in that way.

Mr. CHANEY. We certainly do not want to drive you out of business. Mr. REMICH. It seems to me that it would have that effect.

Mr. CHANEY. But I take it that the Librarian's purpose was to try to make this thing pay its way.

Mr. REMICH. I have no doubt about that. Mr. Putnam and Mr. Solberg have told me that by this consolidation of subjects many certificates could be saved. I should be glad to comply with their suggestion if our business was of such a character that we could do this series work; but you can see the difficulties.

Mr. PUTNAM. We want to be as clear as possible, and to meet this difficulty. Let me ask you this: Do you not do any series work, or is it only that you do not do work in a series under this limitation as to pose or composition?

Mr. REMICH. We do not do that class of work.

Mr. PUTNAM. If the words "only in pose or composition" were stricken out, would there be a material reduction in your fees? In the first place, it seems to me that it would be convenient for us to know— how many copyright entries do you make in the course of a year? Mr. REMICH. I can not tell.

Mr. PUTNAM. Have you any idea?

Mr. REMICH. It varies with different years.
Mr. PUTNAM. Would it run up into thousands?

Mr. REMICH. Some years I think it does.

Mr. PUTNAM. If you were privileged to register under one fee works in a series

Mr. REMICH. But what would be a "series?" That is the question. Mr. CURRIER. Representing the same subject.

Mr. PUTNAM. Representing the same subject under the same title with only slight variances, but not the variances described here as "only in pose or composition.' What we would like to know is, would it enable you to enter a great many of these articles under one fee that you now enter separately?

Mr. REMICH. That depends upon what you call the same subject. Mr. CURRIER. Is seems to me that you would have to introduce the word "general;" that is, make it read "the same general subject." Mr. REMICH. If you introduce that who will decide what is the same general subject, except the courts? It would encourage law suits. The CHAIRMAN. It would be the Librarian, would it not?

Mr. REMICH. His decision would not be final. The law says we can go to the courts and test his construction.

The CHAIRMAN. It would be the Librarian, so far as your fees were concerned?

Mr. REMICH. Yes; but we do not want to pay a fee unless it is to be registered in such a way that the court will hold that we have a legal registration. We have an artist in San Francisco; and if we could register under one entry all the views that he will take in San Francisco while he is there, which will probably be 500 different subjects, for half a dollar, we would like to do it. But what subjects that he takes in San Francisco can we include as a series and have protected? He will take the Pacific Hotel, showing its ruin and present condition, and he may take a Chinese camp, and he may take the Flood Building, and so on. How many can we get into a series and have the court protect us when we come to try a case? That is the difficulty. Suppose this said you shall enter under a series all churches in Paris-under one entry fee, for 50 cents-that we may enter all negatives that we take of churches there. How will you describe it in entry upon the book? Suppose we go to Rome, where they have 365 Catholic churches; they are not grouped in any way; we can not pose them. How will you describe the 365 views? Will you describe them as 365 views of the churches of Rome, or will you specify them under one head? You can see the difficulties, gentlemen.

your

Mr. PUTNAM. Do you not publish those in series for selling purposes sometimes?

Mr. REMICH. No. In selling we do this: We have a pictorial illustration of the Holy Land. It includes perhaps fifty pictures, but it covers the whole of the Holy Land. One is taken in Jerusalem, one in Jaffa, and one at Damascus, for instance. We should be glad to comply with any law that will protect us and not inject doubts into our business and encourage piracy.

Mr. CURRIER. Mr. Webb desires to know if this amendment would take care of your matter: "Insert after 'seal,' in line 6, page 37, the words 'provided only 50 cents shall be charged for each stereoscopic view filed and registered.""

Mr. REMICH. That is all right. And if we want a certificate in our business, we will come and, as the old lady said, "heave down our 50 cents and get it."

Mr. PUTNAM. "Provided, That in the case of stereoscopic views the certificate should not be furnished unless required, and in that case the fee shall be," etc.

Mr. CURRIER. And in such case no certificate shall be issued unless the regular fee is paid.

Mr. REMICH. That is perfectly satisfactory; but any attempt to define by series is sure to be unsatisfactory.

Mr. CURRIER. I think you may be right about this matter of series.

STATEMENT OF A. BELL MALCOMSON, ESQ.

Mr. MALCOMSON. I intend, Mr. Chairman, to be brief. The remarks that I shall make are pertinent more to correct the law so as to make it more definite than for any other purpose. I have prepared a short statement of just what the changes I propose are. The matter is one relating to lithographs. I represent Mr. McLaughlin, or McLaughlin Brothers, who are probably the largest lithographers in the country. Mr. McLaughlin has spent millions in perfecting that art in this country. He, unfortunately, is abroad at the present time, and has asked me to be here to represent him.

bills.

Lithographs have always been mentioned in the former copyright A lithograph is something different from any other production of a picture or of any pictorial illustration. But in this case it has been thought by the framers of the bill that the words "print or pictorial illustration" would cover lithographs.

The CHAIRMAN. Please refer to the section of the bill that you wish to call attention to.

Mr. MALCOMSON. I am referring to page 4, line 4.

Mr. CHANEY. "Prints and pictorial illustrations?"

Mr. MALCOMSON. Yes. The word "lithograph" is not mentioned in the subjects of copyright. It has always heretofore been mentioned. The suggestion that I find in the little memorandum that was attached in relation to the bill is: "It is assumed, however, that these will be included under the more general terms as prints and pictorial illustrations;" that is, that lithographs, it is presumed by the framers of this bill, will be included under that term.

Lithographs, as I say, are something entirely different from any other production, and I do not think-and I hope the committee will agree with me that they are entirely and specifically included. Lith ographs are not included under that term.

Senator MALLORY. How about engravings?

Mr. MALCOMSON. Engravings are prints. The lithographic process is something different from the mere printing from an engraving. The lithographic process is a very peculiar and a very interesting one. It would take too long for me to go into it and describe it, but it is entirely different from printing. The use of the colors, the manner in which the ink or the color is transferred from the stone to the paper, is not the mere act of printing. The color, I will say in brief,

is held there by, as it were, grease. Grease forms a material component in the practicing of the lithographic process.

The matter of lithographs has always been mentioned. The subject of lithographing has always been mentioned in previous bills, and not only that, but in this bill the lithographic process is specifically mentioned, and I shall come to that next. But the suggestion now is that there is a sufficient difference between lithographs and all other prints and pictorial illustrations to warrant the word "lithographs" being inserted there.

Mr. CURRIER. Then you would insert, after the word "prints," in line 4, on page 4, the word "lithographs?"

Mr. MALCOMSON. Yes, sir. That is my proposition. I do that because particularly in a late decision of great importance, made by the circuit court of appeals in our second circuit, they have used this language

The CHAIRMAN. That is the decision that has already been put in the record?

Mr. MALCOMSON. I think it has. It has been handed in to the committee. A printed copy of it has been loaned to me, and I will read an extract from it to show the pertinency of my remarks about interpolating this word "lithograph:"

But in view of the fact that the law of copyright is a creature of statute and is not declaratory of the common law, and that it confers distinctive and limited rights which did not exist at the common law, we are constrained to hold that it must be strictly construed, and that we are not at liberty to extend its provisions, either by resort to equitable considerations or to a strained interpretation of the terms of the statute.

I think that I am warranted, in view of that late decision, in asking the committee to interpolate that word "lithograph."

The CHAIRMAN. What do you say to that suggestion, Mr. Putnam and Mr. Solberg?

Mr. PUTNAM. I prefer that a suggestion as to phraseology in a section that has been so very carefully considered by our general legal advisers, these two committees of the bar association, should be submitted to them for their opinion as to its necessity and effect; and I think it would not be helpful to the committee to have me give an offhand opinion upon it.

Mr. CHANEY. I do not think there is much doubt that that lithographic process would not be included in merely a pictorial illustration. Mr. MALCOMSON. Or in a print.

Mr. CHANEY. Or in a print, either.

Mr. MALCOMSON. It might possibly be in a print; but a print might be construed by the courts to be something in which type and ink, or a plate and ink, is used.

The CHAIRMAN. Was this matter taken up at the conferences?

Mr. MALCOMSON. I do not know. I was not present when it was specifically discussed. I was present at one of the conferences, but

not when this was specifically discussed. I have always urged upon the Copyright Office, with whom I have colabored in this matter, that it should be included. And I am now here to stand up for it. I shall ask leave to be heard again on this, in view of the fact that Mr. Putnam states that he wishes to discuss it with the parties who drew the bill. I ask to be heard again at some subsequent hearing.

I pass on now to page 8, and the next suggestion that I have to make is in line 21 on that page. We know from what I have said, or we have an idea of what a lithographic process is. In this section, which is on page 8, is the restriction in relation to the printing of books or of lithographs, which are copyrighted in this country, in a foreign country and importing them here. That applies to this case. In Germany they can do this kind of work and beat us out of our boots. We can not compete with them at all in that line of work. To such an extent is that so that to-day the pictures of our Capitol, the pictures of all prominent buildings in our cities, are printed on postcards, and you will find on these cards a little statement, if you look at it, "Made in Germany." That is so throughout our cities. They are not copyrighted, of course. If they were copyrighted they would have a protection which they do not now have; but that is the fact.

In this section 13, on page 8, to which I am referring, there is a provision that where the book is copyrighted the type shall be set up in the United States and the book shall be printed in the United States. I will read section 13, so that we can comprehend it [reading]:

SEC. 13. That of a printed book or periodical the text of the copies deposited under section 11, above, shall be printed from type set within the limits of the United States, either by hand or by the aid of any kind of typesetting machine, or from plates made from type set within the limits of the United States; or if the text be produced by lithographic process, then by a process wholly performed within the limits of the United States; which requirements shall extend also to the illustrations produced by lithographic process within a printed book consisting of text and illustrations, and also to separate lithographs

Now follows the matter that I am objecting to: "Except where in either case"-that is, in the case of the book being produced by lithographic process, or in the case of a separate illustration being in the book-"except where in either case the subjects represented are located in a foreign country." Now, the lithographic process is not one in which a man goes and sets himself down in front of a mountain and works his process and takes his color scheme from the mountain, or one in which he goes in front of a building in a foreign city and sets up his lithographic process and conducts it there, at all. Why that exception? What is the meaning of it? I have had no explanation of it. I can not get any. It is said, "Well, the picture may represent a building in a foreign country or foreign scenery. Not at all.

There is no necessity for that exception in those cases. If a foreign scene is to be reproduced by a lithographic process, a photograph is taken of it in the foreign country, or a sketch is taken of it in the foreign country. The color scheme is then developed by the artist, possibly there, but no part of the lithographic process is necessary to be conducted in the foreign country at all. It is brought over here, and in the factory, in the print works in Brooklyn or Detroit or some other part of the United States, the lithographic process is then practiced. Mr. CHANEY. What effect does this section have?