We have found same a good seller, and we think would make quite a hit on record. Hoping you will see fit to use this number, we are, Yours, very truly, AUTOMATIC VAUDEVILLE COMPANY. ALBRIGHT MUSIC COMPANY, COLUMBIA PHONOGRAPH COMPANY, Tribune Building, New York City. GENTLEMEN: We are mailing you to-day the vocal and instrumental arrangements of our new Indian novelty Os-ka-loo-sa-loo, which bids fair to be a big hit the coming season. It has just been produced by the Victor people, as you will see by the inclosed list. You will make no mistake in taking this novelty up at once. We can supply you with the band and orchestra arrangements if desired. We have a lot of other good record material, as you will see by the catalogues sent with the music. Please acknowledge receipt of the music mailed you to-day and oblige, Very truly, THE ALBRIGHT MUSIC Co. [George H. Diamond and Will C. Smith, Originators of Songs Illustrated With Motion Pictures.] Mr. EMERSON, Columbia Phonograph Company, New York. EN ROUTE PHILADELPHIA, PA., October 9, 1907. MY DEAR MR. EMERSON: Yours just at hand and you say you think you can not use the fire song entitled When Our Firemen Face Their Foe. I am positive when you make a record of it with fire alarm and effects it will be very beautiful, and it will be a great favor to me and help the sale of the song wonderfully, although I lost $3,000 with a show last year. Vic, I am now booked up two years in vaudeville and hope to get back on my feet again. Kindly advise me if you will use it and when, and believe me, Very respectfully, yours, The COLUMBIA PHONOGRAPH COMPANY, 1109 Chestnut street, Philadelphia. GEO. H. DIAMOND. LENOX MUSIC COMPANY, DEAR SIRS: We are sending you under separate cover vocal and instrumental score of our new song hit, Girlie Goo, which from its present promises of popularity will no doubt cause a demand for both vocal and instrumental records. We hope that you will list same and have no doubt that your sales will justify the making of the records. Very sincerely, yours, THE LENOX MUSIC CO. PAUL H. CROMELIN, Esq., vice-president, the Columbia Phonograph Company, I. PRAGER, MUSIC PUBLISHER, 154 Nassau Street, New York City. DEAR SIR: I am in receipt of your esteemed favor of the 24th instant, informing me that my composition, The Girl in White, has been accepted by your company, and I take this opportunity of expressing my appreciation of the interest you have taken in having the same submitted. I regret to say, however, that the band score has not yet been published, but just as soon as it is done I will take pleasure in sending you the same. In the meantime I trust you will be able to have it listed as an orchestra number, and I will thank you to advise me when the records are ready for distribution in order that Mr. Prager may notify his customers of that fact. Again thanking you, I am, Yours, very truly, MAURICE LYONS. LEN SPENCER'S LYCEUM AND MUSIC PUBLISHERS' EXCHANGE, COLUMBIA PHONOGRAPH COMPANY, 57 West Twenty-sixth Street, City. GENTLEMEN: We for the second time inclose professional copies of song, Why Was I Ever Born Lazy. Since this number was mailed you some three months ago it has been featured by such prominent vaudeville acts as Ernest Hogan, Lawson & Wood, Devon & Kennedy, Ned Nye, and others. It is also a prominent feature of the Follies of 1907, now playing on the Broadway Roof. It is a song well suited to the talent of Mr. Bob Roberts or Mr. Arthur Collins. In the event that you should desire to make this number a feature of your catalogue we have assurances from the publisher that he will be only too glad to stand the expense of any special arrangements in connection therewith. Very truly, yours, Mr. CHARLES PRINCE, Care Columbia Phonograph Company, Coogan Building, New York City. LEN SPENCER'S LYCEUM, Per L. R. Jos. W. STERN & Co., New York, October 1, 1907. DEAR SIR: Inclosed please find a copy of our hit entitled I'd Like a Little Loving Now and Then. I did not show you this song at first, as I did not know how it would go, but now that it is a hit and being sung all over the country I think it would be well for you to record it on the phonograph. It will certainly be a big seller, as everybody is whistling and singing it. Hoping to hear from you in regard to same, beg to remain, Very truly, yours, HARRY ISRAEL. Jos. W. STERN & Co., Mr. EMERSON, Care Columbia Phonograph Company, 57 West Twenty-sixth Street, City. DEAR SIR: We have just spoken to your head office regarding our song After They Gather the Hay and they are going to take it up at once, and you will most likely be instructed by Mr. Bolton to go ahead and have Mr. Stanley record this ballad. We hope that you will do your best to put the work through as speedily as possible, for we are very anxious to obtain the 200 cylinder records which we have this day ordered. Yours, very truly, Mr. VICTOR EMERSON, Care of Columbia Phonograph Company, Jos. W. STERN & Co. Jos. W. STERN & Co., Coogan Building, Twenty-sixth Street and Sixth Avenue, City. DEAR SIR: We appreciate very much the promptness with which you put the song After They Gather the Hay on record, and we wish to show our gratitude by mailing you a dozen of our late publications. If within your province, kindly try and hurry the factory to deliver us the 200 records at the earliest date. Very truly, yours, Jos. W. STERN & Co. THE COLUMBIA PHONOGRAPH COMPANY, 45 WEST TWENTY-EIGHTH STREET, New York. GENTLEMEN: Inclosed find order for 250 records of Keep on Smiling. We will send you the order for Sweetheart Days a little later on. Yours, truly, J. H. REMICK & Co. REQUISITION. Jerome H. Remick & Co., 45 West Twenty-eighth street, New York, to Columbia Phonograph Company, 250 records Keep on Smiling. [Hitland music publishers, Helf & Hager Company, 43 West Twenty-eighth street.] NEW YORK, February 2, 1907. CHARLIE PRINCE, Care of Columbia Phonograph Company, New York City. DEAR CHARLIE: Under separate cover I am sending you the band part of Fanella, and anything you can do to give this a boost will be greatly appreciated by GENTLEMEN: Inclosed you will find professional copy of one of our latest hits, Mister Sun, sequel to our Mister Moon song, published by Jerome H. Remick & Co. You will greatly oblige us if you will look over this composition and see if same is available for the phonograph. Kindly let us hear from you in regard to the above at your earliest convenfence. Trusting that the Sun (song) will shine bright and favorable, we remain, Very truly, yours, HERBERT L. WALLERSTEIN MUSIC PUB. Co., Per H. L. W. THE TOLBERT R. INGRAM MUSIC COMPANY, COLUMBIA PHONOGRAPH COMPANY, 90 West Broadway, New York City. GENTLEMEN: We have been hoping to hear from you in answer to our letters of February 20 and March 9, regarding the making of records for Western Girl two-step. We are sending you an orchestra arrangement of same by this mail. The two-step is catching on so very fast that it looks like it is going to be a national hit inside of a few months and we are confident any records you may make for it will be advantageous to you as well as to ourselves. We hope you will consider the matter and see if you can not use same. Yours, very truly, THE TOLBERT R. INGRAM MUSIC Co., THE TOLBERT R. INGRAM MUSIC COMPANY, COLUMBIA PHONOGRAPH COMPANY, New York City. GENTLEMEN: It has been quite a while since we asked you to consider any of our music with the object in view of cutting same for your instruments. We now have another number which promises to equal in popularity anything we ever issued. It is a Mexican intermezzo called "Sasarida." We are sending a copy under separate cover and we will ask you to please consider this number with the object of using it at an early date. We have issued within the past few years music which has had a combined sale of a quarter of a million copies, yet only two of these have ever been used by you and these two we believe proved entirely satisfactory to yourselves and your customers. It is always our desire to advertise and push only that music which demonstrates that it meets with public approval, and for that reason we never submit anything to you until we can guarantee that the composition justifies us in doing so. We have both band and orchestra arrangements which we can supply if you need them. We hope you will carefully consider this number and let us hear from you in regard to same. Thanking you for past favors, we are, THE TOLBERT R. INGRAM MUSIC CO. [Grand Opera House, G. A. Wegefarth, lessee and manager; W. D. Wegefarth, business manager. Wm. Penn Theater, West Philadelphia, G. A. Wegefarth, president and manager.] Mr. VICTOR H. EMERSON, PHILADELPHIA, June 4, 1907. Columbia Phonograph Company, New York City. MY DEAR SIR: I am inclosing a professional copy of my latest song, Tell Me What's a Fellow To Do, which was successfully sung by Miss Helena Frederick in Keith's Theater, this city, last month. Next season it will be placed in a musical production. Will you kindly look it over and, if possible, arrange to place it on your phonograph records? With best wishes, I am, W. D. WEGEFARTH, The following statement, referred to by Mr. Cromelin, was ordered inserted in the record: The Men Behind-By M. Dorian-Remarkable history of the fight being waged against the mechanical instrument record makers abroad by the speculators acting under the guise of composers and publishers-Begun as a gamble, the game has reached stupendous proportions-Thousands of dollars squeezed out of the manufacturers, not one penny of which goes to an author or composer. THE MEN BEHIND. [Reprinted from the Musical Age, February 29, 1908.] F. M. Prescott, who said under date of December 10, 1907, that he is not in business in America or in Europe and that he has "absolutely no interest in the copyright bill whatsoever," has been bombarding Members of Congress, the press, and influential individuals with a pamphlet on copyright legislation headed 'The Fair-The Honest-the Just Cry on Both Sides," purporting to be issued by the Authors and Composers' Copyright League of America. The following story from London would seem to throw some light upon Mr. Prescott's disinterested activities.-(Editorial.) In looking up facts for you in connection with the copyright matter my attention has been drawn anew to a series of coincidences which are interesting, to say the least. They form a complete chain and are significant. The authors' rights agitation started in France. It spread to Belgium, then to Italy, Germany, England, America, Austria, and Hungary. In each country it is the "same old story in the same old way." The hue and cry is raised that the poor author is being raided by the talkingmachine "pirates," who ravish him of the children of his brain and leave him destitute and forlorn. If there is a copyright law already on the statute books, this is invoked; but if there be no such law, or if the courts of the country refuse to declare talking-machine records an infraction of such law, there is a how of rage and vituperation, followed by an immediate and clamorous demand for the instantaneous enactment of a law which will forever bar the "pirates" from taking the bread out of the mouth of the helpless author, etc. Now, who raises this hue and cry and creates this clamorous demand for the new and drastic legislation? Is it the author? Not in a single instance has 39207-08-22 an author, big or little, begun an action in a court, and, with the exception of Sousa and Herbert in America and Puccini and Massenet in Europe, they have not petitioned legislatures to come to their succor. In the Belgian case the names of Puccini and Massenet appeared as plaintiffs, but they were no more actual plaintiffs than you and I. Is it the publisher of music? Again the answer must be in the negative, because while the disguise of a publisher is assumed for the moment and to conceal the real identity, the latter is sooner or later made clear and is always the same. Who is it, then, who started and has kept alive this agitation for a period of more than nine years at an enormous outlay of time, money, patience, and ingenuity? The speculator and gambler. In whatever guise he appears, tear off the mask and you will find the speculator and gambler. It may not be the same speculator always, but always it is the speculator. How the raid started.-It started in France. For more than a hundred years they have had a copyright law there, and for the same length of time an Authors' Rights Society, which is not only active and vigorous in proclaiming and upholding the rights of the author, but is clothed by the law of the land with extraordinary powers for enforcing those rights. This society has never identified itself in the slightest way with this affair, nor with the syndicate, which has exacted such heavy tolls from the talking-machine interests in France, known as the "Agence Generale d'Editions Phonographiques et Cinematographiques," presided over by Lucien Vives. It is called an "agency," but it is a syndicate. Its aim is clear, as you will see. Lucien Vives was a Parisian dealer in talking machines and a manufacturer in a small way of talking-machine records. In connection with his business he managed what is commonly known as a “slot parlor;" in which were displayed a number of automatic machines which automatically reproduced a selection of music recorded on a talking-machine record whenever a coin of a certain fixed denomination was dropped in the "slot," or coin chute, of the machine. The admission to this slot parlor was free, and the reproduction was consequently more or less public. The Authors' Rights Society above mentioned notified Mr. Vives that as he was giving a public performance of copyright music he must pay a tax to the society, which tax was regulated by the total amount of his takings. No attempt was made by the society to tax each record. Vives found this tax a burden, and in the effort to escape it he studied carefully the laws under which the society operated. In the course of his investigation he probably consulted a lawyer. As a result of his investigations, he saw the possibility of an immense speculation. He saw that if he could secure control of the copyright of standard musical works and could compel talking-machine manufacturers to pay him a royalty for the privilege of reproducing these, he would have a source of revenue which would be almost beyond calculation. No one had ever pretended that talking-machine records were in any sense a publication of copyright music, but that did not necessarily indicate that they could not be so declared. He thought the scheme over very carefully and cleverly, and then approached several publishers of music in Paris for their aid. Now the music publishers of Paris are, as a class, men of wealth and shrewdness, and they said to Vives, "This looks attractive, but it is not. The copyright law of France expressly exempts mechanical instruments or instruments serving to mechanically reproduce music. Furthermore, the Authors' Rights Society would be the medium through which the tax would be paid, and we are not pulling chestnuts' out of the fire for them." Vives was disappointed but not discouraged, and he returned to the attack with the offer to take the burden of a test on his own shoulders if they would assign him their rights for a certain number of years with the right to use their names as plaintiffs. Contracts with publishers.-Some of them assented and made the contracts. Others refused to have anything to do with it or him. The form of the contract clearly discloses the speculative character of the scheme. By the contract Vives was under obligation to bring the test case within a specified period, and it was necessary for him to secure the funds with which to employ counsel and discharge the other unavoidable expenses incident to carrying the case through the courts. Being without capital or resources, he was compelled to seek outside aid, and he hawked his contracts with the publishers about Paris for months in the |