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never was given here, but we must have a copyright in case it is ever given. It was a Wagner.opera. I could bring up from the Library the scores of two operas done in that way. I can give you every point you want in regard to this subject.

The CHAIRMAN. Let me ask you a question. What do you say in relation to the statement made by Mr. Frohnhoefer in relation to the importation of engravings from Germany having reduced the labor in this country nearly 50 per cent.

Mr. WOOD. Just before I came over here, I read an article in the magazine published by the music publishers in Germany, saying there had never been a year since 1903 when the engravers had done so little work in Germany as they have done this year. I can show you the prices they are getting over there. I can engrave cheaper here; and in addition to that, I am in favor of labor. I am in favor of doing everything I can here.

Representative CURRIER. What has been the condition of the business in this country the past year?

Mr. WOOD. Well, I have not been able to get engraving done that I wanted. That is absolutely true.

Representative CURRIER. Has there been a great demand for music? Mr. WOOD. We have had a good trade. I started in 1893, in the dullest year. My idea was to get ready in the dull times for the good times. I have been engraving right along. We could not sell it all, but we get it engraved. Now is the time.

Representative CURRIER. Why is now the time, if there is an immense pressure of work?

Mr. Wood. I will tell you in a moment. When I came back from Europe last June, my engraver, one of the best in the country, and the only one who has ever been able to do the work as I wanted it done, except in Germany, made an agreement with my competitor so that he could not engrave for anybody else. Of course, he was very sorry, but he would be obliged to let me get my engraving some place else. What could I do? I must have the best engraving in my business. That is my only salvation. Within two weeks' time he has written me that on account of the dullness of this other firm's business, he stands ready to come and do some work for me. I wrote him immediately to the effect that I had some engravers now at work for me and that I could not turn them down in a week, as they had protected me right along during this time. I told him that I must give them work, but that if he would wait and give me time to get work ready, he should also have work from me. I wrote him just before I came here. I said, "I am called unexpectedly to Washington. When I get back, I will have some engraving for you." I want all I can get of that man's engraving. I can answer everything. this gentleman has said here, and give you the proofs.

Representative CURRIER. We will be very glad to have you furnish that as soon as you can.

Mr. WOOD. I can answer everything here.

The CHAIRMAN. Is this your private business?

Mr. WOOD. It is a corporation in which I own a controlling interest, and in this sense it is my private business. It started in 1893. The CHAIRMAN. What is the name of the concern?

Mr. Wood. The B. F. Wood Music Company. We started as a small concern. We have a fairly good business. We are gaining in

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London remarkably well with American music composed in America, engraved in America, and printed in America, but, unfortunately, Í have to put on the bottom of every sheet of music "Printed in U. S. A.," or I can not get it into England. I am afraid if you antagonize those people over there, they will say, "Our labor and men must be protected. Don't buy that music with 'Printed in U. S. A.' printed on it." Then I have got to print it in Europe. I am there to stay.

Representative CURRIER. Call their attention to the working clause in their patent laws.

Mr. WOOD. I know nothing of that; but I know this is absolutely my experience. I can only give you my experience.

Representative LEGARE. You say you have more demand for music than for engraving? You can not get all your engraving done?

Mr. WOOD. I was not able to do it. Of course, if this man now gives me what engraving I want, I can. I can not get the kind of engraving I want. Of course, you do not know my business. My business is not affected by the mechanical instruments. We publish many works of a classical nature. There is no copyright on them. There are many editions on the market and if I have a new edition, how can I get in? The only way is to have a better edition than the other fellow has. That is why we want the best engraving.

I will tell you what we have to do. Our main office is in Boston. We are now having our engraving done in Cincinnati, paying expressage back and forth there, and paying the price that they ask. It is cheap. I do not find fault at all with their prices.

The Engravers' Union is a very small affair and is a very unjust one, from my experience with it. I do not know this gentleman, and I am only speaking from what I know of the union in Boston. This good engraver I speak of is really a boss engraver. He has several assistants working for him, but he does personally the engraving I want, and he is an artist. Awhile ago, when he wanted to do more work and to educate some apprentices in taking up this engraving, they said, "Look here; only one apprentice shall be added a year to this business, and if you take any more we will shut down on you. And they did shut down on him. That is why I think the union is unjust. It is a very small organization. It does not seem to be possible that the number is as large as 500. It may be, however. I am not telling you from absolute knowledge.

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As to the music engraving, they call it engraving, but nine-tenths of it is music punching. They have five claws, like that [demonstrating with the hand]. These represent the lines. They draw these across the plate. Then they have all the various signs, the noteheads, clefs, sharps, flats, etc., in the form of steel punches which they strike with a small hammer, thus punching the various characters into the plate. It is a punched plate, not an engraved plate. Finally, they add some little embellishments, like the slur lines, etc. They put these in with a graver, but that is not engraving. They call it an "engraved plate" because it does not sound so well to say "punched plate." This gentleman will confirm me, I think. Is not that true?

Mr. FROHNHOEFER. What is that?

Mr. Wood. You do punch the plate.
Mr. FROHNHOEFER. Not all of it.

Mr. Wood. All except the slurs. What about the words and letters?

Mr. FROHNHOEFER. What about the stems and bar lines?
Mr. Wood. They are straight lines.

Mr. FROHNHOEFER. It does not make any difference whether they are straight or not. They are done by hand. They are engraved. Mr. WOOD. Nine-tenths of it is done with punches.

Mr. O'CONNELL. Might I suggest, Senator, that if this industry is protected for Amerian workmen this gentleman will very quickly have all the men he wants in the industry, instead of being restricted, as he says he is now, to a few men.

Mr. WOOD. I am with the workingman. I have proved it in my own business by printing here, engraving here, and sending my music abroad. I do not think you can gainsay me. I can absolutely prove it by my shipments to Europe.

Representative CURRIER. Your view, then, would be that this would prove in the end a disadvantage to the members of the Music Engravers' Union?

Mr. Wood. I do not see that there is any need of it. Yes, in one way, that would be true. It would force the foreign publishers to lose their copyright on valuable works. You never know whether a musical work is going to succeed or not. It is not like a book. I would like to show you to-morrow the score of a Wagner opera. There is another process that has not been spoken of at all. Music can be produced by a different process. It is not engraving.. It is not lithograph. It is done by a pen. Now, can we copyright music in that form? If you can fix that, that would cover a big part of it. That would partly protect the foreign publishers.

Representative LEGARE. Would this change affect American workmen? Would it be to their detriment or their betterment?

Mr. Wood. I should say it would help them.

Representative LEGARE. Would it help them or hurt them, even though they are small in numbers?

Mr. Wood. I am quite sure it would help this small body of engravers, but have I not some consideration also? Have I not so many people, with so many families dependent on me? Have I not some show to extend my business beyond the boundaries of America? Representative LEGARE. Undoubtedly. We want to get at both sides of the question.

Mr. WOOD. Well, I was not prepared for this, but I can answer every question he has put up, by proofs. This may bring a new process in here. I think it is called the autographic process. They do work in Germany with it so nicely that it is almost impossible to tell it from an engraved process. They can not do it here. I absolutely can not get it done.

The CHAIRMAN. If you desire to make any other statement in the way of proof that you spoke of, you may submit it here, and we will have it go in the record in connection with your statement.

Mr. WOOD. I can prove to you by my engraving bills that I have had in Germany, if you will allow me time to get them from Boston, but I am afraid I am the only one who can do it.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Wood, you may have a week.

Mr. WOOD. I can do it in two days after I get home.

The CHAIRMAN. You may send it in any time before printing.

Mr. WOOD. I will send you my receipted engravers' bills. I will send you at the same time, if you want them, the proofs or prints from the plates.

The CHAIRMAN. Whatever proof you want to submit, you may submit in writing, and we will see that it goes in the record.

STATEMENT OF MR. WILLIAM B. HALE.

Mr. HALE. I want to say a few words on the manufacturing clause. It is too late to discuss the general policy of the domestic manufacture clause, but it is not out of place to suggest that that is aimed solely at the protection of American labor, and has nothing whatever to do with protecting the rights of authors or of the public to their just and equitable right in the productions of authors."

By putting these clauses as a condition of the validity of the copyright, you are putting in just so many more technicalities by which the copyright may fail. Performance of all these technicalities will have to be proved, many years afterwards, by oral testimony, and anyone who has ever attempted to prove a copyright after a great many years knows what a difficult thing it is to do.

I have no objection whatever to protecting the American laborer in all these matters, but I think the proper way of protecting him is by prohibiting, during the life of the copyright, the importation of the copyrighted work or of the plates, the means of the production of the copyrighted work. That will give American labor absolute protection.

Another way of protecting American labor is by putting a duty upon the importation of books or plates or other means of production; but to make them a condition of the validity of the copyright, I think, is bad policy.

So much for the matter of protecting American labor. Then I should like to speak specifically of a provision in section 16 of the Smoot bill, on page 9, referring to illustrations in books. The domestic manufacture clause applies to this.

Representative LEGARE. That is in line 6?

Mr. HALE. Yes; beginning at the latter part of line 5 and running to line 8.

I suggest, if you are going to require illustrations in books to be made wholly by domestic process, that that be disassociated from the books and dealt with separately. Practically, the illustrations are the matters which are copyrightable under clause k in section 5. I would suggest that that be dealt with independently. If the committee wishes to report that it should be protected, I suggest that it be done somewhat like this:

That of the prints and pictorial illustrations specified in section 5, subsection k, of this act, all copies afforded protection shall be made by a process wholly performed within the limits of the United States.

The point of my objection is that if by any chance an illustration in a book should not have been produced within this country, possibly the copyright upon the entire book, text and all, might fail. They are distinct things, and they should not be associated together. Representative LEGARE. How is that, again?

Mr. HALE. My idea is that if an illustration in a book should, for any reason, not be manufactured wholly in this country, possibly

under the provisions of section 16, as it now stands, the copyright on the entire book might fail.

Representative CURRIER. Mr. Hale, perhaps we had better have it appear in the record whom you represent.

Mr. HALE. The American Law Book Company, of New York.

So much for that. Then the kindred sections, 17 and 18, which refer to an affidavit in connection with these things, I think are useless and should be wholly omitted, with nothing substituted for them. We have a domestic-manufacture clause in the present law, and we have no such a provision for affidavits. They are simply one other act which must be done to secure a valid copyright, and which years hence, possibly, will have to be proved in some suit for infringement of that copyright at a time when the proof is not available. I think there ought to be as little of that as possible in this bill. The very purpose is to simplify and make sure and certain and safe that a copyright taken out is valid.

Representative CURRIER. Two bills have been passed by Congress since I have been a member of this committee to which the labor unions made objection at conferences with the publishers, and they withdrew the objection upon the statement that a provision similar to this should be embodied in the law.

Mr. HALE. I would suggest that the safest way to protect the American laborer is by prohibiting the importation of copyright books or other articles for which you intend to accord labor protection or the means of production of those articles. That would tect labor absolutely.

STATEMENT OF MR. GEORGE HAVEN PUTNAM, SECRETARY OF THE AMERICAN PUBLISHERS' COPYRIGHT LEAGUE.

Mr. PUTNAM. The publishers have protested from the outset against that affidavit provision as not necessary and as putting publishers alone, among all the law-abiding citizens of this country, in the position of being required to not only obey the law but afterwards to swear that they have obeyed the law. We accepted it under protest. If you honorable gentlemen decide to include that affidavit clause, we shall of course accept it, but it will always be under protest. It is ungermane and puts an indignity upon the publishing body. It brings, as Mr. Hale has said, unnecessary new restrictions upon copyright, the penalty now of copyright, forfeiture, being quite serious and effective.

Representative CURRIER. Mr. Putnam, you remember that when the bill giving an ad interim term was passed the agreement which was reached did not give the foreign authors any such protection as they afterwards got in the bill by a Senate amendment. We did not have the exclusive right to translate and copyright during that ad interim term. It was open to anybody else to proceed. Senator Platt amended the bill in the Senate, giving them the exclusive right in the ad interim term, and I said to Senator Platt that broke the agreement, and the House committee could not act without consulting with the gentlemen who were parties to the agreement. He asked me then to see if the labor people would withdraw their objection. I sent for their representative, and he agreed to withdraw his objection, with the understanding that the other part of the agreement should be carried out, and I reported a bill and had it passed

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