an extension of the system of centralization that would next be claimed;
for the present measure can be regarded as little more than the entering
wedge for others. France and England profit enormously by setting the
fashions for the world. New patterns and new articles are invented that
sell in the first season for treble or quadruple the price at which they
are gladly supplied in the second; and it is by aid of the perpetual
changes bf fashion that foreigners so much control our markets. Recently,
our manufacturers have been enabled to reproduce many new articles in very
short time, and this has tended greatly to reduce the profits of
foreigners, who are of course dissatisfied. Copyrights are now granted in
both those countries for new patterns, new forms of clothing, &c. &c., and
our next step will be towards the arrangement of a treaty for, securing to
the inventor of a print, or a new fashion of paletot, the monopoly of its
production in our markets; and when the claim for this shall be made, it
will be found to stand on precisely the same ground with that now made in
behalf of the producers of books, and must be granted. The Frenchman will
then have the exclusive right of supplying us with new _mousselines de
laine_, and the Englishman with new carpets and new forms of earthenware;
and we shall be told that that is the true mode of developing
manufacturing and artistic skill among ourselves. How much farther the
system may be carried it is difficult to tell, for, when we shall once
have established the system of regulating foreign and domestic trade by
treaty, the House of Representatives will scarcely be troubled with much
discussion of such affairs. Extremes generally meet, and it will be
extraordinary, if progress in that direction shall not be followed by
progress in the other, until our authors shall, at length, become
perfectly satisfied of the accuracy of Mr. Macaulay, when he told the
British authors, then claiming an extension of their monopoly to sixty
years, that "the wholesome copyright" already existing would "share in the
disgrace and danger of the new copyright" they desired to create.[1] They
could scarcely do better than study his speech at length. At present, they
are ill-advised, and their best friends will be those senators who, like
Mr. Macaulay, shall oppose their literary countrymen.
[Footnote 1: _Macaulay's Speeches_, vol. i. p. 403.]
Admitting, however, that the measure proposed should not in any manner
endanger existing privileges, what would be the gain to our authors in
obtaining the control of the British market, compared with what they would
lose from surrendering the control of our own? In the former, the sale of
books is certainly not large. Few have been more popular than Tupper's
"Proverbial Philosophy," and the price has been, as I learn, only 7_s._,
or $1,68. Nevertheless, a gentleman fully informed in regard to it assures
me that in fifteen years the average sale has been but a thousand a year,
or 15,000 in all.[2] Compare this with the sale of a larger number of the
"Reveries of a Bachelor," or of thrice the quantity of "Fern Leaves," at
but little lower prices, in the short period of six months, and it will be
seen how inferior is the foreign market to the domestic one. Were it
otherwise--were the market of Britain equal to our own--could it be
that we should so rarely hear of her literary men, dependent on their own
exertions, but as being poor and anxious for public employment? Were it
otherwise, should we need now to be told of the "utter destitution" of the
widow and children of Hogg, so widely known as author of "The Queen's
Wake," and as "The Shepherd" of "Blackwood's Magazine?" Assuredly not. Had
literary ability been there in the demand in which it now is here, he
would have written thrice as much, would have been thrice as well paid,
and would have provided abundantly for his widow and his children.
Nevertheless, our authors desire to trade off this great market for the
small one in which he shone and left his family to starve, and thus to
make an exchange similar to that of Glaucus when he gave a suit of golden
armor for one of brass.
[Footnote 2: The sale here has been 200,000, at an average price of 50
cents. Had it been copyright, the price would have been double, and
the "few cents" would have made a difference on this single book of
$100,000. The same gentleman to whom I am indebted for the above facts
informs me that he has paid to the author of a 12mo volume of 200 pages
more than $23,000, and could not now purchase the copyright for
$10,000; that for another small 12mo volume he has paid $7,000, and
Expects to pay as much more; that to a third author his payments for
the year have been $2500, and are likely to continue at that rate for
years to come; and that it would be easy to furnish other and numerous
cases of similar kind.]
What, however, are the prospects for the future? Will the British market
grow? It would seem not, for death and emigration are diminishing the
population, and the people who remain are in a state of constant warfare
with their employers, who promised "cheap food" that they might obtain
"cheap labor," and now offer low wages in connection with high-priced corn
and beef. The people who receive such wages cannot buy books. Hundreds of
thousands of persons are now out "on strike," or are "locked out" by the
gentlemen who advocate this "cheap labor" system; and the result of all
this extraordinary cessation from labor can be none other than the
continued growth of poverty, intemperance, and crime. The picture that is
presented by that country is one of unceasing discord between _the few_
and _the many_, in which the former always triumph; and a careful
examination of it cannot result in leading us to expect an increase in the
desire to purchase books, or in the ability to pay for them.
Having looked upon that picture, let our authors next look to the one now
presented by this country, as compared with that which could have been
offered forty, thirty, or even twenty years since, and to obtain aid in
understanding the facts presented to their view, let them read the
following extract from a speech recently delivered by Mr. Cobden:--
"You cannot point to an instance in America, where the people are more
educated than they are here, of total cessation from labor by a whole
community or town, given over, as it were, to desolation. When I came
through Manchester the other day, I found many of the most influential
of the manufacturing capitalists talking very carefully upon a report
which had reached them from a gentleman who was selected by the
government to go out to America, to report upon the great exhibition in
New York. That gentleman was one of the most eminent mechanicians and
machine-makers in Manchester, a man known in the scientific world, and
appreciated by men of science, from the astronomer royal downwards. He
has been over to America, to report upon the progress of manufactures
and the state of the mechanical arts in the United States, and he has
returned. No report from him to the government has yet been published.
But it has oozed out in Manchester that he found in America a degree of
intelligence amongst the manufacturing operatives, a state of things in
the mechanical arts, which has convinced him that if we are to hold our
own, if we are not to fall back in the rear of the race of nations we
must educate our people to put them upon a level with the more educated
artisans of the United States. We shall all have the opportunity of
judging when that report is delivered; but sufficient has already oozed
out to excite a great interest, and I might almost say some alarm."
Having done this, let them next ask themselves what have been the causes
of the vast change in the relative positions of the two countries. Doing
this, will not the answer be, common schools, cheap school-books, cheap
newspapers, and cheap literature? Has not each and every one of these
aided in making authors, and in creating a market for their products?
Having thus laid the foundation of a great edifice, are we likely to stop
in the erection of the walls? Having in so brief a period created a great
market for literature, is it not certain that it must continue to grow
with increased rapidity? Assuredly it is; and yet it is that vast market
that our authors desire to barter for one in which Hood was permitted
almost to starve, in which Leigh Hunt, Lady Morgan, Miss Mitford,
Tennyson, and Sir Francis Head even now submit to the degradation of
receiving the public charity to the extent of a hundred pounds a year! The
law as it now exists, invites foreign authors to come and live among us,
and participate in our advantages. The treaty offers to tax ourselves for
the purpose of offering them a bounty upon staying at home and increasing
their numbers and their competition with the well-paid literary labor of
this country. Were Belgrave Square to make a treaty with Grub Street,
providing that each should have a plate at the tables of the other, the
population of the latter would probably grow as rapidly as the dinners of
the former would decline in quality, and it might be well for our authors
to reflect if such might not be the result of the treaty now proposed.
Its confirmation is, as I understand, urged on some senators on the ground
that consistency requires it. Being in favor of protection elsewhere, they
are told that it would be inconsistent to refuse it here. In reply to
this, it might fairly be retorted that nearly all the supporters of
international copyright are advocates of the system called, in England,
Free Trade; and that it is quite inconsistent in them to advocate
protection here. To do this would however be as unnecessary as it would be
unphilosophical. Both are perfectly consistent. Protection to the farmer
and planter in their efforts to draw the artisan to their side, looks to
carrying out the doctrine of decentralization by the annihilation of the
monopoly of manufactures established in Britain; and our present copyright
system looks to the decentralization of literature by offering to all who
shall come and live among us the same perfect protection that we give to
our own authors. What is called free trade looks to the maintenance of the
foreign monopoly for supplying us with cloth and iron; and international
copyright looks to continuing the monopoly which Britain has so long
enjoyed of furnishing us with books; and both tend towards centralization.
The rapid advance that has been made in literature and science is the
result of the _perfect protection_ afforded by decentralization. Every
neighborhood collects taxes to be expended for purposes of education, and
it is from among those who would not otherwise be educated, and who are
thus protected in their efforts to obtain instruction, that we derive many
of our most thoughtful and intelligent men, and our best authors. The
advocates of free trade and international copyright are, to a great
extent, disciples in that school in which it is taught that it is an
unjust interference with the rights of property to compel the wealthy to
contribute to education of the poor. Common schools, and a belief in the
duty of protection, are generally found together. Decentralization, by the
production of local interests, _protects_ the poor printer in his efforts
to establish a country newspaper, and thus affords to young writers of the
neighborhood the means of coming before the world. Decentralization next
raises money for the establishment of colleges in every part of the Union,
and thus _protects_ the poor but ambitious student in his efforts to
obtain higher instruction than can be afforded by the common school.
Decentralization next _protects_ him in the manufacture of school-books,
by creating a large market for the productions of his pen, very much of
which is paid for out of the product of taxes the justice of which is
denied by those who advocate the British policy. Rising to the dignity of
author of books for the perusal of already instructed men and women he
finds himself _protected_ by an absolute monopoly, having for its object
to enable him to provide for himself, his wife, and his children. Of all
the people of the Union, none enjoy such perfect protection as those
connected with literature; yet many of them oppose protection to all
others, while actively engaged in enlarging and extending the monopoly
they themselves enjoy. It will scarcely answer for them to charge
inconsistency on others.
How far the protection already granted has favored the development of
literary tendencies, may be judged after looking to the single case of
dramatic writers, who are not protected against representation without
their consent; and, as that is their mode of publication, it follows that
they do not enjoy the advantages granted to other authors. The consequence
is, that we make so little progress in that department of literature,
while advancing rapidly in every other. Permit me, my dear sir, to suggest
that this is a matter worthy of your attention. There would seem to be no
good reason for refusing to one class of authors what we grant so freely
to all others.
Whether or not I shall have convinced you that international copyright
should not be established, I cannot say, but I feel quite safe in
believing that you must be convinced it is a question which requires to be
publicly and fully discussed before we adopt any action looking in that
direction. It is not a case of urgency. If the treaty be not confirmed,
the only inconvenience to the authors will be delay, and this should be
afforded, were it only to enable them to reflect at leisure upon the
probable consequences of the measure in aid of which they have invoked the
Executive power. Should they continue to believe their interests likely to
be promoted by the adoption of such a measure as that which has been so
pertinaciously urged the doors of Congress will always be open to them,
and justice, though it may be delayed, will assuredly be done. Let them
proceed in a constitutional way, and then, should their desires be
gratified, they will have the satisfaction of knowing that their rights
have been admitted after full and fair discussion before the people.
Should they now succeed in obtaining, in secret session, the confirmation
of a treaty negotiated in private, and in haste, they will, I think,
"repent at leisure;" but repentance may, and probably will, come too late.
The mischief will then have been done.
Having now, my dear sir, to the best of my ability, complied with your
request, I remain,
Yours, very respectfully,
HENRY C. CAREY.
_Burlington_, Nov. 28, 1853.
Hon. James Cooper.
NOTE.
December 31, 1867.
Mr. Dickens's tale of "No Thoroughfare" is now being reprinted here in
daily and weekly journals, and to such extent as to warrant the belief
that the number in the hands of readers of the Union, will speedily exceed
a million; obtained, too, at a cost so small as scarcely to admit of
calculation. Under a system of International Copyright a similar number
would, at the least, have cost $500,000. At 50 cents, however, the sale
would not have exceeded 50,000, yielding to author and publisher probably
$10,000. Would it be now expedient that, to enable these latter to divide
among themselves this small amount, the former should tax themselves in
one so greatly larger? Would it be right or proper that they should so do
in the hope that American novelists and poets-should in like manner be
enabled to tax the British people? Outside of the class of gentlemen who
live by the use of their pens, there are few who, having examined the
question, would, it is believed, be disposed to give to these questions an
affirmative reply.
Of all living authors there is none that, in his various capacities of
author, editor, and lecturer, is, in both money and fame, so largely paid
as Mr. Dickens. That he and others are not doubly so is due to the fact
that British policy, from before the days of Adam Smith, has tended
uniformly to the division of society, at home and abroad, into two great
classes, the very poor becoming daily more widely separated from the very
rich, and daily more and more unfitted for giving support to British
authors. That the reader may understand this fully, let him turn to recent
British journals and study the accounts there given of "an agricultural
gang system," whose horrors, as they tell their readers, "make the British
West Indies almost an Arcadia" when compared with many of the home
districts. Next, let him study in the "Spectator," now but a fortnight
old, the condition of the 630,000 wretched people inhabiting Eastern
London; and especially that of the 70,000 mainly dependent on ship and
engine building, "too poor to go afield for employment, too poor to
emigrate, too poor to do any thing but die," and wholly dependent on a
weekly allowance per house, of front twenty to forty cents and a loaf of
bread; that allowance, wretched as it is, to be obtained only at the cost
of "standing hours among crowds made brutal by misery and privation."
Further, let him read in the same journal its description of the almost
universal dishonesty which has resulted from a total repudiation of the
idea that international morality could exist; and then determine for
himself if, under a different system, Britain might not have made at home
a market for her authors that would far more than have compensated for
deprivation of that one they now so anxiously covet abroad.
Seeking further evidence in reference to this important question, let him
then turn to the "North British Review" for the current month and study
the social sores of Britain.
For more than a century she has been sowing the wind, carrying, and in the
direct ratio of their connection with her, poverty and slavery into
important countries of the earth. She is now only reaping the whirlwind.
When her literary men shall have begun to teach her people this--when
they shall have said to them that public immorality and private morality
cannot co-exist--when they shall have commenced to repudiate the idea
that the end sanctifies the means--then, _but not till then_, the time
may, perhaps, have come for lecturing the world on the moral side of the
question of International Copyright. To this moment, so far as the
writer's memory serves him, no one of them has yet entered on the
performance of this important work.