Page:Copyright, Its History And Its Law (1912).djvu/382

 350 COPYRIGHT

directed to consider the question of an international copyright, and to report to this House what, in their judgment, would be the wisest plan, by treaty or law, to secure the property of authors in their works, without injury to other rights and interests; and if in their opinion Congressional legislation is the best, that they report a bill for that purpose."

Mr. Cox had himself presented in the Forty-second Congress, December 6, 1871, a bill for international copyright on a basis of reciprocity, providing foreign works should be wholly manufactured in the United States and published by American citizens, and be registered, deposited and arrangements for such pub- lication made within three months of first publication in the foreign country. This bill was supported in Committee of the Whole by speeches from Archer Stevenson, Jr., of Maryland, and J. B. Storm, of Pennsylvania, but opposed by William D. Kelley, of Pennsylvania. The Apple- Mr. Cox's resolution was acted upon in 1872 by the ton proposal, jjg^ Library Committee, which invited the coopera- tion of authors, publishers, and others interested in framing a bill. At meetings of New York publishers, January 23 and February 6, 1872, a bill prepared by W. H. Appleton and accepted by A. D. F. Ran- dolph, Isaac E. Sheldon, and D. Van Nostrand, of a committee, was approved by a majority vote. It provided for copyright on foreign books issued under contract with an American publisher, "wholly the product of the mechanical industry of the United States," and registered within one month and pub- lished within three months from the foreign issue, stipulating that if a work were out of print for three months the copyright should lapse. This was in line with a letter printed by W. H. Appleton in the Lon- don Times, October, 1871, denying that there was any