formed without their consent, shall be dissolved, and that silver shall be restored to its place as money. They repudiate the act of 1873, which deprived them of the use of silver, doubled the burden of their debts, reduced the price of their property, and subjected them to privation and want. They have resolved not to be driven from their homes and made dependent upon the tender mercies of money kings. At all events, they will test the question whether this country shall be governed by a moneyed aristocracy or by a free and industrious people, devoted to liberty and independence. They will know whether laws can be made for the benefit of the producers of wealth as well as for the parasites of civilization. Let the possessors of accumulated capital take warning. Justice and moderation are necessary for the welfare of all, but the radical contractionists will produce radical inflationists. The latter will prevail if the former insist upon that issue. The common ground of safety and fair dealing is to return to the money of the Constitution-gold and silver coin-as the basis of a sound currency.

Wм. M. STEWART.

OUR INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT LAW.

It was impossible to write the first word of the above title without a certain sense of satisfaction. At last an international copyright law is ours; and though it is not one to be proud of, it is certainly gratifying to have outlived the shame of having none at all. It is matter for congratulation, too, that after all the "cranks" have had their say (as they must have regarding all reforms), from the denial of all copyright down to the royalty-stamp scheme, the measure passed is at least sane, if not generous, and meets the most urgent needs, if not all.

Nevertheless, when the editor of the FORUM asked for an article embodying my impressions of the law, the first impulse was against writing them. The bill, like all legislation, was the result of a series of compromises. It was supported by the joint committee of the authors' and publishers' leagues as the best bill attainable, and although the members of the committee retained their personal rights of criticism, it will be time enough for that when the working of the law demonstrates its faults. Its merits still have arrayed against them so much that is base and unscrupulous, that remedial criticism now, would be in danger of being used destructively.

On the other hand, it at first seemed superfluous to write about the advantages of such a measure, for this has already been done at length in many places, including an article in this review which the present writer was invited to contribute in March, 1888. There appeared, however, to be good reasons for going over the ground again while public attention is directed to it. There is much ignorance regarding the probable effects of the law, even among those most interested (the evening before this is written, one of our leading authors professed really to know nothing of the subject); and it is important that all readers should realize that the law, although defective and narrow, merits the support of all honest men.

Its moral effects will probably be its most important ones, but they are outside of the present writer's province. In writing about it at all, one sets up for more or less of a prophet, and will probably find all he had better attempt, if he plays that rôle only in relation to his own trade. Yet the author's interests are so inextricably blended with the publisher's, that it is not worth while to try to discuss them separately.

First, as to some obvious effects of the new law which are essential to the understanding of others not so apparent. The most obvious effect will be, of course, that foreign authors will be paid for such of their books as are copyrighted here. All payments will have to be added to the price of books, and this will relieve the American author from the competition of prices on foreign books that are low because they are not honest.

A less obvious effect is that, when the habit of paying is revived, foreign authors will be paid for many books that are not copyrighted, just as they were frequently paid for non-copyrighted books in the period from about 1860 to about 1876. Then the American publishing business was mainly in the hands of men who not only paid foreign authors, but who respected each other's compacts with such authors, and so made it possible, there being no rival editions to compete with, to pay liberally. Moreover, there was then in the trade honor enough, even among the thieves, to keep publishers from stealing from each other, and so any repentant thief who wanted to, could afford to pay honest royalty. The new law will inevitably drive out the worst element in the trade and put it on the old basis again, even in relation to books which may not be copyrighted.

There will be many of these, especially of the less popular class of books that presumably will not pay for the type-setting here which the law demands as a condition of copyright. Possibly even Bryce's "American Commonwealth" might not have been copyrighted under such a law. Then, as in that case, unexpected popularity in a non-copyrighted book will, of course, offer a temptation to the pirate. But with the possible prizes so few, relatively, the piratical industry will die out, and things will return to the condition of the period already referred to, when copyright was not in all cases essential to safety.

An indirect result of this will be much relief to the American author from mock-auction methods in publishing. Foreign authors will be able to determine who shall represent them here, and naturally will select reliable representatives. That as well as the other causes indicated, will drive out of publishing a class of people who have preyed upon the business weaknesses of American authors as well as upon the defenselessness of foreign ones.

Yet the most effective cause of forcing down the American author's royalties has not been the mere non-payment of those of the foreign author, but the wild competition of the cheap editions issued by reckless and inexperienced publishers. The chance to take books without paying for them, and especially to get out competing editions of books already proved successful by some established house, has led into the business a large number of the class of adventurers naturally attracted by such opportunities. The glut of all mechanical products caused by the protective tariff has made it easy for these people to get credit from paper-makers, printers, and binders (in fact, several publishers have been "set up " by over-protected establishments), and they have conducted their business with the recklessness to be expected-piling into the market edition after edition of each successful foreign book, each cheaper than its predecessor, until the publishers have destroyed themselves and each other. Probably there is not more than one of them who has not failed, and most of them have failed several times.

Not only has the market been overcrowded with superfluous and unreasonably cheap editions of good books, but with bad books. The publishers of the innumerable "series " have had to "rob the cradle and the grave," and many other places less eligible than either, for authors to keep their series going. To go at all, they must go regularly like a magazine, whether books worth publishing appear regularly or not; something must appear at the stated time, both to secure cheap postage and to keep up the habits of the clients-clients generally for the most ephemeral stuff, developed at the expense of all reading not ephemeral.

Because of this, the bookstores, except in favored spots, have suffered in number and quality. The book-buying habit

has fallen off; the pamphlet-buying habit has taken its place. The pamphlet soon finds its way to the waste basket, which, in many cases, it should never have risen above, and the permanent possessions of the household are less than they ought to be by one book. The average American citizen's source of intellectual pabulum is now the "news stand." It and the toy shop with piles of pamphlet "libraries" at one end have too generally succeeded the bookstore. The old habit of dropping into the bookstore and buying the latest good thing-latest in form or matter is now indulged in by few people, and in relatively few places.

The reading public having been gorged to a degree fatal to them with the deleterious products described, what chance has there been to crowd in a reasonable share of the productions of American authors? Before the flood of cheap pamphlets destroyed the book-buying habit, publishers of standing were generally able to sell enough of any book on which they would put their imprint, to protect them from serious loss. Now they find it impossible to market more than about a third as many copies of a new copyright book as they could before, or to obtain more than about three quarters as much per copy for any given mechanical grade. Besides, in most instances the grade has been forced lower than the width of the book's special market would justify, while the narrow and uncertain market has discouragedalmost fatally discouraged the undertaking of books by unknown aspirants, or of books by authors who appeal only to a select class. The new law is going to restore all these advantages. It will restrict books to editions for which there is a sound economic demand, thus relieving all authorship from illegitimate competition, and opening up the avenues to publicity now closed; and it will foster a return to standard literature in place of the ephemeral stuff of which the "libraries " have been principally made. This will encourage publishers to issue such literature in editions justified by a wider market, and will probably make the great classics of all literatures more accessible in better forms and cheaper than now. Such is the case in all countries where international copyright has relieved standard literature from the competition of such trash as can be stolen from other nations-frequently