It is evidently to the advantage of the consumer, upon whose interests the Philadelphia resolutions laid so much stress, that the labor of preparing the editions of his books be economized as much as possible. The principal portion of the cost of a first edition of a book is in the setting of the type, or, if the work is illustrated, in the setting of the type and the designing and engraving of the illustrations. SEC. 30. The provisions of the fifth and sixth | book_than_for that of the author who creates sections of the act entitled "An act establish- its essential substance. ing post-routes, and for other purposes," approved March third, eighteen hundred and seventy-seven, for the transmission of official mail matter, be, and they are hereby, extended to all officers of the United States Government, and made applicable to all official mail matter transmitted between any of the officers of the United States, or between any such officer and either of the executive departments or officers of the government, the envelopes of such matter in all cases to bear appropriate indorsements containing the proper designation of the office from which the same is transmitted, with a statement of the penalty for their misuse. And the provisions of said fifth and sixth sections are hereby likewise extended and made applicable to all official mail matter sent from the Smithsonian Institution: Provided, That this act shall not extend or apply to pension agents or other officers who receive a fixed allowance as compensation for their services, including expenses for postage. SEC. 33. That so much of this act as is embraced in sections four to thirty, both inclusive, shall take effect from the first day of May, 1879; and all acts or parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed. INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT.-IV. BY GEO. H. PUTNAM. (Read January 29th, 1879, before the New York Free-Trade Club, and revised by the author for THE PUBLISHERS' WEEKLY.) THE efforts in behalf of international copyright have been always more or less hampered by the question being confused with that of a protective tariff. The strongest opposition to a copyright measure has as a rule come from the protectionists. Richard Grant White said in 1868: "The refusal of copyright in the United States to British authors is in fact, though it is not so avowed, a part of the American' protective system." And again: "With free trade we shall have just international copyright." It would be difficult, however, for the protectionists to show logical grounds for their position. American authors are manufacturers, who are simply asking, first, that they shall not be undersold in their home market by goods imported from abroad on which no (ownership) duty has been paid,-which have, namely, been simply“ appropriated ;" and secondly, that the government may facilitate their efforts to secure a sale for their own goods in foreign markets. These are claims with which a protectionist who is interested in developing American industry ought certainly to be in sympathy The contingency that troubles him, however, is the possibility that, if the English author is given the right to sell his books in this country, the copies sold may be to a greater or less extent manufactured in England, and the business of making these copies may be lost to American printers, binders, and paper men. He is namely, much more concerned for the protection of the makers of the material casing of the If this first cost of stereotyping and engraving can be divided among several editions, say one for Great Britain, one for the United States, and one for Canada and the other colonies, it is evident that the proportion to be charged to each copy printed is less, and that the selling price per copy can be smaller, than would be the case if this first cost has got to be repeated in full for each market. It is then to the advantage of the consumer that, whatever copyright arrangement be made, nothing shall stand in the way of foreign stereotypes and illustrations being duplicated for use here whenever the foreign edition is in such shape as to render this duplicating an advantage and a saving in cost. The few protectionists who have expressed themselves in favor of an international copyright measure, and some others who have fears as to our publishing interests being able to hold their own against any open competition, insist upon the condition that foreign works to obtain copyright must be wholly remanufactured and republished in this country. We have shown how such a condition would, in the majority of cases, be contrary to the interests of the American consumer, while the British author is naturally opposed to it because, in increasing materially the outlay to be incurred by the American publisher in the production of his edition, it proportionately diminishes the profits or prospects of profits from which is calculated the remuneration that can be paid to the author. The measure of permitting the foreign book to be reprinted by all dealers who would contract to pay the author a specified royalty has at first sight something specious and plausible about it. It seems to be in harmony with the principles of freedom of trade, in which we are believers. It is, however, directly opposed to those principles: first, it impairs the freedom of contract, preventing the producer from making such arrangements for supplying the public as seem best to him; and secondly, it undertakes, by paternal legislation, to fix the remuneration that shall be given to the producer for his work, and to limit the prices at which this work shall be furnished to the consumer. There is no more equity in the government's undertaking this limitation of the producer and protection of the consumer in the case of books than there would be in that of bread or of beef. Further, such an arrangement would be of benefit to neither the author, the public, nor the publishers, and would, we believe, make of international copyright, and of any copyright, a confusing and futile absurdity. A British author could hardly obtain much satisfaction from an arrangement which, while preventing him from having his American business in the hands of a publishing house selected by himself, and of whose responsibility he could assure himself, throw open the use of his property to any dealers who might choose to scramble for it. He could exercise no control over the style, the shape, or the accuracy of his American editions; could have no trustworthy information as to the number of copies the various editions contained; and if he were tenacious as to the collection of the royalties to which he was entitled, he would be able in many cases to enforce his claims only through innumerable lawsuits, and he would find the expenses of the collection exceed the receipts. The benefit to the public would be no more apparent. Any gain in the cheapness of the editions produced would be more than offset by their unsatisfactoriness; they would, in the majority of cases, be untrustworthy as to accuracy or completeness, and be hastily and flimsily manufactured. A great many enterprises, also, desirable in themselves, and that would be of service to the public, no publisher could, under such an arrangement, afford to undertake at all, as, if they proved successful, unscrupulous neighbors would, through rival editions, reap the benefit of his judgment and his advertising. In fact, the business of reprinting would fall largely into the hands of irresponsible parties, from whom no copyright could be collected. The arguments against a measure of this kind are, in short, the arguments in favor of international copyright. A very conclusive statement of the case against the equity or desirability from any point of view of such an arrangement in regard to home copyright was made before the British Commission, in 1877, by Herbert Spencer. His testimony is given in full in the Popular Science Monthly for January and February, 1879. The recommendation had been made that, for the sake of securing cheap books for the people, the law should give to all dealers the privilege of printing an author's books, and should fix a copyright to be paid to the author that should secure him a "fair profit for his work." Mr. Spencer objected that First. This would be a direct interference with the laws of trade, under which the author had the right to make his own bargains. Second. No legislature was competent to determine what was a fair rate of profit" for an author. Third. No average royalty could be determined which could give a fair recompense for the different amounts and kinds of labor given to the production of different classes of books. Fourth. If the legislature has the right to fix the profits of the author, it has an equal right to determine that of his associate in the publication, the publisher; and if of the publisher, then also of the printer, binder, and paper-maker, who all have an interest in the undertaking. Such a right of control would apply with equal force to manufacturers of other articles of importance to the community, and would not be in accordance with the present theories of the proper functions of government. Fifth. If books are to be cheapened by such a measure, it must be at the expense of some portion of the profits now going to the authors and publishers; the assumption is that book producers and distributers do not understand their business, but require to be instructed by the state how to carry it on, and that the publishing business alone needs to have its returns regulated by law. Sixth. The prices of the best books would in many cases, instead of being lessened, be higher than at present, because the publishers would require some insurance against the risk of rival editions, and because they would make their first editions smaller, and the first cost would have to be divided among a less number of copies. Such reductions of prices as would be made would be on the flimsier and more popular literature, and even on this could not be lasting. Seventh. For the enterprises of the most lasting importance to the public, requiring considerable investment of time and capital, the publishers require to be assured of returns from the largest market possible, and without such security enterprises of this character could not be undertaken at all. Eighth. Open competition of this kind would, in the end, result in crushing out the smaller publishers, and in concentrating the business in the hands of a few houses whose purses had been long enough to carry them through the long and unprofitable contests that would certainly be the first effect of such legislation. All the considerations adduced by Mr. Spencer have, of course, equal force with reference to open international publishing, while they may also be included among the arguments in behalf of international copyright. With these views of a veteran writer of books may very properly be associated the opinions of the experienced publisher, Mr. Wm. H. Appleton, who, in a letter to the New York Times in 1872, says: The first demand of property is for security. To publish a book in any real sense-that is, not merely to print it, but to make it well and widely known-requires much effort and large expenditure, and these will not be invested in a property which is liable to be destroyed at any moment. Legal protection would thus put an end to evil practices, make property secure, business more legitimate, and give a new vigor to enterprise. Nor can a policy which is unjust to the author, and works viciously in the trade, be the best for the public. The publisher can neither afford to make the book so thoroughly known nor can he put it at so low a price as if he could count upon permanent and undisturbed possession of it. Many valuable books are not reprinted at all, and therefore are only to be had at English prices, for the same reason that publishers are cautious about risking their capital in unprotected property." The copy-book motto, Honesty is the best policy," fails often enough to come true (at least as to material results) in the case of the individual, simply because his life is not always long enough to give an opportunity for all the results of his actions to be arrived at. The community, however, in its longer life, is subject to the full influence of the certain though sometimes slow-working relations of cause to effect, relations which, among other things, bring out the essential connection between economics and ethics, and which show in the long-run the just method to be the wise method. An enlightened self-interest finds out the advantage of equity. If the teaching of history makes anything evident, it is that, in the transactions of a nation, honesty pays, even in the narrowest and most selfish sense of the term, and nothing but honesty can ever pay. Among the many classes of interests to which this applies international copyright certainly belongs. = THE METHODIST BOOK CONCERN. THE new style of the Methodist Book Concern, New York, will be Phillips & Hunt, John M. Phillips, associate agent with the late Dr. Nelson for seven years, becoming the senior by the Methodist principle of promotion, Dr. Sanford Hunt being the new junior agent. In electing the agents, the Committee of the Book Concern acts with the Bishops as one body, each member of the committee and each bishop casting one ballot. The meeting was held Monday, March 3d, Bishops Scott, Simpson, Harris, Peck, Andrews, and Merrill being present, besides seventeen out of the eighteen members of the general committee. The Rev. Dr. Morris D. C. Crawford, presiding elder of the New York district, was a prominent candidate, and the Rev. Dr. J. B. Graw was suggested for the vacant place. Of the twentythree votes cast the Rev. Dr. Hunt received, it is said, twelve, the Rev. Dr. Crawford nine votes, and the remaining two were for other candidates. At a subsequent meeting of the Board of Bishops, Mr. Phillips was elected treasurer of the Methodist Missionary Society, in place of the Rev. Dr. Nelson. The new agent, the Rev. Dr. Sanford Hunt, states the Tribune, was born in 1825, in Erie County, N. Y., at a place near Buffalo, and is now in his fifty-fourth year. He was graduated from Alleghany College in 1847, and in the same year he joined the Genesee Conference. When that conference was merged in 1872 into the Western New York Conference, he became a prominent member of that, as he had been of the former conference. Since his joining the ministry in 1847 he has been engaged in pas toral work within the limits of the Genesee and Western Conferences. He has spent three terms at Buffalo, and for nine years has occupied the position of presiding elder of that district. For eight years he has served as secretary of the conference, and in 1876 was a delegate from it to the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He received his doctor's degree from his alma mater in 1871. He is the author of a Hand-book for Trustees;" but is known better by a later work, issued in the spring of 1876, on Religious Corporations," which was published with an additional article, by the Hon. E. L. Fancher, on the laws affecting religious corporations in the State of New York. In this work, which treats of religious corporations in every phase, many laws before scarcely known were brought to light. To his services in authorship and ministerial labors is due, it is said, his present promotion to a wider sphere. 66 THE LATE EBERHARD FABER, AND THE FABER HOUSE. MR. EBERHARD FABER, the head of the American portion of the Faber pencil business, died in New York on Sunday last, at the age of 57. Mr. Faber was known to a large circle in the trade as a genial and cultivated gentleman, knowing his calling. His history is so thoroughly associated with that of the house that we quote from the Evening Post the following sketch entire : "The first maker of Faber's pencils' was Caspar Faber, who began the business at the village of Stein, near Nürnberg, in Bavaria, in the year 1761. As far back as 1726 some of the inhabitants of this village had been engaged in pencil-making, the graphite used being obtained from Bohemia. Before its introduction into Germany lead-pencil making had been confined to England, where it was begun in 1565, the year following the discovery of the black-lead mines of Borrowdale, in Cumberland. By the original process the lead was simply cut into strips just as it came from the mines, and then glued into the wood. These primitive pencils were very costly, as the supply of graphite was limited and the mines were worked only six weeks in the year. Metallic leads were used in Europe for drawing and writing at a much earlier period, but were discarded after the discovery of graphite. "When Caspar Faber started in business his entire estate consisted of a small cottage, with a little garden-plot, and his manufacture was carried on only by himself and members of his family. The weekly product of their labors was carried to Nürnberg or Fürth in a handbasket, and there sold. He was an excellent workman, and all his pencils were so well made that he obtained the highest prices in the market. In 1784 he was succeeded by his son, the business has been conducted to the present Anthony William Faber, under whose name day. A judicial inventory in 1786, which has been carefully preserved by his descendants, shows that the entire personal property of the latter's family in that year was valued at only fifty-nine florins, or about twenty-five dollars in gold. In 1810 the business was inherited by the son of A. W. Faber, George Leonard, who gathered trained workmen around him and made many improvements in the processes of manufacture. Before this, in 1795, a very important discovery had been made in France, which is the foundation of the present system of pencil-making. Still earlier the crude process of using the graphite just as it came from placed by methods of purifying the material, the mine, with all its impurities, had been rereducing it to powder, and compressing it into cakes which could be cut like the native ore. It was found, however, that the lead then lacked strength and cohesiveness, a defect which with the purified graphite. was remedied in 1795 by the mixture of clay 66 'The business of George Leonard Faber became extensive, but the disturbed condition of Europe in his day caused it to fall off after it had reached its greatest development, and at amounted only to twelve thousand florins, and his death in 1839 the annual sales of his factory his workmen numbered only twenty. His eldest son, J. Lothair Faber, the present head of the house, then took entire charge of the business, being at the time only twenty-two years of age. The latter has increased the manufacture to enormous proportions, and his services to the interests of his native state have been recognized by his government. He is now the Baron Lothair von Faber, having received a patent of nobility from King Max of Bavaria. His brother John assists him in the manage. ment of the factory at Stein. Eberhard Faber was the third son of George Leonard Faber, and was born on the 6th of December, 1822. He was intended for the profession of the law, and studied jurisprudence at Nürnberg, Erlangen, Heidelberg, Ber lin, and Munich. He preferred, however, to pursue the family business, and in 1849 he came to this city for the purpose of opening a branch house in this country, and especially to procure supplies of red cedar, by far the most desirable wood for pencils, which is obtained in perfection only in Florida. In 1851 he es tablished at No. 133 William Street an agency for the parent house, and also founded here a depot for red cedar, which he shipped to Germany. In 1861, in consequence of the high rate of duty on pencils imported from Europe, he built the first regular lead-pencil factory in this country, at the foot of East Forty-second Street. This factory was burned in May, 1872, and Mr. Faber built another in Greenpoint, which has since been in operation. At a later date he established a cedar-yard and sawmill at Cedar Keys, Florida. As business increased, he enlarged its original designs, and manufactured not only pencils of every variety, but pen-holders, india-rubber goods, gold pens, and almost everything connected with the stationery trade except paper and blank-books. At present the business absorbs the entire product of an india-rubber factory in New Jersey. In 1877 his business in this city was removed from William Street to more extensive quarters in Broadway. "The manufactures of A. W. Faber are now conducted at Stein, at Geroldsgrün in Bavaria, and in this country. There are branch houses in London, Paris, Vienna, and Berlin. The whole product of the Alibert graphite mines in Siberia is used in the manufacture of their pencils, and the number of persons directly employed by the house in various parts of the world is not less than two thousand, of whom five hundred or more are in this country." NOTES AND QUERIES. "Is there a handy list of the best standard books published? You spoke in the PUBLISHERS WEEKLY of getting up one, but you may be able to send me one, not very extensive, yet a good one." [We know of no such catalogue at present. Mr. Leypoldt hopes to publish such a list within the year.] BUSINESS NOTES. COLUMBUS, O.-A. H. Smythe having purchased the book and stationery business of E. O. Randall & Co., will continue it under the old firm-name. He was connected with the firm for many years, and is authorized to settle all business matters pertaining to the late firm. HARTFORD, CT.—The office of F. J. Huntington & Co. has been moved from 88 White Street, New York, to Hartford, Ct. NEW YORK CITY.-The failure of Ward & Peloubet, law-book publishers, at No. 80 Nassau Street, is announced, and they have assigned their property to Horatio G. Craig. They succeeded Diossy & Co. three years ago, and claimed a capital of $75,000 in the business. PROVIDENCE, R. I.-The Tillinghast & Mason News Company will be known hereafter by its new name, the Rhode Island News Company. LITERARY AND TRADE NOTES. J. W. BURKE & Co., Macon, Ga., have just issued a second edition of the "Lectures and Sermons of Dr. Munsey." The volume contains an engraved portrait of the Doctor and an illustration of his church in New Orleans. A STORY of Colonial times, called "The Puritan and the Quaker," by Rebecca G. Beach, and "Neurological Contributions," by Dr. William A. Hammond, are new announcements of G. P. Putnam's Sons. THE Bampton Lectures for 1878 will be published by E. P. Dutton & Co. this month. The volume is a large octavo of 688 pages, entitled " Zechariah and his Prophecies," and is by the Rev. C. H. H. Wright, of Belfast, Ireland. A CORRESPONDENT of the Evening Post, Henri Grasse, in a letter printed in its issue of Feb. 21, makes an argument against obtaining international copyright by the substitution of "person" for "citizen" in our laws, on the ground that we should then have no permanent assurance of British reciprocity. " Ago, and the Historical Results," is an address 'SAYING the Catechism Seventy-five Years delivered before the N. E. Historic-Genealogican Society a few months ago by Dorus Clarke, D.D., and is nearly ready for publication by history, and as indicating the striking changes Lee & Shepard. It is curiously interesting as of custom since the beginning of this century. VOICES from Babylon; or, The Record of Daniel the Prophet," by Joseph A. Seiss, D.D., author of A Miracle in Stone," which was published on the 20th ult. by Porter & Coates, has already reached the second edition. “A Miracle in Stone" and Mrs. Ward's "Sensible Etiquette" continue to have a large sale, eight editions of the latter work having been called for. THE publishers and booksellers of Chicago have been somewhat interested in a movement among the stationers to form a Board of Trade. The book trade had an organization of the kind, it will be remembered, a year or two ago, but they are not wholly discouraged by its untimely fate, and will do all they can to make the proposed organization a success and of benefit to all. Gen. McClurg and George Sherwood will represent the publishers in the charter membership of the Board. HOUGHTON, OSGOOD & Co. will very shortly issue the first five volumes in new issues of the Illustrated Library editions of Dickens' Works and the Waverley Novels. The former will have all the illustrations of the standard edition (some 550 in the 29 volumes), will be bound only in dark green cloth, and will be sold at $1.50 a volume, instead of $2 as hereeach volume (of the 25 in all), will be bound in tofore. The latter will have two steel plates in brown cloth, and will be sold at $i a volume, instead of $1.50 as heretofore. 99.66 D. LOTHROP & Co. have just ready a uniform edition in 12 volumes (at $1 each) of the writings of the late Dr. Nehemiah Adams, including" The Friends of Christ," ""Christ a Friend," "The Communion Sabbath,' Agnes; or, The Little Key," Catherine," "Under the Mizzen-Mast,' "At Even Tide," "Broadcast," "Endless Punishment," "" Bertha and her Baptism," and (in a month or so) "Walks to Emmaus," a new volume. The others have been published before, some of them twenty years and more, and have gained the rank of sacred classics in evangelical esteem. Lothrop has just issued "Johnny's Vacations," by Mary E. N. Hathaway, a book of good stories on The Squirrel Trap, The Little Gun, Grandma's Company, Indian Spring, The Dolls' Party, The Wild Goose, Biddy and the Chickens, The Disobedient Lamb, Pansy's Visit, and other stories that boys and girls are sure to like; and next week will publish "Six Little Rebels," (a taking title,) by Kate Tannat Woods, with 25 illustrations by Boz." AFGHAN literature is now the rage in England. Mr. H. M. Bellew, Sanitary Commissioner of the Punjaub, has in press a work entitled "Afghanistan and the Afghans," being a brief review of the history of the country and account of its people with special reference to the present crisis. Col. Knollys, of the 93d Highlanders, is writing a history of the present war. SAMPSON Low & Co. are about to issue an important "international work entitled "The Hundred Greatest Men," being the lives and portraits of the one hundred greatest men of history, divided into eight classes, each class to form a monthly quarto volume. The introductions to the volumes are to be written by recognized authorities on the different subjects, the English contributors being Mr. Matthew Arnold, Mr. Froude, and Prof. Max Müller; those in Germany, Profs. Helmholtz and Curtius; in France, MM. Taine and Renan; and in America, Mr. Emerson. The portraits are to be reproductions from fine and rare steel engravings. AN interesting volume of personal ana is promised from England in a volume by Mr. Francis H. Grundy, entitled, "Pictures of the Past: Memories of Men I have met and Born with the birth Sights I have seen." of railways and articled into the school of the Stephensons, the author has followed THE "Technological Dictionary," in three lanhis profession in most parts of the world. guages, formerly published at Wiesbaden by C. His book will contain an original account W. Kreidel, is now being brought out in a third edition, improved and considerably enlarged, early days of the railway system and of of George Stephenson's home life; of the by J. F. Bergmann, of the same city, whose the railway mania; of the construction of American agents are B. Westermann & Co., 524 railways in Yorkshire; and of the writer's acBroadway. The first volume, German-English-quaintance with the Brontë family. French, is a large octavo of 744 pages, clearly printed and surprisingly accurate. Compound Bronte, and interesting letters from the latter Grundy was words are made separate articles, for greater will be given, as also personal recollections of ease of reference. Nautical and meteorological Leigh Hunt and his family, Lewes, and other terms have received full recognition in the new edition. celebrities. Mr. an intimate friend of Patrick B. WESTERMANN & Co., N. Y. Addison's Works. By Tickell. N. Y., 1811. Vol. 6. Guizot, Hist. of Civilization. By Hazlitt. Mitford, The History of Greece. 8 vols. 8°. N. Y., 1856. Boston, 1859. Boston, 1823. Poe, Works, with Memoir by Griswold. 4 vols. N. Y., 1856. Vol. 4. AN established book, stationery, and picture store, centrally located, with a large circulating library in good running order. Manufacturing town. Good cash trade. BOOKS FOR SALE OR EXCHANGE. Only reason for selling, owner's ill health. Address Box 231, Saco, Me. Nold-established book, stationery, and wall-paper AS. CLARK, 66 Nassau St., N. Y., dealer in second. A in one of the best Western cities-a county seat. Good hand school-books. Back numbers of 56,789 differ ent periodicals for sale cheap. cash trade. A rare bargain offered. Address H. G., No. 16 Walnut St., Cleveland, O. |