Mr. DAVIS. Yes, sir; and I would help you in all reasonable and lawful efforts. Mr. CHANEY. And the idea now is to try to evolve something that will treat everybody fairly. Mr. DAVIS. Yes, sir. But if the Constitution has led inventors on, given an incentive to them to go ahead and work and devote their funds and lives to developing these industries, which are second to none in the world as young industries, it would be wrong to come in at this stage and either curtail the incentive or subtract from rights already vested in them. Mr. CURRIER. Yes; but that very clause gives the same incentive and protection to the musical author, does it not, as to the inventor? He is protected on his writings as you are on your discovery? Mr. DAVIS. Yes, sir; there is a line of demarcation set up in the Constitution. I went in to try to get the line of demarcation between an inventor and a composer. I went in, as I thought, intelligently. I have studied the laws right down to the last decision of the 25th ultimo, that of the court of appeal for the second circuit, and all confirm the contention which I have made here that the only incentive held up to the composer is a specific protection for his "writings," not on machines. The CHAIRMAN. Would you object to Mr. Sousa taking your invention and combining it with his composition and putting it upon the market? Mr. DAVIS. If there was some fair, equitable way of doing that, no sir, I would not. But unfortunately, we inventors and composers are the ones that are generally imposed on, and naturally I am fearful that any change in the laws as they now exist will prove disadvantageous to both our interests. Mr. MCGAVIN. If I understand your position correctly, you feel that Mr. Sousa has no more right to require any further compensation from a phonograph company, if it be a phonograph company, for the use of any particular piece of music which has been copyrighted, and of which he has received the benefit, than an inventor of a drum would have a right, after he has been protected by a patent right, to require Mr. Sousa to pay further for the use of that right. That is your position, is it not? Mr. DAVIS. Well, you can look at that in two different lights. From the legal standpoint he has no right whatever. From an ethical standpoint there seems to be a sort of remote ethical right. I am not a lawyer, and not used to legal verbiage, and am not sure that I can clearly differentiate between legal and ethical rights. Mr. CHANEY. Well, this is the "Constitution between friends," you know. Mr. DAVIS. As inventors we proceeded under the laws of the land as they exist. Mr. MCGAVIN. That is just what I say.