The bill is the result of a sincere attempt, as we have seen it, to frame a reasonable general statute. I say "sincere," and I feel the right to say it because I followed the conferences closely, and had the best opportunity to judge of their temper and disposition. If some of the interests were selfish in one direction, they were met by the selfishness of others in another direction, and both were under criticism from the general advisors and under the influence of the main body. And neither such interests--and I am speaking of history now, of course--neither such interests nor any other participant in the conference initiated the conference, nor determined its composition, nor controlled its proceedings. The conference was initiated by the Copyright Office at your suggestion, Mr. Chairman. It was composed of organizations invited by the office, and it was theoretically held in the office. The Librarian presided at it, and except for the purpose of some formal resolutions it never organized or in any other way passed out of the control of the office. If the bill reveals some selfishness, it is perhaps condonable. It is the selfishness of men trying to protect their own property; for of course, as I have emphasized, the interests that were especially invited to the conferences were those that are concerned in an affirmative way with the protection of the right. The conferences were not generally representative--completely representative--in other respects. The bill has that purpose--that is, for the protection particularly of the property. It comes before you for consideration on the ground that it goes too far. It does not create, of course, a new species of property; it merely recognizes a species of property created by the Constitution and already recognized by statute. Its purpose is simply to secure to the man who has created it a species of property which peculiarly requires the protection of law, because the very act which makes it remunerative to him lays it open to expropriation--that is, the act of publication--and seems peculiarly entitled to the protection of the law, because it is that act, and that alone, which makes it of any use to the public; and of course it secures this protection--not permanently, but only against untimely expropriation.