_The composer._--The composer or author of musical compositions rarely, if ever, follows composing or copyrighting alone as the means of making a livelihood. In all my experience I can not recall a single instance where this has been the case. With practically no exceptions, the composers of musical compositions are engaged in various other walks of life, and this line of work is more or less incidental to the occupations they follow. As an illustration I will name a few of them: Band masters, professional pianists, organists, choir leaders, teachers of music, piano salesmen, music salesmen, and many other callings. The amount of time or application spent in framing musical compositions is oftentimes but a few hours and in the majority of cases in otherwise idle hours. For instance, the testimony of George Schleiffarth, given under oath, which appears later in this brief. He states: "I have composed 1,500 pieces in thirty-seven years and have netted only $5,000 for these thirty-odd years." This is an average earning of $3.33 for each piece he copyrighted, or a yearly income during these thirty-seven years of $135 per year from his copyrights. It is patent to anyone that he did not procure his livelihood by this means. This is not an exceptional case, but rather a fair average of them. I do not believe a single case can be produced where a musical composer has earned a livelihood by his compositions alone. This is a very different case with the author of a book with whom the composer shares like privileges under the copyright act. In the majority of cases the author follows writing as his only means of livelihood. This class of work occupies a great deal of time, expense, travel, and study of the subjects forming the foundation of his work. The composers rarely treat their compositions as a serious business proposition, but rather as a side issue of net gain on what they realize from them. The publishers of the country are banded and organized together for mutual protection and enrichment to profit by this condition at the expense of the composer, the policy to fight royalties in favor of outright purchases for nominal amounts being general. _The manufacturer of automatic musical instruments and their controllers._--The equitable interest of the automatic instrument manufacturer consists really of two classes, namely, their rights as legitimate manufacturers to a self-made industry; and the part they have taken in the musical education of mankind, and the right they have to continue uninterrupted in an industry and art in which they have been so potent a factor, without molestation.