Mr. PUTNAM. These men are the writers of books, the writers of plays, the composers of music, the architects, painters and sculptors, the photographers and photoengravers, the publishers of books, newspapers, periodicals, music, and prints, and the manufacturers, printers, typographers, and lithographers. The conference included, therefore, those interests that abroad are considered primary in such a matter--that is, the creators of the works which are to be protected and the publishers through whom the property in these becomes effective and remunerative; but it included under each of these genera several species and various subsidiary interests. It included the National Educational Association and the American Library Association as representing to some extent the consumers; and in addition to the legal counsel representing special interests it included two committees of the American Bar Association and of the New York Bar Association of experts upon copyright law, who gave gratuitous service as general advisors to the conference and in the framing of the bill. Upon questions of importation the conference had the benefit of information and advice from a representative of the Treasury Department, expert in the practice of that Department at ports of entry. The Solicitor-General, whose name appears upon the list, was not a formal participant, but his representative was present throughout as an observer of the proceedings; and if I do not emphasize the aid which he and which the Solicitor-General himself, in later informal criticism and suggestion, rendered, it is only because the practice of his office forbids him to take part in the initiation of legislation; and his assistance in this matter must not be taken as a precedent to his inconvenience. The conference held three meetings in June and November of last year and in March of this year, but, of course, as a conference it included various minor consultations and much correspondence. At the outset of the meeting last June each organization was invited to state the respects in which it deemed the present law defective or injurious, either to its own interest, or, in its opinion, to the general interest. The second conference had before it a memorandum prepared by the register embodying provisions deemed by the office important for consideration at that stage. The third conference, in March of this year, had before it a revision of this memorandum. The last conference, this third, resulted in the draft of a bill, which was sent to each participant for comment and suggestion, and the bill itself is before you.