The Chace Bill was the result of a struggle extending over fifty-three years to secure the recognition in the United States of International Copyright,—­a struggle of authors supported by the most eminent American publishers and journalists, having in view the relief of the publishing and all kindred trades from the blight of piracy, and the removal of the stigma which had rested on the American literary and publishing world.  Prominent in the agitation which terminated in the Chace Bill was the American Copyright League, which included among its members the authors of the United States, and was presided over by such men as James Russell Lowell, Stedman, and Eggleston.  The League in a noble letter published in 1887 appealed to all good citizens for justice to foreign authors, upon the ground that they were entitled to receive from those who read and benefitted by their books, the same fair payment one would expect to make on any other article, such as clothes or pictures bought from foreign producers.  The League appealed for the widening of the circulation of the best new literature, home and international, on the ground of the lessening of the price which would ensue, in the case of original American books, from distributing the first cost among the greater number of copies for which sale would be secured among American readers, if the market were not flooded by pirated reprints of poor English novels; and in the case of books of international importance, whether from American, English, or Continental writers, from giving a basis of law to business arrangements for sharing the expense of production among the several nations interested.

A recent report to the United States Senate on the effect of the passage of the Chace Bill sets forth that the great preponderance of opinion amongst publishers, book manufacturers, and large printing establishments, supports the change.  The condition of the book trade in the United States prior to the passage of the Chace Bill in 1891 was deplorable.  If the suggestion of the Board of Trade were adopted, Canada would be in exactly the same condition as the United States before the Chace Bill was passed.

The Canadian author, therefore, has obtained security in the vast market of the United States, because of the proclamation of the President, based on Lord Salisbury’s satisfactory official assurance, that in Great Britain and the British possessions, the law permitted to citizens of the United States the benefit of copyright on substantially the same basis as to British subjects.  If Canadian authors, Mr. Seton-Thompson, Ralph Connor, or Dr. Drummond, for example, comply with the provisions of the Chace Bill, and print and publish in the United States contemporaneously with the Canadian publication, they secure British and American copyright, with all the protection of the local copyright laws of the two countries.

Now let us see how an American author, who does not copyright in England but seeks to publish simultaneously in Canada and the United States, would be treated in this country, were he to seek to copyright his book in compliance with the provisions of our Canadian Act, an essential requirement of which is printing in this country.