WAR DEPARTMENT, May 3, 1916. Lespectfully returned to the chairman Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, House of Representatives.

The Chief of Engineers report that H. R. 15007, Sixty-fourth Congress, first session, to authorize the board of commissioners of Lake County, Ind., to construct a bridge across the Grand Calumet River, at East Chicago, Ind., makes ample provision for the protection of the interests committed to the War Department, and I know of no objection to the favorable consideration of the bill by Congress so far as those interests are concerned.

The word "Kline," in line 7, should be "Cline."

JOHN C. SCOFIELD, Assistant and Chief Clerk.

64TH CONGRESS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 1st Session.

COPYRIGHT LAW.

MAY 5, 1916.-Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed.

Mr. OGLESBY, from the Committee on Patents, submitted the following

REPORT.

[To accompany H. R. 13981.]

The Committee on Patents, to whom was referred House bill 13981, respectfully report that they have had the same under consideration and recommend that the bill be amended and that the bill as amended

do pass.

Amendment No. 1: In line 4 of page 2 of the printed bill change "numbered" to "number."

Amendment No. 2: In line 6 of page 2 insert the word "hundred" in the date, so that this last shall read "August twenty-fourth, nineteen hundred and twelve."

Amendment No. 3: In line 8 on page 2, in the phrase reading "such deposit and registration shall hereafter be held to be sufficient for all purposes," strike out the words "for all purposes," so that the phrase shall read, "such deposit and registration shall hereafter be held to be sufficient."

It is the intention in the bill to make such deposit and registration as it provides for a sufficient compliance with the requirements of the law as to deposit and registration, but not to go beyond that to validate an otherwise possibly defective claim.

The bill proposes to amend section 12 of the copyright act of March 4, 1909, by adding thereto the following:

Provided, however, That in the case of any work referred to in this section wherein copyright has been secured by publication of the work with notice of copyright, which by reason of its character, bulk, fragility, or because of dangerous ingredients can not expediently be filed, the register of copyrights may determine that there shall be deposited, in lieu of two complete copies of such work, such identifying photographs or prints, together with such written or printed descriptions of the work as he shall find sufficient to identify it: And provided further, That in the case of motion-picture photoplays and motion pictures other than photoplays, whenever deposit has been made as required by the provisions of the act of Congress (Public, Number Three hundred and three) approved August twenty-fourth, nineteen hundred and twelve, and registration has been secured thereunder, such deposit and registration shall hereafter be held to be sufficient, and shall exempt the copyright proprietor from the deposit of two complete copies of such photoplay or motion picture if it is later reproduced in copies for sale, and the provisions of the amendatory act of August twentyfourth, nineteen hundred and twelve, are hereby made to apply to motion-picture photoplays and motion pictures other than photoplays that have been reproduced in copies for sale or otherwise published.

Among the classes of works enumerated in section 5 of the copyright act which may have secured copyright by publication of the

work with the prescribed notice of copyright, as provided in section 9 of the act, there are a few works which are of such character that they are not desired by the Library of Congress, or of which because of their bulk, or because they are fragile or contain dangerous (inflammatory) ingredients, it is not expedient that actual copies should be filed. It is proposed that in lieu of two copies of such works the register of copyrights shall determine that there shall be deposited such identifying photographs or prints, together with such written or printed descriptions of the work, as he shall find sufficient in each case to identify it. Examples of the classes of works which will be affected by the proposed act are commercial, theatrical, circus, or other large pictorial posters; casts of busts, statuettes, or other similar articles; relief maps; motion pictures, etc.

In the case of motion pictures the act provides that deposit and registration under the provisions of the act of Congress (Public, No. 303) shall be sufficient whether such motion pictures may have been reproduced in copies for sale or otherwise published, and that the copyright proprietor of the motion picture shall be exempt from the deposit for two complete copies (i. e., two complete reels) of such motion picture if it has been reproduced in copies for sale.

Motion pictures were declared subject matter of copyright by the act of August 24, 1912. Registration of copyright in motion pictures was provided for in section 11 of the copyright act as amended, upon the deposit of title and description, and of the specified prints taken from the different sections or from each scene or act, respectively, depending upon whether the motion picture is a photo play or otherwise. The registration under section 11, however, was for works not reproduced for sale, and the concluding sentence of that section further provided that "the privilege of registration of copyright secured hereunder shall not exempt the copyright proprietor from the deposit of copies, under sections 12 and 13 of this act, where the work is later reproduced in copies for sale." Section 12 requires that after copyright has been secured by publication of the work (i. e., sale or public distribution) two complete copies of the best edition of the work must be promptly deposited after such publication. In view of the proviso in section 11, and the requirement of the deposit of two complete copies in section 12, motion-picture proprietors have felt obliged to make deposit of two complete reels in the case of all motion pictures which have been reproduced in copies for sale (i. e., published). This has imposed a burdensome obligation upon such proprietors which was not intended. The complete reels are expensive, sometimes very expensive, and they are practically of no greater value for the indentification of the motion picture in which copyright is claimed than the selected prints together with the title and description required by section 11 to be deposited in the case of a motion picture. The deposit of the complete reels is of no service to the Copyright Office, and these articles are of no value to the Library of Congress, and by reason of their inflammable character are dangerous. Such deposit also imposes an added burden upon the Copyright Office to no purpose. Motion-picture manufacturers have expressed approval of the purpose and the language of the bill. It is the opinion of the committee that it should become law.

O

64TH CONGRESS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 1st Session.

BOTANIC GARDEN.

MAY 5, 1916.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed.

Mr. SLAYDEN, from the Committee on the Library, submitted the

following

REPORT.

[To accompany H. R. 15313.]

The Committee on the Library having had under consideration H. R. 15313, a bill providing for the removal of the Botanic Garden to Rock Creek Park and for its transfer to the control of the Department of Agriculture, report the same back with the following amendment and recommend its passage:

After the word "Library" in line 8, section 3, page 2 of the bill, insert a comma and these words: "the Secretary of Agriculture."

In view of the fact that the time has come when the removal of the Botanic Garden can not be much longer delayed, your committee think it proper to submit for the information of the House a brief résumé of the history of the garden.

It is the outgrowth of the Wilkes Exploring Expedition of 18381842. In the naval appropriation act of May 14, 1836 (5 Stats., 29), the President was authorized to send out a surveying and exploring expedition to the Pacific and South Seas in Government vessels, and for that purpose an appropriation of $100,000 was made.

The expedition, consisting of six Government ships, under command of Lieut. Charles Wilkes, United States Navy, sailed from Hampton Roads August 18, 1838. It was accompanied by a horticulturist and botanist, Mr. W. D. Brackenridge. The expedition returned to New York in June, 1842, and brought a large collection of natural-history specimens.

Pending a more suitable provision for the care of these specimens, it was provided by an act of Congress passed in 1842 that they should be deposited and arranged in a room of the Patent Office and ander the general supervision and direction of the Joint Committee on the Library.

Little by little, and with appropriations that appear very meager indeed, the Botanic Garden was gradually established. Most of the legislation touching the control and direction of the Botanic Garden has been through paragraphs in appropriation bills.

In 1850 provision was made for the transfer of the plants, etc., to a suitable place for their preservation and cultivation, and in that year the garden was placed in its present site.

For a number of years the direction of the garden was by Mr. Breckenridge, referred to above, and it was not until 1854 that we first run across the name of Mr. William R. Smith, who subsequently and for so long a time was associated with it.

It has long been recognized by everyone who has given any attention to the Botanic Garden that in its present site it was restricted and could not possibly develop into anything important or be of much practical value to the country.

The Grant Monument will soon be completed and the present site of the garden will be needed to carry out the landscape design in connection with it and for the opening of the vista to the Washington Monument and the new Lincoln Memorial. The order for the removal of the fence was first made in 1899, but its execution was prevented largely, at least it is understood, through the influence of the late William R. Smith. In 1911 the sundry civil act made an order for the removal of the fence and appropriated the sum of $2,500 to meet charges incident to its removal. Again the removal act was not carried out because no provision has been made for the removal of plants and shrubs, and the superintendent protested that to take away the fence would, under the circumstances, be to invite depredation. The provision of the sundry civil act for the removal of the fence has been continued from time to time and was specifically continued until the end of the current fiscal year by which time it is hoped that a new home for the Botanic Garden will have been found. Before the removal of the fence some provision should be made for transferring these valuable plants and shrubs and to avoid the expense of more than one removal they should be taken to the permanent home of the Botanic Garden. This removal ought not to be delayed much longer.

The bill which your committee recommends proposes a transfer to some place in Rock Creek Park, to be agreed on by a committee consisting of the chairman of the Senate and House Committees on the Library, respectively, the Secretary of Agriculture, and the Engineer Commissioner of the District of Columbia. By putting the garden in Rock Creek Park it will not be necessary to buy land. There are, also, advantages of a technical nature in that location which are clearly set out in the letter from B. T. Galloway, at one time Acting Secretary of Agriculture, which is made part of this report.

Some objection has been made to the removal to Rock Creek Park on the ground that it will be too far from the center of population of the city of Washington.

In that connection it should be remembered that we are presumed to be legislating for centuries, if not for all time.

Rock Creek Park may appear remote now, but if Washington continues to grow for the next hundred years as it has since the Capital was established on the Potomac, or even to approximate that growth, the situs suggested by your committee will be as convenient as any that could be chosen.

A botanic garden and arboretum necessarily require a large area. The great botanic gardens of Europe and Asia occupy hundreds of acres, and certainly the United States, if they are to have one at all,