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Show No Way to Restrain Enterprising Thugs Who Sell Others' Thoughts? By ROBERT H. DAVIS, in New York Herald. WITEX Gabriel blows his final trump a million musicians Trill bend an ear to the blast, hoping to capture a new theme. The moment a new novel appears, an army of imitators seize upon its style, its texture and its motive. Mortal poets are helping themselves to the works of immortal poets. Short-story writers are following the 0. Henry model so closely that it amounts to impudence. Jokes are deliberately stolen by the thousands, remodeled and thrown on the market in bales. Epigrams are the common property of those who see them last. There isn't a magazine that hasn't received dozens of manuscripts stolen bodily, with a few characters, dates, and locations mildly altered, the title -changed and a paragraph here and there modified. We have all been caught repeatedly. Plagiarism is on the increase. The plagiarist is not only a foe to the editor and the reading public, but also to the new authors. An editor whose fingers have been burned by stolen manuscripts finds himself unavoidably prejudiced against writers whom he does not know. Ten years ago contributions from strangers were accepted on their merit and printed under the assumption that the writers were honest men. It is now regarded as a necessary precaution to write to a new author, whose manuscript has attracted attention, and ask for references. Even these precautions do not always succeed. One must wait for the publication of the plagiarism before a comparison with the original can be made. In the interval the fraud is accomplished. 'A comparison of the two stories supplies the evidence of guilt. It is the opinion of the writer that unwarranted leniency has been shown these offenders. The usual penalty is a severance of connections, followed occasionally by the return of the money dishonestly collected. A period of agreeable silence follows, after which the malefactor sits down with a ream of white paper, selects another alias, and continues in the business of selling old tales for new. It is inconceivable that in the exalted profession of letters the occupation occu-pation of plundering can be made so profitable. Is there no way to restrain by court procedure the enterprising thugs who sell others' thoughts? |
