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cases, limitation would seem to be unnecessary, as new roads could be made
if the tolls on old ones were too high; and yet it is so well understood
that the making of roads does carry with it monopoly power, that the rates
of charge are always limited, and so limited as not to permit the
road-makers to obtain a profit disproportioned to the amount of their
investments. In the case of authors there can be no such limitation. They
must have monopoly powers, and the law therefore very wisely limits the
time within which they may be exercised, as in the other case it limits
the price that may be charged. In France, the prices to be paid to
dramatic authors are fixed by law, and all who pay may play; and if this
could be done in regard to all literary productions, permitting all who
paid to print, much of the difficulty relative to copyright would be
removed; but this course of operation would be in direct opposition to the
views of publishers who advocate this treaty on the ground that it would
add to "the security and respectability of the trade." They would
_prefer_ to pay for the copyright of every foreign book, because it would
bring with it monopoly prices and monopoly profits, both of which would
need to be paid by the consumers of books. To the paper-maker, printer,
and bookbinder, called upon to supply one thousand of a book for _the
few_, where before they had supplied ten thousand for _the many_, it
would be small consolation to know that they were thereby building up the
fortunes of two or three large publishing houses that had obtained a
monopoly of the business of republication, and were thus adding to the
"security and respectability of the trade." As little would probably be
derived from this source by the father of a family who found that he had
now to pay five dollars for what before had cost but one, and must
therefore endeavor to borrow, where before he had been accustomed to buy,
the books required for the amusement and instruction of his children.

Our State of New Jersey levies a transit duty of eight cents per ton on
all the merchandise that crosses it. Had the imposition of this tax been
accompanied by a law permitting all who chose to make roads, no one would
have complained of it, as it would have been little more than a fair tax
on the property of the railroad and other companies. Unfortunately,
however, the course was different. To the company that collected it was
granted a monopoly of the powe