Mr. SOUSA. Not that I know of at all. I have never known that it was unlawful to get together and sing.
Mr. CURRIER. It probably has not been enforced to that extent.
Mr. MCGAVIN. You think it ought to be against the law for some people to attempt to do it, do you not, Mr. Sousa? [Laughter.]
Mr. CURRIER. It is possible that that has deterred the young people from singing.
Mr. SOUSA. Would you not consider it a greater crime to turn on a phonograph----
Mr. CURRIER. I do not consider singing a crime.
Mr. SOUSA. If you would make it a misdemeanor, do you not think it much worse to have a lot of these machines going than to have a lot of fresh young voices singing?
Mr. CURRIER. I think a great many people in this country get a great deal of comfort out of the phonograph.
Mr. SOUSA. But they get much more out of the human voice, and I will tell you why: The phonograph companies know that. They pay Caruso $3,000 to make a record in their machine, because they get the human voice. And they pay a cornet player $4 to blow one of his blasts into it. [Laughter.] That is the difference. The people, the homes, want the human voice. First comes the country singing school, and next comes the country brass band. Let us do something to help them. You can do it by making these people pay me for everything that I compose. [Laughter.]
Mr. HERBERT. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, it is hardly necessary for me to add anything, I think, to Mr. Sousa's statement. I think he has made the question very plain and clear.
I would like to say this, that both Mr. Sousa and I are not here representing ourselves as individuals and our personal interests, but we stand here for many hundreds of poor fellows who have not been able to come here--possibly because they have not got the price--brother composers whose names figure on the advertisements of these companies who make perforated rolls and talking machines, etc., and who never have received a cent, just as is the case with Mr. Sousa and myself.
I do not see how they can deny that they sell their roll or their machine, because they are reproducing a part of our brain, of our genius, or whatever it might be. They pay, as Mr. Sousa said, the singer who sings a song into their machines. They pay Mr. Caruso $3,000 for each song--for each record. He might be singing Mr. Sousa's song, or my song, and the composer would not receive a cent. I say that that can not be just. It is as plain a question, Mr. Chairman, as it could be, to my mind. Morally, there is only one side to it, and I hope you will see it and recommend the necessary law.