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Other kindred difficulties arose. Before Talking Books could be recorded, it seemed desirable to clear the matter with the copyright owners. The Book Publishers' Association and the Authors' League were approached on the subject. The Authors' League readily recommended to its members that they give the publishers of Talking Books for the blind the privilege of recording their works free as had long been done in the case of publishers of embossed books. The Book Publishers' Association, feeling that any control of copyright material was very doubtful after it had been on a record, was a little more cautious. One prominent book publisher said that the book publishers had seen very valuable rights to make moving pictures of their literature practically given away, because the book companies had not realized this great source of potential income. They were not proposing to throw away any other valuable rights.

After long deliberation, however, the executive board of the Book Publishers' Association voted to recommend to its constituent members that they give the nonprofit book publishers for the blind the right to record any copyright material upon the payment of a token fee -- $25.00 per book -- which was divided between the publisher and the author. It was stipulated, however, that every book should carry in inkprint as well as in sound recording the words "Solely for the use of the blind." It was further stipulated that such records should not be sold to seeing people or played over the radio.

These negotiations were somewhat complicated by nervousness engendered by the fear of braille book publishing concerns that the Talking Book might eventually put them out of business. This proved to be an ungrounded fear as braille book publishers have as much business today or more than they had before the advent of the Talking Book. As a matter of fact, the largest braille book publisher in the country, the American Printing House for the Blind, has set up a Talking Book manufacturing department rivaling that of the Foundation. The Printing House has also contributed substantially to the development of methods of reducing the cost of Talking Book manufacture.

With the technical and legal difficulties largely solved, the American Foundation for the Blind approached the Federal Government with a proposal that it add the circulation of Talking Books to its library service to the blind.

A complication in the development of Talking Book libraries was the fact that Talking Book records could not be reproduced on the standard home phonograph in common use at that time. A special phonograph costing upwards of $40.00 to $50.00 to manufacture was required. When the representative of the American Foundation for the Blind appeared before a congressional committee urging the appropriation of a substantial sum of money for the establishment of Talking Book libraries for the blind, he was embarrassed by the question, "How many blind people would be in a position to read these books if they were placed in the libraries?" He had to admit that at that time no blind person owned a reproducer known as a "Talking Book machine." Too many blind people are poor, and why should they spend their meager resources for Talking Book machines when there were no Talking Books to play on them? The guardians of the public treasury very properly replied, "Why should the government make Talking Book records available if there are no blind people equipped to use them?" This was a vicious circle which had to be broken in some way.

The representative of the Foundation then responded that he would raise the money privately for twelve hundred machines during the current year, if Congress would appropriate $75,000 for Talking Book records. This was a challenge which was accepted by the lawmakers, and in spite of protests from the nonprofit braille publishing concerns, Talking Book libraries were started.

The Junior Women's Clubs of New Jersey and other organizations were approached for help in raising money for the purposes of buying Talking Book machines and lending them to would-be blind readers. When the year rolled around and it was time to consider another federal appropriation, it was possible to report that fifteen hundred blind people were equipped with Talking Book machines. From that time on, little difficulty was experienced.

It would have been extremely difficult to raise money for the 15,000 to 20,000 Talking Book machines which soon were needed, because in the 1930's in the depth of the depression it was not easy to find money for what looked to the average man on the street like luxuries. However, advantage was taken of conditions which grew out of the depression itself. It was proposed that a Works Progress Administration project be set up on which Talking Book machines for the blind would be manufactured. It seemed reasonable that the manufacture of Talking Book machines would be a much more justifiable use of federal relief money to provide employment than would the raking of leaves in the parks, or some of the then famous boondoggling projects. The difficulty was that in the cost of manufacturing a Talking Book machine, only about one-third represented direct labor. The WPA managers had adopted the principle that at least seventy-five per cent of the cost of a WPA financed project should go to labor. While everyone agreed that the manufacture of Talking Book machines was a worthy one, it was necessary to appeal to President Roosevelt himself to get it authorized. In this appeal, Major M. C. Migel, Helen Keller and Mary Hun were most instrumental.