Copyright/authority confusion in Go Tell It

The full text (the only one for that text authority) at <a href="https://hymnary.org/hymn/MHSS1971/54">https://hymnary.org/hymn/MHSS1971/54</a> claims to have been <strong>copyrighted</strong> in 1971 by Walton Music Corporation, which is apparently now a subsidiary of GIA. It says that the text is by John W. Work, who as everyone knows died in 1925, so that it is hard to put a copyright on his published works 99 years (now) or even 46 years (1971) later. The problem is compounded by the fact that Work's words for the hymn are those where the first verse begins with “While shepherds kept their watching”, while the version in MHSS1971 is the older, anonymous text in which the first verse starts out “When I was a s***er”. Further complicating the issue, there are two authorities for the older text, one with “sinner” and one with “seeker”. The MHSS1971 has the “sinner” version. Other instances of that version also claim copyrights as far back as 1946. My impression (more guesswork than knowledge) is that the truth of the matter is unknowable, but that it cannot be under copyright at this point in any of these three forms; my guess is that Work <i>wrote</i> the three Christmas stanzas that are included in many hymnals. He may also have modified an original (anonymous) “seeker” to “sinner” or vice versa, but that given the date involved his version(s) are no longer under copyright. I would recommend combining the non-Christmas versions, but if that is not feasible (and the fact that the sinner/seeker division comes so early in the text may preclude it) at least don't perpetuate false copyright claims about it. I'm going to remove the instances with a Christmas text apparently by Dwight Brock and give them their own authority (it starts “The shepherds all were watching”).