Evening star., 1922-03-12


revolutionze congressional campaigns.
has but to make freer. fuller. more
economic use of the facilities already
provided at great cost. to take adVan-
tage of an opportunity afforded to be
thoroughly up-to-date. and to keep Ia
! close touch with the home people.
The only matter of expense would be
to provide amplfiers which now are
pretty costly. but the promise is held
| out that within a very few months this
expense will not be any longer deter
rent.
Supposing Congress has installed the
radophone. Any member-say Repre-
sentative Vincent Brennan of Detroit o.
Representative Allen T. Treadway OF
Stockbridge. Mass, arranges TO get about
! 20 minutes time to make speech on the
floor of the House Then he sends word
TO a Detroit or Springfield newspaper.
as the case may be. that he will begin
to speak at such a time-say 2:10 pm.
on a certain date Then any one VINO
wants to hear him need only to take
/, off his own telephone receiver. tune up
! until he can get the adjustment ny
+, which he hears best-and he will listen
i to the speech just as well. and perhaps
| better than if he was sitting in the
/ members gallery at the Capitol That's
| what can be done riglt now.
! AS soon as this equipment is In
stalled it will probably mean some
night sessions. at which the time vii! .
| be allocated among the members wishing
TO make radio speeches for home con-
| sumption There is another reason for
! this, in that the eaeerness of the mem
bers to play with the new contrivane.
would crowd aside the regular business
Of tie House if speeches by radio wer-
allowed during the day. The ether Is
much less disturbed at night, and SO
members on a shorter wave length,
which would bring them within the
| scope of larger number of amateur
| and private home listeners. could he
! heard much better than during the
! air-agitated hours Of the day. So th-
! radio telephone might really work a
| saving for Congress by getting the
members interested in delivering
their campaign and set speeches at
4
! sional Record from the task of print
| ing voluminous extensions of remarks
x x ;. ::
! IT might well happen froiS develop
! ment of speech making by radio
| phone that many members Of Con-
/ gress might find it far less expensive
; to stay OH the job here handling the
| business of their constituents. gettin.
| jobs for them, allotments out OF ths
! Veterans Bureau. working throuch
f, pensions. etc. and making campaisn
| speeches now and then at night, than
/ by going home and bearing the eN-
! pense of a campaign fight.
What Congress will need for am
| plifying speeches and proceedings i'm
either house is greater sending power
/ The station at Anacostia has less than
| one kilowatt of power. and the high
! est development thus far in sendins
| has been two kilowatts. But this
! handicap is being overcome at one
| big jump. because the Navy is nov
placing an installation at the Arlinr-
! ton plant Of ten kilowatts. Similarly.
| the Navy has about perfected oth.-
I Developments which will give radi"
| telephony great impetus within few
weeks. All this is close secret
which the Navy officials are not yet
! ready to disclose.
! Congressmen will be afforded by th,.
| radiophone an opportunity to sit in
:; committee or remain in their offices.
| engaged upon important work. with
| out having to worry about what j.
! happening on the floor. All they
| would have to do at any time they
| wished to get in touch with the prog
! ress of business would be to listen in
| for a few minutes. And similarly
! when away on inspection trips. such
as are frequently made to Panama. 10
| some of the dependencies to inspect
engineering projects in Alaska or al
Muscle Shoals. irrigation projects or
| inland waterways or the national
| parks. members of Congress could
keep in practically constant touch
with Congress by radio.
But the design of the Brennan bill
! is to benefit the people just as much
as Congress. Just as much as ii pro-
poses to prepare Congress to act with
certain. personal knowledge upon the
recommendations of the Hoover radio
conference. it is the purpose to bring
the people of the country into closer
touch with Congress. to know better
what Congress is doing. While TIL.
.broadcasting of the debates in Con-
gress would expose the fact that only
! a very small portion of the set
speeches sent out under government
| frank to constituents are really dc
! liyered in Congress, it would work 10
more honest effort. for it would chal-
lence the members to consider more
| carefully what they had to say before
they said it. Now they know that
they will be given an opportunity to
revise their remarks and to make cor
! rections before they are printed in the
/ Congressional Record. whereas with
the broadcasting device their spoken
words would be waited through tIe
uttered This thought ought to en-
courage more thoughtful utteranccs
on the floor
TN fact, the possibilities Of a radio
installation in the Capitol are
limitless For instance, individual
| m embers might find it desirable ITO
install receiving apparatus in their
own Offices Visitors to the congress
! sional galleries often express amaze
ment when they find only dozen to