Evening star., 1923-01-21
u. LOSES ON RADIOS KEPT
ON COAST TO PROTECT LIFE
Only in Few Instances Where Service Is
Given Merchant Ships Have Stations
Proved Financially Profitable.

| in the especial interests OF the ma
tional defense--in fact. the Navy may
be compelled to abandon important
due to lack OF funds to pay for their
maintenance and an insufficient num-
Der or men to operate them.
Question OF Expediency.
Thus the functioninK Of our coastal
radio station services in the interest
OF safety OF life and property at sea
has resolved itself into question Of
expediency. Although nearly all sea-
going commercial vessels are re-
ouired by law to be equipped with
radio apparatus and maintained in
condition for instant use and to carry
Qualthed radio operators for it's op-
Grafton in the interest OF safety Of
lie at sea. there Is no law or other
or Otherwise. with respect to the es-
Enlistment, maintenance or opera
, tion of corresponding service
through coastal stations on shore. II
Is only because the Navy has had to
establish radio stations along our
coasts for serving our fleets that
radio service all along our coasts has
been made available to merchant ves-
sells. the Navy being permitted to
handle commercial traffic and s. o. s..
calls through these isolated stations
! This is peculiar defect In our ra-
dio system which may some day as
sume serious aspect. because it is
, unlikely that the handling of Com
mercial messages between ship and
shore will ever be profitable as a
business venture. except within GER
! tain restricted areas. and the exist
ing unsatisfactory situation is likely
to continue.
Meanwhile. radio is becoming more
or less indispensable in various other
services. 1t fourishes in these serv-
ices due to the resulting immediate
or prospective financial profits.
1t fs Indispensable, OF course, for
purposes Of national defense and the
| furnishing OF large numbers Of COM
plete transmitting and receiving out
fits for our military and naval forces
has been source OF profitable busi-
ness to our radio manufacturing con-
Germs.
Spans Oceans and Continents.
1t is not only becoming an active
competitor OF the transocean cables,
where they exist. but ii is spanning
ing up direct channels OF communfca- =
. tons with foreign countries with
| which cable connections or other di-
. rect communication services have not
previously existed.
Obviously there should be good pros
poets OF large financial returns from
these business ventures from the
handling OF radio telegraphic mes
| sages alone. There remains also the
prospect of eventually inausuratfng
radio telephone services over the cir
cults. and such a service should even
tually prove to be very lucrative in
deed.
The operation OF these services
should not only be profitable to the
operating companies, but they will
doubtlessly prove indirectly beneficial
to our industrial life as q whole
The fourishing. nationwide radio
phone broadcasting service justifies
itself financially from the extensive
sales Of receiving apparatus and In
other ways. Although the broadcast
ing service has been In operation less
than two years. II already has as
sumed such proportions and has gain
ed in popularity to such an extent
that II cannot be characterized as
other than Indispensable.
Radio. therefore. has become the in
dispensable servant Of the landsman
as we'll as the mariner, but 1t should
always be remembered that the men
who go down to the sea in ships and
the men. women and children whom
circumstances have decreed travel by
sea are entitled to the first claim on
Its services.
AS a humanitarian agency IL should
never be compelled to give way to ex-
pedfency or to the amassing of ma
terial wealth.
Copyright, 1921