Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-06-02
Communications Bill
Hearings Stir Interest
BY HARDEN COLFAX.

The possibilities Of radio as a utility
apparently limitlesS, the lack OF exist
ing regulatory authority over interstate
power lines and the relatively minor
attention thus far paid regulation OF
telegraph and telephone systems serve
to center extraordinary interest around
hearings before the Senate committee
on interstate commerce on bill to
establish q commission on communica-
lions.
After a series of hearings devoted to
consideration chiefly of the radio Situa-
ton and the present radio act, the
committee recessed last week with the
expectation that Senator Couzens, its
chairman, and the sponsor OF the pend
ing bill to create an agency OF the Fed
eral Government to regulate all forms
of interstate communication, will open
a new phase of the problem this week.
The Couzens bill would amend and
re-enact the present radio law, and
place its enforcement in a commission
on communications with authority also
over interstate telephone and telegraph
systems. An amendment will be pro-
posed to vest In this same agency reg
ulatory authority over interstate trans
mission Of power.
Regulation Subject Grows.
WlII1 ,Lkle ulCEcdSulS tcIl1CLlCJ tOWoAA
physical interconnection of electric
power lines, which indicates that the
day Is not far distant when, theoreti-
cally, electricity generated on the At
lantic seaboard may turn the wheels
of machinery on the Pacific Coast, and
the equally rapid development of hold
ing corporations through which large
groups of electric utilities and construc-
ton and service corporations in their
AL he nc
the subject Of regulation in this sphere
of business and industry is assuming
major proportions.
The hearings during the last few
months held by the Federal Trade
Commission in regard to electric util-
tiles have been reported most generally
from the spectacular aspect Of the pub
licity methods employed by such cor
porations, but that phase of the COM
MISSIONS investigations which was Or
dered by the Senate. which has to do
among utility companies, should prove
enlightening along other important
lines. This commission inquiry is ex-
pected to prove helpful to Congress in
drafting construction legislation and 1t
Is unlikely that the CouZens bill, now
before the Senate committee on inter-
state commerce, will deal in detail with
this subject unless 1t is perfected after
the Federal Trade Commission has
gathered much more data than now are
available on this particular phase of
electric utility operations and .organi-
cations.
Radio Merely Touched"
So far as concerns radio alone, 1t is
realized that the art has been merely
touched. Much interest attaches to the
possibilities Of transmitted electric pow
er by radio. What the future holds for
this possibility is in the field Of specu-
lation. Television, the transmission of
action and scene by radio, is making
progress-it would be in practical use
now were not such a wide range of the
ether required to broadcast movies"
that to do this would narrow the cham
nels for broadcaSting of sound to prac-
tically nothing; but television Is yet
young and its requirements may be mar
rowed by a discovery any day now.
Beam broadcasting, the projection of
vibrations in only one direction, Is the
subject Of experimentation.
Wired wireless" dispatch of radio
messages over telephone or electric light
wires Is success and the development
Of radio programs may be in this di-
rection In the future, so far as any
one can say now.
Wires Long to Be Used.
AS matters stand, the time Is far dis
tant, If, indeed, 1t ever arrives, when
wires may be supplanted entirely by
radio. Yet many members of Congress
feel all means of communication should
be under one regulatory agency; the
TACT u that the Interstate Commerce