Evening star., 1929-12-15
Communicat tons.

A Secretary Of Communications, with
place in the Presidents cabinet, is
the recommendation of Gen. James @.
Harbord, president of the Radio Cor
poration Of America, who appeared the
other day before the Senate interstate
commerce committee. Gen. Harbord
believes firmly that the importance
of communications warrants q place in
the cabinet for the man who Is to deal
with communications on the part Of
the best interests of the country will
be served by having q single authority
exercise control over communications
for the Government, rather than leave
such administration to a commission.
And. finally, Gen. Harbord Is firmly
convinced that there should be q uni
fed system of communications, includ-
ing cables, land wires and radio.
No one will gainsay the fact that
communications have come to play a
part Of vast Importance in the life
of the American people and in the life
of the entire world. Whether, however,
Congress would be warranted In set
ting up q separate department of the
Government, with a cabinet ofIicer at
its head, to deal with these wire and
wireless systems of communication, is
q matter which should be given care
full consideration before q decision Ii
reached.
There is already q great department
Of the Government dealing with COM
munications-the Post Once Depart
ment. That department now looks
after a huge business, which is car
ried on entirely by the Government. 1t
is not Gen. Harbords proposal that
the Government shall take over the
cable, telegraph and radio business and
operate these lines of communication.
His plan is that they shall be unified
into one great system and that the
Government shall exercise regulatory
powers over it through a cabinet ofh-
GER. If such q plan is to be worked out,
an additional Assistant Postmaster
General, to deal with wire and wire
less communications, might be provided
for by law, and thus the necessity Of
creating q new, separate department.
with additional costs to the Govern
ment, would be avoided.
Hitherto the proposal has been made
that a governmental commission should
daaI ,,,itJ, radio oornuoup{no f{ops put
Gen. Harbord is not believer in COM
missions where there are executive and
administrative duties to be performed.
He regards them "as q device for the
avoidance of all responsibility" Presi-
dent Hoover, In his recent message to
Congress, discussing reorganization Of
the Government made no such harsh
criticism of governmental commissions.
He did, however, propose that all ad-
miniStrative duties be taken from COM
missions and placed under single au-
thority, and that all quaSi-legislatiVe
and quasi judicial functions should be
taken from individual authority and
placed in the hands of commissions.
This division of labor recommended by
the President is a common sense pro-
posal. An administrative head, with an
advisory board, to deal with problems
arising, appears to be a wise arrange
ment for any business, whether 1t be
private or governmental.
The plea of Gen. Harbord for q uni
fed system of communications, embrac-
ing cables, land wires and radio, has
much to commend 1t. Such communi-
cations are after all public utility, and
the public Is better served and more
cheaply, as a rule, through single
public utility system, under proper gov
ernmental regulation. The postal serV-
ice OF the country, If it were conducted
by several individual concerns, for ex-
ample. would lose both in efficiency and
in economy.
The development of the radio In re-
cent years has brought new problems
which are international as well as ma
tional in scope. They are problems with
which the United States should deal as
promptly as possible. Nature, as Gen.
Harbord pointed out, has limited the
number Of channels by which radio
communication can be carried out. For
that reason it behooves this Government
to act in the interests Of the American
people to see that these channels are
not pre-empted.