Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-07-15
D. c. COURT FACES
RADIO PROBLEMS
ALLEGATION of Short Wave
Band for acknowledgement
Is Legal Snarl.

When the Court of Appeals Of the
District reconvenes in the Fall it will
/ find itself entangled in radios worst
I legal Snarl-the ALLEGATION of the con-
! tinental short wave band for CONNER
cial radiotelegraph services. Besides
this there are sundry other radio cases
/ awaiting the pleasure of this court.
which, under the radio law, finds itself
set up as a sort Of Super-radiO COM
mission.
Appeals are piling up thick and fast
on the courts docket. But the CONT
mental short wave case stands out. Not
alone have the three dissatisfied appli-
cants for the right to create Nation
wide radiotelegraph networks asked for
judicial redress, but the ALLEGATION of
! channels to the press of the Nation for
the transmission Of news has been APP
| pealed. Thus practically everything
allocated by the commission after two
years of study for public utility point
TO point communication Is tied up III
the court.
Trying TO Get i'm u. S. Court.
The commission is basing its all on
| the ground that the court will exceed
| its lawful jurisdiction If it overthrcws
| the judgments and decisions Of the
commission. 1t made this contention
| in the famous WGY case, hut the court
| ignored it. Now the commission Is
| trying to get into the Supreme Court
of the United States in this case to
show that the lower court was without
authority to override the commission,
and that 1t has set precedent that
endangers the administration of radio
| in its decision.
There are more than a score of radio
cases Of all kinds pending before the
court. Two Of them are petitions for
stay orders" seeking to have the COM
mission restrained from allocating
channels until the court has decided
upon the appeals. The Intercity Radio
| Telegraph Co., one of the applicants.
denied its request for some IS channels
with which to establish radiotelegraph
network, serving the entire country in
competition with wire lines, a fort
night ago, asked the court Tor stay
| order.
The court has not yet acted, al
though, under its procedure, it may
consider such requests when not ac-
| tually in session. The other appli-
cation for a stay order is in the press
short i, wave ALLEGATION, filed by the
Hearst newspapers and press associa-
tions, which have asked the, court to
hold up the distribution OF the 40
| channels set aside for the press. The
Hearst organization baked against the
/ creation of single public utility cor
poration, as ordered by the commits
sion for the handling of all press news,
but contending that separate corpora
tons should be established by the indi-
vidual newspaper applicants. In this
the Hearst enterprises are supported
by q majority of the original news
paper applicants.
| Replying to Petitions.
One by one, the commission is re-
| plying to the petitions for appeals and
stay orders with motions to dismiss
or with reasons for its decisions. In
the Hearst appeal, the last one to be
fled, the commission claimed that the
court Is without jurisdiction to issue
the stay order, and likewise cannot
entertain the appeal because the Hearst
papers have been denied nothing.
Probably the most interesting case
the court is called upon to review is
that involving the appeal of Station
| kVOO, at Tulsa, Okla, which sought
the channel used by Station KWKH
the "Hellow World" station operated
by w. K. Henderson, millionaire iron
foundryman of Shreveport, La. KVOO
was denied its request by the commits
sion. The commission, which under
the law must file with the court all
OF the evidence in the case. is pre-
pairing to submit approximately 175,0OO
affidavits introduced in testimony on
behalf Of the Henderson station. Mr..
Henderson is alleged to have used pro-
fanity over his station in Amore than
one instance. The commission Is hav-
ing a difficult time trying to devise a
means of defending its decision in
| favor of the station.
| Copyright, 1929, by the Consolidated Press !