Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-07
RADIO TRUST RULE
IS EXPECTED SOON
Revision of Cozensu Bill on
Communications Looked
for in Meantime.
BY MARTIN CODEL.

Within three or four weeks the De-
partmenC OF Justice will define its atti-
tude toward the so-called radio trust.
In the meantime the Senate commit
tee on interstate commerce will be
revising the Couzens bill to establish a
commission on communications. Though
no House hearings have been conducted
on any similar bill, it is proposed by
Senator CouzenS to have his bill re-
ported to the Senate for action some
time during the present session of
Congress.
That the alleged patent overlordship
dominating the radio industry will con-
tinue to receive close scrutiny as the
CouZenS bill is rewritten is evident from
the trend of the Senate hearings, which
close Saturday with the examination of
three members OF the Federal Radio
CommiSsion-CharleS NICK. Saltzman,
Eugene o. Sykes and w. D. L. Starbuck.
That patent control will feature what
ever report is rendered by the Depart
ment of Justice investigators is evident
from a letter transmitted to Senator
CouzenS by John Lord OBrian, assistant
to the Attorney General.
Guided by Experts.
Discussing the complexities of the
radio situation, involving as it does
patent rights. contracts and business
practices, Mr.. O'Brian points out that
the Federal Trade Commission last year
dismissed its five-year Investigation for
want of jurisdiction under the Sherman
antitrust act. He adds:
LAS you are no doubt aware, all of
the proceedings taken by the radio
corporation and it's affiliated corpora
of some of the best known lawyers and
patent experts in the country.
LAS shown by the briefs filed before
the Federal Trade Commission and their
recent statements, it is their claim that
every act complained Of is protected by
the legal monopoly granted by the
United States Patent Office, and they
still own or control about $500 patents.
In this important aspect the case
presents conflict between the anti
trust laws enacted to prevent monopoly
and the type of monopoly created by
the Government through the issue of
patents. 1t is not an exaggeration to
say that the case is one of the most
complicated ever examined by this de-
partment"
Basis Of Many Fights.
Patents have been the basis of most
OF the bitter fights before the Senate
committee in the last few months. 1t
is alleged by compliments that the
patent grip of the r. Z. A. not only is
being welded to exact exorbitant tolls
from the independent radio industries
but is being frightened to keep others
out Of the communications business.
Chief among the camplainants on
these scores were Louis Pierson, repre-
senting Press Wireless, Inc, and Lieut..
Kenneth Cox, representing the Chicago
police department.
Both claimed they were being handi-
capped in the development of their
radio systems by oppressive conditions
imposed by the r. C. A. through its
control of patents. This oppression,
they charged before the Senate COM
mittee recently, consists of exorbitant
prices for radio equipment and threats
OF patent infringement suits.
The Press Wireless, Inc. proposes to
establish a domestic and international
radio net to handle the word traffic of
American newspapers on public Serv-
ice basis. Chicagos police and those
OF other cities are erecting radio sta
lions to aid in the speedy apprehen-
sion of criminals.
w. w. Winterbottom, vice president
OF r. c. A. Communications, Inc, de-
MED most of Mr.. Persons charges in
his testimony yesterday, saying the r.
c. A. is placing no obstacles in the way
of the press radio system. From Mai.
Gen. James G. Harbord, chairman of
the r. c. A., promise of a thorough
investigation into the Cox charges was
obtained:
Gen. Harbord testified yesterday
chiefly in support of the proposed sale
Of the communications subsidiary of the
r. G. A. to the I. T. & T. Co., which
can only be consummated by repeating
part of the present radio act.
In sharp conflict with the views of
Newcomb Carlton, president of the
Western Union, he maintained that a
real peril to American communica-
tions exists because of the inability of
wire and wireless systems in this coun-
try to meet similarly unified COMPETE
ton in the international field
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