Evening star., 1931-05-31
RADIO IN BRITAIN
j IS ONE-MAN SHOW
Director General Sir John
Reith Opens All Stations
and Fixes Own Rules.
BY WILLIAM HARD.

1nRLOn GIllS week.
Like Prime Minister Macdonald and
many of the other foremost men OF
England. Sir John Is a Scotchman. He
was taken to see President Hoover by
his fellow Scotchman, Sir Ronald Lind
say. the British Ambassador to the
United States The two of them to-
gether have about 13 feet Of altitude.
Standing side by side and towering
high above all adjacent humand land
scape features, they are marvellous
collection of Scots Wha Hae WI wal
lace Bled." They repelled the poor
English and now they very consider
ably govern them.
Sir John governs them with rod
OF iron. From observation OF him IN
the exercise Of his rulership in London,
this writer is prepared to state to the
world Sir John is the real monarch OF
the air in England.
Receiving Sets Taxed.
To begin with, he has a public gov
ernmental status. His corporation, the
British Broadcasting Corporation, is q
public governmental institution. It Is
especially created by Parliament. It
lives principally on taxes. The rest of
its income is derived from publications
having to do with radio programs and
with other radio developments. Taxes
however, are the base of its operating
revenue. These taxes are levied upon
every radio receiving set in Britain.
Primarily with these taxes Sir John
directs all the broadcasting stations,
all the broadcasting performances and
all the broadcasting singers and takers
of his whole country. He Is additionally
just about everything that our radio
commission here is. He licenses himself
to open new stations. He keeps him
self on his own wave lengths. He de-
cideS whether or not he is lin the
public interest" in the programs he
produces.
If he wants to give almost all of
Sunday to religious exercises on the
ether. that's lin the public interest" :"
If he wants to give Is minutes to
readings from Victorian poetry"
that's in the public interest. If any
part Of the public complains, that's
not lin the public interest,"" and Sir
John says so.
Gave Americans Shock.
A year ago last Winter, during the
days Of the London Naval Conference
Sir John gave a severe shock to the
sensitive American journalistic nerves of
this writer by announcing, in a speech
and in an article, that it was a
damnable heresy to follow the prin-
ciple of giving the public what 1t
wants"
The public, Sir John maintained. was
often wrong in what 1t wanted. 1t was
often wrong in really knowing what 1t
ultimately wanted. If it was made to
listen to good things for a few months
or for few years or for a generation
or two, 1t would like them. If it was
given let of the low things that it
thought it liked. it would similarly
Ily- llxy nj ha
manently debased and degraded.
Sir John would take no part in ruin
ing the morals or in wrecking the
ethics of his fellow countrymen. He
proposed to give them the good and the
grand and the lofty and make them
climb the stair to ultimate universal
national good Judgment and good taste.
There was certainly something mag
niflcent in the boldneSS and thorough
ness with which Sir John announced
that doctrine. He moreover not only
announced it, but obviously tried to
practice it. He suffered, and suffers,
from just two disadvantages.
In the first place, the governmental
ism of his broadcasting corporation OBJ
liges it to be amazingly cautious in the
presentation Of political speeches. Our
private competitive brcadcasting sta
tionS and systems in the United States
give the public overwhelmingly more of
competitive political discussion and de-
bate than the British listening
public ever has a chance to hear. 1t
is g strange paradox. The British pub
lie corporation gives the public ever so
much less, and the American private
corporations give the public ever so
much more, of radio education on pub
lie affairs.
No Help From Private Firms.
Sir johns other disadvantage, as
some Of us Americans might look at it,
Is that he has no help from big in
dustrial or commercial or financial pri-
vate firms in the development of popu
lar radio features for advertising pur-
poses All of Sir Johns programs have
to be developed by one set OF brains
the set of brains residing in the offlces
of the British Broadcasting Corpora
ton. Sir John recoils from advertise
ments on the pure vibrations of his
ether
He thus deprives himself, admittedly,
of much money. He a;so deprives him
self. it can be argued, of beneficial
consequences owing from the struggles
of advertisers to discover and present
programs attractive to auditors. Sir
John endures both these deprivations
with composure. He even endures them
sometimes with enthusiasm.
He continues to hold, apparently, that
the advertisers inf1ict more misery than
they confer joy. He has been listening,
while in this country. to some of our
musical programs. He thrills to lot
of the music in them. He says that he
is going to try to g,;t some of his or
cheStraS over there to do as well at
certain things as some of our orchestras
do over here. He candidly admits our
superiority in certain musical manifes-
tationS. Nevertheless, as soon as our
advertisers begin etherally to explain
the merits Of their materialistic COM
modities. Sir John begins to writhe;
and, under some Of their lectures on
points Of physical misfortune, durable
by their products, he rushes from the
room.
Sir John wants ne private commerce
and no private profit on the air. He
makes two contentious.
/. All broadcasting should be done
by monopolistic public corporation.
2. This corporation should be organ
lied and set going by the government
but thereafter should be self-governing
an dwholly uninfluenced by government
tai political forces.
Success Considered Personal
He was repeatedly assured that this
second contention is perfectly Utopian
and unfeasible one in American con-
ditions. Efforts we're made to impress
and wholly uninfluenced by government
American Republican administration
would be dominantly Republican and
under an American Democratic admin
istration would be dominantly Demo-
cratic Sir John remained unconvinced.
He operates the British broadcasting
corporation politically neutrally. This
writer Is obliged to admit that he does.
He thinks thereupon that what he does
in Britain could equally be done in the
United States. Ae that point the argu-
ment reaches an impasse.
Washington thanks him nevertheless
for stimulating moments of differences
of views. Washington thinks that Sir