Evening star., 1933-06-18

AVING escaped TeOTgdnlZatlOil
either under the plan of Secre-
tary of Commerce Roper for a
Il i bureau of transportation and
Communication or under Pres
ident Roosevelt's latest proposal for
Federal Radio Commission plunges into
the new fiscal year July ! with no
prospect of letdown in its work. For
the first time since its establishment In
the Winter of 1927, the commission will
continue to function as usual through
the Summer months.
Hearings will be held and admins
trative decisions will be rendered as
usual through July and August, even
though some Of the commissioners will
be away on official missions or on vaca-
tions during portions of the time. Be-
fore July / the expected cuts in the
commissions personnel, due to its cur
tailed budget, are to be made known.
Most of them will be made in the al
ready depleted field force that mans the
81 district Offices in as many cities,
which were under the supervision Of
the radio division of the Department
Of Commerce until that agency was abb
sorbed by the commission last Winter.
Congress Attitude Awaited.
Whether the proposed placing of the
Radio Commission in a bureau Of
transportation and communication will
be pressed to consurnmation, depends
upon the attitude of the next Congress,
which convenes in January. BY that
time, it is expected, the opinions of
House and Senate leaders on proposals
to create an agency to regulate the
cables and telegraphs along with radio
will haoy, loRnito1u
lated.
The bill which would have permitted
a merger of Western Union and Postal
Telegraph, but which failed in the
special session of Congress, will prob
ably come up anew next winter Radio
enters into this subject because of the
tieup of Western Union with Radio
Corporation Of America for inland
handling of the latter's transoceanic
messages. and because of the close cor
porate afflliation of Postal with Mackay
Radio & Telegraph Co.. also big fac
tor in the international communications
field. Radio is also involved because
both Postal and Western Union are in
the cable business, which competes with
radio, and the 1927 radio act forbids
cable-radio mergers.
Fate of Commission.
That the fate of the Radio Commits
sion will largely rest with the disposal
of the communications problem as a
whole. goes without saying, despite the
fact that nine-tenths of the Radio Com
missions time is taken up with broad
casting problems
Chairman Sykes of the Radio Com
mission, who headed the American dele
cation to the International Radio Con-
ference at Madrid last Winter, will be
chairman Of the American delegation
to the North American Conference on
wave lengths, which opens in Mexico
City July 10. He will leave Washington
about July l in company with Repre-
sentative Otis Bland. Democrat, of Vir-
g1nia, chairman of the House Commit
tee on Marine, Radio and Fisheries, an
other delegate. At Mexico City they
Will be joined by Roy T. Davis, United
States Minister to Panama, the third
delegate appointed by President Roose-
welt last week.
They will be accompanied at Mexico
City by a staff of experts, unnamed at
this writing, but probably including DR..
c. B. Jolliffe, the Radio Commissions s
chief engineer; Andrew D. Ring it's
| chief broadcast engineer; Gerald C.
Gross. its foreign radio engineering ex-
pert; DR.. Irwin D. Stewart. radio spec
iallst OF the State Department, and
various representatives of broadcasters
and amateur, shipping, military and
aviation radio interests. The Mexico
City conference is expected to last a
month or six weeks.