Evening star., 1933-10-29

i sibly in the nature OF wide
spread wave length realloca-
tions that will put listeners everywhere
to the trouble of finding their accus-
toned stations at new dial settings, ap-
pear now to have diSslpated into tnln
air Even the failure OF the recent
Mexico City Radio Conference, Win lts
consequent threat of potential interfer-
ence to other North American broad
casting, is not deemed likely to wreak
any violent disruption to the broad
casting structure as whole Tor the
next few years at least. :, :.
But back of the scenes in radio, II is
now learned, official forces are at work
which apparently are leading inevitably
to a complete reorganization Of Federal
control of radio and. along with radio,
the wire telegraph and telephone sys-
TENS. The movement Is toward the
co-ordinated regulation of all wire ana
wireless under q single board WIN
sweeping authority, perhaps TO pe con-
stituted as a Federal commission on
communications and very likely to be
invested with rate-making powers not
now exercised by the Government.
Plan Ready in January.
Working under presidential sanction
and meeting quietly every week.
committee of Government officials,
chiefly radio experts, is preparing to
help accomplish what radio leaders IN
Congress for the last half dozen years
have been trying without avail to &C
complish. Everything is still in the
deliberativee stage, but the object Is 70
have a plan acceptable to President
Roosevelt ready by the time Of the con-
vening Of Congress in January.
Then it is proposed that Senator
Dill, as chairman of the Senate Com
mittee on Interstate Commerce, and
Representative Rayburn, as chairman
of the House Interstate Commerce
Committee, will introduce identical bills
to bring all wire and wireless communi-
cations under unified control. Both
Senator Dill and Mr.. Rayburn are
serving in advisory capacities on the
Fact finding Committee formed under
administration auspices and headed by
Secretary of Commerce Daniel Roper.
Mai. Gen. Charles NICK. Saltzman,
q. S. A., retired, who resigned as
chairman of the Federal Radio Com
mission shortly before the Hoover ad-
ministration went out. is vice chairman
of the committee. Herbert L. Pettey,
secretary of the Federal Radio Com
mission and liaison man for the DEM
ocratic National Committee on all radio
matters, is the committees secretary.
Other members are Dr. w. M. Splawn.
former president of the University OF
Texas, close friend OF Mr.. Rayburns
and an economist now working with
Mr. Rayburn's committee as special
counsel on transportation and COM
munications: DR.. Irwin D. Stewart,
State Department radio expert; Maj
Gen Irving j. Carr, chief of the Army
Signal Corps: Capt. S. c. Hooper,
director of naval communications:
Lieut.. E. M Webster, chief of Coast
Guard communications, and DR.. j. H.
Dellinger, radio chief of the Bureau
Of Standards.
Gen. SaltZman's presence on the COM
nittee. in view of the fact that he is
q Republican and the man who was
closest to Hoover during his tenure on
the Radio Commission, is attributed to
his expert knowledge of radio and also
to his personal friendship with Secre-.
tary Roper He is also former chief
Of the Army Signal Corps and is now
q vice president OF the Merchant Fleet
Corporation, to which he was recently
lpp0ulttd M MNT0 TeC01lmfn0atl0n'
He was on Roper's original committee
named early in the Roosevelt regime to
study reorganization OF the entire ex-
ecutive branch OF the Governments
committee whose report was shelved,
50 far as it proposed to .sa aboliSh Ills the the
munications control in division OF the
newly created Bureau OF Transporta-
ton in the Department of Commerce.
The trend of the new Roper COM
mittee's deliberations have so far been
kept entirely secret, but the general
nature may be conjectured. They may
be along the lines of the Watson
Couzens-Dill bills of recent Congresses,
which would have reposed in single
commission all wire and wireless regu-
lation now exercised by the Radio Com
mission, the Interstate Commerce Com
mission, the State Department and
miscellaneous other agencies. The SEN
atorial bills would have set up this
board as an independent commission
replacing the present Radio Commission
and responsible to Congress.
Roper Wanted Control.
Secretary Roper Is known to have
wanted the control in his department,
making it an executive function. but
It is questionable whether Congress
will agree to surrender it all to the
executive branch. The problems in
volved concern legislative and judicial
OCUCI IululdIlOilS do well do d&lllllllIsU1 a
tive, and the new set-up must inevita-
bly, include an appellate machinery of
judicial character At present the
Radio Commissions functioning is ad-
mittedly quasi-judicial, with appeals
provided to the Federal courts and with
the sentiments of Congress largely
swaying its administrative policies.
SO far as broadcasting is concerned
that relatively small phase of COM
munications most in the public eye and
requiring most of the attention of the
Radio Commission because of its COM
plex character-it is believed that the
administrators policy is at present one
Of letting we'll enough alone. If a
Commission on Communications Is
formed 1t Is possible that broadcast
ing division will be created under a
single head responsible to the full COM
mission, but with appeals either to a
special board of experts or to the courts,
nr IN hOfh