Evening star., 1934-10-14

From 1927 to 1880, the commission
continued as temporary agency,
having been given an additional years
lease on life by Congress during each
session in that span. In 1880 it be-
came a permanent agency, and then
this year Congress created the Fed
eral Communications Commission to
assume control not only over all
phases of radio, but over telephone
and telegraph communications as well.
When the F. G. c., as the newest
agency in the New Deal, formally alb
sorbed the radio commission last July,
it took over an organization of less
than 200 employes-more than half of
whom were in the field as the ether
police force. Organization plans just
completed call for a three-fold in
crease, which means that the F. c. C.
will have some 600 employees upon
full organization, now in process.
Task of Commission.
The old radio commission was as
signed the task of bringing order out
of chaos in broadcasting, since there
were some 735 stations operating he'll
ter-skelter on the limited number of
channels. Today there are slightly
less than 600 stations in this country,
operating in fairly orderly fashion.
But the old commission found that its
job was far larger than that of regu-
latory broadcasting; it was confronted
with a thousand other tasks involving
the communications aspects of radio,
such as transoceanic telephony and
telegraphy, police radio services, do
mestic point-to-point radiotelegraph
and telephone services, aviation, ship
and amateur radio, and scores of mis-
cellaneous other uses. Moreover, there
was widespread experimentation in
new radio fields that gave promise of
opening new vistas of radio communi-
cations. Many of them have mate
rialized, and others, like television and
facsimile or picture transmission, ap-
pear to be in the offing.
For all practical purposes, the
broadcast division of the new F. G. c.
is the old radio commission, and its
functions go on much as before with
out any appreciable increase in staff.
The two new divisions, the telephone
and telegraph, will absorb most of
the new personnel. These divisions
actually are breaking ground in an
entirely new regulatory field and, I'M
like the broadcast division, must di-
vide their authority with the States
except in radiotelephone and radio
telegraph matters.
Executive heads of practically all
branches of the F. C. c. already have
been appointed after weeks of con-
sideration by the seven commissioners.
Only one executive post, that of as
siStant general counsel at $500 per
year, remains to be filled. Two of
the three assistants general counsel
provided for in the law already have
been named.
New Unit Is Larger.
An entirely new unit, perhaps sec
ond in size, will be the accounting,
statistics and tariff section. Such
tasks as the analysis of telephone and
telegraph operating and earning re-
ports, upon which rate structures will
be based, will fall within its purview.
Arnold C. Hansen, a senior examiner
of the Interstate Commerce Commis-
sion, has been named chief account
and and will organize this unit. Closely
linked with this section will be the
Valuation Department, which prob
ably will have in excess of 100 en-
ployeS.
X X X
WHATS really retarding television,
w now that really good moving
images can be flashed through
the ether in laboratory tests which are
still deep-dyed secret? First and
foremost is the reason that it takes
money that will probably run into
billions. Then there is the fear that
. scrapping and revamping the present
, broadcasting plant would wreak an
undue hardship both on the operators
and the owners of radios which might
all become obsolete
One of those who sincerely believes
that televiSion is about ready to
emerge, himself the noted radio in
ventor of single-dial tuning, and the
past president of the Institute of
Radio Engineers, John v. L. Hogan,