The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1935-08-15
Too Much Red Tape

Too Much Red Tape
Neutrality-suspicious. of the oldes
and perhaps the most constant o.
all complaints about the fedora
government at Washington has beer
the tendency toward bureaucratic
control. Bureaucratic control, sim.
mered down, is red tape; it is at.
tempted management of even per-
sonal affairs by a government
agency and it is naturally and OBJ
viously repu1sive to the average
American. 1t was a condition thoro-
ly to be criticized in Mr.. Hoover's
administration when there were
boards, bureaus and commissions
everywhere. It is even worse now,
believe, with all of the New Deals
alphabetic soup agencies scattered
hither and yon in execution of var
ious New Deal experiments and the
cries. ....s =. @#.gz
All of this constitutes prelude
to what appears to me to be most
fragrant attempt by bureaucrats to
manage private affairs. I refer to
aI order issued the other day by
the federal communication COM
rnission Under With it has assert
ed a jurisdiction which I cannot
believe congress ever intended it
should have. Further, the asserted
jurisdiction which the commission
is seeking to exercise goes far be-
yond anything which might be
made the basis of complaint. It has
reached into the field of CONNER
cial enterprise in a manner which,
without a doubt, will have the eff
feet of covering invention and ex-
pertinent in industry with destruc-
tive frost bite--if the commission
is allowed to get away with it.
The facts involved are these: The
American Telephone and Telegraph
company, which is spending mil
lions of dollars annually in scientific
research to improve our system Of
communications such as the tele-
phone, the telegraph and the radio
lately has perfected what is techni-
ca1ly known as the coaxial cable.
This cable is revolutionary. 1t holds
the possibility of transmission of
240 telephone conversations stimuli
taneously over single pair of
wires. It is not commercially COM
plete in all of it's phases. Like
every organization of sound judg-
ment, the A. T.. & T. wants to iron
out weaknesses and imperfections
through a period of experimental
operation.
FEC Enters Picture
Here is where the federal COM
munications commission enters the
picture. AS a courtesy, purely, the
A. T. & T. submitted its plan for ex-
Fermentation to the communica-
tions agency, saying as it did so
that the commission did not have
jurisdiction but that in the develop
ment of such revolutionary inven-
ton the corporation was advising
the commission of its plans and sug-
geSted that if the commission thot
it had Jurisdiction it could issue
an experimental license covering
the work. In all of this it is to be re-
membered that the communications
commission has Jurisdiction over
rates, regulations and practice Of
the wire, telephone and radio COM
panies.
It seems that some bright young
men in the communications COM
mission immed iately conceived the
idea of having that group take jur-
1sdiction when legal authorities tell
me there is nothing in the law Civ
ing them that authority. The story
I get around the commission lobbies
is that the A. T. & T. would not
have objected to having the COM
mission exercise what it believed it's
right to be in granting a license for
the experiment but when the order
emerged from the secret chamber
of the commission, it carried in it
a provision which said that the
commission could Withdraw it's ap-
prevail and nullify the permission
granted on 10 days notice as it saw
fit.
Suffice to say that this provision
together with several other techni-
cal phases of the circumstances was
enough to arouse the ire of the