Evening star., 1936-12-20

Because the metropolitan press
the New Deal, one school of thought
insists it was President Roosevelt'S use
OF radio during the campaign and be-
fore which won the election for him
and his administration.
"All bosh," retortS another school,
represented by the journalist. David
Lawrence, which remarks that If radio
is so powerful in swaying public opin-
ion. how can, you account for the fact
that the Republicans used about twice
as much time on the air during the
recent campaign as the Democrats
with such dismal results?
THAT the American system, based
upon a Federal licensing power
and upon mere six-month licenses
to broadcasting stations, is full Of
dangers cannot be gainsaid. That
those dangers, however. have as yet
brought on no critical problems many
pthers honestly believe, and in sup
port of this can be pointed out the
relatively low partisan recriminations
UNCI IIlC Use vi tlldI dIOcC OuV
of the last campaign and the fact
that the records reveal only one libel
suit against an Iowa speaker and
station) resulted from the entire CAM
paign.
Nevertheless, some further safe
guards are needed against BUREAU
cratic and centralized control, it is
t~aI;ayad aoJ MA Spd tho Ap,arica n
Civil Liberties Union announcing
1t will seek legislation in the next
Congress to insure greater freedom
of the air by setting aside fixed peri
ods for uncensored public discussions.
for guaranteeing fair treatment of
controversial issues and for freeing
radio stations from the joint legal
liability they face for utterances over
their facilities.
The situation also finds no less a
leader than Senator Wheeler of Mon
tana. who as chairman of the Sem
ate Interstate Commerce Committee
more or less controls radio legisla-
ton. asserting that he believes radio
stations must be divorced from news
paper ownership and decrying the
fact that some 1885 of the 675 sta
tions in the United States are owned
in whole or part by newspapers.
nURING the national conference
on the educational uses of radio
here several speakers took occasion
to discourse upon radios effect upon
the recent elections. One of them,
thor, saw deep significance in the
fact that armed with this weapon,
this candidate (Mr. RoosevelD was
able to overcome the paper barrage
that had been laid about him and
that was meant to keep him in his
place" While decrying some of the
superficial aspects of American radio,
Mr.. Van Loon still thought the sys-
tenn was better than that prevailing
in continental Europe and seemed sat-
isfed that radio Is making progress
here.
Another speaker, Prof. Arthur N
Holcombe of Harvard, who had been
invited to discuss radio as new force
in American politics, saw a certain
irony in the fact that Mr. Roosevelt
won so Overwhelmingly against a
party that used radio twice as much
as his party did; that Father Cough
lin, relying upon his magical radio
voice, was so chagrined over his in
ability to deliver his promised vote
that he has apparently retired from
the microphone; that the press seems
to have come to be employed particu-
larly for the purpose of advertising
the broadcasts and the meetings which
serve as the preteXts for broadcaSts." ="
"Roosevelt's principal opponents"
said Prof. Holcombe, probably did
violate the law of diminishing re-
turns by the frequency of their ap-
peals for votes over the air" He
suggested the extension Of the merit
system as we'll as shortening of the
campaign period" so that the patience
OF the public might not be taxed by
having so many candidates for minor
Offices clutter up the air with their
generally trivial chatter"
DE 1T ever so humble there's no
speech like that Of the folks back
home, and in cosmopolitan America
this includes good many dozen va
rieties of drawls and twangs and
wheezees to say nothing of the larynx
cadences and tonsil twistings that
mark scattered hills and dales.
Whether radio is reducing all speech
TO a common ground or whether the
constant attention that Americans
give to the loudspeaker is affecting
vocal habits only slightly, is a sub
tect that is holding the attention of
educators and psychologists.
No matter which side the scientists
OF the vocal laboratories may take,
they will pretty generally admit that
public interest in the passing along