Evening star., 1938-07-07

ceive any facili- s.*$$ A
ties, such as wave David Iawr.nc.
lengths, from the
Federal Government
Even if there were no Federal Com
munications Commission in existence
the Congress would have the right to
prohibit discrimination on the part of
businesses engaged in interstate COM
merce in relation to the use made of
their facilities by the public. Thus
the Robinson law now re-
quires all businesses engaged in inter-
state commerce to sell quantities of
goods at the same price to all who buy
within certain category or classical
ton
This principle, which means that
business cannot discriminate against
one of two customers who want to buy
the same quantity of an article, is now
imbedded firmly in Federal law Hence,
1t was not going beyond the limita-
tionS of existing statutes in other lines
for the Federal Communications Com
mission to insist that where a radio
station sells time to political speaker,
it must offer its facilities at the same
price to the rival candidate.
It is significant that the commits
sion does not require the radio station
to allow its facilities to be used by
political speakers if the radio station
manager chooses to bar them all. The
requirement is merely that If one
de- al RI hllV time the
other side must be given the same
opportunity.
This is sensible regulation and
will tend to obviate much difficulty,
because, while the principles Of fair
ness have been thoroughly understood
by most of the radio stations, there
has been no definite set of rules gov
erning the use of radio by political
speakers.
Must Treat All Equally.
During the year 1896 the two major
broadcasting systems refused to sell
time to either of the political parties
until after the national conventions
had been held. This comes well within
the new rules. What has yet to be
determined, however, Is whether politi-
cal speakers who do not buy time are
treated equally as between candidates.
and parties. Here is a much more
difficult problem to meet. Some sta
tions would prefer not to allow any
political speeches rather than to be-
come involved in the disputes that
arise when controversial questions are
discussed.
The one thing that has not yet been
covered by any rules is this: What
Is political speech?" President Roose-
welt is about to set forth on another
one of those political" tours
which he has made several times dur
ing his administration. The broad
casting companies have felt a certain
delicacy about declining to give Mr..
Roosevelt the entire hook-up in his
capacity as President of the United
States when in truth he might be
speaking in his other capacity "as
head Of the Democratic party" Until
Mr.. Roosevelt himself confessed that
he would be occupying such dual
role IN the campaign prior to the
1888 congressional elections, the broad
casting systems doubtless felt they
didn't dare question which part of
the Presidents address was political
and which part was non-political.
Now, however, Mr.. Roosevelt has re-
vealed that such distinction can
be made and it i natural that the
broadcasting systems will look around
to find some speaker on the other side.
But in all fairness the scales will not
be held evenly If, as is the case this
week, Gov. Landon of Kansas is
given only one network, while Mr..
Roosevelt has had three for simul-
taneous broadcasting.
Farley VS.. LandOn.
Even though Mr.. Landon broadcast
over the Columbia system from to
e:30 on Wednesday night, the National
Broadcasting Co. put on Chairman
Farley Of the Democratic National
Committee at the same hour over its
network, so that people who wanted
to listen to both could not do SO.
These schedulings are to some extent
q matter Of accident and there is
every reason to believe that the broad
casting systems want to even things
up. But it would seem that the Federal
Communications Commission could 20
Q step farther in its rules prohibiting
discrimination by insisting that when
the head Of the Democratic party
speaks and is given simultaneous
hook-up, the opposition should have
the self-same audience either on the
same or the next night. For 1t is
obvious that this summer and autumn
"non-political" speeches will cease to
be the novelty they were before and
will only mean ill will for the radio
companies if they do not balance the
unpaid time given both political
parties. The radio companies hesitate
to proclaim such rules, but the Federal
Communications Commission can do
30 and be well within the spirit of
the existing act of Congress govern
ing the use of the radio by political
speakers.
(Copyright 1881