Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1938-05-18
Government Radio?


Hearings have just taken place in both
houses on projects to establish Gov
eminent radio station for broadcasting
to Latin America. The purpose is to
combat Fascist and Communist propa-
ganda throughout the Western Henri
sphere. Under the Craftsmanship Of
Frank r. McNinch, chairman of the
Federal Communications Commission, an
interdepartmental committee is con-
Quoting exhaustive inquiries with view
to facilitating the enactment of such
legislation as may ultimately be sought.
The scheme has powerful executive
backing.
The country should be interested in
the opposition testimony submitted by
Mark Ethrldge, president OF the Ma
tional Association of Broadcasters. The
N. A. B. represents not only the great
radio chain networks-National, Column
bia, Mutual and others-but virtually all
the independent operators and indi-
vidually owned broadcasting stations in
the country, among them the rising
humber of important newspaper-con-
trolled stations. Mr. Ethridge struck
boldly at what he pillories as the "Nazi
philosophy" underlying the proposal to
give the Federal Government power ito
fuse the people with common thought
and common aims, and which ultimately
obtains complete submission to the
thinking of small group
The N A. B. spokesman. who, as an
editor of international experience. speaks
with authority on any enterprise asso-
ciated with the molding of public opin-
ion, charges proponents of Government
radio with inconsistency. They seek to
counteract dicator propaganda, yet they
advocate precise emulation of its meth
DDS, which Mr.. Ethridge brands as the
antithesis of the traditional demo-
cratic approach to the fostering of good
will among our neighbors to the SOUTH"
He is on sound ground in challenging the
wisdom of risking what the good neigh
Dor" policy has achieved by initiating the
technique which the Hitlers and Musso-
linis employ to foster totalitarianism on
peoples once free.
Acknowledging, in the words of Rep
resentative Celler, sponsor of pending
Government-radio bill, that the plan is,
at least in principle, essential to combat
the subtle, damnable, insidious and
designing propaganda programs broad
cast to Latin America from Europe, it
is still far from clear that desirable
precedent would be set by putting Uncle
Sam on the air for avowed politically
educational purposes. What assur-
ance could the Nation have that the adj
ministration of the day-Democratic,
Republican, Farm-Labor, National Pro-
gressive, or what have you-Would not,
whenever it suited its needs or whims,
turn an institution originally established
to keep the Western World safe for de-
mocracy into facilities for keeping the
United States safe for the administra-
tons own political machine?
Two specific things warn the Ameri-
can people to make haste slowly in any
matter impinging. however indirectly.
upon conf q of public opinion. One is
the already gigantic press agentry main
tanned by the New Deal-a species of
Government directed effort to create
mass mind, which bears disagreeable re-
semblance to the ministries of propa-
ganda and enlightment" conducted by
Goebbels in Germany and his opposite
number in Italy. The other development
is the monstrous Minton plan to hogtie
free press.
1t is satisfactory to learn that no Gov
eminent radio legislation is likely at this
session. BY next January, if the coun-
try gives the project the attention it de-
serves, the matter may continue indefi-
nitely to rank as unfinished business.