Radio Broadcast - 1927, May - 61 Pages, 4.9 MB ... - VacuumTubeEra

18volved the law in precarious legal entanglements.Confinement of the Act's scope toregulation of any and every device usingether waves in no way jeopardizes or weakensits effectiveness. If you have entire controlof the use of a thing, its technicalownership becomes of minor importance.If the government can prescribe when,where, and for what purpose you may useyour motor car, it, in effect, can exert allof the advantages of complete ownership.Legal experts state that a vested rightcould be secured to a wavelength, providedunrestricted ownership had been exercisedfor a period of many years. In historic coveredwagon days, a prospector had only tostake out his claim and to occupy his propertyto obtain a good title to it. His occupationand improvement thereof eventuallygave him legal possession. Complete possessionand utilization, without existenceof any rights conflicting with it, might intime bring about the establishment of avested right to a radio frequency. But nosuch condition obtains with respect tobroadcasting frequencies. The right of thegovernment to regulate interstate radiocommunication is clearly given in the Constitutionand the government asserted andexercised that right long before the firstbroadcasting station went on the air. Nobroadcasting station at any time has operatedwithout first securing a governmentlicense and, in so doing,it has recognizedthe government's power to regulate the useof the ether.Undoubtedly there will be efforts on thepart of disgruntled stations to prove thattheir investment in radio transmittingequipment is, in effect, confiscated iftheyare not allowed on the air. They will thereforedemand compensation as is guaranteedunder the Constitution when private propertyis confiscated. But they will be wastingtheir time and money in seeking compensationbecause the government's power torevoke a license for the general good, evenif it involves depreciation or destruction ofprivate property, has been abundantly establishedby endless court decisions. Oneneed only recall the actions brought manyyears ago when local option closed saloons.Although a license to sell intoxicating liquorwas property so tangible that it could besold, mortgaged, and subjected to execution,the courts decided that a license to sellliquor is not a vested right and the statecould, in the exercise of its police power,revoke it.Revoking broadcasting licensesis not different. Although revocation of alicense may involve making a radio transmittervalueless, the license is neverthelesssubject to revocation for the good of thepeople as a whole. It is extremely unlikely,particularly since broadcasting stationswere officially warned that the ether laneswere overcrowded, that any of the existingstations whose licenses must be revokedwill be able to obtain compensation on thegrounds of confiscation.We are indebted to the Hon. S. H.Rollinson, an eminent New Jersey lawyer,who has made a thorough study of the legaliRADIO BROADCASTB. L. SHINN-New York City-Associate Director, National [Setter BusinessBureau. Especially written for RADIOBROADCAST:"Many radio firms as well as radio dealersand manufacturers have written to the NationalBetter Business Bureau to expressappreciation of its work in promoting theaccurate retailing, advertising, and selling ofradio storage batteries. This appreciation ismost welcome, and in acknowledging it, 1take the occasion to point out that this is butone of a number of instances in which theBureau has worked out, with the engineeringand advertising leaders in the radio industry,methods of selling, which have assisted thepublic to obtain accurate and dependablefacts regarding radio products. El-en the woodsappearing on exposed surfaces of radio cabinetsand consoles are now accurately describedby most manufacturers, instead of byonly a few, because of the activities of thisBureau." The Better Business Bureau's service toindustry and the public, however, is by nomeans limited to radio. There is scarcely animportant item of merchandise in your homein whose advertising, branding, and marketingthe influence of the Bureau s recommendationsare not felt. If you have saved moneyfor investment, the National Better BusinessBureau and forty-three local Bureaus standready to supply reliable and disinterestedinformation upon the security which you areconsidering."r ||||(| ll]m[1|llr rrrllmlll1n n ,., , r | llm , LI,,!,,!,!,,,,!! , 11 , ,aspects of the broadcasting stituation, forother examples of a governmental policepower, the exercise of which has involvedwhat amounts to, but is not, confiscation ofproperty. The State of New Jersey passeda law prohibiting the use of repeating firearmscapable of firing more than two shots.This rendered useless repeating rifles possessedby many sportsmen and, in the legalaction which followed as a result, broughtby sportsmen and manufacturers of firearms,the state proved its complete rightto regulate the matter of firearms underthe law. Likewise, the government may orMAY, 1927may not grant charters to national banks,as its chooses. If it does not consider it inthe public interest to license an additionalnational bank in any locality, it need notdo so. It is empowered to revoke the charterof a national bank in the public interest. Areckless automobile driver may have hislicense revoked in the maintenance of lawand order, even though, in effect, it makesa valuable and expensive piece of propertyuseless to him. The regulation of the etheris a police power which cannot be overthrownupon any grounds of vested rightsand cannot be hampered by demands forcompensation. We are convinced that theactions brought by broadcasting organizationsfor compensation or broadcastingrights will be unsuccessful, unless and onlyif they can show that failure to license themis denying the public fair, efficient, andequitable radio service.The case of the disgruntled broadcastingstation must be overwhelming proof thatclosing it down is contrary to the publicinterest. The personal desire of those maintainingthe station is of absolutely no valueunder the law. The Radio Act of 1927 haswiped the broadcasting slate clean for theRadio Commission. At this writing, nobroadcasting station is licensed for morethan sixty days. Let the Commission havecourage! The vast majority will support itto the limit in its difficult task of reducingthe number of broadcasting stations by atleast sixty per cent. A noisy and selfishminority will always oppose and criticize it.Let the clamoring be outweighed by anorganized and powerful listener sentimentand there will be no difficulty in decidingwhat is meant by fair, efficient, and equitableradio service."Christian" Mud Throwingto receive a com-WE WERE pleasedpletedisclaimer from the ChristianScience Mother Church inBoston,stating that the destructive propagandasent out by WHAP in New York is in no waysanctioned by and does not in any way representthe views of that organization. StationWHAP has used its broadcasting stationto disseminate large quantities of mud,trained largely against Catholicism. Theaction of WHAP has disgusted listeners ofevery shade of religious belief. Broadcasting,fortunately, has been very largely freeof intolerance, every kind of religious beliefhaving free access to the microphone tospread its thought constructively. BroadcasterWHAP, disregarding its obligation tothe diversified radio audience, has chosen acourse of intolerance and villification. Itsattacks on Catholicism can not be condoned,and tend to undermine the faith of impressionable persons in any religion. For the goodof radio, let us hope that it will no longer beused as a means of breaking down anyone'sbelief, be it Catholicism, Protestantism,Buddhism, Christian Science, or atheism.A cardinal virtue of Christianity is tolerance.No doubt we will be suspected byintolerant WHAP of being subsidized by the