American television directory (1946)

TELEVISION'S TREMENDOUS PROMISE By H. V. KALTENBORN NBC Commentator Television can only become a great social force if those who control it have a proper sense of social responsibility. Neither radio nor the moving picture has yet performed that full measure of social service of which each is capable. For some years to come, television will be far less profitable than either. The tempta¬ tion, therefore, will be to subordinate public service to private profit. That tempt¬ ation must be resisted. The infinite possibilities of this new medium of sight and sound must be fully utilized. Television can enrich our lives by providing better information, better education, better entertainment. It can give us intimate personal contacts with our national leaders. It can both explain and illustrate the grave national problems on which we are asked to pass judgment. It can make us more conscious of the integrated postwar world in which we live. It can bring the latest advance in human culture and the last word on scientific achievement into the home. It can do this in a more convincing way than is possible for any other medium. As the man who first used radio to explain and analyze current events, I hope it will also be my privilege to utilize this much more vivid medium to translate to the eyes and ears of the great American public the kaleidoscopic changes of our postwar world. male groups and some 10,000,000 to 12,000,000 from the female group. Certainly, after the war there should be little reason for the 15-19 and over65 age groups to work. By 1950, the 20-65 age male group will have in¬ creased by 8 percent to 43,000,000 leav¬ ing 17,000,000 employed to come from other age groups and from the female list (as compared with twelve million female employed in 1939) to reach an employment ievel of 60,000,000. This means we must either (1) increase em¬ ployment in proportion to population and also add 5,000,000 more jobs by increased production and distribution or (2) spread jobs through shorter hours. Any increase in military forces over the 369,000 in 1939 will be an additional offset. Product Valuation 1$ Important The most interesting fact about the employment statistics quoted for 19291939 and 1944, is found in the agricul¬ ture and manufacturing figures. The trend in agriculture is down slightly; in manufacturing it is down in 1939 and up in 1944. But if one examines “value of prod¬ uct” for each year, reduced to 1939 dol¬ lars in Department of Agriculture and Bureau of Labor Statistics indices, he arrives at a very different figure — and sees the proportionate contribution to national income. Agricultural Manufacturing Production Production 1929 . $4,560,000,000 $17,800,000,000 1939 . 5,230,000,000 16,965,000,000 1944 (est.) . 7,200,000,000 43,000,000,000 In other words, an equal amount of human effort in agriculture through this period showed an increase of over 50 per cent in production. And a 60 per cent increase in human effort in 1944 over 1929 (after taking into account relative hours worked) resulted in an increase of two and one-half times in manufactured production. Many people have seen this situation. To quote Walter P. Reuther, CIO vice president: “We have mastered technol¬ ogy and possess a complex, high octane B-29 production machine. But our pro¬ ductive genius has always been stale¬ mated by our failure at the distributive end.” Paul H. Appleby, formerly Under Secretary of Agriculture, stated it was the conclusion of the International Food Conference at Hot Springs, Va., that the problems of agriculture were not in farm production and that the world could be better fed if the proportion of the world’s productive man hours going into agriculture were reduced and this surplus devoted to distribution. Advertising Lifts Living Standards We must conclude that the machinery of large-scale production, which came into being as a result of advertising and the rapid distribution of informa¬ tion, has shown a remarkable ability to outrun its progenitors. Of course, a cer¬ tain amount of goods and services, food, shelter and clothing, at least the min¬ imum for subsistence, will be purchased without any advertising or other me¬ dium for acquainting people with their existence. In many countries where ad¬ vertising does not exist, the people live on just about that low level. All the additional cultural and emotionally satisfying values which make life so enjoyable must be displayed to the cus¬ tomer in their attractive and satisfying values for them to be desired. We have before us, today, a new me¬ dium which can do that job in a way none has ever done it before. In a few hours, in the quiet of the home, one will be able, with television, to see what goods are attractive and satisfying to others. This can be achieved without even any attempt to sell, in the same way our American motion pictures have sold our standard of living to the rest of the world. To Outpace Mass Production We have a medium of appeal which can go into a home and demonstrate by sound, (which the sound radio can do), by sight (which magazines and news¬ papers can do) , and also by action, which none of them can do. It is the only medium on the horizon which pos¬ sesses the potentialities of a high oc¬ tane B-29 distribution machine. It is the only medium which may be able to outpace mass production and continue to raise our living standard. However, should television fail of this ambitious goal, it may aid impor¬ tantly in another way. It may make millions of people — especially that pro¬ portion of the 20,000,000 or so women, recently employed, for whom even a 60, 000, 000job level does not provide employment — want to stay at home and look and listen to their television sets. Certainly, if hours must be reduced to spread possibilities of employment, television provides the ideal basis for making those extra hours much more pleasant for us all. The distribution authorities of Amer¬ ica will have failed to contribute their allotted part to the goal of 60,000,000 jobs if they do not make full and im¬ mediate use of television’s potentialities. 11