Education by radio (1931-)

still forbid broadcasting altogether. Most of the fears are domestic rather than international. Not a few authorities fear what happened in Madrid last December, when revolutionists seized the capital's wireless at least long enough to proclaim the republic—to such as were awake at Sam. Fear was widespread last spring when the Spanish revolution succeeded. Not only were Mediterranean dictatorships opposed to broadcasting from Madrid, but in South America a panic of radio fears arose. That first exuberant broad- cast of President Zamora to the United States was relayed also to the Argentine at the instance of a Buenos Aires news- paper. In Madrid you could hear, relayed back, the cheers of the appreciative throngs in Buenos Aires. The Argentine government immediately suppressed the offending newspaper, and there were no more broadcasts there. Later on Brazilian newspapers did something that would have terrified such proponents of con- troled broadcasting as the United States and English authorities. They inter- viewed President Zamora, with all Spain and Brazil listening in, asking uncen- sored questions and receiving extempora- neous answers. This occurred about the time that the new Spanish government was making constant use of the radio to hold the republic together. During a day when many cities of Spain were overcast with smoke from burning convents, you could see, in one provincial capital, peo- ple packed a hundred deep outside every shop and dwelling that contained a loud- speaker. In the end they went peacefully home, burning nothing, calmed by the winged words from Madrid. Of the thing's power, governments know enough to fear deeply. Revolution by radio —Recently in Brazil the revolution made its way by radio, thus breaking down a newspaper boycott. President W'ashington Luis, in his efforts to censor radio, sent the police to all radio shops to get the names of purchasers of sets; the police then went to the homes and took away the tubes! When the revolution succeeded [to the discomfiture of another Washington government beside Luis's] the vengeful listeners smashed and burned the shops of radio dealers who had betrayed them. In Venezuela the dictator-president Gomez, in order to combat rebel trans- missions from over the border, forbade the ownership of sets to any but his sup- porters. General Uriburu, who seized the Argentine government last autumn, found himself nearly overthrown by the radioed speeches of the late Trigoyen cabinet members, sent from neighboring Uruguay. Uruguay closed the broadcast- ing only after diplomatic exchanges that IT WILL THUS BE SEEN that radio censorship in the United States is both an amus- ing and a melancholy affair, as one may choose to look at it. Stupidity, timidity, hypocrisy, superstition, greed, bribery, evasion, rancor, follies of many kinds, the usual economic des- potism, the usual antic idiocies and inconsistencies abound here . . . The present gov- ernment control is weak, eva- sive, and ambiguous, even if we leave out of discussion the possible corruption of which it has given off some fairly strong odors.—Vita Lauter and Jos- eph H. Friend in "Radio and the Censors," Forum, Vol. LXXXVI, No. 6, December, 1931, p364-5. included threats of war. In Europe exactly the same situation promised to develop, when the Spanish revolutionists pressed their new government to use broadcasting to tell the world, and Italy in particular, what Spain thought of dic- tatorships. Such use would have brought about exactly the situation that rose be- tween Italy and France two years ago. Then a determined Italian exile [who now lies buried in an Italian prison] managed to rig up in a house back of Nice a small transmitter, with which he nightly talked to northern Italy. Until Paris, harried by Rome, tracked down and dismantled the station, those chats caused most of the trouble in the diplo- matic exchanges of the two governments. Fortresses of radio —These are ex- amples of the radio in the hands of revo- lution; its power is not less when it speaks as a government transmitter. The new high-power stations ranged along frontiers in Europe are seen by many as pure monuments to fear: lofty antennae marshalled face to face as if to dispute a border, in different languages. Wher- ever the late peace-shifted boundaries and minority problems are difficult, there is found a concentration of opposing sta- tions. The whole Polish frontier, much of the German, the Czechoslovakian, Hungarian, and others are scenes of what are frequently reported as radio wars. The clutter of bilingual stations in the German-Polish-Czech corner often broad- casts words which are packed home again in diplomatic pouches. France is to en- large the station near Nice; is that caused by, or causing, Italian plans for a station near Genoa? Rumania, protesting against a Soviet station close to Bessa- rabia, threatens a counter transmitter whose duty will be frankly to jam the Russian. Berlin for some time made weekly protest against wave interference, as well as propaganda, from Russia. The speech-making in English, from Moscow, which provoked belligerent protest in the British parliament, was taken less seri- ously after it appeared that only the costliest, most aristocratic British re- ceivers could pick up Moscow. Though Russia is most frequently charged with being the source of uneasi- ness, the striking fact is that all Europe has suddenly shifted to high-power broadcasting armament. While the United States still contends that 50 kilo- watts is the legal limit for stations, little Hungary is to have one of 120 kilowatts, Prague 120, Vienna likewise. Poland's new station, supposed to be 120, has just started up at 156. Berlin and Paris are going up; and so are the Russians. Eu- rope watches dourly. The Russians, as part of the Five-Year Plan, are thinking of spending $45,000,000 for a station of 500 kilowatts and short-wave transmit- ters to reach anywhere. No wonder the League of Nations is to have a station [whenever the fight is ended as to whether British or American with French capital shall predominate in the building], which station shall be left to the Swiss "in the case of a general war." Broadcasting must have its fling — Another difficulty appears, which in the long run may be hard to handle. It is simply the inherent nature of radio as- serting itself! Broadcasting will out. Eight years' experience dictates higher power, especially to serve small, remote sets. Low power, centrally located, left each country with some very dense bor- der populations with no national radio. These areas now, in catching up, natu- rally build to modern specifications, i. e., high power. This incites to equally high power just over the border, lest home programs there should be lacking in strength. The new stations "are not so much acts of war. They are acts of national pride. They should in future furnish more international cultural pro- grams than ever before." Governments concerned are not unconscious of the pos- [153]