Education by Radio (1933)

Politics on British Air A great deal of misinformation has been spread as to the British system of radio broadcasting. This has been par¬ ticularly true in references to provision for political discussion. The Listener, an official publication of the British Broadcast¬ ing Corporation devoted to adult education, gives the follow¬ ing information in an editorial in its August 2, 1933 issue: The late evening talks promise to provoke interest, enthusiasm, and disagreement. On Mondays will be political talks — absolutely free and uncensored. The speakers will presumably deal with points raised by their opponents in previous weeks, but they will be given a free choice of subjects and allowed to say exactly what they wish. Among the members of the different political parties who have agreed to speak are the Prime Minister, Mr. Lansbury, Mr. Baldwin, Sir Stafford Cripps, Mr. J. H. Thomas, Mr. Arthur Greenwood, and Sir Herbert Samuel. On Wednesdays and Fridays, Mr. Howard Marshall and Mr. S. P. B. Mais are to undertake two series of the kind in which they have proved them¬ selves so successful. “Vanishing England” is the title of Mr. Marshall’s — arranged in consultation with the Council for the Preservation of Rural England, the National Trust, and the National Housing and TownPlanning Council. It will deal with such things as desecration of beauty spots, litter, ribbon development, bungaloid growths and so on ; we fervently hope that Mr. Marshall will manage to bring home to indi¬ vidual listeners the horrors of the countryside as well as he lately brot home to them the horrors of the slums. Debate Handbooks in Demand More copies of the 1933-34 official debate handbook have been ordered than in any year since the work has been organized under the auspices of the National University Extension Association; according to T. M. Beaird, chairman of the committee on debate materials and interstate coopera¬ tion. The official debate topic this coming year is, “Resolved that the United States Should Adopt the Essential Features of the British System of Radio Control and Operation.” Bower Aly and Gerald D. Shively of the University of Mis¬ souri are editors of the handbook. Delivery of the orders will be about September 1. While many will enjoy a bit of music with a picnic meal or some vocal companionship on an otherwise lonely drive, there are others to whom one of the attractions of a car is the escape it offers from the blaring jazz and soap salesmanship of the radio at home. If these seekers after outdoor quiet are to be continually smitten with billboards on the ear as well as the eye, neither motoring nor radio will profit greatly by their custom. — Editorial, Christian Science Monitor, August 10, 1933. Is This Free Speech? A member of the Federal Radio Commission, Mr. James H. Hanley, is widely reported as saying that preachers who venture to argue against the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment in sermons over the radio should be cut off from the air, and could be cut off under a strict interpretation of the law. We do not know on just what paragraph of the law Mr. Hanley relies to authorize the withdrawal of broadcasting rights. It is true that the law gives large discretionary powers to the Federal Radio Commission, and it is also true that the Commission sometimes uses these powers with very little dis¬ cretion, as in the case of the withdrawal of the license from the station used by Reverend Bob Shuler in Los Angeles for alleged reasons which were contradicted by the Commission’s own investigator. Perhaps Mr. Hanley means that a strict interpretation of the law would give the Commission power to bar from the air anyone who has the temerity to oppose any policy favored by the administration. Or perhaps it seems to him to fall within the Commission’s function to censor sermons and see to it that preachers stick to “the simple gospel” and do not trespass upon any field related to social ethics. What¬ ever the ground of Mr. Hanley’s suggestion, it has not been well received. Even so wet a paper as the Chicago Tribune protests editorially against such a policy of autocratic govern¬ mental control over opinions and the agencies thru which they are disseminated. If our government, thru the Federal Radio Commission or any other part of its machinery, undertakes to tell the preachers what they shall preach and to warn the church away from every area which is touched by laws, there will be little to choose between such a regime and that which is now operative in Germany. — Editorial in the Christian Century, August 9, 1933, pl005. According to the nature of the case, radio education is >. not a matter that can be left entirely with commercial stations. A program of education requires definite planning and permanency of arrangement. There must be a long-time view of certain problems. Such permanency of arrangement is not possible except in those states where the public owns the station and in whose interest it is operated and controled. The National Committee on Education by Radio believes in such national legislation as will protect the states in the pro¬ grams of radio education which their people desire and are willing to support. — Coltrane, Eugene J. “Radio: An Instru¬ ment of Education in Modern Life.” North Carolina Teacher, April 1933, p309. Education by radio is published by the National Committee on Education by Radio at 1201 Sixteenth Street, Northwest, Washington, D. C. The members of this Committee and the national groups with which they are associated are as follows: Charles T. Corcoran, S. J., director, radio station WEW, St. Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri, The Jesuit Educational Association. Arthur G. Crane, president, the University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, National Association of State Universities. J. O. Keller, head of engineering extension, Pennsylvania State College, State College, Pa., National University Extension Association. Charles N. Lischka, 1312 Massachusetts Avenue, Washington, D. C., National Catholic Educational Association. John Henry MacCracken, vicechairman, 744 Jackson Place, Washington, D. C., American Council on Education. Joy Elmer Morgan, chairman, 1201 Sixteenth Street, Northwest, Washington, D. C., National Education Association. James N. Rule, state superintendent of public instruction, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, National Council of State Superintendents. H. Umberger, Kansas State College of Agriculture, Manhattan, Kansas, Association of Land-Grant Colleges and Universities. Jos. F. Wright, director, radio station WILL, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana, Ill., Association of College and Univ. Broadcasting Stations. Everyone who receives a copy of this bulletin is invited to send in suggestions and comments. Save the bulletins for reference or pass them on to your local library or to a friend. Education by radio is a pioneering movement. These bulletins are, therefore, valuable. Earlier numbers will be supplied free on request while the supply lasts. Radio is an extension of the home. Let’s keep it clean and free. [44]