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7/17/36
UNFETTERED RADIO HELD SYMBOL OF DEMOCRACY
The untaxed radio receivers scattered over America, taking from the air a variety of programs, all free, are symbols of a new democracy of opportunity in mass information, education and culture, Gen. James G. Harbord, Chairman of the Board of the Radio Corporation of America, told the Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, July 16th.
Frederic A. Willis, Assistant to the President of the Columbia Broadcasting Co. , also participated in a discussion on the responsibility of mass communication media in a democracy.
While means of mass communication remain unshackled, as in America, it will be, General Harbord said, 11 the very corner¬ stone of democracy, a bulwark against the tyranny that thrives on the suppression of truth,
"Untrammeled books, an untrammeled press, and an un~ trammeled radio are more fundamentally important than votes", he continued. "Before a vote is worthy of the name the voter must have the opportunity of obtaining information. Men had votes in ancient Rome, but the republic failed. It failed because, among other reasons, it had no mass communication."
General Harbord traced the development of electrical communication since the invention of the telegraph, and told how the Radio Corporation of America is carrying on experiments in television and in use of ultra short wave radio.
Radio's responsibility in a present-day democracy is great, began Mr, Willis. "The responsibility for broadcasting in our democracy is really the responsibility of good American citizenship.
"This includes a duty to encourage free speech, free com¬ munication, free interplay of thought (remembering that only in this way can democracy be perpetuated). It includes a duty to give fair play not alone to majorities, but to responsible min¬ orities.* * * *. To suppress them would destroy our democracy.
It includes a duty to see America as a. unity, as well as a land of parts remembering that the welfare of the whole is vital, if the interests of each part are to be served."
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There is no radio broadcasting in the Bahamas, nor is the establishment of a local station seriously contemplated. Radio users depend principally on stations in the United States and particularly WQAM and WIOD at Miami, which is only about 200 miles distant.
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