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March 13, 1934.
CENSORSHIP FEAR BELITTLED BY DILL
Chairman Dill of the Senate Interstate Commerce Committee denied that there was any intention on the part of the Administra¬ tion to use the Communications Commission as a censorship weapon. Senator Dill said there is no foundation in theory or fact for the idea that it is proposed to have some kind of censorship or some kind of licensing or some kind of governmental control of the newspapers or of the dissemination of news in this country,
"There is nothing in any law on the statute hooks today that gives the Government any power whatsoever over the dissemina¬ tion of news, or as to what messages shall go over the telegraph or the telephone wires", Mr. Dill explained to the Senate.
"The radio lav; expressly prohibits any kind of censorship by the managers of radio stations. Radio stations are licensed to use certain frequencies in order to prevent interference. There is necessarily a limit to the number of radio stations that can operate. There is no limit to the number of newspapers that can be printed nor has it ever been suggested there should be such a limM
"I am sure it was never even in the thought of the Presi¬ dent that anything should be done by the proposed Communications Commission, either now or in the future, that would in any way hamper or hinder anyone from sending anything he wants to send over the wires, or over the radio in the radio common carrier service, and I should be as strongly opposed to any such proposal as any man outside of this body, in the newspaper business or otherwise.
"The purpose of the proposed legislation is to make effective the power nov; written into the Interstate 'Commerce Act of control of telephone and telegraph business in this country.
The Interstate Commerce Commission have been so busy regulating the railroad that they have not had time to give real consideration to the problems in connection with rate regulation of telephones and telegraph, and it is only in recent years that the communications business has been big enough to demand the attention of those who use it from the standpoint of getting rate regulation.
"So I want to make it clear that there is not only nothing in the proposed bill but there is no idea of putting anything in the proposed law that would ever, in any way, interfere with the freedom of the press or the freedom of anybody to send new s anywhere, any time, by any means of communication.
"In fact we are reenacting the prohibition of censorship in the radio law, and there is no reason or suggestion from any source that I know about even to consider any proposal that would in any way hinder the free communication of the people of this country .
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