NBC Transmitter (Jan-Nov 1942)

2 NBC TRANSMITTER ^ III ANGELL OF NBC . William Lyons Phelps Finds Him "'A Thoroughly Good Fellow"' ■ NBC TRANSMITTER VOL. 8 JULY 1942 NO. 3 Published Monthly by the National Broadcasting Company RCA Building, Radio City, New York SUPREME COURT DECISION ® The decisions of the United States Supreme Court in the cases of National Broadcasting Company and Colnmhia Broadcasting System against the Federal Communications Commission are cause for satisfaction to affiliates and networks alike. In the words of Niles Trammell, NBC president, an adverse decision would have led to chaos in one of the most important industries connected with the war effort. It is gratifying, upon reading the Supreme Court decision, to note the clear-cut statement of facts upon which the decision was predicated. The Court swept aside the contention of the Commission that the validity of the regulations in question could only he challenged after a refusal to renew an affiliate’s station license for violation of the regulations. Such a procedure, the Court pointed out. woidd residt in irreparable injury. The way is now paved for a determination of the legality of the FCC rules iu advance of their hecoming effective. The cases have been remanded to the three-judge Court for trial. No one can predict their idtimate outcome, to he sure. But when the evidence is fully submitted, it should he difficult for that Court to escape the conclusion that the proposed network regidations should he set aside because they are not only beyond the power of the FCC, hut are arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable. Now that the cases are to he heard on their merits, perhajis the decision will state the case for the networks in its true perspective. • NBC’s distinguished public service counselor — Dr. James Rowland Angell — receives a tribute from his old friend, William Lyons Phelps, one of Yale’s most outstanding scholars and beloved professors, in the July issue of Coronet. “Angell of Yale” is the title of the entertaining article, which includes many intimate anecdotes. “Dr. Angell and I,” Phelps writes, “have this in common: he was the only man ever considered for the presidency of Yale who was not a Yale graduate; and I was the only Yale graduate never considered for that position. “There was, however, one respect in which Angell was not perfectly qualified to be a college president. Old Tom Fuller in the seventeenth century said it was desirable there should be some dullness in every college president. Knowing Angell intimately for many years, on and off the record, I have never been able to detect even a shadow of it in him.” Phelps organized the Harvard Graduate School baseball team during the year 1891-1892 when he was an English instructor there. “Angell,” he relates, “who was the original fair-haired boy in every sense of tbe word, was pitcher on this nine, and I do not remember that we lost a game. He always bad something on the ball, and during tbe rest of his life retired many of his opponents on many other fields.” Ordained and Foreordained “Dr. Angell was not only ordained as a college president, he was foreordained,” according to William Lyons Phelps’ Coronet article. “’His father, James Burrill Angell, teas one of the most distinguished university presidents in .American history. .As president of the University of Michigan, he became one of the most progressive and most distinguished of educational leaders — of all the great American college presidents, he was probably the most modest.” Phelps points out that it was unsafe for any professor or anyone else to engage with Angell in any contest of words. “Angell was and is,” Phelps declares, “one of the most brilliant after-dinner speakers in America. “Not only has he a marvelous sense of humor and an extraordinary power of wit, but he has these gifts at instant command.” During Angell’s administration, Phelps now points out, the material growth of the university was almost miraculous: he succeeded in doubling the endowment and Edward Harkness contributed 10 complete college units, making probably the most expansive college plant installed in America. “I think myself,” Phelps adds, “that in those days when he pitched so successfully on the Harvard Graduate School nine he became, without trying to, a thoroughly good fellow. “And that is what he is today.” In addition to his studies at the University of Michigan and Harvard, Dr. Angell also attended several European universities. Upon returning to the U.S.A. to enter the teaching profession, he did extensive research in the field of psychology and wrote several books on the topic. He developed the world’s first major department of psychology at the University of Chicago, where he taught for 26 years. After serving as head of the National Research Council and president of the Carnegie Corporation, he went to \ ale in 1921 and his achievements there are of world renown. He joined NBC as Public Service Counselor in 1937 and bis radio educational activities to date have won widespread acclaim from listeners, educators and Government officials. Dr. Angell has a lengthy list of honorary degrees, membership in scholarly societies, and decorations by many foreign nations. He is president of the English Speaking I nion of the L nited States and a member of the Order of the Past Participle— an exclusive group of former college and university presidents who continue to function actively after retirement. But anvone who observes Dr. Angell at NBC knows that “retirement” is a word in the far distant future.