Radio Broadcast (May-Oct 1922)

RADIO BROADCAST 33 1920 before both the preHminary and the full international conferences. Now the United States finds itself confronting another international conference, fully aware that our commercial and private interests were disgusted with the last and for every reason hope for better results from the next especially because of the promise of the naval holiday arranged for by the arms conference. Meanwhile, too, our commercial interests have enormously expanded in scope and are steadily reaching out and up and down the world. And meanwhile the amateurs are crowding the commercial companies for more and larger opportunities, while the commercial interests are crowding the Army and the Navy. Now, to add to the complexity of the situation and to back up the strength of both private and commercial interests, comes the radiophone and its unprecedented, almost universal use, in America, whereas no other nation is, by comparison, using the radiophone. Sorely needed now, therefore, is a governmental policy. Sorely needed, accordingly, is a conference among our own governmental agencies, to adjust our National policy to the requirements of the hour. For, clearly, the United States must enter the next conference with a solid front, since, among other complications, not only are the radio facihties that we possess superior to those of any other country, but we are unique in that substantially all our communication services are privately owned. The immediate results of the Washington Conference are evident enough — the amateur, for instance, got further in it than he himself expected. The commercial companies at least are grateful that the air has been cleared somewhat. The people have had their say and have had an emphatic chance to make their views known. But the largest results of this conference are inferential after all: It has hammered home the need of a U. S. radio policy. It has put Uncle Sam in the way of taking, in radio, the leadership of the world. ONE COMMERCIAL SIDE OF RADIO What is the Future of the Radio Business in the United States? Is it to be Like the Telephone, the Automobile, or the Phonograph Business, a Thing that Will Rise Suddenly to Almost Universal Acceptance by the Public and Support Great Manufacturing Plants? By PARKHURST WHITNEY ANEW business has suddenly sprung up in the United States — the making of radio receiving sets and the parts thereof. It is of some importance that the public realize what manufacturers are in it and what are the conditions in which they are producing, and it is interesting to speculate upon the possibilities of this, in some ways, new industry. It is using a method often employed by getrich-quick concerns to compare a new business with successful old ones, but if the reader bears in mind that these comparisons show the maximum possibilities and not necessarily anything else, it is permissable. There are ten million automobiles in the United States. It took twenty years to reach this figure, but in that period the making of automobiles has developed into one of the largest manufacturing businesses in the country. The average expenditure for cars and parts is about five billions a year. There are about six million phonographs in the country. In 1914 the output of machines was 514,000, having a value of $15,291,000; in the same year 27,221,000 records, having a value of $11,111,000, were made. In 191 9, the total output of machines was 2,226,000 valued at $91,569,000; the total output of records was 106,997,000, valued at $44,690,000. For purposes of comparison, ■ however, the figures for 1919 in the phonograph industry are not normal. The output for each of the last two years has not approached those figures. These are all businesses contributing to the ^