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Radio Broadcast
the licensing habit is already in existence, it has proved a very simple and efficient method of collecting funds for the purpose of the broadcasting service — a matter which, I understand, is likely eventually to result in a rather difficult problem in America. No doubt there is some amount of evasion in Great Britain; how much evasion, there is no means of saying: but that the evasion runs to the lengths which some suggest is quite improbable. The figures, in fact, speak for themselves. There are 1,200,000 licenses in existence at the present moment. The same ratio of licenses to population would give a total of nearly 4,000,000 licenses if the population of Great Britain were as large as that of the United States. Of course, no one knows how many households have receiving sets in the United States; but I think the most authoritative estimates place the number at between 5,000,000 and 6,000,000. Bearing in mind the greater prevalence of the telephone habit in the United States than in Great Britain, one may reasonably assume that the habit of broadcast reception is also more widely spread in the States than here. And taking these factors into account, one may safely conclude that the great majority of listeners in Great Britain and Ireland have taken out licenses.
But of late a source of difficulty has arisen. Hypercritical persons have been examining the Wireless Telegraphy Act of 1904, upon which the whole system of licensing is based, and
have raised the question whether it really applies to receiving sets at all, as distinct from sending sets. I am not a lawyer, but 1 know the opinion of lawyers who are well qualified to judge; and, personally, I have no doubt in the matter at all. The question, however, has never been referred to a Court of Law, so that there is no authoritative decision on the subject; and the Postmaster General, rather than risk an adverse decision, has decided that no proceedings shall be taken against any person who fails to take out a license for a receiving set/until the point has been placed beyond the shadow of doubt by means of new legislation which he has recently introduced in the House of Commons. This decision has no doubt resulted in some decrease in the number of licenses taken out; but one is inclined to believe that the great majority of the public are disposed to play fair in this matter and, irrespective of the Postmaster General's decision', to contribute their quota to the expenses of the broadcast programs to which they listen. The new Bill, besides setting this point at rest, imposes a number of new provisions in regard to licensing which do not in particular apply to broadcasting: and, as I write, it is arousing a good deal of criticism in Parliament and the press. What will be its fate does not yet appear; but the system of licensing in connection with the broadcasting arrangements has proved so convenient and popular that one cannot imagine that Parliament will scrap it.
ENGLISH BROADCASTING APPARATUS Is not very different from that used by most American stations. One of the British stations, indeed, uses apparatus manufactured by an American company