courts. But the extent and intimacy of its activities, the complexity of its operations, the novelty of its characteristics have created new relationships and peculiar problems in the application of established principles, which will inevitably press for solution.

Before entering into the discussion of legal features, it is essential to arrive at a clear knowledge of present conditions in radio communication, what it is and what it is doing. For it is of many kinds, and its element differsfundamentally from one another in character and in legal implications. A rule applicable to a public utility engaged in communication by radio telegraph may not have the slightest relation to the operations of an amateur experimenting with the radio telephone. Only by a thorough grasp of the existing situation may we understand the problems, the methods for their solution and the application of the legal rules, whether by legislation or judicial decision, under which rights and obligations are to be determined.

In every communication, there are at least two persons, one who sends and one who receives, and so radio necessarily has both a transmitting and a receiving end. The voice which enters our homes has its utterance elsewhere and is sent out by transmitting apparatus which may be a hundred or a thousand miles away. As to how it traveled from one to the other, there is plenty of theory but little real knowledge. We are told of a mysterious something called "the ether" in which move progressive disturbances having wavelengths and frequencies, but actual proof of its existence is lacking. We are in the realm of hypothesis. Yet the theories do fit the facts and explain the observed phenomena, and so we accept them and use the terms as glibly as though we thoroughly understood their meaning.

The important thing is that by radio it is possible to take a sound produced at one place and to reproduce it at the speed of light at another place or at many other places at one and the same time and by one operation.

Although most of us think of broadcasting when we think of radio at all, and in popular use the two terms have come to be almost synonymous, as a matter of fact, it is by no means the most important radio phase. Less than 700 of the transmitting stations in the United States, on January 1, 1927, were engaged in broadcasting. The numbers of privately owned stations in the various classes on that date were as follows:

Radio communication found its first use some twenty years ago as a means of transmitting messages between ships and from ship to shore. The land had long enjoyed efficient communication, but until the advent of radio, the sea had none. The vessel leaving harbor remained voiceless until it again reached the shore, except for ocсаsional chance conversation or signal exchange with a passing vessel. It could not call for aid in time of peril; its master could not receive instructions from the owner; passengers could not communicate. It was utterly isolated, self-contained and self-dependent. Radio revolutionized the situation and quickly became a marine necessity, as much as lifeboats or other protective equipment. There is no compilation to show the number of lives or the amount of property saved by radio from the perils of the sea, but they doubtless reach surprising totals. The transoceanic passenger today may put himself in touch with either shore whenever he pleases. The ocean use of radio was first in time, and it remains first in importance.

Transoceanic Service.

There is only a difference in distance between the establishment of communications from shore to ship and the sending of a message to a sister land station across the sea. The step was soon taken. In 1919, American development of transoceanic radio communication commenced in earnest. It has grown rapidly. Unlike the field of marine communication where radio has sole control, transoceanic service has a strong rival in the submarine cables, which link the countries of the world. The two systems are highly competitive and each has a certain advantage in service. The cables have no atmospheric disturbances to cause interruption or delays, while radio can give direct service to interior points which the cables cannot reach except by land-line relays. Direct circuits are now in operation with Great Britain, France, Germany, Sweden, Holland, Poland, Italy, the Argentine Republic, Brazil, Hawaii, the East Indies, Japan, and the Philippines. Stations at New Orleans and Miami furnish service to Central America, operating circuits with Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Colombia. The investment by American concerns in such stations amounts to over $12,000,000, and the radio companies do about 60 per cent of the transpacific and 20 per cent of the transatlantic business. Besides these, there are a large number of powerful stations operated by the navy, keeping in touch with its ships and furnishing commercial service where private stations are not available. More than 600 naval vessels carry radio equipment.

Amateurs.

By far the largest class of radio stations, numerically speaking, is made up of those operated by the amateurs. In 1912, they numbered a few hundred. There are now over 14,000. Organized in the American Relay League, they form a network covering the United States and have connections with foreign countries. The demands of commercial service have continually crowded them into channels considered least desirable. The urge of necessity plus unceasing effort and experimentation have played a considerable part in converting these channels from the worthless to the valuable. The amateurs have earned and won an outstanding position in the radio family.

Telephony.

The services so far referred to are carried on mainly by telegraph. Telephonic communication, the reproduction of voice or sound as distinguished from the transmission of dots and dashes, is a more recent development. It commenced on a practical scale six years ago, and reached its apex in the recent opening of a transatlantic circuit which makes possible conversations between New York and London as simply as by long-distance lines in this country, a service capable of indefinite expansion.

Broadcasting.

Broadcasting, as the expression is commonly used, is but one form of radio telephony. It is the most popular and at the same time the most troublesome member of the radio family. It has created new values and new difficulties. It raises unheard-of legal problems. It has won its place without legal authority and with little financial basis. Yet it is the foundation for an immense industry.

For the year 1921, the total sales of radio apparatus did not exceed one million dollars. In 1926, they were more than four hundred millions. There are now about 700 broadcasting stations, whose cost of construction varies from a few thousand dollars to nearly half a million, probably representing a total of over fifteen millions. The annual expense of upkeep and operation is close to the same figure.

The number of receiving sets in use is unknown but they probably exceed five millions, and it has been estimated that there are over twenty million radio listeners in the United States. A speaker at a recent banquet in New York boasted that his words were being heard by a quarter of the people of the United States, and, allowance being made for the license permissible on such occasions, his statement may not have been far from the truth. Whatever the percentage may be, a great and growing number of people look to radio broadcasting for relaxation, entertainment, and information. It is becoming as indispensable a feature of the American home as are other common household utilities, the telephone and the incandescent lamp.

Investment in manufacturing plants runs into the hundreds of millions of dollars, and hundreds of thousands of our people are employed directly or indirectly in the manufacturing or distribution of radio equipment.

Broadcasting and the activities dependent on it have thus acquired a highly important place in American industry. American broadcasting is distinguished from all other forms of communication in that those who enjoy its service make no direct payment for it. The listener pays neither toll nor tax. The entire maintenance of broadcasting is gratuitous so far as the listener is concerned. This is not true in other countries. Broadcasting abroad is financed upon the principle that those who receive should pay. Great Britain, second only to the United States in broadcasting development, imposes a tax in the form of a license upon receiving sets, and the operating expense is paid from the proceeds. Other countries have similar systems. In America alone is the operation of a receiving set open to everyone without tax or payment, and in no other land is the service so extensive or so efficient.

The value of the wire telephone and telegraph lies in the power to furnish private means of communication between two particular individuals. The essential quality of broadcasting is precisely the opposite. Its value is in its diffu