If it be asked why under the law as it now stands an advertiser, who desires to buy time and is refused and the time he desires given to another free, does not go into court, the answer is that if such advertiser cannot point to the violation of some legal duty owing to him by the broadcasting station in question, he cannot claim to be "a party in interest" and therefore entitled to maintain a suit or proceeding against such radio broadcasting station (L. Singer & Sons v. Union Pac. R. Co., 311 U. S. 295; Boston Tow Boat Co. v. United States, 321 U. S. 632). It must be borne in mind that district courts of the United States have no jurisdiction except such as is conferred upon them, under the Constitution, by statute. The Federal Communications Commission has the power under section 401 to go into court. By subdivision (a) of that section, jurisdiction is expressly conferred upon the district courts of the United States for that purpose. Under this section, the Commission has gone into court once, in connection with telephone rates (Ambassador, Inc. v. United States, 325 U. S. 317), but never in relation to the question raised here.

If the proposed amendments are adopted an advertiser will have one, and possibly three, effective remedies. Upon his petition the Federal Communications Commission under section 312 must revoke the broadcasting station's license and under the new Federal Rules of Civil Procedure he can maintain an action either for damages against the radio station or one for injunction against the person to whom the time, which should have been given to him under contract payment, was given free, and it is also possible that under the new Federal Rules of Civil Procedure he could join both his successful rival and the radio broadcasting station in one action and be given such relief as the situation demanded (United States v. Zara Contracting Co., 146 F. 2d 606 (C. C. A. 2d, 1944)).

As to requesting listener's to pay for an advertiser's time on the radio, see United Broadcasting Co. (WHKC), FCC Docket No. 6631, June 26, 1945.

The CHAIRMAN. That concludes the hearing for this afternoon. Before we recess, however, I want to advise you all that this is the last day we have available to us for the use of this caucus room, and Monday morning we will convene in the Interstate Commerce Committee room on the third floor of the Senate Wing of the Capitol.

With that understanding, and the further understanding that Mr. Trammell is to be the first witness on Monday the committee will stand adjourned until 10 o'clock Monday morning.

(Thereupon, at 3:35 p. m., the committee adjourned to reconvene Monday, June 23, 1947, at 10 a. m.)

TO AMEND THE COMMUNICATIONS ACT OF 1934

MONDAY, JUNE 23, 1947

UNITED STATES SENATE,

SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON

INTERSTATE AND FOREIGN COMMERCE,

Washington, D. C.

The subcommittee met at 10 a. m., pursuant to adjournment, in the Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee room, the Capitol, Senator Wallace H. White, Jr. (chairman) presiding.

Present Senators White, Moore, and Johnson of Colorado.
The CHAIRMAN. The committee will please come to order.

I am sorry that we do not have a larger room available, but other committees are making demands on the available space; and after having had the caucus room for 3 or 4 days, I was compelled to yield to another committee. However, I think we can get along here if we are patient with the crowded condition.

I do not have permission of the Senate for the subcommittee to sit this afternoon. There will be a morning session only, and until we are able to otherwise provide, there will be no afternoon sessions. I think that perhaps with 2 or 3 or possibly 4 days of morning sessions we can hear all of the presently known witnesses.

It was understood when we recessed last Friday that this morning, the first witness would be Mr. Trammell, president of the National Broadcasting Co. There is also one other witness scheduled for this morning, if we are able to dispose of Mr. Trammel with expedition. I think I should say this, in justification or explanation of the absence of so many members of the committee: My own situation this morning illustrates the difficulties of others. I have had three important committee assignments for this morning, two of which I have had to turn my back upon in order to be here. Every other Senator is in the same predicament, with more work and more committees to attend than it is possible to take care of. I say that in explanation of the absence of the other members of the subcommittee. In particular, I want to assure you that Senator Tobey has been absent not from choice, but because of very serious illness in his family. I know he is tremendously interested in the subject matter and regrets as much as I do his enforced absence.

Now, then, we will proceed, and we will hear first from Mr. Trammell. I think if you will take one of these committee seats, Mr. Trammell, that will be most convenient for all concerned.

I understand you have a prepared brief that you are filing.

389

STATEMENT OF NILES TRAMMEL, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL BROADCASTING CO., INC., NEW YORK, N. Y.

Mr. TRAMMELL. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. I am going to appeal to you, as I have to others, that in any oral statement you make, you will not duplicate the brief you have filed, but will, rather, speak in summarization, or in explanation of matters mentioned in your brief. Will you identify yourself and go ahead in your own way, Mr. Trammell.

Mr. TRAMMELL. My name is Niles Trammell. I am president of the National Broadcasting Co. In order to save your time, Mr. Chairman, I would like to read from my prepared statement about two and a half pages.

The CHAIRMAN. I will compromise with you on that.

Mr. TRAMMELL. That is in order to establish the basis for my presentation.

The National Broadcasting Co. is a Nation-wide network organization in the field of sound broadcasting, serving 161 independent affiliated stations, and operating 6 standard broadcast stations owned by the company in New York, Washington, Cleveland, Chicago, Denver, and San Francisco. We also have in operation two FM or frequencymodulation stations, with construction permits for four more which we intend to operate as companion stations duplicating our standardband program service. Furthermore, we operate one television station in New York City, and a limited television network service through interconnection with the General Electric station in Schenectady and the Philco station in Philadelphia. In addition, we shall inaugurate television service over our own station established in Washington, as well as network service between Washington and New York, on June 27, this year. That is, Friday of this week. And I hope both of you gentlemen can be there for the opening of this station.

We have been granted construction permits to build and operate three additional television stations in Cleveland, Chicago, and Los Angeles. By the establishment of these key television stations we hope ultimately to operate a Nation-wide network service of television. Experimentally, we are engaged in facsimile broadcasting, that is, the transmission by radio of printed matter direct to the home.

Because of our participation in all these fields of radio service, it is our belief that a new radio law must encompass not only the present services of sound broadcasting, but the future services of television and facsimile. We appreciate the opportunity to cooperate with the chairman and the members of this committee in the consideration of broad and comprehensive legislation for the maximum development of service to the public and for the continued growth of the industry. Two decades have passed since the enactment of the original Radio Act of 1927. We must not only utilize the experience of these years, but we must envision the future, in order to provide for the full development of many new services of broadcasting now at our door. Many radio broadcasters of today will become the electronic publishers of tomorrow. They will be engaged in the distribution of newsreels and motion pictures to the home by electronic means. Radio newspapers will become commonplace. Practically every form of artistic expression will become available to the people direct from studio to home through these modern methods of mass communication.

Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that such new legislation as may be enacted shall allow for the great technical advances in the electronic art and provide encouragement for the industry that must find new capital to finance a vast program of expansion. We have at hand a postwar industry which, through the inauguration of local and national services, can provide for substantial employment, and make a vital contribution to the life of the American people.

The chairman of this committee has had a long and able record in the Senate and the House. Few are as familiar with the problems of communications. He is, therefore, particularly fitted for the present task. He has the opportunity in the formulation of new legislation to make a most valuable and lasting contribution to the future growth and development of American broadcasting. It is my hope that we of the industry will be able to supply to the chairman and to this committee the assistance needed for the enactment of beneficent legislation.

The CHAIRMAN. May I say that up to this point I rather like your brief.

Mr. TRAMMELL. Particularly that last paragraph?

The CHAIRMAN. I think that is a climax of goodness.

Mr. TRAMMELL. Well, Senator, nobody has done so much for radio as you have in your years in the Senate and the House.

Four years ago I appeared before the Senate Interstate Commerce Committee and testified on S. 814, the White-Wheeler bill to amend the Communications Act. At that time I joined with the rest of the industry and urged that legislation be passed to assure to radio the same degree of freedom that is enjoyed by the press.

A free press today is one of the basic guaranties of a free society. Recognition of the same freedom for radio will place a powerful ally at the side of the press. Together they will be able to withstand any assault upon democracy. I would like to make clear that in advocating new legislation we urge that this committee permit ample time for a thorough consideration of the many and varied factors involved. This would necessarily entail the presentation of all pertinent technical information as well as the views of the broadcasters. The goal we seek is a new law which will afford the greatest freedom and encouragement for the wide development and use of all the new broadcasting services that are now possible.

In this connection, Mr. Chairman, I would like to announce for the first time a new development that has just come out of the laboratory. I do it at this period in my statement because I have just made reference to the necessity for a new law to encompass all of the current developments as well as the new anticipated developments.

[In this connection see statement of Dr. W. G. H. Finch on page 574.]

I would like at this time, if I may, to read this statement.
The CHAIRMAN. Without objection, you may proceed.

Mr. TRAMMELL. I am now able to reveal for the first time that the RCA laboratories has been working on a revolutionary system of high-speed communications tentatively referred to as ultrafax. It is an outgrowth of television. In effect, it is a radio-mail system, which will surpass radiotelegraphy, wire telegraphy, cables, and air mail in speed of operation. Here television is used for communications.

Preliminary tests through the air have revealed that this new system, which utilizes microwave radio relays, is practical, and that it has a potential for handling more than a million words a minute.

In other words, this system could transmit 20 50,000-word novels from New York to San Francisco in only 60 seconds. Each printed page is treated as a frame of a television picture, and each page is flashed in rapid succession. At the receiving end, the pages are reproduced by new high-speed photographic processes for quick delivery. Letters, business documents, checks, photographs, newspapers, and magazines can be handled in the same way. In addition, these microwave circuits can simultaneously carry ordinary telephone speech and telegrams, and also provide intercity network for television as well as standard and FM broadcast programs. World-wide radio and domestic telegraphic communications as we know them today will, in the light of this development, make present-day communications appear as slow as the ox cart compared with a stratoliner. Senator MOORE. Pretty fast, are they not?

Mr. TRAMMELL. They certainly are. The Radio Corp. of America expects to demonstrate publicly its Ultrafax system during the summer of 1947, revealing the details of this remarkable advance in the evolution of communications.

Senator, this is something that is brand new. We don't know whether it is going to be a boy or a girl. The ordinary application of this would make it a common carrier; that is, point-to-point communication. But it could, very probably, become a home instrument. And the laws governing broadcasting should certainly take that into consideration in formulating any new law.

The CHAIRMAN. May I say, Mr. Trammel, to you and to all the others here, that neither I nor any other member of the committee looks upon himself as in any degree an expert in communications, and in the development of the art of communications.

I think we all appreciate at least some of the deficiencies in the present bill. There are many phases of the subject of communications that we feel perhaps might be touched on in legislation, certainly in a greater degree than we have done in this present law.

I am just repeating now what I have said a dozen times, since these hearings started, that we are seeking information; we are seeking light. I have expressed it in this fashion: "We have just run up å lightning rod, which we hope will bring suggestions and comments and criticisms."

What you have just said as to these laboratory developments, is, I am sure, a response to the hope we have had. And it may be that we can learn something from it. It may be that we shall be persuaded to undertake a substantial expansion of the present draft of the law. Because, as I say, there are more things that are not touched in this legislation than are covered in this bill.

I did feel, myself, that there were worth-while provisions in this legislation; certainly, that it constituted a beginning of progress along the road which we have had in mind all the while.

What you just announced is of very great interest, and we, I hope, will not fail to understand the significance of it. I understand, of course, that a number of electronic experts have been at work at this development and I have heard about it from other sources. Now, you may proceed.