brodsky/1934/intro

broadcast May 29, 1995 on Marketplace

It's all the rage today to talk about the wonders of the information society and the internet. This explosion in technology is one of the forces pushing Congress to replace the Communications Act of 1934, which is still the primary law governing the communications itndustry. Last week the House Commerce Committee passed its version of a communications bill, and next week the Senate will take up its version. Commentator Art Brodsky recently looked at where we were and where we are in telecommunications..

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Back in 1934, James McDonough, a lawyer for a small telephone company in Arkansas, told the Senate Commerce Committee, "There has been no greater evil in the telephone system of this country than the power assumed by the large companies of routing the messages and fixing the rates." What's remarkable about the statement is that it could have been made yesterday by competitors to the Bell operating companies, who even now tell Congress they are the victims of anticompetitive activity.

Walter Gifford, who was the chairman of AT&T, told a House Committee back in 1934 that "there can be such a thing as too much regulation." That bit of understated rhetoric sounds a lot like what you hear from Robert Allen, who is the chairman of AT&T today, says when he testifies before a House committee.

Senator Wallace White, a Republican from Maine, fought in 1934 against limiting foreign ownership of American communications companies. It was, he said, "nationalism run wild."

I'll bet Congressmen Mike Oxley, a Republican from Ohio, or Virginia Democrat Rick Boucher would agree. A version of their bill to lift foreign ownership restrictions passed the Commerce committee just last week.

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And 61 years ago, the Reverend John Harney of the Paulist Fathers, which owned a couple of radio stations, told Congress that stations owned by educational and charitable institutions should be able to sell enough advertising to cover their expenses "so they will not be dependent on charity all the while and will not have to be beggars." Last week, the Senate passed a budget resolution with a very similar recommendation, probably for the same reasons.

I confess I'm puzzled why we're still talking about the same issues that came up in 1934. Perhaps this means the system has totally broken down and needs to be replaced, or that we haven't made as much progress as we think, despite all the fancy new Internet toys.

What this link with the past does prove is that Sam Rayburn and Clarence Dill and others in Congress in 1934 did a pretty good job of setting an agenda for the future.

This is Art Brodsky in Washington for Marketplace.

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And 61 years ago, the Reverend John Harney of the Paulist Fathers, which owned a couple of radio stations, told Congress that stations owned by educational and charitable institutions should be able to sell enough advertising to cover their expenses "so they will not be dependent on charity all the while and will not have to be beggars." Last week, the Senate passed a budget resolution with a very similar recommendation, probably for the same reasons.

I confess I'm puzzled why we're still talking about the same issues that came up in 1934. Perhaps this means we never solved those problems Congress began grappling with back then.

But at least this link with the past does prove is that Sam Rayburn and Clarence Dill and others in Congress in 1934 did a pretty good job of setting an agenda for the future.

This is Art Brodsky in Washington for Marketplace