Below is the new tentative policy as regards Radio now being tried out in the government departments concerned.
1. Introductory
The following statement of policy gives only general principles. In dealing with any specific situation, the application of these principles may be so manifest that the particular situation under consideration may be decided without the necessity for conference and compromise. In all other cases the parties at interest should confer, preferably through the interdepartmental organization hereinafter provided for, and arrive at decisions based upon these principles.
2. Interest of the Government in Radio Communication
The government’s interest in radio communication is paramount for national defense. The government is charged with the regulation of radio communication as a means for rendering a public service. The government uses radio communication in the administration of its business.
Appendix I contains illustrations of the ways in which the several government agencies are concerned with radio communication.
Appendix II contains illustrations of the ways in which private interests are concerned with radio communication.
3. Coordination of Government Radio Facilities
Coordination of government owned and operated facilities must take into consideration the authority of the several departments and governmental agencies interested, and such coordination is exercised by the President aided by a coordinating agency in which the interested departments and governmental agencies have representation. This coordinating agency shall consist of representatives of all the departments of the government and of such other governmental agencies as have sufficient interest in radio to warrant their participation. The functions of this committee shall be as provided herein.
4. Regulation of Private Radio Facilities
In order that the greatest good may be accomplished with the minimum of interference and conflict in the utilization of radio facilities, it is necessary that such utilization be regulated and coordinated. Regulation of privately owned and operated radio facilities is by law laid upon the Department of Commerce. In order that such regulation may be coordinated with government utilization, the Department of Commerce should exercise its regulative function in conformity with the principles herein set forth.
5. Government Encouragement to Private Radio Enterprises
The government will encourage and foster the development of privately owned and operated radio facilities in such a manner that in time of war or similar national emergency there shall be available the most effective system for the national defense. In part, this encouragement shall consist of utilizing the services of commercial stations wherever government interests warrant in the accomplishment of the service required. Government stations shall not solicit nor, except in an emergency, shall they accept nongovernment radio traffic from non-government stations where commercial radio stations can handle it satisfactorily. The government, on the other hand, will facilitate the use of its service by non-government interests whenever such employment does not interfere with the government business, and where non-government radio systems are not prepared to render an approximately equivalent service.
6. Prerogative of Government Departments as to Radio Policy
Subject to the limitations stated herein and to such instructions as may be issued by the President, each of the executive departments shall be the sole and final judge as to its own policy in respect to radio matters; shall determine its own mission; and decide upon the steps toward executing such mission. Such decisions shall include the questions of location of stations, power output, apparatus to be installed, service to be rendered, the capital investment and operating details.
7. Coordination between Government Departments
Before deciding upon any changes in location or services rendered, each department shall ascertain through the existing interdepartmental coordinating organization how such proposed changes will affect the interests of any other department, and shall, in its decisions, give to the suggestions from other departments careful consideration, in order that the final results will produce a government radio system designed to meet the needs of the federal government as a whole in war as well as in peace.
8. Extension of Services to Other Government Departments
The use of government radio facilities shall be extended by the department operating such facilities to other departments of the government insofar as can be done without impairing the efficiency of the service of the operating department, subject to its regulations. If the additional traffic can be handled with the funds and personnel available to the operating department, no charge will be made for such service. If the traffic offered requires personnel and funds beyond the resources of the operating department, the expenses will be shared by the beneficiaries on a basis mutually agreeable to the departments concerned.
9. Utilization of Existing Communication Facilities
No department shall erect a new station in the proximity of an existing government station, unless the same is incapable of rendering to such department the service that it requires, which shall be determined only after careful consideration by the departments concerned or by the permanent interdepartmental organization. Whenever practicable, such a situation shall be met by the expansion of the existing stations, if necessary under joint contribution of the departments interested. No department shall close a station no longer needed by it which is serving other government departments without first making arrangements in respect to such service that are satisfactory to the department being served. If no agreement can be reached through the interdepartmental coordinating organization the matter must be appealed to the Chief Coordinator and, if necessary, through the Director of the Budget, to the President.
10. Joint Contribution Agreement
Where stations are operated under joint contribution agreement, such agreements shall provide that one of the departments concerned shall exercise the responsible control. It is considered undesirable to mix civilian and enlisted operating personnel, particularly at stations so situated that resident quarters have to be provided on the station reservation for such personnel.
11. Function of the Interdepartmental Organizations
Measures to prevent interference; the assignment of frequencies within the allotted wave bands; determination of the character of broadcast material, and other radio matters of common interest to all departments, shall be determined through the permanent interdepartmental organization. Departments which operate radio stations shall give priority to calls of distress and to other messages concerning safety of human life or marine or aerial navigation, but shall otherwise determine priority of service and other features involving the details of traffic.
12. Coordinated Supervision of Government Radio Facilities
Cooperation and coordinated supervision as prescribed under paragraph 3 above is, under existing circumstances, the only practicable means of realizing the highest degree of efficiency in the utilization of government radio facilities. The coordination at present exercised through the Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee is advisory; it provides an effective means of investigation and presentation of pertinent facts for consideration by the President, of the merits of any case which requires his action.
13. Centralized Supervision of Government Radio Facilities
Centralized control of government radio communications, by means of consolidation or otherwise, is not at present either practicable or desirable. The requirements of the several operating departments differ so radically that no one department can completely fill the needs of another without an unreasonable increase of federal expenditures. Those departments which are now users hut not operators of government owned facilities can have their requirements supplied in large measure by the present operating departments, but conditions may arise where it may be necessary to provide installations where none now exist and which are not required by the present operating departments.
14. Settlement of Questions between Government Agencies Relative to Radio Communication
Where only two agencies are concerned in any question arising, such question or questions can best he settled through direct conference. In all other cases settlement should be reached through the instrumentality of the interdepartmental organization.
15. Radio Communications as an Element of National Defense
Insofar as radio communication is an element of National Defense, the same shall be under the control of the War and Navy Departments jointly exercised through such agency as may be established by these departments. The recommendations of the Joint Board Serial Number 183, dated January 16, 1923, are approved. For information, these recommendations are given in Appendix III.
16. Radio Communication on the Panama Canal
Radio communication on the Panama Canal Zone is considered primarily a question of National Defense and is to be treated generally as-prescribed in the preceding paragraph, and in Appendix III, or in such manner as is approved by the War and Navy Departments.
17. Radio in Undeveloped Territories
The government is recognized as having a certain responsibility to provide facilities for undeveloped territories, such as Alaska, both for effective administration of the territory and as an aid to its economic development. Except for radio stations necessary for the National Defense, the government may properly choose to provide the facilities by equitable agreement with commercial operating companies in preference to direct governmental operation.
APPENDIX I
Illustration of Ways in which Government Agencies Are Concerned with Radio Communication
In the utilization of radio communication facilities in the conduct of federal activities the government interest is at present divided among the various departments as follows: The interests enumerated below are in no sense a complete catalog, but express the principal interests as now apparent. There is no intention of limiting the interests of any department to those mentioned.
a) State Department, in international relations as a means of international communication, its regulation by negotiated agreement, and matters of negotiation incident thereto.
b) Treasury Department, by the Coast Guard as a means of intercommunication between vessels and communication between its vessels and the shore. Radio communication is of paramount interest to the Coast Guard in its primary function of saving life and property at sea, in law enforcement and in the operation of the International Ice Patrol; by the Public Health Service as a means of communicating with vessels approaching harbors of the United States.
c) War Department, as a means of military communication between permanent stations; between forces operating in the field; as a means for training military operators with transports; in the operation of aircraft; in fire control of coastal fortifications; in radio research work, and as an aid to the development of new territory, such as Alaska, all under supervision of the Signal Corps. Also utilized in routine operations of the Panama Canal, the Inland and Coastwise Waterways Service, the Bureau of Insular Affairs, and on vessels of the Engineer Department.
d) Department of Justice. At present the interest of this department is limited to questions of law enforcement and in the defense of the government in radio patent litigation.
e) Post Office Department. As a means of communication in the operation of the Air Mail Service.
f) Navy Department, through the Naval Communication Service, in the maintenance and operation of a means of communication between the fleets, detachments thereof, their auxiliaries and bases, and with the Navy Department, in peace and in war. This includes the Coast Signal Service, communication with the Insular Possessions, Alaska, and the Canal Zone, overseas service, and the employment of the radio compass. The Naval Communications Service shares with commercial stations the task of safeguarding life and property at sea. The Navy Department is also interested in radio research work by the Bureau of Engineering.
g) Interior Department. The Bureau of Education, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Reclamation Service, and the Bureau of Mines are interested in a minor way.
h) The Department of Agriculture is interested through the Weather Bureau in the collection and dissemination of meteorological information, through the Bureau of Agricultural Economics in the distribution of market and other reports; through the Forest Service as a means of communications in remote and inaccessible forest reserves.
i) Department of Commerce, through the Bureau of Standards, in scientific studies, research, development, and standardization; through the Bureau of Lighthouses in maintaining aids to navigation and communication with its tenders and light vessels, and through the Bureau of Navigation in its enforcement of radio regulative laws as applied to non-government radio communication.
j) The Department of Labor has at present no apparent interest in radio communication other than stated in subparagraphs (m), and (n) below.
k) The Interstate Commerce Commission is interested through the authority given it by law, to regulate charges.
l) The Shipping Board is interested through its use in communication with its ships.
m) The Federal Government has an interest in the ability to disseminate information by means of radio telephone broadcasting where such information can be more advantageously disseminated in that manner; also in the transmission of radio messages as an alternative to the use of land telegraph lines.
n) The Federal Government also has an interest in the development of efficient commercial radio stations with a view to their becoming integral portions of a homogeneous radio system for National Defense.
APPENDIX II
Illustrations of Ways in Which Private Interests Are Concerned with Radio Communication
Private interests in the utilization of radio facilities are so wide spread that no statement of government radio policy can be complete without taking into consideration such interests. The interests enumerated are in no sense a complete catalogue, but express the principal interests as now apparent.
?) Communications between ships, or between ships and shore stations.
?) Communications between airplanes and land or ship stations.
c) Transoceanic communication where cables do not exist, or where cables are inadequate. .
d) Overland communications where telegraph lines do not exist, including railway and other forms of land mobile radio communications.
e) Radio telephone broadcasting.
f) Point-to-point communication, transoceanic, or overland, in competition with existing cables and telegraph systems.
g) Amateur radio communication.
APPENDIX III
Recommendations of Army and Navy Joint Board, Serial Number 183, January 16, 1923
The Joint Board recommends that the radio activities of the War and Navy Department be governed by the following:
a) That the Navy’s interests are recognized as paramount:
1) With ships at sea.
2) Overseas, including the Insular Possessions and the Panama Canal.
3) Along the coast.
b) That the Army’s interests are recognized as paramount:
1) Between military units in the entire interior of the United States and Alaska, and within such forces of the Army as may be operating on shore outside the continental limits of the United States.
c) That in the interest of economy, reduction in interference and efficient control, duplication of radio stations should be avoided. As a general rule, no department of the government should erect or maintain radio transmitting stations, radio beacons excepted, within twenty miles radius of another government station, provided that such government station can be utilized for the service required.
d) That the principles stated in (o), (b), and (c) above should govern in the installation and maintenance of radio stations and in the general handling of traffic, but should not interfere with the necessary military use of radio by one service within the general field of the other. It should be understood that although the Navy’s interests are recognized as paramount along the coast, it is also recognized that there is a necessity for the Army to maintain low-power radio communication for coast defense fire control purposes.
e) That the necessity for prompt and efficient communication to serve the operation of aircraft is recognized. That the demands upon radio be relieved so far as possible by providing interfield telegraph and telephone communication.
f) That radio communication with aircraft be provided through existing radio stations of the Army and Navy; that, where existing stations are within a twenty mile radius of a landing field, provision be made for the use of such station by remote control from the landing field; and that where additional stations or modifications of existing stations are required for efficient radio communication for aircraft, the necessary additions be provided as follows:
1) By the Navy—along the seacoast.
2) By the Army—in the entire interior of the United States territory.
g) That efficient cooperation in the execution of the policies outlined above demands that the supervision and control of all the communication systems of the War and Navy Departments be centralized in one office in each of these departments. The chiefs of these offices should be directed to make a survey of existing and projected wire and radio installations to the end that where duplication exists or is proposed, a consolidation may be made or necessary corrective action applied. In case of disagreement, the matter should be referred to the Joint Board for investigation and recommendation.
h) That the radio installations of the War, Navy, and other departments should be utilized to the greatest possible extent for the transmission of government business. With this end in view, traffic agreements should be entered into between all of the departments concerned. The chief of offices indicated in (g) above should lie charged with the preparation of such agreements on the part of the War and Navy Departments.”