Wilt

As suddenly as the Congressional urge to put the Government in the radio business blossomed last fortnight, so suddenly did it wilt last week. Biggest reason was that FCC Chairman Frank Ramsay McNinch, unwilling at this time to go on record for or against, withheld the sunshine of his Interdepartmental Committee report on international broadcasting. With the most authoritative witness out of the picture, the Celler Bill hearings were postponed indefinitely. A similar end was expected by Senator Dennis Chavez to the hearings on his Chavez-McAdoo Bill, which, like the Celler Bill, would authorize the Government to send anti-Fascist propaganda to South America over its own station.

One other consideration dampened Congressional ardor for legislation like the Celler Bill. N. A. B.'s President Mark Foster Ethridge acutely observed that the State Department would find it easier to explain embarrassing statements on international broadcasts if private broadcasters made them than if they were aired over a Government-owned-&-operated station.

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