The Era of Amalgamations

Page Fellowship.

American newspaper fellowships in mem ory of Walter Hines Page, the great ambassador, were established by the English Speaking Union of the United States in 1926 for the purpose of promoting more understanding among other Eng lish-speaking people through the medium of the press. Fellowships are awarded to British journalists who spend a year in the United States actually at work on newspapers and in the study of public questions. A British committee in co-operation with the English Speaking Union of the British empire selects the fellows, the first of whom was J. A. Spender, who spent three months in America in 1927.

International Press Conference.

The first international conference of newspaper experts held under the auspices of the League of Nations was held at Geneva in August, 1927. It was attended by editors and newspaper men from all over the world.

Lord Burnham, then president of the English Newspaper Pro prietors' Association and the Empire Press Union, presided. A series of resolutions were passed dealing with tariffs for tele graphs, telephones and wireless and improvement in communica tions, transport of newspapers, professional facilities for journa lists, which have been referred to the League's organization for communications and transit for study and report. Other resolu tions referring to postal subscriptions to newspapers, protection of news, censorship in peace time and facilities for travel tours, scholarships, railway fares, repressive measures, etc., will be con sidered by the Council of the League.

Cheaper Communications.

Cheaper and quicker means of communication and distribution of news is always in process of evolution. What are known as "loaded cables" have been laid down, increasing enormously the capacity and speed by which messages can be transmitted by cable, the advantages of which newspapers will share. In the address to the Institute of Jour nalists in 1913, to which reference has already been made, Sir Robert Donald visualized a time when news would be collected by wireless telephone and the reporter would always have a portable telephone with him, with which to communicate with his paper without the trouble of going to the telephone office, or writing out a message. The competitor, he said, to the na tional newspaper would not be another national newspaper, but a method of circulating news by means of some scientific mecha nism for transmitting the spoken word. He predicted that all the

news of the day would be laid on to houses and offices, just like gas and water. During the* years 1924 and 1925 the development of broadcasting brought this within the region of realisa tion. Newspapers look on this development with a watchful eye, lest it should, in addition to supplementing their functions, arrest their progress.

A revolution has taken place in long distance communication. New inventions have quadrupled the carrying capacity and speed of submarine cables and simultaneously short wave or beam wire less has more than caught up with the cables. On the main world routes where the two systems have come into competition the cables have suffered. This development in wireless, which was due to Senatore Marconi, has definitely established wireless as the cheapest and quickest means of communication over long distances and has theref ore rendered a valuable service to the press. Cables are, however, more efficient in direct communica tion and have greater accuracy. On the other hand wireless can reach all parts of the world and will link up vast territories which will never be connected by telegraph. In fact it is doubtful whether more cables will be constructed except in association with wireless. The services should be complementary.

The interest of the press in these developments is to get the advantage of cheaper and quicker means of communication. In contracts proposed for wireless services to the British Govern ment and in resolutions passed by Imperial Press Conferences, it was always assumed that the tariff for wireless would be one-third less than cable rates. When the beam and short-wave system came into operation in 1927, it was proved that wireless could operate profitably at these reduced rates. As this competition was threat ening the existence of cables, the British Government called an Imperial Conference in 1927, which sought a solution of the problem in the interest of empire communication, by endorsing a merger of all cable and wireless undertakings within the British empire. It was assumed that under unified control the users, in cluding the newspapers, would get better service at lower rates.