THE FUTURE OF T. S. F.
Against French radio

There is, in the under-secretariat of the P.T.T., a technical advisor named Tronchon who, detesting for personal reasons that are not very mysterious, the French radio industry, has sworn to destroy it. To do this, he methodically and simultaneously carries out two series of operations.

On the one hand, to suppress by all means the private broadcasting stations, to prohibit them from giving their true measure by operating at full power, to prohibit them from broadcasting major official and sporting events, Parisian theatrical performances, to attempt anything finally that could increase the attractiveness of their broadcasts and allow French radio to assert its superiority over foreign broadcasts.
And, on the other hand, to bring in radio sets from abroad and install them urgently, before the protests raised on all sides against the project of exclusive exploitation of the T.S.F. by the State have alerted the public authorities. ***
This is how, ignoring all the administrative rules in use, without regard for the markets commission, without taking care that there is a regular procedure and necessary guarantees for State purchases, Mr. Technical Advisor has contacted directly with "Western Electric", an American company, with which he is as well off as he is wrong with the French radio-electric industry.

Following certain agreements, which will have to be made known one day or another, complete radio sets of American construction are beginning to arrive everywhere. Marseille and Lyon have just received some, others are expected shortly in Bordeaux. Orders have been given to install these sets as quickly as possible.

This is how, while no credit has yet been definitively voted by Parliament, while, loyally, Mr. Pierre Robert, Under-Secretary of State for the P.T.T., has publicly declared from the tribune of the Chamber that nothing would be done before the Chambers are seized of a bill which is under study, Mr. Tronchon, his technical advisor, is trying to put Parliament before a fait accompli!

That is not all, when the regional radio group of Marseille, one of the most important in France by the interests which it represents, tired of coming up against the malevolence of the office of the rue de Grenelle, addressed the mayor of this city with a view to obtaining the loan of a communal plot of land for the establishment of a post which it wants to build at its own expense with French equipment, Mr. Tronchon hastened to dispatch two inspectors of the P.T.T. to the honorable Mr. Flaissière, to invite him to dismiss the representatives of this group and to announce to him the arrival of a State post.

The maneuver is quite clear and it sufficiently reveals Mr. Tronchon's true intentions.
In reality, he has never seriously thought about making radio broadcasting a State industry. He knows better than anyone that credits are lacking. The monopoly is the means he has found to encourage foreign competition.
In his designs, nothing will be changed in what exists, except that the impossible will be done to prevent the broadcasting of private posts. For the same reasons that it rented the posts of the PTT School and the Eiffel Tower, the Administration will rent, and we know at what prices defying all competition, the new posts to Mr. Tronchon's protégés.
***
But then, who are we kidding and what are we talking about a monopoly?
With regard to the State, the situation of companies renting its stations is exactly the same as that of private radio broadcasting companies, with the difference that the latter pay for the establishment and operation of their stations themselves and pay royalties to the State, while the former use foreign equipment purchased and operated at taxpayers' expense and pay nothing but a ridiculous rental fee to the budget.

State control is exercised in the same way, whether it is a station rented or a station belonging to a private company. In the event of misconduct or abuse, the sanction is identical: suspension of operation or confiscation of the station.

Under these conditions, Mr. Tronchon's project has no other practical effect than to create unnecessary additional charges for the State, to deprive the public treasury of an appreciable source of income and to ruin the French radio industry.

Its monopoly is none other than the monopoly of expenditure for the budget. Is it to arrive at this scandalous result that the great words of state security and financial defense were pronounced in the Chamber?