RADIO TO MOULD HUMANITY.

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 21, 6 December 1929, Page 6

RADIO TO MOULD HUMANITY.

PAY in and day out radio is demonstrating more and more effectively its supreme value to the human race. A number of diverse news items, emanating from widely-scattered sources, prompt the thought this week that radio is the one supreme invention of the world, which will lift humanity on to a higher plane. By its capacity to bridge distance and break down national barriers, it is plainly marked as the instrument for the promotion of international peace. Welcomed first as an amusing toy for its capacity to distribute music and entertainment, it, while still fulfilling those functions, is passing on to clearer recognition in the larger field of an international educator. Here in our own domestic crcle. in the past week the Rev. J. R. Blanchard, of St. John’s Presbyterian Church, has paid eloquent tribute to the appreciation evoked in religious circles by the radio service. The cables tell of the contribution paid to permanent communication by the Beam service, follwing on the break of Atlantic cables by the Newfoundalnd earthquake. Another, news item gives an impressive glimpse of mass education in music by means of radio. Through linking up the vast chain of stations now scattered throughout the United States, nearly 5,000,000 school children heard a special lecture-concert on "music appreciation." To do this more than 50,000 class-rooms and auditoriums in every State in America were linked by specially-installed receivers to the broadcast, which was given from 62 transmitters. This was the first of a series of similar educational lecture concerts. Such vigour and such a plan of campaign constitute a challenge to the imagination. © They show how effective an impression can be made upon the mass mind of a nation through radio, and drive home the point that in radio humanity has a servant capable of transforming the face of the globe. . [N that impressive summary of moral forces, "The Christ of the English Road," which was recently published in Britain and received a marked welcome, the view is advanced that a special mission has been given the English race to promote the moral betterment of the world. The English character, it is poirited out, has evolved upon the moral teachings of Christ and their special appeal to thé essential decencies of humanity. Without the aid of radio, —

but by reason of their chines diffusion through innate wanderlust" over the face of the earth, the English race has already made an indelible mark upon the course of history. With the development in recent years of that tremendous ‘aggregation of population in the United States, a further factor is introduced which, if the same spirit be imparted to it, will enable, through radio, a very rapid influence to be exercised upon world character. Current history the world over wecords the growing appreciation of. radio. It is becoming almost a commonplace to stress the point. It is mentioned again merely ‘to illustrate the tremendous possibilities of the service in extending appreciation of the vital things of life. Tr is interesting to note that in this medium, as in others, the finer things gradually work to the top. When the printing press sprang into the mushroom growth demanded by universal education in Britain, the standard of education, it was thought, was universally lowered. Certainly the miasma of cheapness and tawdriness did overlay the democracy. From some points of view this may been harmful. From another point of view it was but a naturtal evolution. From the mass of cheapness-even. the mass of low taste-the underlying common sense of the people has gradually demanded a higher standard, until to-day the general average of intellectual appreciation of good things is higher than ever before. Somewhat the same process has obtained in radio. Radio was called upon first to blare forth cheap music. It provided a surfeit of jazz; it provided cheap wit. Those stages, however, are passing. Questionnaires conducted time and again of late months record a growing condemnation of jazz, and a demand for a higher quality of music and a fuller meeting of the demands for intellectual food and moral truth. This tendency will continue and expand, so that gradually the instrument of radio will be lifted on to a higher and higher plane, and in its reactions prove itself the most important moulding force of humanity. | Lr few