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442 AGRICULTURAL APPROPRL\TIOX BILL, 1924. 



until there are at the present time eoverin^ tlie United States some 

 forty-odd broadcasting stations which take popular market news 

 and distribute it direct to the peoplo" who have receiving outfits, 

 and these broadcastinjj stations — which broadcast by telephone 

 rather than by telegraphic code — in turn are rapidly developino; 

 until thev can pick up tne general market news which is distributed 

 from higli-powered naval stations. Through cooperation with the 

 Navy Department we are sending from the high-powered naval 

 stations at Arlington and the Great Lakes station at Chicago, at 

 several hours during the day, ctmdensed market reports whicli are 

 picked up by these iforty-odd stations throughout the I'nited States, 

 turned into telephone radio reports, and given further distribution. 

 This map indicates the manner in which the country is being covered 

 by radio, on a regular schedule, at the present time. 



This radio communication has greatly extended the possibilities 

 for the distribution of market news to the producer and to the small 

 )rimary markets. It has not as yet proven so valuable in the col- 

 ection of information, because witli radio thf're is no chance to check 

 back doubtful messages or to confirm any points that may need con- 

 firmation. On our leased wire, if there is anything that appears to 

 be doubtful, the operators can easily get in touch with the sending 

 station, confirm the message, and be sure of the result. With radii) 

 that is impossible, but for very fjuick service at the very minimum 

 of cost it is unequaled. We have i^een able to distribute our news 

 to hundreds of thousands of people throughout the country by means 

 of the radio that othenvise could only get it through the expensive 

 method of either telegraphing or telephoning. Consequently we are 

 continuing our work in a more or less experimental way. and these 

 experiments are relatively inexpensive because of the cooperation of 

 other branches of the Government. The Bureau of Standards has 

 lent its aid in the development of receiving apparatus and in tests 

 of receiving apparatus to encourage the use of radio. The Post 

 Office Department very generously loaned its facilities in order to 

 make them of use. All of this radio work has been conducted at 

 the very minimum of expense and the maximum of promise of results. 

 There are yet many problems to be worked out, and the States are 

 going at those local problems. All of the work being done has for 

 its end tiie securing of eftective distribution over certain areas. 



Of all the elements of cost involved in this work the greatest, 

 of course, is that for the technical men who gather the news. The 

 gathering of market news involves the use of men trained in a knowl- 

 edge of the particular product they are covering, whetiier it is live 

 stock, fruit and vegetables, or dairy products. It involves a knowl- 

 edge of grades and standards in order that they may know what 

 they arc (pioting prices upon. In many commodities, which we have 

 not yet begun to (|Uote fully the |)rol)lem is, first, to gel uniform 

 standards to apply in various markets in order to determine what 

 is a comparable price of one market with another. Things which 

 have the same names are not always the same thinjrs in our agri- 



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cultural inarkets; consc(|uently. the price of a prime article in one 

 market i.s not the price of a prime article in another, so that the 

 [)roblem in a pmper news service turns on the (piestion of cla.^ses, 

 names, slandaids, and designations; conse<|uently this work improves 

 us the men improve in experience an<l as our grade and standard 



