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ADIOTELEPHONE commercial service between the United States and Great Britain in the near future is a

reasonable probability, according to D. B. Carson, United States Commissioner of Navigation, in his annual report. Tests which have been conducted show encouraging results, but it is pointed out the difference in time in connection with office hours of banks, stock exchange, and brokerage houses may present some difficulty.

Commercial pictoradiogram services, the report reveals, are now in operation between New York and London and San Francisco and Hawaii. By means of this development photographs, pictures, advertisements, legal documents, bank checks, cartoons, fingerprints, and similar pictorial or printed matter are quickly transmitted and reproduced. This new field, the commissioner states, may develop into an important branch of radio communication.

There has been a material increase in power used. The average power per station in watts is 715.8, as compared with 312.4 last year and 190.5 the year previous. During the past fiscal year 117 new stations were licensed and 160 discontinued. The previous year 281 new stations were licensed and 245 discontinued.

Continued growth in the use of radio is predicted by Commissioner Carson, together with improved service to the public.

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The sales of radio apparatus for the United States alone will reach $520,000,000 for 1926. The figures for the former years, compiled by the Radio Manufacturers Association, are as follows:

1922, $46,500,000; 1923, $120,000,000; 1924, $350,000,000; 1925, $449,000,000. From orders that have been placed the various radio trade associations know now that the 1926 figure will be exceeded in 1927.

An analysis made by the management of Station WEAF is the basis of an estimate that in the territories covered by stations in the cities listed here, radio sets are distributed as follows: New York, 702,000; Boston, 380,000; Philadelphia, 265,000; Washington, 166,000; Buffalo, 125,000; Pittsburgh, 208,000; Cleveland, 172,000; Detroit, 224,000; Cincinnati, 187,000; Chicago, 354,000; St. Louis, 146,000; Minneapolis, 73,000; Davenport, 88,000. Making a total of 3,090,000. Based upon these figures it is believed that there are approximately 5,200,000 receiving sets in the United States.

These figures mean that millions of people have been taking a keen interest in the broadcasting situation and in the prompt passage of adequate radio laws by Congress to prevent interstation interference, determine who shall broadcast, establish standard broadcast station requirements, and other essential points.

Such federal action has been urged by all branches of the radio industry, by the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, by the public press throughout the country, and by many thousands of radio owners.

While 1927 will no doubt be another record-breaking year for the radio without such legislation the need for it has been none the less imperative in the interest of public service.