When Father Knox, in 1926, gave a fanciful broadcast description of a raid on the National Art Gallery in London, and the dynamiting of Big Ben, alarm was momentary y created, but apparently not sufficient to serve as a warning against the type of entertainment which has been evolved in the shape of the broadcast in the U.S. of a dramatized version of H. G. Wells's "War of the World." Those familiar with that stirring book, will understand how, with the manner in which broadcasting technique has improved, a version could be launched into the air which might very well serve to spread alarm rather than amusement. The Mercury Theatre Group in the United States, under the direction of Mr. Orson Welles, localized the story to America, gave American place names, and generally created an atmosphere, which, despite the fact of four separate statements that the emission was mere fiction, struck such a note of reality that a wave of mass hysteria swept over the whole country. Listeners-in heard of the world being struck by a huge meteorite, of cities, which they knew, being reduced by either death rays or gas, of the panic which the celestial invaders were creating and the death and destruction which they carried in their train. From Los Angeles to New Jersey a state of alarm was created which seems almost beyond imagination, and astonishing demonstrations of alarm are reported from all over the country. The whole result seems as much a tribute to the excellence of the manner in which the work had been dramatized as it is to the very effective piece of fiction which Mr. Wells had produced. But, there is about the whole incident much tot sinister significance, and sufficient, to show that in the future the greatest possible care will have to be ex-excised in the supervision and censorship of this particular form of radio entertainment. There is such a thing as being too realistic, and it is likely that added to the general dialogue of the story were some of the best effects of the sound department, the whole conveying a sense of conviction that it is possible to conceive that even those fully aware of the fictional nature of the programme, might have been overcome against their own better judgment.
That the radio broadcast is a very dangerous weapon has been clear for some years; but that has been merely from the point of view of the dissemination of propaganda. There is, however, another danger which is inherent in the process of broadcasting, of which an instance occurring in Shanghai rently is an example. Some weeks ago the statement was broadcast from local stations to the effect that newspapers in Tokyo were commenting upon the possibility of Japan declaring war on China. Within a remarkably short space of time the offices of this journal were being besieged by telephonic inquirers, asking whether it were true that Japan had declared war on China. Told that it was not, they replied indignantly that they had heard it over the radio. Of course they had not. They thought they had, but the probabilities are that they heard nothing in particular until their inattention was changed by hearing something about Japan declaring war on China. The fact that Tokyo newspapers were merely discussing the chances had completely escaped their notice, and being unable to ask the broadcaster to repeat what he had said, even if they had thought of doing so, they formed the conclusion that their version of what they thought they heard correctly represented the facts. Thus the announcement that the U. S. broadcast was fictional, made four times, during the course of the programme, was not a sufficient safeguard against countless hearers forming a totally wrong impression, and when into the dramatization there were introduced all the sound effects which can now be done so realistically, even those fully apprised of the facts, were probably overwhelmed by the realism which was reaching them via the speaker. The thought of iron crusta-coans, striding with enormously long legs over the land, invulnerable to the weapons of the denizens of this world, and spreading death and destruction wherever -they went, reinforced with all the realism at the hands of broadcast engineers must have had a widespread, and potent effect upon millions of listeners.
It was, in all probability, only a very few who had picked up the significance of the four statements as to the nature of the broadcast. To the first in all likelihood only the most perfunctory attention had been given, the three others were undoubtedly lost sight of in the general horrific impression which the dramatization commenced quite early to create. There is ly no really safe precaution to be taken against this state of affairs being created, and it is likely that the only real remedy against listeners being alarmed like this in the future will be the establishment of a censorship having that end in view. There are many who view the application of restrictive institutions to the "rights of free speech with considerable misgiving, as striking at the roots of the liberty of the individual, but it must be remembered that that liberty includes freedom from the repetition of such incidents as that which so widely alarmed the citizens of the United $2 States. When an announcer says that even he is being choked off by gas, or that this might be the last broadcast the world would ever hear, it is inevitable that many listeners would be frightened. Reality was acting as an enormous stimulant to the imaginations which had already been greatly aroused, and there were probably not many who remained calm enough to think back to the preliminary assurance which had been given. The fact that it was given suggests that there was in the minds of those responsible the possibility that the broadcast was somewhat risky. They would not otherwise have taken the precaution they did, but it is obvious now that such announcements are not sufficient protection, and that if these ultra-realistic performances are to be repeated, greater efforts will have to be taken to see that they will not have unduly bad effects. The problem presented is a difficult one, and the only remedy perceptil at the moment seems to be the discontinuance of such forms of amusement until their bad features can be adequately discounted.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.