cannot be exercised with due regard to the use of the same art for non-governmental purposes. If in time of peace occasions arise of sufficient importance to call for a temporary preëmption of the ether by the government, any inconvenience thereby occasioned to commercial and private interests can be borne with some equanimity. But there should be some assurance that such interruptions are incident to matters of real importance—that all private interests are not sacrificed to routine communications that might just as well be transmitted by wire, or by trivial communications between officials. By defining in some manner the nature of government communications by wireless, and requiring a copy of every communication to be filed for critical examination as to its real importance, a gross abuse of the wireless privilege by an over-officious or inconsiderate official would be averted.
In other words, in time of peace the preëmption of the ether on the part of the government should only be for emergency purposes, and any official making an emergency call should be held strictly responsible for the rightful use of the privilege. In time of war, of course, wireless telegraphy would, in common with all the peaceful arts of civilization, have to resign any claim to consideration; but as a recompense it should not be held in abeyance in time of peace in accordance with what appears to be a policy for the exaltation of the military over the other classes of American people—which classes
