SENATOR FLETCHER: Do you know what the law requires as to experience of these operators and their training?
MR. MARCONI: The law requires that they shall have knowledge of the apparatus; that they shall be able to repair faults in it; that they shall be able to transmit and receive with a certain speed and accuracy; and that they shall be cognizant of the rules and regulations of the British wirelesstelegraph act and with the enactments of the Berlin Convention regulating wireless telegraphy.
SENATOR FLETCHER: Do you know what experiences these men had, Cottam and Bride and Phillips?
MR. MARCONI: I think their experience was sufficient to enable them to carry out their work. The Government examination is pretty strict in the matter, and I think my company's examination, too, is very strict.
SENATOR FLETCHER: I was asking as to your personal knowledge. I understood you to say you knew personally several of these operators, and had known them for some time.
MR. MARCONI: I had not known these particular operators.
SENATOR FLETCHER: You had not?
MR. MARCONI: Only since the accident.
SENATOR FLETCHER: Is there any danger of interference in radio communication, and difficulty in that respect, where messages are being sent back and forth, and messages in other directions, between other ships, or between ships and the shore, are being sent at the same time? Is not confusion likely to follow by such interference as that?
MR. MARCONI: The confusion is likely to follow unless the arrangement of the stations and ship stations is properly regulated. That is controlled by the rules which govern the wave length to be used, and which generally compel the operators to discipline in the working of the apparatus. The result is that in England and other European countries ships use two wave lengths, one for communication with shore stations. The shore stations use other wave lengths which do not interfere with the ships communicating with each other. The Royal Navy, the Navy of England, uses wave lengths different from the commercial navy, in order that there shall be no interference with or by them. Other wave lengths are used by the army, and still different wave lengths are used by them in communicating between England and foreign countries, like between England and Canada. The Government, represented by the post office, decides, after consulting the parties interested, what wave lengths shall be apportioned to each particular service. I myself, apart from my company, have an experimental station in England, and I am given a certain wave length to work on which does not interfere with the navy station at Portsmouth. If I want to change it, after consultation with them they let me change it if I am reasonable in the matter. Everything is regulated in such way as to cause a minimum of interference, and I think so far this regulation has been highly successful.
SENATOR FLETCHER: And the regulation that you advise would have reference to the wave length?
MR. MARCONI: Yes; the wave length, and what we call the damping of the wave whether it is a wave likely to interfere or not. There are what we call exclusive waves, and troublesome, meddlesome waves.
SENATOR FLETCHER: Now, in order to accomplish results in that direction, how would you reach all interests and all parties that might be concerned? For instance, the laws of one country are one way and the laws of another country another way, and shipping is going on between those two countries.
MR. MARCONI: The Berlin Convention has already arranged that with all countries, and I suppose you are aware of it, but it is going to meet again in June in England, and no doubt anything else that any country wants to bring forward to discuss at that meeting will be considered then.
SENATOR FLETCHER: Now we will pass from that. Your suggestion was that as the ship approached the harbor of New York it would probably have been impossible to get wireless news from the ship on account of interference. How would you avoid that?
MR. MARCONI: I would avoid that by legislation and regulation. I would make it necessary for wireless stations to be licensed by the Government. I do not presume to advise the Government in this matter, but I am expressing my opinion.
SENATOR FLETCHER: Yes; that is what I am asking for.
MR. MARCONI: I would apportion wave lengths to various parties in such a manner that interference would not be created. If, however, too many people asked for license in a given area or district, so that wave lengths could not be found to accommodate them all, the authorities in that case would have to refuse any more licenses. My advice would be that they should exercise their powers of discretion and try to do their best and not stop experimentation, which might handicap the progress of the art. In England if some experimental scientist or some one else wants to put up a station in a place where he will interfere with the navy, he is told he can not do it; but he is offered another part of the country where he can carry on his work without interfering with anyone. I should say, now, in England it is a punishable offense to put up a station without a license. It is something like having a still without a licence of the Government in some other countries; it is considered wrong. If you will allow me also to state, everyone who has a license, experimental or otherwise, to operate wireless telegraphy, is enjoined to secrecy and must not divulge the contents of any message he may happen to receive. If he should do so his license is suspended, and he is liable to other penalties.
SENATOR FLETCHER: Passing from that to the subject of these communications, would you feel, Mr. Marconi, that your company, or an operator employed by your company, would have the right the legal right, I am now speaking of, now, irrespective of the moral right to withhold information from the public in order to sell it as news?
MR. MARCONI: You are speaking of the legal right?
SENATOR FLETCHER: Yes.
MR. MARCONI: As to an operator, I should say no; he would have no legal right to withhold it. But at the same time there is nothing to compel him to send it. If he was ordered by the captain, or if somebody sent a message through him or tendered a message for transmission to shore, he would be obliged to send it; but there is nothing, I think, which legally compels him to make up a story on the ship and send it ashore.
SENATOR FLETCHER: How about his answering inquiries?
MR. MARCONI: Well, of course, the inquiries ought to be properly addressed to the captain. The wireless operator is only a subordinate official, whose business it is to operate the wireless. He is not usually a man who can give very accurate information concerning matters relating to a ship.
SENATOR FLETCHER: Do you mean, for instance, if the operator on the Titanic had received a message inquiring after the condition of the ship, that it would have been his business to communicate that to the commander, and then answer according to the direction of the commander?
MR. MARCONI: That is what he should have done.
SENATOR FLETCHER: He himself should not have replied?
MR. MARCONI: No; he himself should not have replied; quite true. That would be against the rules.
SENATOR FLETCHER: You can concede, I presume, that if an operator is allowed to sell as news information such as these operators had, he would be tempted to withhold information and refrain from answering inquiries in order to increase the value of his story, would he not?
MR. MARCONI: He might be; but I never looked at it that way before.
SENATOR SMITH: You say that Binns made use of the information he had of the Republic disaster, and sold it for his own benefit?
MR. MARCONI: No; I do not exactly say that. I say that he received payment for something that he said, for some story which he gave in regard to the Republic disaster.
SENATOR SMITH: You referred to the commendable course taken by Bride, the surviving operator of the Titanic, which merited the highest praise, evidently, in your mind.
MR. MARCONI: Yes.
SENATOR SMITH: Do you not think it would be wise to encourage among your operators all over the world the same loyalty and courage and daring and discipline that was shown by Bride?
MR. MARCONI: Yes; and I think everything that it is possible to do in that direction is being done.
SENATOR SMITH: Do you remember that Mr. Bride said that about two minutes before the Titanic sank I asked him if he left the sinking ship, and his reply was, "No, sir," and I said to him, "Why did you not leave?" and he said, "Because the captain had not given me permission." That was a pretty high order of discipline, was it not?
MR. MARCONI: Absolutely the highest.
SENATOR SMITH: For such a service as that do you not think it might very appropriately be left to the generosity and appreciation of the people of the world to reward him instead of encouraging him to get additional compensation by retailing his experiences to a single newspaper for $500?
MR. MARCONI: I think it might be left to them. I want to just follow up what I said by saying that in the case of Binns, he was compensated in a special way by the company which employed him.
SENATOR SMITH: By your company?
MR. MARCONI: By my company, and no doubt something of the same kind will be done for Bride and Cottam.
SENATOR SMITH: Before you leave the stand, would you care to indicate whether in the future management of the Marconi Co. you would not discourage the course that was taken by these two men with regard to the sale of the stories of which they were in possession?
MR. MARCONI: I certainly would. But I should add that I would like that there should be no misunderstanding of this matter. I had no intention of authorizing any exclusive story, and I was against the withholding of any news.
SENATOR SMITH: I understand you to say that, Mr. Marconi. You are not under subpoena?
MR. MARCONI: No, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: You have come voluntarily?
MR. MARCONI: I have come voluntarily, and as long as I can possibly be in the United States I will be at the disposal of the committee for any information which they may require.
SENATOR SMITH: You expected to leave for Europe yesterday or today?
MR. MARCONI: I expected to leave Tuesday.
SENATOR SMITH: And you voluntarily refrained from going until you could communicate with me?
MR. MARCONI: Yes, sir; because I thought there might be something which you might require to see me about.
SENATOR SMITH: And you came here of your own accord and are willing to remain?
MR. MARCONI: I am willing to remain for a certain time. My engagements in England are very pressing. Therefore I would ask you to let me go as soon as possible.
SENATOR SMITH: Can I ask you to have Mr. Sammis and Mr. Bottomley come?
MR. MARCONI: Yes.
SENATOR SMITH: Will you undertake to do that?
MR. MARCONI: I will undertake to do that. I would like to know when.
SENATOR SMITH: Just as soon as they can get ready.
MR. MARCONI: Yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: That is all. I want to thank you for your kindness.
MR. MARCONI: Will you allow me to say one thing that you did not ask me?
SENATOR SMITH: Yes.
MR. MARCONI: In our organization a copy is kept of every message received and sent on board a ship. Therefore, this register of messages may be of some use to the committee.
SENATOR SMITH: Kindly get the time when each message was sent, and the messages that passed between the Carpathia, if you please, and Mr. Bottomley and yourself, during those days between the accident and the arrival of the Carpathia, if we may have them?
MR. MARCONI: Unfortunately the messages on the Carpathia were taken to the Mediterranean by the Carpathia. The captain would not land them. We endeavored to get them, but the captain would not give them out.
SENATOR SMITH: Would it be possible for you to wire the operator of the Carpathia and ask him to wire back copies of those messages.
MR. MARCONI: I could ask him to do so. Of course, they will be in the hands of the British Government very soon, these messages.
SENATOR SMITH: Try, will you, and see if you can get them?
MR. MARCONI: I will try.
SENATOR SMITH: I am greatly obliged to you for your kindness in coming. Let the officer bring in Mr. Cottam, the operator on the Carpathia.
ADDITIONAL TESTIMONY OF MR. HAROLD THOMAS COTTAM
SENATOR SMITH: Mr. Cottam, you have been sworn?
MR. COTTAM: Yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: You testified in New York?
MR. COTTAM: Yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: You live in England?
MR. COTTAM: Yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: You were the wireless operator on the Carpathia at the time the C.Q.D. distress call was received from the Titanic?
MR. COTTAM: Yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: You received that call?
MR. COTTAM: Yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: And other messages from the Titanic before she sank?
MR. COTTAM: I did, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: How many other messages?
MR. COTTAM: About four, as far as I can remember.
SENATOR SMITH: Can you recall the contents?
MR. COTTAM: I can not remember the exact purport of those messages, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Mr. Cottam, do you recall the substance of the first message?
MR. COTTAM: Yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: Just indicate what it was.
MR. COTTAM: "Come at once. We have struck a berg. It is a C.Q.D." That was the first message.
SENATOR SMITH: Can you fix the hour when it was received?
MR. COTTAM: About 11:20, sir, New York time.
SENATOR SMITH: What was the ship's time, do you remember; or Greenwich time?
MR. COTTAM: I did not look.
SENATOR SMITH: When that message came, you had not retired for the night?
MR. COTTAM: No, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: You were just about to retire?
MR. COTTAM: Yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: You had taken off our coat?
MR. COTTAM: Yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: But kept the telephone on your head?
MR. COTTAM: Yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: And as I understood you to say in New York, by accident, merely, you caught this C.Q.D. distress call from the Titanic?
MR. COTTAM: Yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: You were merely waiting, and had kept the instrument on your head only in order that you might close some work that you had been doing during the evening, or afternoon, with the Californian?
MR. COTTAM: No, sir. I was going to confirm a "time rush" message that I had communicated with the Parisian during the afternoon.
SENATOR SMITH: You were simply holding, awaiting confirmation of a message you had sent?
MR. COTTAM: Yes, sir.
SENATOR SMITH: And while waiting for that, this C.Q.D. call from the Titanic came?
MR. COTTAM: Not just then, sir. I went to the bridge in the meantime. Between waiting for the confirmation from the Parisian and hearing the C.Q.D. I went up to the bridge to report the day's communications.
SENATOR SMITH: Did you have your coat off when you went up there?
