Although this editorial is unsigned, it most likely was written by ARRL president Hiram Percy Maxim.
QST, July, 1916, page 171:
QST AND THE AMERICAN RADIO
RELAY LEAGUE
A number of letters are published below which may prove interesting to the amateurs of the Country. Read them and draw your own conclusions. The whole story was brought about in this manner: The management of the League felt that a certain class of amateurs had never heard of QST or THE AMERICAN RADIO RELAY LEAGUE. Consideration of the matter seemed to indicate that the advertising circulation of The Electrical Experimenter might prove useful in this connection. We thereupon drew up an advertisement describing QST and sent it to the Electrical Experimenter. We then received the following letter from Mr. Hymes, their Advertising Manager:
New York, N. Y.
May 23, 1916
American Radio Relay League, Inc.,
Hartford, Conn.
Gentlemen:
Please accept our thanks for your order of May 20th for a three time insertion of your advertisement which we regret we cannot insert as your advertising is distinctly competitive to The Electrical Experimenter.
Regretting that we are unable to be of service to you, we are,
Yours very respectfully,
The Experimenter Publishing Co., Inc.
(Sgd.) Milton Hymes, Adv. Mgr.
This letter was replied to as follows:
Hartford, Conn.,
May 24, 1916
The Experimenter Publishing Co., Inc.,
288 Fulton St.,
New York, N. Y.
Attention Mr. Milton Hymes.
Dear Sir:
Replying to your letter of the 28rd, we wish to suggest that you re-consider the idea of competitiveness between QST and the Electrical Experimenter. The AMERICAN RADIO RELAY LEAGUE and QST are operating organizations. QST is devoted to the actual operating conditions. We regard the Electrical Experimenter as a companion magazine; a magazine of an entirely different type. Your paper is devoted to articles which would interest an experimenter and one who wished to keep abreast of the electrical news. Our paper is to keep each amateur in touch with the other regarding the operations of their stations.
We feel that the magazines are being developed along entirely different lines and are companion papers. One is not completely satisfied with one and not the other. This means that the more QST's are sold, the greater will be the demand for the Electrical Experimenter.
The idea of competitiveness seems farfetched and we trust that you will re-consider the subject and favor us with an immediate reply.
Cordially yours,
THE AMERICAN RADIO RELAY LEAGUE, INC.
(Sgd.) C. D. Tuska, Secy.
The Electrical Experimenter replied to this as follows:
New York, N. Y.
May 27, 1916
The American Radio Relay League, Inc.,
Hartford, Conn.
Gentlemen:
In our letter of the 23rd, the word, "competitiveness" is really the wrong word. The idea we wish to convey is, that insofar as there is in existence today the Radio League of America, which we believe covers all the functions of your organization, it would simply be causing the interest of the amateur to be divided up through carrying your advertising. It is therefore in the interest of all amateur art that we find it necessary to decline your advertising.
Assuring you of our appreciation of your order, and anticipating that we may be of service to you in the future, we are,
Yours very respectfully,
The Experimenter Publishing Co., Inc.,
(Sgd) Milton Hymes, Adv. Mgr;.
This did not quite meet with our views, so we wrote again as follows:
Hartford, Conn.,
May 29, 1916
The Electrical Experimenter, 233 Fulton St.,
New York, N. Y.
Attention: Mr. Hymes.
Dear Sir:
We thank you for your prompt response to our letter of recent date and would like to trouble you once more. Since in yours of the 27th inst., you agree that it is not really "competitiveness" on the part of the magazines, but similarity on the part of the Radio League of America and THE AMERICAN RADIO RELAY LEAGUE, that forces you to decline our advertising, we wish to suggest that you give this point more consideration before you refuse our advertising.
We wish to be very clear in stating that THE AMERICAN RADIO RELAY LEAGUE is an organization devoted to the actual relaying of messages,--not in theory but in actual practice. We understood that the Radio League of America was a purely scientific organization and we fail to see how their interests on these lines can possibly conflict. Will you not kindly inform us if these ideas are correct?
Trusting that this will clear up all signs of confliction and that the advertising will be accepted, we are,
Very truly yours,
THE AMERICAN RADIO RELAY LEAGUE, INC.
(Sgd.) C. D. Tuska, Secy.
Evidently, the Electrical Experimenter did not wish to commit themselves on this point for their reply was as follows:
New York, N. Y.
Mr. Clarence D. Tuska,
c/o The Amer. Radio Relay League,
Hartford, Conn.
Dear Sir;
Replying to yours of recent date, we still cannot see our way clear to changing our decision in regard to accepting the advertising of THE AMERICAN RADIO RELAY LEAGUE in our magazine, and we are therefore, returning under separate cover the cut left by your engraver.
Yours very respectfully,
Experimenter Publishing Co., Inc.,
(Sgd.) Milton Hymes, Adv. Mgr.
This correspondence will not be commented upon. We leave judgment entirely to the amateur wireless station owners of the Country. We merely point out the facts regarding the AMERICAN RADIO RELAY LEAGUE, which are that we amateurs of the Country organized it early in the Spring of 1914, and named it THE AMERICAN RADIO RELAY LEAGUE. There was no other League of wireless operators in existence at that time. We offered nothing for sale, and gave no pins or penants. After we had issued our call book, and were well organized and conducting actual relaying, we noticed the advent of the Electrical Experimenter's League which was given the name of The Radio League of America. We did a lot of thinking when we noticed the similarity of the name, and we have done a lot more since. Far be it from us to knock any other organization. We simply want the amateurs of the Country to know the facts.