It is not intended, in this brief presentation of the broad outlines of the important subject of world communication, to do more than touch on the technical methods whereby communication is now being carried on or by which it is expected that communication will be carried on in the future. The subject matter is altogether too voluminous to permit more than a very general summary of the methods now in vogue or to be expected, and the setting forth of a general perspective of the problems involved and their relations. The writer must also indicate that his special interest in the field of radio communication has caused him to lay the main emphasis in this paper thereon, although, in a perfectly balanced paper on local and long-distance communication, the major portion would certainly deal with wire communication. While the writer has endeavored to minimize this lack of proportion in the paper, the reader is nevertheless advised to regard the paper as generally descriptive of the topics treated, but he should not judge the relative importance of the types of communication considered as proportionate to the space devoted to them.