The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1902-02-26
UNIVERSAL FREE TRADE
How 1t May Be Brought About
by Airships.

Robert j. Thompson says "i'n A
=, Commerce Collections of Gus
VIII BE ImpOssibIe-RevOlu-
Tn Laws and Trade to Follow
Ct. Louis Fair 100000 Prize
Is Won.
"Commercial revolution will follow
.no advent of aerial navigation. Gus
toms duties will be wiped out and So
oial merging of the races will come
with the fading away Of frontiers
orl,ino the boundaries between ma
lions" SAYS Robert ]. Thompson, sec
.o+orv of the United States Lafayette
,,ororial commission, in speaking Of
tho universal discussion aroused by the
e. Louis exposition's offer of 100000
for the pioneer airship.
Mr.. Thompson, who is renewing old
ooouaintances among the official stan
Of the worlds fair, arranged all the de-
tolls during the Paris exposition OF
1000 for the presentation Of the statue
Of MARQUIS Lafayette to France on be-
half of the school children of Amer
ica. He was one Of the several Amer
leans officially connected with the
Tinted States section of the exposition
70 he decorated by President Loubet
with the order of the Legion of Honor.
."The airship will have its conquests
Of peace as we'll as of war;" said Mr..
Th0mDson to a reporter of the st.
Louis Republic. Universal free trade
will be established the day when the
world is told that Santos-Dumont or
some one else has grasped the secret. Of
the air and that all may ride supreme
through the ether. Before my depar-
fire from Paris Count Vaulx, an aero
statician of note, discussed this phase
of aerial navigation with me. Military
students of foreign governments have
long sought to discover a secret where
bv they might direct an aerial craft at
will so as to destroy their enemies from
the Clouds The science Of war, there
fore, is practically in the future air.
ship.
But what about the things which
the navigation of the element envelop-
ing the earth may disclose? The sue
cessful airship means the building Of
countless crafts of the air.
Commerce will awake to infinite
possibilities. The fine old honor of the
world will not stop at escaping Gus
toms duties by smuggling highly duti-
able articles across the frontiers. Who
is to prevent the high class smuggler
from loading his pirate craft OF the air
with a diamond cargo and darting from
England into France or from France
to Germany, so hidden among the
clouds that no telescope of the most
alert customs observer may detect the
contraband voyage? Then in some re-
mote and unfrequented spot safe
landing can be made for the discharge
of the illegal freight.
"Our quick witted friends may say
that government aerial revenue cutters
could do police duty in the skies, ar
rest the pirate by boarding him in par
achutes and drop down to the fast
nesses of prisons on terra firma. Very
good, but how about stolen flights in
the night or even in the day through
the cloud wracks? What a game OF
lodging among the mists Of midheav-
en- would be played by the aerial snug
gler, with the government cruiser ly-
ing to in gentle breeze, watchful for
the contraband. We who have studied
the science Of aerostatics may see the
difficulties which might confront the
chaser if he was not in the current at
tanned by the chased and could not
reach that current without such tack
ing as would confound the doughtiest
skipper on the main.
Then the merchant who stayed on
the ground and upheld the laws by
shipping his goods in the good old fash
Toned way of steam railway and ocean