Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-12-20
BATTLES IN M|DA|R
French Army Officer Says Next
War Will See Them.
DAY OF THE AIRSHIP NEAR
Revolution in Affairs Of People and
Government.
AERIAL PATROLS NECESSARY
Preparations in France to Meet New
Conditions-Commis Prepar-
ing to Solve Problems.

PARIS, December $3.50 confident is
the French government that the day is
only a short distance off when aerial
locomotion will be practical that several
commissions are actually at work on
plans for meeting in the various branches
of the public service the solution of any
new problem which the revolution will
entail Capt Ferber of the French army,
who is devottng all his time to aero.
states, and who conducted the nego+ia-
lions on behalf of his government with
the Wright brothers, agrees with Santos
Dumont that flying machines in a few
years will be as common as automobiles
today.
In the next war he is confident there
Will be battles between flotillas of air.
ships Human mastery over the air."
said he to the Associated Press, "is virtu-
ally achieved. None of the startling
achievements of the past neither steam
electricity nor the telephone can com
pare with what the future now holds in
store for us. Not only will the life of in
d1v1duals be revolutionized, but govern
ments will be compelled to devise in al
most every department, new methods to
meet the changed conditions. This change
Will come with amazing suddenness snd
france is taking the precaution to meet
1t. In the customs service present me-
thods of watching the frontiers will be
obsolete. Aerial patrols will be neces sary
10 prevent the smuggling of contraband
across the border.
Police in Airships.
The police Of all cities will have to
be provided with flying machines to protect
the people from the new opportunities of
crime which aerial locomotion will place in
the power of criminals. 1t would seem
that flying machines would enable anar-
chists to achieve any end by threats against
not only rulers but whole cities; but with
the police sailing about in the air it will
be no more difficult to Illustrate their plots
than 1t is now on solid ground. In war the
intelligence service will be entirely con-
signed to the aerostatic divisions and armed
a1rshipS will guard the bivouacs of armies
Capt Ferber believes the whole solution
OF the problem Of aerial navigation lies in
the question of equilibrium, as the principle
or fight-that Is, area of aerop1ane surface
and speed-are now demonstrated
The practical maintenance of equilibrium
Is yet In the experimental stage and will
only be achieved when present crude and
temporary expedlents employed by Santos
Dumont arereplaced by co-ordinating CEN
tral mechanism which will permit the oper-
ator, with an instructive touch Of the helm
to right his machine when it dips to one
side or the other as the bcyclist today
maintains his equilibrium by the instructive
inclination of his body.
Capt Ferber has just completed an in
terest1ng series of experiments to prove that
birds are powerless to fly until they have
been taught. He contends that the domina-
was only obtained as result of a slow
process of evolution comparable in a way.
to slow perfection of the present human
means of flight.