The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1908-08-01
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: Uncle Sam is Aiming :
i: for anAirShipFleet :
'Majcz Geo. %. Squiez
Announces 2 h at
16id-aiz Fighting
Graft are as ~ eces-
eaxy az Cruisers.
PROBLEM REDUCED
TO STRAIGHT
ENGINEERING
A~a>c>0>o>o~O>o-v>o>o>O>

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The War Department aspires to
build, for the protection of the United
States, airships that will travel fifty
miles an hour and leave the aerial
fleets of Europe far behind.
Major George o. SQuier, chief OF
the aerial division Of the army, told
the Aldine Association at its balloon
dinner that he believes the problem
has been reduced to one of straight
engineering, and that America has
engineers who can and soon will ac-
complish the feat. He said that he
thought Congress made a mistake n
cutting out Of the appropriation bill
the 100000 wanted for building a
big airship and that in this day mid
air fighting craft were as necessary
as new battleships.
The Aldine Association, composed
of New York publishers, arranged for
its balloon night dinner in the club
rooms, No. Ill Fifth avenue, feast
appropriate in every course for TIE
occasion. 1t began with balloon cock
tails" with little gasbag anchored
to the cherry, and ended with moving
pictures Of Farmans flight and scenes
above the clouds.
Alexander Graham Bell, Hudson
Maxim and Major Squier supplied
the trimmings, pictur.ng the wars
and dictionaries of the near future
revolutionizsd by fleets of cloud-pierc-
ing cruisers and torpedo boats and
new words in the language to express
new things which development OF
aercnautics will bring to pass.
First OF all, 'aeronautics, said
DR.. Bell, must go. 1t doesn't ex-
press properly the act OF aerial fight
He admonished the men who publish
books and magazines to consider
thoughtfully and carefully the COM
pounding Of words that will fit. bal
LOOM originally came from round
leather ball. inla-ed-.he football of
three centuries ago. But now the
balloon is cigar shaped and besides
said DR.. Bell. you can't well make
verb ito balloon And then there
is the probability Of abbrsviation.
"Aercdroms. the name invented by
Prof. Langley fer his self-driven air.
ship. is a good word in DR.. Bells
opinion, and when aerodromes are as
common as automobiles people viii!
hn ,;per fNr
short Of "aercdroming"
DR.. Bell gave an exhaustive history
OF mans efforts to fy. He said that
looking into the future for success
full flight was a thing of the past.
that the time is here. He criticised
the Wright brothers, of Dayton. O.,
for their sscre:iveness. He said their
refusal to let the world have an ocu-
lar demonstration of their success re-
acted upon themselves as a foreign
government would rot be likely to pay
them for what would necessarily be-
come public property as soon as it
was demonstrated.
Hudson Maxim said:
I'm the not distant future, we
shall have our automobiles of the air
and in the wars of the future we shall
have our aerial battleships, our
cruisers, our torpedo boats and tor
pedo boat destroyers. But they'll be
airy frai! and fairy craft indsed COM
pared with the grim steel monsters of
the sea.
THE more highly scientific war
enginery becomes the more the game
Of war will be one that can be played
only by the most scientific and en-
lightensd nations. More and more
will home and country be defended
by machinery and less by blood. The
aerial navy will be q great bulwark
OF peace and q very great step toward
the permanence of peace"
Major Squier contras:ed the United
States army's aerial corps of three
officers and ten men with Germany's
fourteen oMcers and 300 men. The
United States has contracted for three
heavier-than-air ships, there being
three out Of forty-three bidders VINO
came within the specifications
The Wright brothers, A. NJ. Her.
ring and Scot, of Chicago, are to
deliver their machines to the govern.
nent for tests early in August. Bids
also have been received for one light
dirigible balloon, Baldwin, the aeron-
aut, being the successful bidder
Major Squier said the army needs,
in order to keep pace with other ma
tions, to build at once a big machine
to patch the 300-foot airship ordered