The Adair County news. [volume] (Columbia, Ky.) 1897-1987, 1909-02-24
AERIAL RIGHT OF WAY
cortIandt F. Bishop Says 1t Will
Soon Be Court Problem.
FLYING CRAFT THE CAUSE.
Aeronaut Predicts Matter Must Be De-
cided by Supreme TribunaIs-AeriaI
Police Needed to Guard Against
Smuggling and Trespassing Above
= Property.

Police Needed to Guard Against
Smuggling and Trespassing Above
/ Property.
"In short time the United States
supreme court will have to take up
this new question of right of way
through the sky. No; that is not an
aerial joke. 1t is already being seri-
ously considered by the governments
of Europe and will be one Of the i'm
portant questions taken up by the
International Aeronautic federation.
which meets in London, Jan. TO-"
This is statement recently made by
Cortlandt F. Bishop, president of the
Aero Club of America, who is an i'm
portant factor in European aeronautics
as well as in the United States.
Mr.. Bishop was asked if he expected
to see Thomas f. Ryan or some other
American capitalist going out after all
the valuable aerial franchises, but he
was not inclined to treat the matter
flippantly.
81 know it sounds, fantastic" he said
to a reporter of the New York Herald,
''but really there is no joke about it.
The house Of lords and the United
States supreme court will be found
struggling with this new legal problem
before we know it, because it is a
thing that must be settled just as
much as the right of way for railroads
had to be settled years ago
"As a matter of fundamental law
every man in dirigible balloon or an
aeroplane is guilty of trespass when
he passes over another mans land.
He has no more right to sail mile
above your farm than he has to build
a tunnel under it, Of course the thing
looks absurd now, but within the next
decade, probably much sooner than
that, these cases will be in the courts
and will have to be decided one way
or another.
"The English common law, which
was supposed to be built upon common
sense and to apply to all matters of
human difference for all time, holds
that mans title to land extends to
the core Of the earth and to the infn-
tiles of the heavens Every boy in law
school learns that very early in the
course. The old civil law, which was
modelled after the Roman law and
which is the basis of all European con-
tinental laws, has the same provision
concerning trespass.
'"There is no question whatever that
man may control the space above his
land, and therefore, unless these basic
laws are modified, it is not difficult to
see, that there is very interesting
time ahead for aeronauts and aviators
when aerial craft shall come into COM
mon use. And there is no question at
all that they will come into general
use much sooner than we expect"
cit will be somewhat difficult task
to apprehend sky trespassers, will it
nOt?'' Mr.. Bishop was asked.
ooh, WELL" he said, II suppose that
matter will take care of itself. No
doubt we shall have aerial police, but
am simply talking about the legal as
pect of the thing. Who owns the soil
owns to the sky. That was the law of
the early Normans in England, and
that is our law today. So you can see,
to use bit oflslang, what aviatOrs are
up against"
Mr.. Bishop told what steps had been
taken in France toward meeting these
aerial legal difficulties.
Already" he said, ''the Aero Club
q
price for an acre to be paid by aero
nauts and aviators for damage done to
field crops. This provision is chiefly
for ordinary balloons, but in the cities
of France laws are being enacted to
provide for aeroplanes, which, it is
realized over there, will soon be a COM
mon mode of travel.
SIN Paris the police have been in
structed to go Immediately to any aero
plane or dirigible landing within the
city limits and search it for taxable
food, liquors or gasoline. There are
now something like fifteen or eighteen
places in Paris set apart for the land
ing of aeroplanes, and the police I'M
derstand that little later it will be a
part of their duty to watch these
spots just as much as the gates of the
city are watched now to levy tax on
all gasoline in automobiles purchased
outside of the city.
1.-THE French people recognize that
aeroplanes and dirigibles are soon to
change conditions there radically, and
they are preparing for the new order
of things. The hardest thing to con-
troll will be local smuggling. One-half
or two-thirds of the revenue of French
cities comes from the 'octroi,' the tax
levied upon all food and liquors
brought into the cities from the out
side. This law is especially annoying
to motorists. These automobiles in the
air will be able to slip into the city at
any convenient point at any hour Of
the day or night. In fact, the people
of the European countries all along the
frontiers. are giving very serious
thought to these matters. They real
ize that geographical boundaries are
going to be destroyed. They know that
smuggling will be made the easiest
thing on earth and that the air will be
swarming with aeroplane spies and
scouts if military activity should call
their services into play"