The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1911-09-19
THIS ONE IS TO Be FREE.


to the Aero Club of that city for the
aviation meet October 1 to inclus-
i've on condition that no admission
fee shall be charged.
The no-admission fee provision is
made possible because the Aero Club
of St. Louis is money-spending
rather than money making organiza-
ton. The 100 millionaires included
in it's membership would feel guilty
of professionalism, perhaps, unless
called upon to make up a deficit. So
the show is to be free to all, even
the formality OF obtaining an invi-
tation being unnecessary. All resi-
dents of the United States, and other
countries for that matter, may con-
slider themselves invited.
The Aero Club has promised flights
over the downtown skyscraper dis
trict and other sections of the city,
with the park as base, for the de-
lectation of the "overflow," 1913 acres
being considered insufficient to hold
all the people willing to attend free
show of this magnitude.
The general public many times has
proven it's Discrimination to pay for
what may be had free. At all past
aviation meets where an admission
fee mas been charged the outside
crowd has greatly outnumbered the
inside crowd. These outside crowds
cannot properly be called "overf1ow"
because they could be accommodated
on the aviation field, which sneces-
sarily is vast in area. =
Empty g"andstand seats are the
rule rather than the exception at
aviation meets, This impossibility
to screen the fiers from view by the
multitudes that gather outside &C.
counts for the big deficit last month
at Chicago, and also for the smaller
deficit at Kinloch aviation field, in
St. Louis county, last October, when
Hoxey, Brookins, LaBlanc and John
stone made successful flights, records
were broken, and several notables,
including former President Roosevelt,
were taken up for the first time.
Colonel Roosevelt's satisfactory st.
Louis flying experience inspired the
Aero Club officials with the belief
that if President Taft's St. Louis Wis
it could be arranged for the festival
week he would accept an invitation
to make trip into the air. But the
president has decided to visit St.
Louis September %. Even that ear
ly, however, he is not entirely i'm
mune from going up, as aeroplane
flights are almost daily occurrences
in St. Louis nowadays.
In fact, joy riding in the air at
night is the latest St. Louis diver
sion, introduced early this month,
when Albert Bond Lambert and Wal
ter Brookins went aeroplaning to-
gether by moonlight. A rumor gen.
orally credited is to the effect that
the Aero Club officials will anyhow
the hoodoo "23"
which is the date of the Taft visit
to St. Louis-make an effort to raise
the president in a biplane.
The park at which the. free meet
will be held is Playground, an oblong
plain whose east end faces Grand
avenue and whose south side faces
Natural Bridge Road St. Louis has
four parks larger than Playground.
These include Forest Park having
1871 acres, where Curtiss and others
made unsuccessful attempts to fly
during the St. Louis Centennial Gel
ebration two years ago.
But Playground is considered. par
ticularly, fitting for flights, because,
according to aviation experts, it is
one of the finest natural aviation
fields in America. Kinloch field, the
aero clubs regular aviation ground,
was, after the successful meet there
last October. pronounced by aviators
the finest field they ever had ascend
ed from, but is several miles from the
city, while Playground is in the city.
The accessibility of Playground
may be judged by residents of other
cities from its proximity to the base