The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1912-05-10
Is The Proposition Of Con-
gresham Sharp
Wants II Tried Out By The
Post Office Dept.
With Appropriation Of $780,.
600 For That Purpose

Mr., Sharp Believes That This
viii Be First Step
In Revolution OF Carrying OF
Mail And Of Passengers
Congressman Sharp is an enthusi-
astis believer in the aeroplane or 9th
er air craft rs a practical medium for
the transportation of mail. When
the house had under consideration
the postofIice appropriation bill, he
offered an amendment appropriating
$4,000 TO be expended for that pur-
poee, and made a speech in support
OF it. The postofilce department had
recommended such an appropriation
but the committee having the bill in
charge ignored the recommendation.
Congressman Sharp took up the de-
partments side OF the question on
the floor of the house. He made this
prophecy:
Inside of the next twelve months
at the furthest the next two years
we will find that the subject of
transporting the mail by aeroplane or
via the air route will demand a very
important part of the attention of
congress in making up future appro-
priation bills for the postoffice de.
partment"
Congressman Sharp pointed out
that the experiment made last fall
by Postmaster Hitchcock during
ten days trial of transporting mail
by aeroplane was a success, more
than 10000 pieces of mail having
been carried satisfactorily, without
delay and without hitch" A few
weeks before Postmaster Hitchcock
made the experiment it had been
made in both England and France
with equally good results.
The field of aviation, he said,
"has been already so far explored
in the way of experiments that avIa-
tors have succeeded in travelling sev.
eral hundred miles without stopping
and also in carrying a weight con-
siderably in excess of 1000 pounds.
A flight from London to Paris,
distance of $50 miles, was made
without a stop, by French aviator,
in less than three hours, one half the
press train to make the distance"
Continuing, he said: Aviation is
relatively yet in its infancy. l believe
the time will come when it will be
possible for us to rapidly transport
by this means of locomotion thous-
ands of pounds of mail. The cost Of
aeroplanes, ($5O,OO0 to $60,000), is so
insignificant that it is hardly worth
mentioning Nowhere can
we bring about economical conditions
more than along this line of encour-
aging and developing competition
with railway companies and steam
boat companies in the carrying of
mails. Today we are paying the rail
way companies in the United States
something like $47,O00,000 annually
for transporting our mail In addi-
tion to that great sum we are paying
*** nearly $4,S0O.O0O for the rental
of postal cars.
1T seems to me that in the line of
economy this congress can not make
better stroke, or take a greater step
in advance, than to now give the de-
partment the modest sum of $4,000
which it has asked, partly, if you
please, for experimental purposes,
but practically, withal, to facilitate
the carrying of mail. If we
invest this sum Of money in the mir
ing of aeroplanes, hydroplanes, and
other air craft as contemplated in
my amendment, believe that it will
be the first step not only in largely
revolutionizing our method of trans
porting passengers and light freight.
1t will also be great agent toward
the saving of life"
So many miracles are being per-
formed nowadays on the earth and
sea, and in the air, that Congressman
Sharps suggestion that the mails
be transported through the air does
| not strike the close observer as at
all visionary, but as an extremely
practical solution of question that
! has so far hafled Yankee Ingenuity