The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1913-10-05
.HERR|Ck ATTENDED
LYONS EXHIBIT
Promised His Hearty Support and
Urges American Cities to Take
an Active Part
In It.
AvIATIoN's NEW ERA
Hirdmen Of France Say Flying Has
Passed the Dangerous Stage
and is Now
Safe.

[By William Philip Sims, Paris cor
respondent of the United Press.1
PARIS, Oct. Ambassador Myron
4. Herrick has just returned from a !
second visit to Lyons where the great
municipal exposition is to be held
In 1914 and at which most of the i'm
portant American cities will be repre-
sented.
Il should like to see as many Am
erican municipalities as possible take
part In this extremely interesting ex-
position Ambassador Herrick de.
clared, and / have promised my hearty
support to Mayor Herriot OF Lyons.
1T is an honor to American cities
to be invited to participate in this
event, for 1T is intended to be educa-
tional in civic way, and to show the
world as nearly as possible what mo-
del cities should be like. The warmth
of the invitation extended to the Unit
ed States shows that Europe sees and
appreciates what we are doing in the
way of lettering conditions In munich
pal government, and though no doubt
we have had bad examples, our cities
are far from being bad and things
generally are improving.
Much work has already been ac.
complished on the site of the Lyons
exposition. Fire-proof buildings are
going up, steel and stone being large
ly used There will be little or no
danger of fire and the most valuable
articles may be exposed there with
perfect safety
Herriot extends special invitation
to our cities to come and see what
European municipality, administered
with initiative, can accomplish. A cor
dial welcome, he declares, will be ac-
corded them at Lyons in 1914. which
exposition, as he puts it, is to be a
preface to the exposition at San Fran
cisco later.
Perhaps from the viewpoint of a
municipality, the most interesting fea.
ture of the exposition will be the inter
national congress of cities to be held
in one of the great auditorinms. At
these the questions Of organization and
administration of cities and all city
departments, will be gone into by ex-
perts from all parts of the world"
The mayor Of Lyons has expressed
his thanks to the American ambassa-
dor for his visit and asked him to re-
iterate that American cities will be
given cordial reception in the capital
of middle France next year.
Had anything been needed to put
new life into aviation, the perpendicu-
lar side-wise, loop-the-loop and upside
down flights of Aviator A. Pegoud in
his Bleriot would have done it. But
since the art was already very much
alive. the almost superhuman, and en-
tirely superfowl, acrobatics of the lat
est marvel have put new ginger into
the game.
French birdmen declare the second
era of flying has begun. The first had
taken them to point where they
could fly well and accidents were com.
paratively few, but sportsmen still
stuck to the ground for the most part
because the air, at best, was treach
erous element. The second era. thew
/ say now just beginning, will make com.
mercial navigation of the air profitable
and sure, and aerial touring as safe
as it is at present by automobile.
Even conservative Henry Farman
now declares:
THE new upside down flights OF
Pegoud and similar tricks, don't sur
prise me in the least for | have long
contended that an airman is perfectly
safe In the air in a cyclone which
would carry away buildings. Actual
experience, during the past two or
three years has tended to prove that
SO long as an aviator does not lose his
head, even if his machine turns turtle,
his situation is not necessarily hope
less. We have seen instances of ac-
cidental capsizing where the aviator
was able to right his machine. What
Pegoud had done, however, is to prove
in an Intentional tryout, that bird
man may turn upside down, or get
AiAeO uiiiioSG ony OlHei pUSltlOu LII Inc
air. and still right his machine and
land without harm to himself or craft.
What Pegoud, therefore. has done, has
given the public confidence. Others
can do what he has done now and they
won't be SO ready to give up the ship
as soon as it turns over.
1t is agreed that a certain height is
necessary, but once at say 1000 feet,
blow as the wind may and turn turtle
as an aeroplane might, If the plane is
strongly built and the pilot keeps his
nerve, he is comparatively safe
All kinds of "Pegoud' experiments
are being carried out on the aero
dromes about Paris and a new school
of birdmen is being turned out. Pc.