Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1914-03-08

Germany, England France, Japan and other nations have seized upon the aeroplane as an auxiliary to the uu- tional defense the appropriations by this government have been most limit ed. The pending army appropriation bill carries but $250,000 for aeroplane purchase and development, and this amount is twice that appropriated last year.
 '''Fi The United States" says Repre- sentative .L'Engle, has 12 absolute man-killng aeroplanes and nary d- 1 rigible.' This is the position Uncle Sam is ill., says Mir. L'Engle, who compares the United States with a 1 careless whistling schoolboy. "He is | going merrily along digging the Pana- ma canal next door to the equator; planning to build a railroad just this side of the North Pole; propagatng the peace propaganda; oiling up his half-million dollar quirt-gun to shoot insecticide on the microbes that give hogs the stomach ache; smiling with paternal indulgence at the manifes- tation of that weird, intangible but none-the- less militant and ponderous thing known as Senatorial Dignity that prompts Wearers of the toga to insist upon walking in ahead of wearers of the erminc and wearers of most everything else at public func tions; spending his money like a horse owner digging out sandbars to make harbors that will make little little cities big cities and big cities little cities.
 "While Uncle Sam is doing this, his neighbors across the ocean have hundreds and shortly will have thou sands of machines which they can bring over here in the hold of a sin gle vessel made for the purpose turn them loose at sea beyond the reach of land batteries ard before war vessels can find out what is go- ing on-and drop three or four dozen bombs on our vessels or blow a hole in the middle of any of our great cities.
 ''It costs fifteen million dollars to 1 build a battleship these days. It will cost more than this amount to build and take care of one thousand aero planes and to teach men to use them. France hasf1 DOC aeroplanes; England 700 and three times as many build ing; Germany has 900; Japan 3Q0;, Italy 250 Russia has 800 and twice as many more buildIAg, speaking in round numbers, all maintained for war. These nations have fair sprink ling of dirigibles."
 "England, France, Russia and Ger many spent more than million dol lars apiece this year on air machines for war. and this country proposes to spend $250,O00 for the same purpose" he says.
 @"There is nc suse in shutting our <
 eyes to the fact that the heavierthan- air machine has developed to point that it can make long flights and car ry weights ranging from 200 to 1000 pounds, and even 10000"
 Under the terms of the L'Engle bill the government would offer $5O, 900 prize to the inventor or designer of the most practical and efficient en- zine for the aeroplane Representa- tive L'Engle estimates that with an initial apfropriation of $15, 900, 900 the aeroplane llete of the United States may be maintained at a cost of $1,- | O0,000 annually. He contends it is foolhardy to spend approximately $95,- OOO, ,OO0 year on the army and &14O,- ! ,OOO on the navy and only a few 1 thousand on the most modern instru- ment of warfare-the aeroplane.