Iditarod pioneer., 1916-10-28


 appearance in our issue of October II Of an article headed "They May Compel Him to Take That Contract" being g reproduce ton of Washington dispatch in which a New York congressman was quoted as dis cuesing bid from Earl Bycrs for aerial mail delivery as though it had been ac- crpted and stating that the first delivery would be announced soon. The introdUc- ten to the news item was as follows:
 While th" people cf Ifitarod have heard nothing further in regard to the aerial mail contract for which Earl ENers was the only bidder. and which was supposed to have been dropped, it seems that they are still talking about it in Washington. and if the fGit2rr1 man doesn't take care he may have contract thrust upon him willy nilly.
 It would take an extraordinary stretch of imagination to find anything offensive to even the keenest susceptib;lities in the erti- cle just quoted. The writer himself says it vas "rather amusing" which proves that it fulfilled its mission. It seems rather childish to seriously discuss 'the use of fcrce' to compel the carrying out Of con tract such as that under discussicn, and The Pioneer pleads guilty to having originated the idea. as suggested by the writer. We sincerely hope that we may not be compelled to resort to the use of diagrams to accom- pany stuff written in a lighter vein, as 8 newspaper like an individual, should not be expected to be always serious.
 We are compelled to strongly resent the charge that it is the policy of this news paper to "ridcule the idea of aerial mail service" And the doubt expressed as to .I, IL :, I,,, Cf loo l. of faith in me or because you think the scheme is impractical is begging the ques- tion The Pioneers faith CT lack of faith in Earl Bvers never has been factor in color ing anything printed by it relative to the proposed aerial mail service. As to our honor as a prophet, surely the gift of prophecy is not needed to predict that what can be done in the way of aerial navlga- tion in other countries can also be done ln Alaska The information vouchsafed in the letter relative to the possibilities of the aeroplane is interesting, but it is not news. Every newspaper reader is acquainted With the situation with reference to the demand for the machines and the outlook for the future. If Mir. Byers or any other person has anything new in the way of literature on the subject which would be ot pubic interest we will be glad to use it, just as was intimated to him personally when the aerial mail service first came under dis cussion. We had no knowledge of his pos session of valuable data on the subject; but we assure him that had we known of il it could not possibly have had any bearing on the publication of the article in ques | ton.
 Now the fact of the matter is that nc word of ridicule of the proposed aerial serv ice ever has appeared in these columns. Or the contrary, we have printed whatever Vt could get hold of that was of public interest and earnestly hoped for the introduction O such a service, which would be tremen dous boon to the country. Not only this but when influential and able men, just re turned from the Outside last spring, pro nounced the scheme of an aerial mail serv