Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-08-08
BIG THING FOR CITY

| the early days. Camp Curtin being
a center of military movements
and organization during the en-
tire period of the Civil War. Camp
Meade the headquarters of the Sec
ond Army Corps in the war with
| Spain. and now ground adjacent to
the site of old Camp Meade has been
leased by the government for the
erection of aeroplane, wireless and
machine gun depots. Before many
weeks the "put-put-put" of the air.
craft may be as common hereabouts
as the chug-chugging of the auto
mobile. This government enterprise
ought to prove q big thing for the
industrial life of the city, giving en-
ployment to q large number of men
and bidding fair to become perma-
nent, the lease giving the govern
ment the privilege of purchase.
1t is to be hoped. also, that the
plans of the owners of the ground
adjacent for the erection of an aero
plane factory may also materialize.
The aeroplane industry is in its in"
fancy. The government alone within
spend S64O,OO0,oo0 for aeroplane
Equipment and the number of manu-
featuring plants adapted to the
making of aircraft is limited.
Captain Earl Hamilton Smith, sec
retary OF the National Aerial Coast
Patrol Commission, in a recent ar
ticle on the big building program,
says that while the automobile in
dustry can be utilized for aircraft
making, the field for private manu-
facture is wide open. For time
genuine fear was felt by American
aeroplane companies that the en-
trance of the automobile industry
into the equation might put them out
cruel fate for pioneer organizers who
have struggled along for years wholly
on their own slender resources and
without the substantial support
which they had right to expect from
their government, and which they
did not get until the appropriation
in August, 1916, of S1S,000,000 for
army and navy aeronautics.
It is evident now, however. that
these aeroplane companies will have
to double and treble their plants to
handle the increased business which
they are qualified to take care of.
and it is expected that there will also
be plenty of orders for all new COM
panies which can show sound financ.
ing, proper facilities and skilled per-
sonnet 1t is thought that the new
companies, when they are properly
organized and up to standard, at first
will be given orders for spare parts.
This in itself will amount to vol
ume of business totaling $50, 900, 900,
Captain Hamilton believes, to supply
the heavy and unavoidable wastage
in the British and French and Italian
air services.
The air program will be billion
dollar proposition within year this
authority contends, for the reason
that the money already appropriated
will not be enough. The total
amounts to-day are 1894, 900.
There will also be the 500, 0,000,00O
which the Navy Department has just
asked at the eleventh hour, plus the
S11, 100000 it already has. The Navy
side. however. is another story alto
gether. The Army budget of nearly
500, 100000 will all be spent or con-
tracted for by August s, 1918, and
the net result by the opening of the
as 5000 American battleplanes ac-
tually in the war zone. In addition to
a large number of training machines.
Thus, this huge sum, ana easily
$500, 900, 900 more. when made avail
able, will merely lay the foundation
for our much talked of campaign to
win the war in the air"
This foundation work, neverthe-
less, is all important, and the sit
uation at present gives promise that
never has money been better spent.
AS a result, If the carefully laid plans
work out, the United States will be
turning ont 1000 aeroplanes a month
by a year from now. which means
that we should have $4,000 in the
war zone when the 1919 campaign
opens.
The man who puts his money into
aeroplane building, providing he has
machine of which the government
approves and his project is amply
financed, is not only shrewd busi-
ness man but a patriot as well.