Norwich bulletin., 1918-12-04
FACTS AND COMMENT

Strings of motor cars making their way across country have been com
 mSn sights iii these days 6f. congested freight conditions, but the delivery of aer5plaf1es en the wings Of tlis wind is novel enough to call for more than passing attention. Last week the Dayton Wright Co. received afl order to deliver q De aHaviland=4 in Wash ington, and Saturday morning two of the company's officers Stepped into the fusilage and flew to New York without stopping. lighting at Mifie6la field by mid afternoon in ample time to keep the dinner and theatre engagemefits
 made that, morning by long distance
 phone The $50 miles was made be- tween Ii .a. m. afid BIO 5. ii at an average speed of 1S2 miles an hour
 The following day the trip to Wash ington was resumed and the 224 miles were covered in just over two hours, after Which the wind footed messen- gers had t6 spend eighteen Hours on an express train back to Ohio.
 The feature of this trip was that it was made by an ordinary plane in the regular course of business. The ma chine was the standard army plane Of the type that has served Pershins $ army for the last four months with signal success. It was driven by a 400 horse power f2=cylif1der Liberty motor
 the same motor that suffered so much unjust criticism by reason 6f prena- ture and injudicious advertising but which at last has been making good both here and abroad .Aeforlaries have reached a degree of perfection under national emergencies that they might not have attained iii a genera tiof1 under ordinary conditions. The personnel for a great air service is also at hand as a by product of tie great wal Flying has been efianged frSm a sport toa business and thousands of enlisted men who would in ordinary circumstances have finished their ea- reers on terra firma will retire. to pri- vate life as trained aviators, who .hav- ing once felt the intoxication of f1yins will never be content to give up tSe fascinating art
 The frequent and substantial in- cFeases in pay to one class of railway employees after another has already reached the point Where the stifn total can only be. found in the f1ieasureless reservoir of national taxation. The administration will find it exceedingly unpopular to reduce the pay Of these millions. Of employees, and, backed by the forces. of organized labor, seefis l liltdy. to declare eventually that gov ernrnent ownership is a. necessity. Senator J Hamilton Lewis of Indiana the democratic floor leader in the sefi- ate and generally considered the bresi= dents spokesman in that body; has already Introduced a resolution that the senate go on record as faverifg the permanent retention Of the prop critics now operated by the govefIi- mefit as a war measure. It is also shrewdly suspected that opposition to 1 this course to which the adf11inistra- tion now seems definitely c5frimitted 1 is the real cause of Secretary Me 1 Ad6o's retirefnett from the cabinet. It viii be recalled in like fnafitier that | Secretary of War Bakers predecesSgT | in the Wilson cabinet, Lindley N. Garrison. considered at the time the strongest member Of the adninistra i ton withdrew himself from the presi- dents council and confidence when he could no longer approve of his chiefs | course in .safietionirg the unwise and ] impractical measures for federaliziilg 1 the national guard as introduced and advocated by southern members of the l democratic party. The evef1t amply proved the soundness of Mr. Garfi i sons position and it may well be that
 Secretary McAdoo's eEpefienee ifl con stFdcting and managing phHlic .dtilits plants has shown him the unWisdem 6i the administrators eoufse and made l him unwilling to be longer a member of party that seems headed straight
 for state socialism.
 The presidents message to consfes: on the eve of his departure for France contains little in the way of definite suggestion as to the needs of the na-
 ton MT. Wilson frankly states thar he has no confident Judgment of hi,
 own with regard to' tfie railroads bu that it is the duty of congress to de
 Hberate- and decide what must bt done. It is unusual to find any sub
 ject on which the president has failed
 to have very decided opinion Thef' is ample reefn for believing that whi1, Burlesef1, Lewis ct al are permitted to express their leanings publicly, til,
 administration thus fefrains iron
 committing itself until it is clear hoy the country takes the proposition.
 The president speaks Of the reason
 able. desire of the allied government
 for his personal counsel in the inter pretation and application of the basi
 for peace as laid down by him and ac
 eepted by all the parties in the feeen
 struggle, thus giving the first. hin
 that his foreign trip is not wholly ol
 his own initiative The people in gen eral, however. and the senate in par
 ticular feel that the retiaence of tn
 president as to his part at the peae
 conference is unnecessary and ill
 advised. and that before he presume
 to speak for America he should a
 least try to learn what America wishe
 to say. All in all, the message is ,
 disappointment. At a most importan