New-York tribune., 1918-05-27
An Airplane Tale.


Although innocent, aircrafters were
lynched. as we know, and as nearly
everybody else now believes, it is per-
haps only fair to say that the lynchers,
too, may have been honest. Some of
them undoubtedly were. We never
treated seriously the Borglum charges
Of graft and pro-Germanism against
members of the Aircraft Board, but, on
the other hand. we have never believed
that Borglum himself was profiteer as
was later alleged by some of his victims.
nor that he was governed by gross and
unpatriotic motives.
1t was an extremely difficult situation
to understand. The Tribune's interest
in it began early. We had "a letter from
a Signal Corps officer at Dayton begging
us to come quickly and investigate the
greatest scandal the world had ever
known. A trained reporter was sent
there. After several days he began to
report by telegraph and his messages
were strange. He thought he was being
watched. He was expecting to be in
timidated How far did the office wish
him to go? We instructed him to come
in and report what he had found
His report was like "novie" running
backward, with one-third of the pictures
missing and one-third upside down
interesting and exciting, but inconclu-
sive. He had seen an enormous swamp
converted into a flying field, a million
dollar warehouse mile from any rail
road furniture that looked like ma
hogany in tiny officers quarters, and
proofs that men in uniform had traded
with themselves as civilians.
1t was very vague. We couldn't make
much of it and had put it aside, when
we began to hear from eminent citizens
of Dayton. They had heard that we
we're Investigating the aviation business.
They knew everybody connected with it,
and it was all sweet and clean, and
would we promise--if it was not going
beyond the line of ethics-that nothing
should be printed until the accused had
chance to speak for themselves? We
assured them that in making this re-
quest no ethical rule was fractured, but
that, in view of the anxiety of their
eminent friends, we felt obliged to renew
an investigation which we had been al
most minded to abandon.
Thereupon we engaged a special in
vestigator, James Arthur Seavey, a "New
York Sun" reporter cf the old school, and
sent him off to Dayton. The aircrafters
showed him anything he asked to see.
In due time he returned and wrote q
fascinating story of confusion of reck-
less waste, of extravagant mistakes. of
fantastic beginnings and interlocking
relationships. Dayton appeared to him
to be owned entirely by few men who
managed everything, including the air.
cra1t BUSINESS and who were too busy
to stop for minute while they changed
from civilian to military clothes, SO that
you could fairly establish the case of q
man serving for brief period both the
governments business and his own. It
was story which, with little more
emphasis here and the omission of some
trivial qualifications there, would have
created grand sensation.
But we said: "You have not proved
that the government has actually been
swindled."
can't prove it," he answered.
DO you believe it," we asked him.
No. he replied; 81 can't saw that T
oeleVe the government has really been
n swindled e'
4 Inc story was never printed. Our
opinion about it was this. You could
not found any business on scale ~ mn
pfecedented magnitude in precin;ta+a
naste without apparent shocking waste
Add the fact that the business to ha
= founded was itself entirely strange and
you have to grant in all fairness that
everything really proved might have
happened honestly Therefore. as no
graft could be directly alleged, it seemed
gratultous to cast opprobrium unon q
vital undertaking by printing a story
which to the undiscriminafinp r,;nS
would certainly suggest enormous profit
eering.
So much for that. Next we began n
hear from Borglum. He had been cow
missioned by the President to investicata
the aircraft muddle. Now, fancy a
sculptor walking about in that situation, (,
Gutzon Borglum does know mechanical
things. He knows lot about an air.
plane, and how it must be not Just an
engine and frame and then wings and
propeller added. but perfect and beau
t.ful synchronnation OF all of those