The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1918-09-09
Bomb Berlin Next Spring
Allies Will Have Monster Planes, General Charles
=, Lee Saws,
From The Kansas q. CyitV Star

r. Lee Says.
From The Kansas. city Star.
Flying one mile or two or five above the earth
is just as prosaic and commonplace thing as
riding in a motor car along country road, and
not moro dangerous.
That is what Brigadier General Charles F. Lee
says, and he knows as much about it as anyone;
he has been at it siX years, and was selected by
the British government to head its aviation mis-
And right there he answered the question that
wouldn't wait
Can we bomb Berlin and If we can, why don't
Berlin is a little too far for our bombing
planes now. But next spring and summer We
will be dropping tons and tons Of bombs Ber-
lin and ali the German cities in between. We
will have the big bombing planes then.
To hear him tell of it. climbing up through
can't see your hand before you and must feel
your way along, is no more Of a feat than motor
ing along the Blue river bottom when a fog bank
lies thickly on the ground
NOW don't get the impression General Lee Is
the opposite. He is exceedingly modest. He
speaks in a low, almost gentle voice. He is very
much in earnest though. and positive about some
things, and one Of them is that the danger OF
flying has been tremendously exaggerated.
But you say to him, we read every day or
two Of fIier dropping to his death down there
at Kelly field, some other place, and even one
Of your own party was killed on the way here.
New View on Air Accidents. sr
He answers quickly, pulling at his mustache
with thumb and forefinger:
IF a fellow gets killed in Ford car you don't
see it placarded across the top of the papers.
Deaths from motoring are too frequent. But if
one is killed while flying everyone goes to look,
and the papers make great stories about it.
There isn't the danger about flying that peo-
who has written books and magazine stories
about flying, making out in faring description
that 1t is romantic and wonderful and daring.
It's absolutely commonlace and run business
lines. Because it is spectacular lots of people
try to make out that it is difficult and"
Hold on there general pardon the interrupt
he ivhT in aXyin bat ia mt n
dangerous, but when you say it is not difficult;
why not one man in ten thousand is qualified
physically and mentally to be a flier".
The general springs from his easy chair and
stands before you six feet tall in his army boots,
and shakes his finger at you to help emphasize
what he is going to say.
Says Anyone Can Fly.
"All bosh,'' he says ALI rot. 1t is perfectly
easy to teach anyone to fly. It's all nonsense;t
any average man Of any age can be taught to
Well, that's little too much. Here we've been
reading innumerable magazine and newspaper
stories about how they examine a thousand men
chairs and whirl them round: You're not going
to throw all that away without a protest. so it's
point your pencil at this hero Of the air and say:
Now you don't mean to say | could ever be
flier; I'm afraid even to look from a high
building; makes me dizzy.
That has nothing to do with it, nothing what
ever. Persons who get dizzy looking from tall
buildings make good fliers".
DO you get over it,?
You don't have to get over it: you never feel
it. When you go up in plane you have no
sense of height dizziness You are a part of
your machine and disassociated from the
earth and height. You feel secure You are not
afraid. Any average man will make a fIier the
time depending upon the machine and instructor
he has"
All right, give him that point but there surely
is great danger in it. Look at the adventures
the fliers have over there the battle front.
"P-o-u-f-f" for the Danger.
"P-o-u-f-f"!
The general blows it away with one 'p-o-u-f-f'
and a sweep Of his arms.
THE boys in the trenches could tell a hun
dred stories of adventure and of romance and
danger to flying mans one" he says. Il often
tell fellows when they talking of adj
venture that they ought to be in the trenches
day or two when a battle is going on They'd
more adventure and danger there than they
might in 3. year of flying. Why, in this country
alone we. fly 200,0 900 miles every day and you
hear of very few accidents. Airplane fighting
is clean fighting; you live IN good quarters over
there and nothing of the muck and CRIME and
in the aviation service can rest assured they are
in for clean fighting. All this stuff about the
danger in flying makes sick"
Let's change the subject. DO you think an
airplane will ever cross the Atlantic? you ask.
Says Planes Will Fly to Europe.
Why certainly he answers in matter-of-
fact tone. TT be crossed any time. It is
simply matter of enarging the tank suffi-
GENTLY to hold the required amount of gasoline.
There plenty of machines to do 1t now, and
men who would go any day If 1t We're necessary,
but it Is not necessary. 1t would be waste in
many ways.