The daily Alaska citizen., 1919-08-22

tire flying corps almost without exception, was made up of national army men who are to be released by the war department within the next two months, notwithstanding that many ot them, according to Senator WadSworth want to remain in the service
 This action of the war department is surprising in view of the situation in Mexico and of our former experience in sending an eXpeditionary force across the border without adequate air support But this is not the .only surprising thing about the condition in which the air service will be left by the break up of the emergency organization. At the mo- ment when this is taking place congress is approprating 25 million dollars in the army bill for an air service. The house fixed the amount at ; millions which was increased by the senate to 45 millions. The 25 millions stand as the result of a conference com promise.
 While the amount is not great, compared to the expenditures we became accustomed to in the war it would seem it should provide a considerable personnel for actual flying IoperatiOns-t beng remembered that the war department already has the equipment. There are now, according to figures given in the sen ate, three thousand planes in storage. About an equal number have been sold at prices ranging as low as 10 per cent of their actual cost.
 But we learn from Senator WadsWorth that this 25 million dollars will not provide any fliers. Not one will be added to the small number-a dozen is the highest estimate the military committee chairman would make now contained in the regular army organza- tion. What, then is the 25 million dollars to go for The answer is, for administrative work. It seems incredible but here are Sen ator WadSworth's words: "There will not be Ia single emergency officer in the army after September 30 because of the limited appro- priaton made This will have the effect of cutting down the number of the officers in the air service to 232 All of these will be needed for administrative duties, so in effect we will have no fers at all There may be ten or a dozen in the regular army who can be spared from administrative work for fly ing but that is all"
 For 25 million dollars, then, we are to get twelve fliers and 232 administrative off cers, or deskmen These are not flying desks either, but the ordinary kind that stand on the floor That is, in round tgi1res, twenty desks and twenty administrative officers to each plane and each flier. And even these twelve tliers are not regular fliers. They, too, are administrative officers, but might occasionally be 'spared' for flying duty in pinch.
 The ordinary layman will find it hard to understand what there is to administer in flying service that doesn't fly. The arny's three thousand planes are in storage They ,,,l,+ ot such administration which ought to be had for something less than 25 million dol lars-What other administrative duties does their. care demand? These planes cost more money than can readily be reckoned At least a billion dollars. They are now laid up in a shed-those that have not been sold at tre nendous loss-and the men trained to fly them, at further huge cost, have been dis charged, The army is, or is about to be- with out any air service at all at time when inter vention in Mexico, perhaps on an extended scale, is openly discussed as near possibility. Twelve flers-who would leave the admins trative forces cripped-and 232 other admin istrative officers who would have to do their own work and that of the twelve, are all the army would have for air support The other Z,9oo planeS WnlCn nave no fllerS would re main in the she'd
 Is this the kind of an air service Ameri ca is to get out of its war expenditure and its war lessons? An administrative service mere ly-without fliers-at a cost of 25 million dollars and its planes kept in warehouse?
 The other day man walked into an ern ployment agency in Chicago and got job at S4 day. It's thing that happens every day, hundreds of times day. Yet every paper in|