The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1919-05-02

towns. would have been bombed from stations be-
hind the allied front In France.
For instance, Gabrielle dAnnunzio the Italian
poet and aviator. succeeded in reaching Vienna
with Caproni and in demonstrating to the Wen
nese that Italy had plane capable Of dropping
bombs on them. D'AnnunZo did not drop bombs
on his famous raid; he scattered thousands OF
pamphlets informing the people Of Vienna that
they were supporting the wrong government in the
great war 1t was an object lesson whose effect
was great In breaking Austrian morale
Vienna was not quite as far from the allied lines
as Berlin. The flight D'Annunzio made was some
thing less than thousand miles. But he went
heavily loaded and returned successfully.
caproni Pledges His Future.
1--WE have vanQuished our common enemy" Ca
prom says, but our task aircraft makers Is by
no means finished. We must not stop. perfect
system of airplanes will be wonderful safeguard
to any nation as protection against new out
bursts, on the part Of irresponsible powers
against civilization and humanity.
Personally ! am going to contribute all my
strength to development Of the winged giant
which proved the most powerful and telling wea-
pom Of our just and sacred war.
Our plant will be maintained at full strength.
We will keep the thousands Of workmen who were
busy here under full strain when the armis.
tice ended hostties. We will not 20 back under
any circumstances to that pre-war status when
the workmen In our plant numbered dozens rather
than Thousands:
Caproni CAME into the air game as an engineer
ing student in that period when the Langley ma
chine launched under unfavorable circum-
stances and when the Wrights making their
wonderful flights with the first real airplane The
idea of flying fred Capronis Imagination.
Il will never forget" he said the other day
"the profound impression created in me on read
ing newspaper accounts Of the first Wright
flights From that time until today have dedi.
Gated myself to the new science of flying"
Capron will call his plane the White
Eagle. The name Is linked to a strange prophecy
published In Rome Italy in 1915. which Is at
tributed to an English monk Of the seventeenth
century. The prophecy asserted that In the TWEEN.
tieth century there would be great world war,
started by the diabocal cleverness Of an emperor
OF the country Of Martin Luther in alliance with
uniforms and on their national escutcheons two
black eagles. 1t added that civilization would de-
feat and throw out the barbariAns whose empirea
would be divided into 70 states.
It IL inferred that the White Eagle II Intended
to typify the American bird.
The poet w. Lewis has made the event the suh
,ect Of a poem which has been set to music. The
whole was presented with a beautiful alleroric.l
design to President Wilson when he was in Milan
II was a result Of his admiration Of the poem and
the design artisticaily suggestive that Caproni
decided on the name Of White Eagle for his now
and gigantic plane
II "a asserted that the aviators who will mai.
tho tr,p intend to follow the route Of Columhns
across the sea- They wllAny from Italy to Cabs.
thence to the Azores an0lrom the Asores to the
American coast anghtins In the neighborhood of
Washington.
Hundreds of men have lost their lives In the
dangerous business Of trying out new planes and
attempting to make new records The list IL loas