The Washington herald., 1920-06-13

"TT MAY not be known generally that the
United States leads all other nations
at the present time in the number OF air
planes actually engaged in civilian pursuits
and in the number of aerial transportation
lines being organized" Alan r. Hawley,
worlds champion balloonist and famous
aeronautical leader, was saying, "but it Ii
q fact of which every flying devotee is
proud"
More than 5000 pilots certificates issued
In this country, with 10000 more pilots
licensed in Great Britain. France and Italy,
with prizes aggregating 81, ,OGo, 900 open this
summer to the competitive fiers of all ma
tions,'' chimed in Augustus Post, secretary
of the Aero Club of America, who recently
returned from Europe, where he made an
extensive study of civilian flying plans.
Tell the public, too, that the demand for
aircraft for civilian purposes in this coun-
try is so enormous that American aircraft
manufacturers will not be able to supply
more than fraction of the demand during
added Henry Woodhouse, an ardent patron
of the art and business of flying ever since
the day the Wright brothers first lifted of
the ground at Dayton early in the present
century.
Put this down also for the skeptics who
said flying never could be made safe for
America and all the world" was the re-
joinder of Major Thomas Scott Baldwin, the
first balloon parachute jumper and more
recently the perfecter of aerial safety de-
vices. PLANES that will not capsize, ma
chimes that will not burn, all steel air par
lor cars that can crash to earth without
being smashed up and smashing up their
occupants, improved parachutes with which
a man or woman may leap into space and
drift safely and accurately to any desired
landing place"
Take trip around the world as safely
as though travelling in the best protected
railway train, but very much cheaper and
altogether much faster" put in Lieutenant
Colonel John D. Carmody, of the United
States army.
"Selling air machines for your Uncle Sam
IN the Navy Department as fast as we can
put them together and ship them away
u,
everywhere" piped up Commander H. K.
McCay, from the Philadelphia Navy Yard.
One after another representative leaders
In the realm Of American aviation were
reeling off the latest news in the way Of
civilian aeronautical developments the world
over. Quietly yet forcefully, while the world
at large is engrossed in all manner of mum
dane projects, the promoters of aviation are
L.
earth taking to wings for the solution of its
transportation problems just as the prophets
and the poets anticipated many moons ago.
nUDDHA smiled while all this conversa-
ID ton was going on. Buddha lived more
than 25OO years ago, but Buddha has his
nrototypes today in the many images that
are brought into this country by the art
connoisseurs from the Buddhist temples Of
far off India and Burmah. A score or more of
these idols sat grouped about the tearoom
of the Hotel Ambassador on the Atlantic
CITY Boardwalk, legs crossed, eyes widely
aslant. intently listening while the disciples
of aviation spun their yarns of epochal air
.ch;svements. Scions of an Oriental civiliza-
t;on that lourished centuries ago, they COM
nosad an interesting portion of George Hoyt
Aliens collection of antique buddhas put on
view for the summer.
Was IL not natural that these images
should lend attentive ears to what was
being said by this group Of recognized aero
nautical leaders anent the latest conquests
of the air? Was it not Buddha himself who
enunciated the doctrine of the transmigra-
ton of souls? We were here through
no fault of ours. We would continue to
be born over and over. The next state into
which we were born would depend upon how
we used our present life. So reasoned
Buddha. What, then, so probable but that
the birds that lived in Buddha's time had,
ir the natural evolution of time, by the
simplicity Of their lives and the sweetness
of their songs, climbed into the souls Of the
mighty machines that wing their way un-
erringly from hemisphere to hemisphere,
linking up the ages sold civilization Of Burma
and India with continental Europe, ready
now for the conquest of the Pacific that will
bring Orient and Occident into intimate con-
tact?
A squawking seagull fitted along the
beach front. Closely behind it, its ap-
proach heralded by a healthy, steady roar
of gasoline engines, lurched a mighty sea =
plane. The Buddha statues watched the
two in silence, their minds wandering back
through the ages.
MEANWHILE the modern birdmen pur.
A'4 sued their own fascinating conversation
all unmindful of the silent figures md their
inaudible meditations. By rare chance had
some upon half q dazea of the world,