Martinsburg W Va evening journal. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1913-1920, 1920-01-30
Daily
Editorial
Digest
(Title Appld for U. S. Pat Off
Edited by the Washington
Feature Service
DAVID LAWRENCE, Prest.
NO NOR
AIR MAIL?

Congress seems reluctant to make
further appropriations for airplane
mail service, many members beliey-
ing that such service is needlessly
expensive. This opinion is shared
by the Utica Observer Oem.) which
points out that the House postal
committee finds the service of lit
tie practical value except as an aero
nautical experiment" and adds:
This has been the observation Of
business. The carrying of mail by
flying machine is a curiosity, a fad,
a somewhat novel thing, but ii is of
little practical value. When great
haste is required in a business or
private communication in these times
the telegraph or telephone is used
The ordinary mails are reasonably
speedy and satisfactory, while the
air mail is unreliable. To spend large
SIMS upon it without securing great
er return is one of the eXtrayagant
proposition of the time
But many ether opinions are sharp
~ at variance with this. The Char
lotte Observer (Ind. DEM for eX-
ample, thinks that The people today
would be no less impatient with Z
proposition to hold the mail service
10 the railroads than they would
have been Years ago over PROPOSE.
ton to keep tie mail service con.
lHed 10 steamboats, and stage coach
eS Furthermore. this authority
tells us that contrary to public I'M
\ derstandinG, airplane nail is cheap
aT than railroad mail" and that the
air mail service has papid for itself
II the sale OF special ajrplaue pos
age and the saving OF car space
hld cost OF distribution in trains. 3"
Even if operated at loss" says
The Indianapolis News Qnd.). sup.
porting this opinion, 1T should be re-
taiaed and extended" for the cOun.
try must support the aviation in.
dustry' and the demand for air
planes for sporting, exhibition and
commercial purposes is not large
enough to keep this country abreast
ef the minor powers in the air. The
government must patronize the in
dustry as safeguard in case of
war. A similar view is taken by
the Grand Rapids Press Und.) which
declares that the delivery of mail
by airplane is not only a business
convenience but would keen in SER
vice skilled aviators who could be
drawn upon by the country in an
emergency and would greatly en-.
courage the BUILDING OF airplanes 81
and that unless Congress grants ap-
preparations for carrying on the ser
vice the industry can pull through
'only because Of the pluck and per-
sonal sacrifices of the manufacturers
who are now holding exhibits. akin
TO the automobile shows. in various
cities in the hope that private inter
est in aeronautics may be aroused g"
The United States has been no.
tOriously negligent in the matter of
developing the airplane." the Omaha
Bee (Rep9 submits. "Airhoueh il
was an American triumph that prac-
ueal tl2ht was proved possible We
h2. -lloWed Europeans TO surpass
rs Ill every point OF the road to its
adoption for services. Oar fustered
efforts To repair this omission on en-
trance to the war turned out 70 be
tremendously costly and not alto
aether creditablo performance. The
S85O,oQ0 stricken from the bill
should he restored.
The Atlanta Journal Dam) saws
that nowhere in the world has the
record OF the aerial mali in the mat.
ter of economy been equalled. The
cost OF operation las been 81 coats
per mile. This cost includes ev-
cry piece of material ald every min
ute of time entering into the repair
and uphoep of the planes" The
Journal says further that 22.254490
letters have been carried Oh the
three established routes, advancing