The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-02-16
COMMERCE BY
 AIR DEPENDS UPON CONGRESS

aerial navigation became a reality in the United States during the past year. The sudden cessation of hos tiIities at the close of 1913. threw hundreds of aiFplanes into the mar ket and many of these were pur- chased by private companies and re- modelled for commercial use. Air plane manufacturers, whose energies had been devoted exclusively to the making of war machines, also turned their attention to the commercial possibilities of aircraft and have per fected several standard commercial types. It is estimated that there are more than 2,o00 privately owned air. craft in the United States.
 Five regular passenger routes were established; the airpIa.ne mail ser- vice, inaugurated, May Is, 1913, be- tween New York and Washington as an experiment., was extended to Cleveland and Chicago and put on a, definite basis; and scores of private firms purchased aircraft and utilized them for the delivery of merchandise and newspapers and for conducting aerial forest surveys and patrols.
 Still greater strides were made in Europe and Australia where there are few thickfy populated centsrs that do not boast of regular aerial commercial traffic, either by airplane or dirigible, or both. The delay in the development of aeronaudcs in this country was attributed by the Manufacturers Aircraft Association today to "the failure of the United States government to establish land ing fields, enact regulatory legisla- ton and adopt any fixed policy"
 Inspired by aircraft manufacturers, Chambers of Commerce in at least 50 rfalz tn e municipal landing fields for aircraft, built on specified lines as plotted by city planners and officials of the army air service, which has assumed unofficial supervision over the pro- ject, pending the adoption of Fedora regulatory legislation.
 Regular passenger routes already established in this country are be tween New York and Atlantic City Mobile and New Orleans, Key Wes and Havana, San Francisco and Los Angeles, and Los Angeles and Sar Diego. Lack of adequate termina facilities is considered one of the principal handicaps to aerial com mercial traffic development. If aeria transportation is to become universal aircraft manufacturers point out tha1 there must be established adequate airdomeS with definitely marked SlIA centers and with facilities for hous- ing the airmen and their machines and providing them with fuel and repairs At the hegiht of 5000 feet, consid- cred the minimum at which com rnercial planes of the future Wil travel, especially over cities, 1t is SC forth that an airplane, the motor O which has become stalled, could vol plane or glide a distance of four t' five miles in a horizontal direction.
 In addition to the regular routes { company at Seattle has started an in \ .ternationaI air mail, operating be tween that city and Vancouver, B c. Several lumber companies in the northwest are using the afrplane fol forest patrols and surveys. A New ark, N. J., department store delivered merch andise by airplane to customer in Asbury Park last summer while large Chicago clothing house made speciality of delivering clothes to col lege students within @ 1Oo-nil radius of that city. A Canadian avi ator carried 400 pounds of furs fror Toronto to Newark, N. J., stopping a Clayton, N. Y, to pay customs du ties on them. The Navy conducte experiments in guiding fishing crat by airplane at Gloucester while tn army conducted a coast atrplane pa trO1 between New YorK ana NeWpol News, Va
 One of the strangest uses for whic the airplane is being considered
 the spreading of the gospel in u Congo states of Africa. A lars American manufacturer received
 request for prices from the Cons mission of the Church of the Disc would not be revived at this sessio And yet, he says the British measu as proposed was for more fiber and contained far more qualtfyil clauses than did the measure whit passed the House.
 '"rhe United States is at prese producing and selling abroad me Chandise valued at near $8,000, OO( O0e while 1t is importing in retu
 merchandise amounting to less tn; S40O0, 100000 and in this Eatt amount, manufactured goods req
 for consumption are but nomina, said MT. Hull. "Our imports of SUI
 manufactured goods are but lit over $425, 5,O0O,oO0 per annun wh