The Topeka state journal., 1922-12-19
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIc J. HAsKIN. DtrecsOr.
Washington, d. Q.
NATIONAL AERIAL DAY
PROPOSED

White anu d OtA VI
Jerusalem ivy. TWentG-four Army
and Navy officers stood at attention
close by. From overhead came the
throb of five planes flying in form
alton, while in the background a
crowd of some 500 onlookers watched
From this grave the young aviator
and her little company went TO tine
other 40 fliers' graves in the national
cemetery, and last TO the grave or the
unknown soldier. leaving each time
the three floral tributes.
The young woman who paid this
honor to the aviators who have given
their lives for the country was Lillian
came East by the air mail route from
San Francisco to New York, thereby
becoming the first woman to fly
across the country.
Miss Gatlin has been flying since
1911, and she considers herself one of
the pioneers Many of the aviators
who were her friends have crashed
to earth, leaving mothers, who, had
been so proud of them, suddenly
broken. Because she gets the point
ofView both of the aviatorS who flew
until they crashed in spite of every
thing and of the mothers the left,
the cause of proving that the fliers
are not forgotten
She has just asked President Hard
ing to permit her to designate the
national aerial day, when tribute may
be paid to the gold star mothers of
aviation and their sons. Her plan has
the Official approval of Major Pat
rick, chief of the army air service,
and of Rear Admiral Moffe&&r chief
of the Naval Air Service.
To stop in the midst of our busy
whirl to place a flower on a grave
once each year and think about men
who have done their work and gone
on may seem a sentimental thing to
some. The strictly practical minded
would agree with Vachel Lindsay that
ITO live in mankind is far more than
to live in a name"
But most people cannot take SO
Spartan view. The fact remains
that almost every individual, however
unpretentiouS, Graves to be remem-
bered either for his personality or for
his achievements. Miss Gatlin points
out that the man who provides in his
will for a tombstone generally does
so because he is afraid no one else
will erect a stone for him, and that
his name will be forgotten. The
carved name on a stone is his hope of
keeping his name alive.
FIiers Not To Be Forgotten.
Mss Gatlin is determined that the
fliers who risked their lives that avia-
ton might progress are not going to
be forgotten. Their mothers are to
have the comfort of being assured
lives for nothing.
Miss Gatlin tells about it eagerly.
She is a blonde young woman with
a boyish, straightforward manner OF
with her close sympathy for the ma
ternal point of view and her rather
feminine use of symbolism
Everything about her method of
paying tribute to the fliers has some
association. She placed
the Jerusalem ivy on the graves at
because it is said that it
never dies. Each part of the flier's
costume she wore on her trip East
once belonged to some aviator who
has flown on" as Miss Gatlin puts
it. The pair of white baby shoes she
carries for a charm are associated
with a flier who crashed just before
his baby was born. These little shoes
greatly interested President Harding
when he talked with Miss Gatlin
about the PROPOSED national tribute.
The pink roses are reminiscent of
Lincoln Beachey.
But to understand Miss Gatlin's
way of remembering the aviators who
have flown on you must go back to
the beginning of her story.
'I began to fly in 1911" she says,
land was adopted big sister of all
flying men and 1 adopted aviation as
my toddling wing child Lincoln
Bechey was our leader. He was self
taught like most of the pioneers. He
cred all flying men his brothers and
divided everything he had with them.
His mother was wonderfully proud of
him.
was attracted by Pegoud's S
stunt of looping the loop, and he was
the first man in this country to per-
form the feat Beachey's first demon
onstration of the stunt was a spec
tacular performance That night
Miss Gatlin stopped at his house to
him. She was on the
way to another house and she had in
a gift to a new baby. But it was
Beachey's big hour, and when she
greeted her Miss Gatlin gave him the
roses. He said that the tiny pink
buds always appealed to him-they
him of a beautiful young
girl.
Three years later Lincoln Beachey
crashed at the San Francisco exposi- |
ion, while $4,000 people looked
lghast. Miss Gatlin was there and she
thought of Mrs. Beachey.
Later she heard someone point out
Mrs. Beachey and say, There's Mrs. |
Beachey. Shes lost her boy. and |
pretty soon nobod-- will remember
him. That's the way it goes
A Mothers Solemn Pride.
Into Miss Gatlins mind as she |
heard this came the thought of Abra-
lam Lincoln's letter to another mother 1
md his reference to the solemn prloe /
which must be yours to have laid so |
costly a sacrifice on the alter of free
lom''
Could a mother really feel a solemn |
pride like that. Miss Gatlin asked her /
self. Or must she feel only the des- /
pairing loss that her son was gone and l
perhaps forgotten She thought it \
over and decided that if the mother
thew that her son was not forgotten
,he would feel a solemn pride in his
1fF Irr-
On the anniversary of Beachey's
lccident, she went to his grave and !
aid bunch of the pink roses he Fad
liked on it. Ms. Beachey heard of it
md was cheered. For four years,
ZACH 14th of March Miss Gatlin made /
he same pilgrimage from wherever
he happened to be.
Then the war began to take a heavy