The herald. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1905-1953, 1922-08-31


" | hacker, our American ace-Of-aces. Well.
he started recently an aerial tour OF
the United States. He was to visit all
the states and to report to the federal
t..;'.j government on the condition and avail
M. ability of landing fields and on other
EXtI aviation matters Probably he had a
tW3kSt good machine; il Is to be presumed that
IDt he had the best available. And what
S...S:.j did Eddie Rickenbacker report? Moth
Ing, nothing at all. His machine was
forced down four days in succession. ThereupOn
he abandoned the trip.
In Chicago, not long ago. local flyer took up a
bridegroom aud bride for a short flight They
were honeymooning and wanted the best there
was going In the way of seeing the sights The
machine crashed. Both passengers were killed
President Harding was making an open-air
address recently in Washington. A commercial
flyer took his plane full of sightseers so close that
the PRESIDENTS voice was drowned out and so
close to the vast crowd that had the plane fallen
scores would have been killed and injured.
These are but three incidents-any issue Of
newspaper will furnish mOre-which clearly ind
cate, according to the experts, that aviation In
the United States is Mt loose ends and that the
situation is so bad that something really must be
done about IT,
BY way of emphasis to our own do-nothinp mol
ICY the experts declare, Europe Is dotted with
landing places and lined with air routes Euro
pean nations stimulating commercial aviation
with subsidies.
On the other hand, according to the experts the
results of systematic development are shown by
the fact that the air mail service Of the Post Office
Department has just completed a year without
single fatal accident, with 175OOOO miles GOV.
cred.
In congress the Wadsworth-Hck bill is pend.
ing. This provides for a United States bureau Of
commercial aviation.
Out of congress the National Aeronautic osso
citation and the Society Of AutOmotive Engineers
cooperating the drafting of an aerOnautic
safety COde with the assistance Of experts Of tho
bureau Of standards Pending the passage of tho
Wadsworth-HiCks bill the draft Of its safely code
is tentative but its principal provisions will in
clude
Inspection of aviators and aircraft in connec
ZION win the granting or licenses to pilots and air
transportation companies; prohibiting Of danger.
Gus proximity of aircraft in flight; rules govern
Ing personnel and equipment Of alrdromes ,nc,ud
ing medical and signal equipment; aircraft radio
regulation rules for landing fields; lighthouses for
night flying and landing.
In the senate the other day Senator Thomas
Walsh OF Montana read into the Congressional
record an article, Our Aviation Problem" con-
tributed to the New York Times by Senator David
l. Walsh OF Massachusetts. saying that II WINS an
interesting discussion of the problem of av,ot,on
no
the senate.
Senator Walsh OF Massachusetts In this article
says that what we now need Is the conso,,dot,on
of the Army and Navy departments into rho ~
partment of National Defense. with secretary .,
its head. and three undersecretares fer the o,,,n
navy and air.
Here are some Of the points made nv Ssno.o
Walsh Of Massachusetts in the article:
1T Is regrettable that in or out of conyreSs .ho-
Is so little interest in what our government is 40.
Ing or rather failing to do. TO stimulate intaros,
IN aeronautical matters and to foster and encopr
age in every manner possible this most importan,
means Of defense and transportation which has
come to be generally acknowledged among pro-
gressive nations as of vital necessity to their com.
mercal and Industrial expansion and to their pro-
lection and prosperity.
THE inestimabe value of this comparatively
new science was demonstrated during the World
war and no one will deny that 1t must play an
even larger part in any future controversy be-
tween nations-whether on land or on the sea
'Since the termination of the World war much