Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-12-19

WASHINGTON, Dec. ia
young woman in aviation clothes
stopped beside a fiier's grave in Ar
lington the other day and quietly
placed there a pink rose, a spray of
white chrysanthemum, and a bit
of Jerusalem ivy. Twenty-four
Army and Navy officers stood at at
tention close by. From overhead
came the throb of five planes flying
in formation. while in the back
! ground a crowd of some 500 on
lockers watched the little ceremony.
From this grave the young avia-
tor and her little company went to
| the other forty-nine fiiers graves IN
the national cemetery, n last 10
the grave of 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 Gatlin. She is the girl
| who recently came east by the air
mail route from San Francisco to
| New York, thereby becoming the
first woman to fly across the coun-
try.
Miss Gatlin a 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,
| gets the point of view both of the
aviators who flew until they crash
ed in spite of everything and of the
mothers they left. Miss Gatlin is CIV
ing herself now to the cause of
proving that the fliers are not for
gotten.
She has just asked President
Harding to permit her to designate
the second Sunday in September as
a national aerial day when tribute
may be paid TO the gold star moth
ers of aviation and their sons. Her
plan has the official approval OF
Major General Patrick, chief of the
Army Air Service, and of Rear Ad-
| mlral Moffett, 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 to think about
men who have done their work and
gone on nay 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 a view. The fact remains
| that almost every individual, how
ever un~pretentious Graves to be re-
| membered either FOR his personality
or for his achievements. Miss Cat
lin 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 one hope OF keeping
his name alive.
Miss Gatlin is determined that the
fliers who risked their lives that
aviation might progress are not
going to be forgotten. Their moth
erss are to have the comfort of be-
ing assured that their boys have
not given their lives for nothing.
Miss Gatlin tells about it eagerly.
She il a blonde young woman with
a boyish, straightforward manner
OF speech and gesture which con-
trasts with her close sympathy for
the maternal point of view and her
rather feminine use of symbolism.
Everything about her method CT
paying tribute to the fliers has some
significant association. She placed
the Jerusalem ivy on the graves
at Arlington because it is said that
it never dies. Each part of the
fier'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 hier who
crashed just before his baby was
born These little shoes greatly in
terested President Harding when ne
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 20
back to the beginning of her story.
ST began to fly in 1911" she says
land was adopted big-sister of all
flying men and / adopted aviation
as my toddling wing child. Lin
. coin Beachey was our reader. He
was self taught Ike most OF the
pioneers. He had a genius for n.y.
ing. He considered all flying men
his brothers and divided ev~erythine
he had with them. His mother
was wonderfully proud of him."