The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-06-17
Hef1in Defends His Motion h Senate on "Airplane| Interference With Orators"
Debate in Senate Question of Arplane Gas Explo-
 sions vs. Explosions of Williams Pleads for Freedom of Air"-B Tabled

Europe is not free because the mll3- taristc instincts of France own It.. There is nothing free except the air. For Gods sake leave the air free. even if it interrupts the President of the United States or the senator from Alabama.
 ~'Airplanesi Things up in the air with no regulated routes. with no regulated highway. flying around as they darn please, flutterng over President, and worse than that, in- finitely worse than that, now and then fluttering over the head of the senator from the state of Alabama,
 Ante md the Pot
 Think of 1t. Why the fellow that runs that airplane takes his life in his hands. He risks his existence. But l challenge him to risk his eN- stence at the expense of the sena- tors oratory and eloquence. He has no right to do it. 1t Is too little an ante in comparison with the pot The oratory and eloquence of the sena- tor from Alabama are so much Of public nature, of so much public value, that a man in the air flying an airplane. even If he were former Iy an aviator operating in France or Belgium for America, has no right to interfere with his eloquence and his oratory
 His eloquence and his oratory am acquainted with. and you are, too. and they are of the very highest excellence They are of that form of excellence that punishes itself with constant matutinal and vesper per formances al the expense of the grandest banking system and the grandest financial system that the world has ever seen.
 "That is all I have to say, But as between d division of the universe etween the earth and the air, the earth devoted to the President or the United States and the senator from Alabama, and the air devoted to God and the angles and the ar planes. I would rather a little bit be on the side of God, the angels ana the airplanes. There is no telllns what is coming after while from the air Everybody knows what ls coming from President Harding ana the senator from Alabama.
 "Oh. Mir. President, why all this camouflage? Why all this nonsensel Why all this disproportion2 Why alt this idea that the Congress. exert Ing its influence only over the DIS trict of Columbia, can control anu conclude the air routes above us ana the earth beneath us2
 When 1 get up to make a pubic speech inc the open air. some time or another, and I may some time when l have less sense than l have now would defy all the planes of heaven to interfere with my discourse be- cause my discourse will be founded upon sentiment and honor and logic. and no airplane fluttering can inter- fere with that sort of discourse. My discourse will come from the old-time traditions and from new-time ideal Ism, and airplanes cannot flutter me out of existence and cannot even { flutter be out of patience. Methinks hear voice from Alabama saying 10 the air, Wait awhile longer and I will tell you what l meante
 Why should anyone quarrel with thing that which makes noise in competition with senator making noise. Gaughter.1 They are both equally noisy, and the airplane makes the more scientific noise. A senator makes an ordinary plebian noise, an i ordinary common noise. And when a l senator complains of an airplane in competition with him, that means I simply that he thinks that gas in the i tIT IuilHlnS dH hiIpihHt OABit hVA " ! be recognized as superior to gas on the floor running a Senate plane i decline to recognize that superiority
 The Mules Personality
 Tn his explanation, Senator Hefin fell into the blunder of saving that inasmuch as Senator Williams has not permitted the reading of the preamble 1 of his resolution. the Mssisslppan does not know any more what Is in l it than does n mouse -colored mule 1 about operating an airplane"
 Senator Williams reIoined, "Mr. President, there are all sorts of 1 Alabama mules. There nre nearly
 niI sorts of mousc-coiored Aia- ] bama mules. I would katc fo say,
 I would hate to think it. I would
 hate tO designate it. but judging
 by the Senator's mutrtinnt and vesper nttncks upon the Erentest achievement of the American peo-
 morning md night. every day md
 every morning, pratins. and ycs-
 pcrs--Mr. President, I would hnte
 to say 1t, but I nm almost coin- l peiicd to say that the senator
 from Alabama is absolutely miss
 taken about the mouse-coiored
 Alabama mules particular per sonnlity and locnIizntion. Is not that about the kindest sway I 1 could put 1t. the most charitable l could put its,