The Kevin courier. [volume] (Kevin, Mont.) 1922-1922, 1922-08-16

3I&Ry1 he had the best available. And what
lL.asJ did Eddie Rickenbacker report? Moth
ing, nothing at all. His machine was
1orced down four days in succession. Thereupon
3e abandoned the trip.
In Chicago, not Tong ago, a local flyer took up a
bridegroom and bride for a short flight. They
were honeylhooning 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 s~ightseers 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 a
newspaper will furnish more-which clearly indi-
cate. according to the experts, that aviation in
the United States is at loose ends and that the
situation is so bad that something really must be
done about 1t.
BY way of emphasis to our own do-nothing pol
1cy, the experts declare, Europe is dotted with
landing places and lined with air routes. Euro
Dean nations are stimulating commercial aviation
with subsidies.
On the ether 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
q single fatal accident, with 1,750,OOO miles COW
cred.
In congress the Wadsworth-H Hicks bill is pend
AuS. IHlS pibNlutS y IL united States DUrpan of
commercial aviation.
Out of congress the National Aeronautic asso-
citation and the Society Of Automotive Engineers
are cooperating the drafting of an aeronautic
safety code, with the assistance of experts of the
bureau of standards. Pending the passage of the
Wadsworth-Hicks bill the draft of its safety code
is tentative, but its principal provisions will in
cIude:.
Inspection of aviators and aircraft in connec-
sion with the granting of licenses to pilots and air
transportation companies; prohibiting of danger
Gus proximity of aircraft in flight; rules govern
5ng personnel and equipment of a%irdromes, includ-
Sng 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 J.
Walsh of Montana read into the Congressional
Record an article. "Our Aviation Problem con-
fributed to the New York Times by Senator David
4. Walsh of Massachusetts, saying that it was an
Interesting discussion of the problem of aviation,
pertinent to the discussion of the bill now before
the senate.
Senator Walsh of Massachusetts In this article
saws that what we now need is the consolidation
of the Army and Navy departments into the De
partment of National Defense, with a secretary at
ats head. and three undersecretar1es for the army,
navy and air.
Here are some of the points made by Senator
Walsh of Massachusetts in the article:
1T is regrettable that in or out of congress there
is so little interest in what our government is do
ing. or rather failing to do, to stimulate interest
In aeronautical matters and to foster and encour-
age in every manner possible this most important
means of defense and transportation which has
come to be generally acknowledged among pro-
gressive nations as Of vital necessity TO their COM
1iercial and Industrial expansion and to their pro-
lection and prosperity.
sThe inestimable 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-
sween nations-whether on land or on the sea.
...cinco the termination of the World war much