Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-09-06
When Riches Take Wings

X continental air mail flights; it is
the turn Of business to speak. Keenly
as the sky voyage from New York to San
Francisco, in only thirty hours, appeals to
ina gination it comes home no less strongly
to the canny sense which perceives that time
is money. Bankers, merchants, lenders, bor-
rowers and men OF affairs in general are
realizing that three days saved in the trans
mission Of funds, or their equivalent, across
the continent multiplies the "available cash
reserve" by millions of dollars.
Three hundred million day is the esti-
mate of Congressman Kelly, who explains in
the current number of the Aero Digest just
how the increase will be brought to pass.
I'm the ordinary course of banking business"
he writes, ave have what is called the none
tary FLOAT" that is checks or other nego-
table papers which are, during transit, un-
available for use. A check entrusted to the
mails at New York and going by the ordi
nary route can not be used as funds until
five days later, when it arrives in San Fran
CISCO In other words, it is out of use en-
route. But, If that same check reaches San
Francisco twenty-four to thirty hours after it
has been placed in the mails at New York,
the recipient has additional three days in
which to make financial turnovers with the
money thing impossible under the old
methods of transit Inasmuch as millions Of
dollars are thus transported, and it is esti-
| tod 4 bo Of n q
form or another to be distributed throughout
the various industrial centers between New
York and San Francisco amounts to three
hundred million dollars day, if half of this
can be released by the night air mail there
will be one hundred and fifty million dollars
day, or forty-five billion dollars a year,
available for conducting business that is
otherwise constantly out of circulaton.''
l. Suppose that air mail lines ran north and
south as we'll as east and west. The addition
fto the ready cash reserve then would be
three hundred million dollars a day, if Con-
gresham kelly has figured Alright. The
more conservative bankers think that his
reckoning is beyond the mark, but they has
ten to add that the daily amounts thus set
free will certainly run into tens of millions
for the east-and-west territory alone. SO
seasoned a thinker in the world Of affairs "a
Mr.. Robert E. Cowie, president of the Ameri-
can Railway Express company advises that
every business and industrial establishment
in the country appoint its own aviation inves-
tigation committee from the personnel of its
executives and engineers" and that they
study the subject with view to ascertain
ing wherein aircraft may be employed with
profit to the particular business or industry
in question" Such inquiry, he believes, will
lead certainly to this conclusions THAT avi-
alton, being essentially a time-saver, is
valuable aid to industry and commerce.
These facts established where is the bust
ness man or the business organization, for
that matter, willing to continue to neglect
the employment of aviation in the conduct of
business affairs?"
The air mail service is he forerunner Of
sundry enterprises in commercial aeronaut-
les; where it leads, lines for other classes OF
transport will follow without long delay
Measures looking to the expansion of postal
aviation will be urged at the next session OF
Congress- Their Importance can hardly be
overgauged for the development of this great
empire of opportunity depends largely upon
the Governments thus opening the way.