Evening star., 1925-03-26
The War Over the Air

By Will Ir,Uin.

tinguishing chemical. This ISL be-
lieve, the first purely freight-carrying
machine built in this country for le-
gftimate purposes. / have been told,
however, that 1t was anticipated a
year or two ago by the resourceful
bootlegger.
The New .York-Chfcago run is
naturally as much more important
than the overland run, by just so
much as Chicago and itsSenvirons are
larger and wealthier than those of
San Francisco. On its success or fall
ure may depend the future of the
freight carrying by airplane. Ones
imagination can picture the air lanes
Of the future-New York-Atlanta-
Birmingham; New York-St. Louis
Kansac City; Chicago-Denver: Chi
cago-New Orleans: Chicag
apolis Seattle; Seattle -Portland-San
Task for Government.
However, the Government will have
to build the lanes. This is a kind Of
subsidy. 1t may prove a better plan
than financing companies, as in Eng
land. or paying premiums on each
flying hour, as in France. And, ask
the aviators, what, other form of
transportation has ever flourished
without Government subsidies? When
the railroads extended their lines into
the unbroken West we gave them
wide tracts of land for their trouble.
We maintain lighthouses and coast
guards, we dredge harbors, for our
ships. The Federal road building pro-
gram is in a sense a subsidy to the
automobile business.
If mail can be transported regu-
larly and profitably by air, so can
certain forms of light, compact, val
liable freight. Before the congress
sional committee several officials of
express companies testified that they
stood ready to use airplane trans
portation whenever the business
should grow steady and permanent.
The pioneers of the Government
mail service look for the day when
express flying will no longer be a
Government monopoly. Uncle Sam,
perhaps assisted by States and mu-
inequalities, will merely build and
maintain the airways. Contracts for
carriage of air mail and parcels will
be let out to private corporations-
just as we proceed with the rail-
roads at present.
Some Obstacles Stated.
But before that can happen, there
is more ground to break. Aviation.
like all new forces of progress, has
in it's early stages outrun both COM
mercial customs and laws. You can
not as yet even insure a mail parcel
travelling between New York and
San Francisco.
The statutes are contradictory or
nom existent. For example: Under
the common law, mans land title
extends clear to Heaven" To fly
from New York to Chicago with en-
tire legality an aviator would need
the written permission of 10000
landholdersi We have no system of
inspecting planes as We do steam
boats, or of licensing aviators as
we do water pilots.
Any gypsy fyer-inexpert, drunk
en- or criminal-may now take out
passenger in a ramshackle ma
chine. 1t Is assumed to be nobody's s
business except his and his patrons s..
Until some one tackles the question
of commercial aviation as a whole,
the business will never achieve that
stability which attracts capital.
(53The Future" the final article Of
VIII Irwin's series on the aircraft
controversy, follows tomorrow,)
Copyright. 1925, in United States, Canada
and Great Britain by North American News
paper Alliance. All rights reserved-) sfn