San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-09-10
Mr.. Hearst Urges lndependent
And United Air Force

| II
to the newspapers intends to have Mtchells
- charges of the utter incompetence of the army and
navy bureaucrats regarding aviation investigated
1t is to be hoped that the President will not permit
Mitchell to be Investigated again, and condemned again
in advance of the investigation, by the very army and
navy chiefs which Mitchell of ignorance incom
petence and criminal carelessness " ....
In this connection it must be remembered that Nit
che does not say that the army chiefs are incompetent
with regard to the army, the navy chiefs incompetent
with regard to the navy but that they are incompetent
with regard to aviation. T..
There is really no need of investigation to prove
the truth of MtchePs statement in these respects Nor
does his statement reflect any great dscredt the army
and navy chiefs Their only dscredt is in pretending
to know about matters concerning which they are pro-
foundry ignorant and insisting managing department
where their lack of knowledge has resulted in utter failure
accompanied by great and loss of life to brave
air
Other nations which conduct their departments OF
national defense modern and more intelligent
basis separated the air craft service into an nde
pendent department. ~
Our government should recognize the special tech
nca knowledge required for the competent conduct of the
air craft service and create department like the navy
department the army department with secretary of
aviation to manage it.
This deeply and doubly necessary not only because
of the technical knowledge required but because aviation
is becoming important than the army or the
peace.
AS for Mitchelrs charges, they are merely the
charges which everybody is making against the obvous
ncompetency of the army and navy chiefs in matters of
aviation. needs professional knowledge to see that
the loss of the arplane PN9 No. and its heroic crew or
the flight to Hawaii was due to incompetence.
Any layman, in fact, any public school child, can seel
that the amount of gasoline necessary to the pane
to Hawaii matter of simple arithmetic The most
obvious experiment would show how much gasoline was
ovid fhotI
amount multiplied by the number of hundred miles to
Hawaii plus liberal for contingencies would have
absolutely insured the gasoline supply being adequate
That anything else, such accident to machinery
could have happened naturally to the machine, is con-
ceiyabe but that the gasoline supply should have been
is absolutely unbelievable and objectionable
nothing can account for that except careessness and in
Impotence, grosser than Mitchell charges.
If the President resents Mtchell's opinion and the
expression of it. he must also resent the puocs OPINION
the very general and vigorous expression OF tha
cause it comedies exactly with Mitches and the public
inclined to be grateful Mitchell for having expressed
its own ideas so exactly and so conscientiousy.
So if this investigation of Mitches charges held
the President may rest assured that the public will not be
pleased it eventaes in the that the previous
investigation of Mchels charges resulted, where Nit
ches charges absolutely sustained by evidence and
experiment, and yet Mitchell condemned and pun
shed for having committed the objectionable sin in mill
ary circles of frankly telling the public the truth
The President is above all things wise in his day and
generation He realizes that the public wants to know the
truth and has right to know the truth He appreciates
fully the fact that the day has passed when the public be-
onged to the ruler and chiefly valuable constituting
human of supply for the rulers favored military
organization He knows that the antquated idea OF army
and navy bureaucra that the public is to be treated
empuousy except when needed for cannon fodder has
place in modern state. Especially has it no place IN
BUR democratic America.
According to American principle and practice, the
public the ruler of the state and in order to rule rightly
It should be informed correctly.
Furthermore the public has to pay the price when its
government the departments thereof wastefu and
CONTINUED Four)