Evening star., 1925-09-06
OFFICERS SACRIFICE AIRMEN
TO DEFEND POLICY, HE SAYS
War and Navy Leaders Have Made Air Officers
Ashamed of Clothes They Wear, Former
g.. Assistant to Gen. Patrick Alleges.
Continued from First Page.)

WAS Dauly strained he said, when
the giant ship broke away from her
mooring mast last Spring, tearing
out the nose of the big blimp and
otherwise damaging it. He also de-
elared that the reduction in the num-
Der OF valves in the gas bags, made
to save the expensive helium gas,
made the ship more dangerous to the
crew.
Says Mission Was Publicity.
Charging that the Shenandoah was
on propaganda mission to offset
the publicity of the Arctic and
Pacific failures, Mitchell declared that
the tour of the big ship meant little
TO the development of aviation or TO
the service.
Her survivors are muzZled by the
Navy Department. pending a white
wash board" he declared. The i'm
preston allowed to get out shakes
the faith of the people in airship
transportation and hinders it's com
mercial development
Commenting on airplanes Dor
rowed from the Army and entirely
inadequate for the work in hand" for
use in the Macmillan Arctic flight,
Mitchell declared the expedition was
more propaganda.
AS far as can be learned" he said,
cit was cat-and-dog fight all the
way up and back. between Macmillan,
the pilots and the Navy Department.
Is there an airman who does not
know that with the little jitneys they
took up there the pole could not be
reached?"
Col Mitchells statement follows:
Il have been asked from all parts
of the country to give my opinion
about the reasons for the frightful
aeronautical accidents and loss OF life,
equipment and treasure that have oc-
Cured during the last few days. This
statement therefore is given out
publicly by me after mature delibera-
tion and after a sufficient time has
elapsed since the terrible accidents to
our naval aircraft to find out some
thing about what happened.
MY opinion is as follows:
These accidents are the direct re-
suit of the incompetency, criminal
negligence and almost reasonable ad-
ministration of the national defense by
the Navy and War Departments. In
their attempts TO keep down the de-
Velopment of aviation into an IN
dependent department, separate from
the Army and Navy and handled by
aeronautical experts, and to maintain
the existing systems, they have gone
TO the utmost lengths TO carry their
point.
"All aviation policies, schemes and
systems are dictated by the non-flying
officers of the Army or Navy who
know practically nothing about it. The
lives of the airmen are being used
merely as pawns in their hands.
Sees Congress Abused.
THE great Congress OF the United
States, that makes laws for the or
ganiZation and use of our air, land
and water forces. is treated by these
two departments as if 1t were an or
,fsyat ttCv, I'D r1,- I,nt,-
which evidence of any kind, whether
true or not, can be given without re-
straint. Officers and agents sent by
the War and Navy Departments to
Congress have almost always given
incomplete, misleading or false in
formation about aeronautics, which
either they knew to be false when
given or was the result of such gross
ignorance of the question that they
should not be allowed to appear be-
fore a legislative body.
The airmen themselves are bluffed
and bulldoZed so that they dare not
tell the truth in the ma jority of cases,
knowing full we'll that If they do they
will be deprived of their future career,
sent to the most out-of-the-way places
to prevent their telling the truth and
deprived of any chance for advance
ment, unless they subscribe to the
dictates of their Notifying bureau
cratic superiors. These either distort
facts or openly tell falsehoods about
aviation to the people and to the
Congress
Both the War and Navy Depart
ments maintain public propaganda
agencies which are supposed to pub
lish truthful facts about our national
defense to the American people These
departments, remember, are support
ed by the taxes of the people and We're
prnato6 for tho nf QNfinp
us from invasion from abroad and
from domestic disturbances from with
in. What has actually happened in
these departments is that they have
formed a sort of a union to perpetu-
ate their own existence, largely ire
spective of the public welfare-and
acting, as we might say, about COM
mercial organization that had entire
control of a public necessity-'as an
illegal combination in restraint of
trade
Says Policy Disgusting"
"The conduct of affairs by the two
departments, as far as aviation is
concerned, has been so disgusting in
the last few years as to make any
self-respecting person ashamed of the
clothes he wears. Were 1t not for
the patriotism of our air officers and
their absolute confidence in the insti
tutionS of the United States, know
ing that sooner or later existing con-
ditions would be changed. I doubt if
one of them would remain with the
colors-certainly not If he were a real
man.
The story is a long one, beginning
practically with the inception of avi
alton in this country, so l shall men
ton only a few things in connection
with the disgraceful performances
which have occurred this Summer.
{ Seeing no progress in our efforts,
; which had been continued for years,
Il TO convince or even seriously interest
the governing bodies of the War and
: Navy Departments to better our aero
nautical condition, we were stirred to
further action by the killing of Lieut..
Pierson and Capt. Skeel in the dilapi-
dated racing airplaneS during last
October's air meet.
! This was caused by an arrange
ment between the Navy and Army
that the Navy should take the races
one year and the Army should take
them the next year. thereby equaliZ-
ing propaganda, not service. Instead
OF building new airplanes our men
were given the old crates to fly at
those terrific speeds. OF course, they
came to pieces, as they We're designed
for only one race two years before.
This was done in spite of the fact
that we had sufficient money to build
new ships according to entirely ad-
vanced patterns and new safety fac.
tors.
Foresees Bills Passage.
I'VE in the air fraternity then and
squarely up to Congress and the peo.
Fa1n 70 lot