San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-09-23
DEMONSTRATES WORTH.

DEMONSTRATES WORTH.
y ~Our activities in the air" be con-
tinued, shave been directed toward the
! performance of an important public
service in a manner TO demonstrate TO
men of means that commercial aYia-
,<tion is q possibility. This is what we
have had in mind in carrying the
rrans-continental air mail. 1t is not
our belief that the government should
Spermanently continue to provide this
service under government auspices and
at government expense, but the service
is most important one and if il was
possible for it ever to be undertaken
BY private agencies it was first neces.
sary TO demonstrate that it was an Ell.
tirely feasible thing.
! ~The department several years ago,
in cooperation with the War Depart
ment, made several well meant but IN
satisfactory experiments with the air
mails.
EXTEND SERVICE.
4 IT became apparent that==if the
service was eTer going TO amount to
anything. it had TO be undertaken on
much greater scale Of operation and
between points far more distantly sep
arated. Service. on sections of the pres.
ent transcontinental line was inaugu-l
rated at different times, that between
Cleveland Chicago and Cleveland and
New York in 1919 but it was not
until September s. 1920. that through
service between New York and San
francisco. was attempted, and
the first through day and night serv-
800 ma 80 r@n Tnfu 1904
= "Sinee that time, we have been able |
10 meet our schedules with a degree
Of regularity that has been highly |
gratifying. OF course, there have been
A9nstances Of delay and interruption, |
just as there have been 10 passenger
trains. / am inclined to think that in. |
CURRY would develop that our delays
have been lsss numerous than those
of the railroads. -
During the fiscal year ending with
the Both Of last June, we flew on this
.frsnseontinental route 2,016,164 miles
with q percentage Of 90. That is To
say we flew that many miles with
mail. Including mail. ferry and test
I'VE flew 2.501 $50 miles.
sAs said at the outset. the prime
ideas of the POstoffice Department
were first to supply a highly desir.
able service and next 10 encourage
and stimulate the creation in this
country Of an industry capable Of en-
gaging successfully in commercial
aviation and to build the plan and
equipment necessary to that end.
PROBLEM OF WAR.
Il was a member Of the Senate
committee on military affairs during
ethe war and a member of its subcon-
mittee on aviation and / know some.
thing of the great difficulty this gov
ernment encountered in providing the
air equipment necessary to the sue
cessful prosecution Of the war and
the tremendous waste at which tie
effort TO do this was carried forward
! IL is generally known that the gov
/ eminent spent nearly a billion dollars
on planes during the war, largely be-
cause no one in this country knew
anything about their manufacture and
there were no facilities for il.
up to this time, the POst0ffice De.
partment on all its air mail operation
. has spent about SIO,000,00O. -
For the sums spent, we have carried
-on the service 10 date and are now
taking in about 100000 a month on
the trans-cOntinentsl line alone. I'VE
have built about 1900 miles Of lighted
airwsy; built our ships at haywood;
our hangers at all division points
paid all operating expenses and have
on hand assets valued at 1858, 900
as Of September 70, 1925.
GETS RESULTS.
The service has attracted attcn-
zion and that il justifies itself by re-
ssults, will, i think be conceded. The
degree OF success Of the effort to at
tract capital TO a new industry and
stimulate interest in aeronautics, is
beet set forth by the result Of the de-
pArtment's recent bids for private con-
duet Of eight new air mail routes.
I'VE received 10 bids coming from
10 different companies and individuals.
some Of them were perhaps informal.
Some o. them may and probably will
h. rejected for obviously good reasons,
but they have been made in good faith
and represent a real purpose on the
. part OF the bidder 70 undertake the
service.
3 ''On September 81, We advertised for
four new routes, bids for which viii b.
openea November ~ 1925. All Of
Shess routos are connected with the
tranecanfinenfal route.