Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-02-20
WORLDS NEGLECT OF AVIATION

Chinese system to develop without
great war. For If they did not make
a great war Of II they would presently
have to go out Of business.
These are my reasons for doubling
If men will be able to use the gift
and glory Of flying fully and abun-
dainty for very many years to come.
We shall crawl because we are old
fashioned patriots, instead of flying.
as some day good cosmopolitans will.
But the reaction of our time-h0nored
and beloved political institutions upon
flying is not merely negative. We
do not just go without this beau ,
tiful thing. Our patriotic passions
demand something more positive than
that. Our flags demand not only alb
stinences, but blood and burned of
ferings. If. on the one hand. the Gus
todians of our national distinctiveness
block the development of safe flying.
they do on the other hand, work with
considerable vigor to develop danger
Gus flying. However much air trans
port may limp and lag. there Is no
cessation Of research. within the limits
Of the military intelligence. into the
possibilities Of war aviation. In the
year 1925, a year Of profound peace,
technically speaking. the English
r. A. F. killed SO young men. The
numbers killed show a considerable
advance upon 1925. France. Italy.
America show comparable losses.
Since the great peace. while you
and l have been going about our
various little concerns, some thou
sands of young men, not common
young men. but picked human beings.
exceptionally courageous and well
bred and well made, have been dashed
to pieces and burned alive. to the end
that when presently the nations have
sufficiently forgotten the last war to
be guided into the next. flying shall
not fail in its contribution to tho spec
tacle. These splendid young men have
been killed. just as the carefully
chosen youths Of the Aztec nation
were killed. to propitiate the national
gods. Even in peace time these sa
cred monsters had to be kept alive by
the blood of the young. These gal
liant youngsters have been learning To
fly in hazardous ways or they have
been practicing the throwing Of ex-
plosive bombs and poison bombs at
the imaginary homes and refugees of
offending foreigners below, and they
advances. we are assured, are being
made every year in the destructive
ness. deadliness and general disgust
ingness of the air offensive at tbs
price OF these deaths.
There Is no need to elaborate this
monstrous contrast further. What
has been said is sufficient to estab
lish the thesis that for a century hui
man affairs have been developing at
an unequal pace. that while our
economic and political ideas and meth
DDS have made only sluggish and in
secure advances, mechanical science
has so progressed as entirely to out
scale them. This instance Of the air
is only one vivid instance Of what is
happening to most Of the economic
and industrial affairs of mankind
Governments are not helping. not fos
tering, the huge and desirable reor.
CARNATIONS that are possible. Poll
ticians live by keeping alive feuds.
jealousies and reasonless hatreds; gov
ernments subsist upon old sentiments
and traditions; there L. no such thing
as a progressive creative government
in the world anywhere. to accept and
use in full and proper fashion the
gifts science and invention now hold
out to US. The chief recognition Of
progress by governments everywhere
takes the form Of attempts to turn
the gifts Of progress into weapons To
Kill progress. And the chief riddle be-
fore mankind on its way to that world
peace, that larger. happier. nobler and
fuller life which certainly awaits It.
is the riddle of how to INTRODUCES into
Its methods of government that idse
OF progress which has given us the
key to these vast treasures, and 20
convert the nationalist parochialisms i"
OF today. stage by stage ana surely
and conclusively. into the world com
monweal which is the essential con
dttion of their exploitation.
Copyright, 1927. by the New York Times
Co. Translation rights reservedI