Evening star., 1927-05-03
BIG PAN-AMER|CAN
AIR LINE IS URGED
MacCracken Sees Project for
Commerce Aid to Peace
and Prosperity.

Establishment of a great inter
American transport line feeding all
the main arteries of commerce be-
tween the II republics of the Western
hemisphere was held out as a project
likely to see early fruition by William
P. MacCracken, jr., Assistant Secre-
tary of Commerce for Aeronautics, in
an address today before the third Pan.
American Commercial Conference.
Such a service. Mr. MacCracken de.
clared, would "see the heavens over
this hemisphere filled with commerce,
bearing not only prosperity but peace
to our peoples"
Transportation and Inter-American
Commerce, the general topic of to-
days session, was approached from the
angle OF aerial, ocean and highway
communication. Roy D. Chaplin of De-
troit. president OF the National Auto.
mobile Chamber of Commerce, struck
the second significant note before the
conference when he expressed the
hope that the day is close at hand
when the proposed Pan-American
Highway "visualized by all of us as
new road to friendship between our
countries shall no longer be an ideal.
but a reality
Extension to Mexico.
Others who stressed the Importance
or developing communication both
commercial and social were Joseph
T. Grace, president of w. r. Grace
q co. OF New York, and Frank q
Munson, president of the Munson
steamship Co. of New York.
delegates to the conference were
invited to make a tour of the great
industrial centers of the country fol.
lowing the close of the sessions. bv
a. Il. Rice Of Detroit, on behalf Of
the Highway Education Board. This
trip viii last about two weeks and win
shaDIe the delegates to see the great
Chicago, Detroit and other cities.
The air lanes which terminate az
South American cities, Mr.. Mac
Craeken declared, offer a real oppor.
tunity for establishment of routes to
Latin America from the United States
Tor the transportation of mail and
merchandise. Specifically he named
San Diego, Calf; Miami, Fla, and
Galveston or Brownsville, Tex.
There is a serious proposal pend
ing, he said, ito extend the Chicago
DdilaS route southwark to the Gulf
of Mexico or some point on the Mexi-
can border, and added there was every
reason to believe that with assumption
OF service between New York and At.
lanta. the route to Miami soon would
be resumed.
13,O59 Airway Miles.
''1t is equally to the advantage of
your countrymen and mine that such
service should be inaugurated and
maintained. An air transport line
from Florida south, branching west
ward to Central America, and east
ward along the eastern coast of South
America; one from Galveston or
Brownsville, Tex, south along the
Gulf Coast, and one from San Diego
south along the West Coast, would
serve not only as arteries of COM
merce, but also as bonds to strength
en- the ties of friendship between the
members of the Pan-American Union.
There are 13, ,059 miles of airways in
operation in this hemisphere, he
pointed out, and many more are con.
tracted for, or projected, but only
2 sos miles are used in interamerican
'In order that international air
navigation may develop" he said,
'it Is necessary that the members
of the Pan American Union should
come to some agreement which win
form the basis for permitting COM
mercial airo raft to fly from one State
to another"
Realizing the necessity for this. he
Continued on Page 4. Column 81