Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-06-05

NV portant units of individual
transportation of the flu
ture?
Is the four-wheeled vehicle Of the
highways destined to gradual decline
before the increasing practicability of
aircraft:
These questions now are in the pub.
lie mind to greater extent than ever
before. They are questions which
cannot be ignored and which should
not be ignored. and frank discussion
of them is welcomed by all those sin
cerely interested in one of the great
problems of the day.
In order to analyze and answer in
diligently the questions which people
everywhere are propounding, it is
necessary to go back to fundamentals.
and, at the same time. to apply the
mirror of history to the factors now
at hand.
Civilization never before has been
as complex as it is at the present
time, and it is almost needless to add
that the outlook for the years to come
Is for an increasing intensif1cation of
all those elements which now are CO.
operating toward the end of greater
complexity. In civilization thus so
closely knit, in an order where inter-
dependence of individual units to a
highly marked degree is the rule of
the day, transportation assumes an
| Importance second to none.
Growing Needs Cited.
Transportation, a factor of the ut
most significance in the upbuilding of
a complex civilization, is an element
Of transcendent importance in the
1of MI of or w
has been wrought. AS individuals and
groups of individuals, whether in COM
munities, nations or continents, are
drawn more closely together, the need
| for every form of transportation be-
comes more clearly evident. Thus, it
is impossible for the world to relin-
quish any single type of transporta-
ton merely because a newer form has
been added to the list Of carriers. And
thus the point as to whether or not
the airplane will supplant the automo-
bile is somewhat circuitously reached.
1t is plain that it would be quite
as reactionary for the world to relin-
quish the automobile as it would be
for it not to take every possible means
to develop the airplane to its highest
efficiency and to exploit it to the
limit of it's capacities.
Inc OulIcu OldlcSy just DIS Tic WOIiO
at large, needs every means OF tr1fs-
portatiOn available-rciIt- or them can
be overlooked, and it is a certainty
that none will be overlooked. Progress
depends upon the utilization to the
utmost of every type of transportation
for goods and persons.
Each form has it's own particular
sphere in which it is supremely sue
cessful; each has it's own kind of work
to do and each will continue to do
it because it has been especially
adapted to it over a long period Of
years of experimentation and practice.
For instance, the competition be-
tween motor BUSES and motor trucks
and the railroads already has arrived
at new era, and the competition of
yesterday is the cooperation of to-.
day-co-operation through which both
units are benefting in marked de-
gree. The railroads. everywhere, in
stead of combating the motor bus and
truck, are utilizing them, putting them
to their own uses as feeders to main
lines and thus are upbuilding their
own business.
Those railroad executives who at
| first attempted either to ignore or